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You can just boot freedos to run them, it will execute in real mode which has the same cpu instructions as 40 years ago.

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UEFI switches the CPU into 32bit v86 mode or directly in 64bit mode and you can't go back to real mode without a CPU reset, which v86 won't allow (you don't have ring -2 privileges) and 64bit mode can't do at all. I don't have a UEFI system, so I might be wrong (I even hope I'm wrong - it would mean slightly more freedom still exists), but from what I read about it, I'm 90% certain it's not possible.

You're confusing several things here. The only x86 processor that didn't allow returning to real mode was the 16-bit 80286 - on all later ones it's as simple as clearing bit 0 of CR0 (and also disabling paging if that was enabled).

Nothing more privileged than ring 0 is required for that.

"v86" is what allowed real mode to be virtualized under a 32-bit OS. This is no longer available in 64-bit mode, but the CPU still includes it (as well as newer virtualization features which could be used to do the same thing).

You can write to CR0 from a DOS COM program while in V86 mode??? :o Wouldn't that cause a GPF / segfault / EMM386 crash?

Can you boot freedos on new hardware? I was under the impression that it needs BIOS/CSM and that may or may not be an option on new machines.

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