Retrocomputing Stack Exchange
Retrocomputing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [ms-dos]

MS-DOS, the Microsoft Disk Operating System, its OEM-branded versions, and x86 DOS clones in general.

Questions regarding all versions of MS-DOS and its clones: from the first release by Microsoft for IBM (as PC DOS) in 1981 to the versions underlying Windows 9x.

Questions specific to a clone (e.g. the DR DOS family) or operating environment (e.g. the DOS box in OS/2) must indicate this in the question.

Please note that IBM PC DOS has its own tag; use that instead if appropriate (for example when asking about versions made after IBM and Microsoft ended their partnership).

312 questions
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What is the context of the button "Is MS DOS a feminist?"

I just saw this button in the Computer History Museum, and I'm wondering what is the context? Context removed, "Is MS DOS a feminist?" is about the most non-sequitur thing I've seen.
Evan Carroll
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44
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9 answers

Is DOS being shipped with or as an installed OS?

Given the very small size of DOS, it would seem it might still be ideal for some applications such as handheld games. Is any system manufacturer still shipping DOS with their machine? If no one is shipping DOS, when was the last shipment?
Barnstormer
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10 answers

Is there a reason to prefer earlier versions of MS-DOS over later?

I understand MS-DOS to be backwards-compatible, so is there a reason to run a version earlier than the last (6.22) on an old computer? The only reason I can think of would be for period-accuracy, but is that it?
Sydius
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3 answers

Were 9.2 file names possible in MS-DOS?

In MS-DOS (and FAT16), you could only have 8.3 file names (like QUESTION.TXT) with only single-case letters and numbers (and a few symbols). The MS-DOS Editor also defaulted to 8.3 - typing edit questiontxt in MS-DOS 6.22 would edit…
Zackary
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27
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4 answers

Why wasn't DOSKEY integrated with COMMAND.COM?

Why did Microsoft make DOSKEY a separate command, instead of integrating it with COMMAND.COM? I don't think DOSKEY uses a lot of RAM or was useless in the '80s... Maybe there was another reason not to enable this command automatically?
user7710
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27
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2 answers

Did MS-DOS ever drop ability to support non-IBM PC compatible machines?

Early MS-DOS versions were designed and indeed adapted to run on machines not fully IBM PC compatible. However, there seems to be a number of utilities bundled with later versions, that seem not to fully rely on MS-DOS interfaces for device access,…
tuomas
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25
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3 answers

Did MS-DOS itself ever use blinking text?

I know that it was possible to create blinking text, but did the operating system itself (I mean, in output from functions of COMMAND.COM and similar executables) ever make use of blink formatting? You'd think it would be useful for confirmations of…
KlaymenDK
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24
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7 answers

Did MS-DOS have any support for multithreading?

Common wisdom seems to be that MS-DOS was an exclusively single-threaded OS. Of course, implementing a scheduler would be possible, but the OS itself did not provide any facilities for multithreading, at least to my knowledge. For this reason, I was…
neuviemeporte
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23
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3 answers

How do I connect a command prompt to a serial line in MS-DOS 6.22?

I am currently experimenting with DOS and am trying to run the command prompt on the serial terminal through QEMU. This is the command I have been using. command >COM1 2>COM1
Lennon McLean
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21
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1 answer

Why does invoking a bat file from another bat interrupt the first?

I'm looking for some historical context, valid for both any Windows prompt but my guess would be that the behaviour can be seen at least from MS-DOS, if not earlier. It feels counter-intuitive to me to have a batch file just ignore the rest of the…
bracco23
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3 answers

What order were files/directories output in dir?

In the version of command.com included with MS-DOS, DIR seems to print files in a random order, but if one runs multiple DIR commands, they all print the files in the same order. This order does not appear to be based on date, size, or…
TSJNachos117
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15
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2 answers

How do modern .bat files differ from old MS DOS .bat files?

I'm wondering how modern batch files (.bat) are different from MS-DOS .bat files? There are some commands that feel more "modern" and don't seem like something you'd see in an older system. How do the commands in modern batch files (winXP-win7,…
Jared
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2 answers

How was the CLOCK$ device used in MS-DOS?

Related to another question about CLOCK$ device name, I began to wonder if and how this device was actually used in MS-DOS. I have seen some references how to specify a clock driver when creating a DOS driver, but was there ever any software that…
tuomas
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8
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1 answer

What versions of MS-DOS or PC-DOS supported the "+,," syntax on COPY? Is there documentation on its origin?

I remember reading in an IBM PC-DOS manual, around 1988 maybe, that there was a special syntax of the COPY command : COPY A.TXT +,, which would simply update the file's last change date to now. This was equivalent to the touch command which was…
Nimloth
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5
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1 answer

Insert a row, but only across some columns?

Yes, I still use Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.4 on my HP 200LX. Anybody know of a good way to do something like insert row (/wir), but only across a subset of columns? In other words, kind of like inserting a range of cells in Excel, and choosing shift…
db2
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