shadowwoelf - you're right, MS DOS isn't user friendly... Well, of course unless you know how to use it... 8]
Actually, I have XP Home and for most of the pre-1998 games that need DOS to run on, I use VDM Sound instead of DOSBox. VDM Sound is a sound emulator for older DOS games. However, I have discovered that it can run older DOS games that don't normally work in XP/2000, strangely.
You can download VDM Sound here:
http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound/
What you have to do, is a lot simpler than DOSBox. Download, install it, and go to your game's folder in Windows Explorer. Right Click on the game's executable (this can also be a BAT file) and Left Click on "Run With VDMS".
PLEASE NOTE, that not all DOS games work with VDM Sound. DOSBox is still the best way to go for most machine setups, but I suggest you try VDM Sound first.