TurboCNC and general computer questions

I am running TurboCNC to control my CNC milling machine and i have just
received a surplus computer to dedicate to the machine shop. I got the
computer for $23 off of eBay, so I don't necessarily expect great things
from it. It is a Pentium 1 machine running Windows 95 with 16 megs of RAM.

When I hook up the parrallel port and connect to TurboCNC from a DOS shell
within Windows, I can jog the axes and run G-Code programs (although the
performance sucks since Windows is using resources). When I exit Windows
and restart in DOS mode then the TurboCNC program acts just like it is
working except the stepper motors do not move.

The configuration file is the same as when it was running from a Dos shell
under Windows.

Any ideas why this would happen?? What should I look for?

I am not a Dos/Windows expert in any way, shape, or form so use small words,
;-)

Thank you for any help,

Daniel J. Statman, Statman Designs
www.statmandesigns.com