Status bar

The status bar located at the bottom of the 86Box window provides icons related to devices attached to the emulated machine. Move your mouse cursor over an icon to see what device it represents. Most icons can be clicked on to access options related to their respective devices, which are listed below. Additionally, a green indicator light will appear on an icon when its device is in use, unless Update status bar icons is disabled.

cassette Cassette deck

A cassette tape icon will appear if IBM cassette emulation is enabled.

  • New image: create a new cassette tape image file.

  • Existing image: insert a cassette tape image file into the deck.

  • Existing image (Write-protected): insert a cassette tape image file into the deck as a read-only tape.

  • Record: start recording data to the cassette tape. Not available if the tape is read-only.

  • Play: start playing the cassette tape.

  • Rewind to the beginning: rewind the cassette tape to its beginning.

  • Fast forward to the end: fast forward the cassette tape to its end.

  • Eject: remove the currently-inserted cassette tape from the deck.

cartridge PCjr cartridges

Two cartridge icons will appear if the IBM PCjr is being emulated. Each icon corresponds to a cartridge slot on the PCjr’s front panel.

  • Image: insert a cartridge image file into this slot. Inserting a cartridge will reset the PCjr.

  • Eject: remove the currently-inserted cartridge from this slot.

floppy_35 floppy_525 Floppy drives

A 3.5” or 5.25” floppy icon will appear for each configured floppy drive.

  • New image: create a new disk image file. Opens the New Image window, which lets you select the image size and where to save the file.

  • Existing image: insert a disk image file into this drive.

  • Existing image (Write-protected): insert a disk image file into this drive as a read-only disk.

  • Export to 86F: convert the currently-inserted disk image file to 86Box’s 86F surface image format. You will be asked where to save the converted file.

  • Eject: remove the currently-inserted disk from this drive.

cdrom CD-ROM drives

A CD icon will appear for each configured CD-ROM drive.

  • Mute: mute any CD audio played through this drive’s analog output. CD audio is unmuted by default on the first configured CD-ROM drive.

  • Empty: remove any disc inserted into this drive.

  • Reload previous image: reinsert the last disc image file selected through the Image option.

  • Image: insert a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM disc image file into this drive.

zip mo ZIP and MO drives

A ZIP or MO icon will appear for each configured additional removable storage drive.

  • New image: create a new disk image file. Opens the New Image window, which lets you select the image size and where to save the file.

  • Existing image: insert a disk image file into this drive.

  • Existing image (Write-protected): insert a disk image file into this drive as a read-only disk.

  • Eject: remove the currently-inserted disk from this drive.

  • Reload previous image: reinsert the last disk image file selected through the Existing image options.

hard_disk Hard disks

A hard disk icon will appear for each configured hard disk bus. For example, if you have both IDE and SCSI hard disks configured, two hard disk icons will appear: one representing all IDE disks, and another one representing all SCSI disks. No options are available.

network Network

This icon will appear if networking is enabled. No options are available.

sound Sound

This icon is always present. Double-clicking it opens a sound gain control, which allows you to increase the loudness of all audio produced by the emulated machine’s PC speaker, sound cards and other sound hardware.

Note

The gain control does not apply to MIDI music sent to a software synthesizer through the System MIDI device, as these synthesizers are external to 86Box.

Additional information area

This area, located to the right of the icons described above, contains additional information which may be provided by components such as the ISABugger and POST card.

Monitor sleep mode

The Monitor in sleep mode message will be displayed if the emulated monitor has been put into DPMS sleep mode by the operating system. Pressing a key or moving the mouse is often enough to wake the monitor up.

ISABugger

The ISABugger’s hexadecimal displays and LED banks are displayed here. See ISABugger for more information.

POST card

The leftmost hexadecimal value is the most recent POST code reported, while the rightmost value is the second most recent code, like on a real dual-display POST card. A value of -- indicates that no POST code has been reported yet.

Note

The additional information area can only be used by one component at a time. If both the ISABugger and the POST card are enabled simultaneously, the POST card takes over whenever a POST code is reported, and the ISABugger takes over whenever one of its registers is written to. The Monitor in sleep mode message is high-priority and will override all other components.