History of Microsoft Disk Operating System

Timothy Paterson an American Computer Programmer, developer for Seattle Computer Products, wrote the original Operating System for Intel Corporation’s 8086 microprocessor in 1980.

Initially it was called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) which was renamed soon 86-DOS. When Microsoft was just one year old built company, it purchased the exclusive rights to sell 86-DOS to IBM under the new name MS-DOS. IBM compatible systems were marked as PC-DOS. In 1981 they released Version 1.0 additional upgraded versions were kept pace with speedily developing PC. In 1995 Microsoft introduced Windows 95 incorporated MS-DOS 7.0 but finally supplanted the MS-DOS platform. MS-DOS was designed independently when Microsoft started its Windows NT operating system, however they were capable of running some applications of MS-DOS.

Ms-Dos was popular in 1980s and in early 1990s but the technology did not always keep pace with its competition. The system had lack of multitasking, multi user capabilities of the UNIX operating system, and command line interface was limited in contrast to user friendly GUI of the early MAC computer of Apple Inc. Whilst MS-DOS discontinued to be stand alone company in market. The simple and stable platform is still in used in some of the embedded computer systems.

In a computer’s operating systems MS-Dos and PC-DOS the number of system commands were supplied for common tasks. Some of the commands were built-in to command interpreter, other commands existed as transient command loaded into the memory when it is required. Over the several propagation of Microsoft DOS different commands were added for the further functions of the Operating Systems. In the current MS Windows Operating Systems a text-mode command prompt window still can be used.

Here are few commands with their descriptions of how they work in an operating system. You still can use the MS-DOS in certain circumstances if your windows operating system is crashed. You can use MS-DOS to copy your necessary data to different location and can complete various tasks with MS-DOS.

DOS Commands & Descriptions

ANSI.SYS

Reassigns keys, alters display graphics, and cursor movement

APPEND

DOS looks at other directories when file editing/running commands

ARP

Displays, removes, adds arp info from network devices

ASSIGN

Assigns a drive letter to an alternate drive

ASSOC

Views file associations

AT

Schedules a time to execute programs or commands

ATMADM

Lists addresses and connections seen by Windows ATM call manager

ATTRIB

Displays/changes file attributes

BATCH

Recovery console command that executes commands in a file

BOOTCFG

Recovery console command that allows view/modify/rebuild boot.ini

BREAK

Enables/disables CTRL+C

CACLS

Views, modifies file ACL's

CALL

Calls a batch file from another batch file

CD

Changes directories

CHCP

Supplements International keyboard/character set info

CHDIR

Changes directories

CHKDSK

Checks HDD running FAT for errors

CHKNTFS

Checks HDD running NTFS for errors

CHOICE

Specifies listing of multiple options within batch file

CLS

Clears screen

CMD

Opens command interpreter

COLOR

Changes foreground/background colour of the MSDOS window

COMMAND

Opens command interpreter

COMP

Compares files

COMPACT

Compresses/uncompresses files

CONTROL

Opens Control Panel icons from MSDOS prompt

CONVERT

Converts FAT to NTFS

COPY

Copies files to another location

CTTY

Changes computer's input/output devices

DATE

Views or changes system date

DEBUG

Debug utility creates assembly programs/modifies hardware settings

DEFRAG

Rearranges HDD to help with loading programs

DEL

Deletes files

DELETE

Recovery console command that deletes a file

DELTREE

Deletes files and/or directories

DIR

Lists directory contents

DISABLE

Recovery console command to disable system services/drivers

DISKCOMP

Compare disks

DISKCOPY

Copies contents of one disk to another

DOSKEY

Views and executes commands that have previously run

DOSSHELL

Graphical user interface to assist MSDOS users

DRIVPARM

Enables overwrite of original device drivers

ECHO

Displays messages and enables/disables echo

EDIT

Views/edits files

EDLIN

Views/edits files

EMM386

Loads extended Memory Manager

ENABLE

Recovery console command to enable/disable service, driver

ENDLOCAL

Stops localization of environment changes enabled by SETLOCAL

ERASE

Erases files

EXIT

Exits from command interpreter

EXPAND

Expands Windows files to original format

EXTRACT

Extracts files from Windows cabinets

FASTHELP

Displays MSDOS commands lists and info about them

FC

Compares files

FDISK

Utility to create partitions on HDD

FIND

Searches for text within a file

FINDSTR

Searches for text string within a file

FIXBOOT

Writes a new boot sector

FIXMBR

Writes new boot record to disk drive

FOR

Boolean used in batch files

FORMAT

Command to erase/prepare disk drive

FTP

Command to connect/operate on FTP server

FTYPE

Displays/modifies file types used in file ext associations

GOTO

Moves a batch file to a specific label/location

GRAFTABL

Shows ext characters in graphics mode

HELP

Displays a listing of commands and explanation

IF

Allows batch files to perform conditional processing

IFSHLP.SYS

32 bit file manager

IPCONFIG

Network command to view network adapter settings/assigned values

KEYB

Changes keyboard layout

LABEL

Changes disk drive label

LH

Loads device driver into high memory

LISTSVC

Recovery console command that displays services/drivers

LOADFIX

Loads program above first 64k

LOADHIGH

Loads device driver into high memory

LOCK

Locks HDD

LOGON

Recovery console command to list installations/enable admin login

MAP

Displays device name of drive

MD

Command to create new directory

MEM

Displays system memory

MKDIR

Command to create new directory

MODE

Modifies port/display settings

MORE

Displays one page at a time

MOVE

Moves files from one directory to another

MSAV

Early Microsoft Virus scanner

MSD

Diagnostics utility

MSCDEX

Utility used to load and provide access to CDROM

NBTSTAT

Displays protocol statistics/current TCP/IP connections using NBT

NET

Updates, views, fixes network/network settings

NETSH

Configures dynamic/static network info from DOS

NETSTAT

Displays TCP/IP network protocol statistics/info

NLSFUNC

Loads country specific info

NSLOOKUP

Looks up IP address of a domain/host on a network

PATH

Views/modifies computer's path location

PATHPING

Views/locates locations of network latency

PAUSE

Batch file command to stop the processing of a command

PCPARK

Parks HDD heads to enable safe shutdown - used on early versions

PING

Test/send info to another computer, network or network device

POPD

Changes to directory/network path stored by PUSHD command

POWER

Conserves power with computer portables

PRINT

Prints data to printer port

PROMPT

Views/changes MSDOS prompt

PUSHD

Stores directory/network path in memory for future reference

QBASIC

Opens QBasic

RD

Removes empty directory

REN

Renames file/directory

RENAME

Renames file/directory

RMDIR

Removes empty directory

ROUTE

Views and configures Windows network route tables

RUNAS

Enables user to remote execute a program on another computer

SCANDISK

Runs scandisk utility

SCANREG

Scans registry/recover registry from errors

SET

Changes one variable/string to another

SETLOCAL

Enables local environments to be altered without global affect

SETVER

Changes msdos version to trick older dos programs

SHARE

Installs support for file sharing/locking capabilities

SHIFT

Changes position of replaceable parameters in batch program

SHUTDOWN

Shutsdown computer from the DOS prompt

SMARTDRV

Creates disk cache in conventional memory/extended memory

SORT

Sorts input and displays output to screen

START

Starts separate window in Windows from MSDOS prompt

SUBST

Substitutes a folder on computer for another drive letter

SWITCHES

Removes/adds functions from MSDOS

SYS

Transfers system files to drive

TELNET

Telnet to another computer/device from prompt

TIME

Views/modifies system time

TITLE

Changes title of MSDOS window

TRACERT

Visually view network packets route across a network

TREE

Views visual tree of HDD

TYPE

Displays contents of a file

UNDELETE

Undeletes deleted file

UNFORMAT

Unformats HDD

UNLOCK

Unlocks HDD

VER

Displays version info

VERIFY

Enables/disables feature to see if files have been correctly written

VOL

Displays volume info about designated drive

XCOPY

Copies files, directories, and/or drives from one location to another