* MS-DOS and Windows 95 type Batch files ( Command. com ); usefulness as glue language enhanced by QBasic and DOSKey

* MS-DOS Batch files

Because it is the primary means of displaying the files and directories on disk or other storage medium within a command window, the dir command is one of the most basic commands employed by users of the command line interface to MS-DOS and subsequent versions of Microsoft Windows.

All files must be for the same version ; although MS-DOS 5 and 6 use a file called COMMAND. COM, they are not interchangeable.

The Samba project originated with the aim of reverse engineering the SMB protocol and implementing an SMB server to allow MS-DOS clients to use SMB to access files on Sun Microsystems machines.

The file could be formatted with the FAT16 filesystem to store normal MS-DOS or Windows files.

* MS-DOS EXE files and the EXE stub of the Microsoft Windows PE ( Portable Executable ) files start with the characters " MZ " ( ), the initials of the designer of the file format, Mark Zbikowski.

* SQ ( program ), a program for compressing files on MS-DOS and CP / M

Even plain text computer files are not free from this problem — e. g. under MS-DOS, most programs could not work correctly with UNIX-style text files ( see newline ), and for non-English speakers, the different code pages always have been a source of trouble.

* Racter download for MS-DOS based computers, including original template files.

With the introduction of microcomputers, the type of files commonly associated with the extension. com changed ; in 8-bit CP / M, and later in MS-DOS and compatible DOSes, they are binary executable files by convention.

Although the file format is the same in MS-DOS and CP / M,. COM files for the two operating systems are not compatible ; MS-DOS COM files contain x86 instructions and possibly MS-DOS system calls, while CP / M COM files contain 8080 instructions ( programs restricted to certain machines could also contain additional instructions for 8085 or Z80 ) and CP / M system calls.

In MS-DOS and compatible DOSes, there is no memory management provided for COM files by the loader or execution environment.

As of MS-DOS 2. 0 the Extended Job File Table was introduced, which allowed to open up to 254 files.

For instance, on newer MS Windows computers, the older FAT-type file systems of MS-DOS and old versions of Windows are supported, in addition to the NTFS file system that is the normal file system for recent versions of Windows.

Windows 95 added additional 32-bit capabilities ( however, MS-DOS, some of the kernel, and supplementary utilities such as Disk Defragment remained 16-bit ) and implemented a new object oriented user interface, elements of which are still used today.

While without deliberate remapping the drive letter assignments are typically fixed until the next reboot, Zenith MS-DOS 3. 21 will update the drive letter assignments when resetting a drive.

" Scholastic, an education software developer, was also confident of Apple's ability to compete with MS-DOS machines, stating: " They are just as cost-effective and as powerful as MS-DOS computers, but the Apples will have a superior comfort-level.

The MSX 3. 5 " floppy disks are directly compatible with MS-DOS ( although some details like file undeletion and boot sector code were different ).

Although no longer developed or supported, older versions for MS-DOS and Apple Macintosh are still available.

It supports only printers that can connect via a parallel printer port, such as most HP Deskjets and which can run under MS-DOS ; it does not support printers that require a USB connection or are labelled " Windows only ".

In MS-DOS / PC DOS 2. 0 through 4. 01 the length of the < tt > SHELL </ tt > line was limited to 31 characters, whereas up to 128 characters are possible in later versions.

Win32 console applications are often mistaken for MS-DOS applications, especially on Windows 9x and Windows Me.

This means that original MS-DOS programs are provided an environment in which they can run correctly on many modern computers running a variety of operating systems.

MS-DOS versions are abandoned because of Y2K issues and lack of continued demand.

The captions (" shifted ", " unshifted ") are in the MS-DOS Terminal font.

There are official ports to Apollo / Domain, IBM RS6000, DECStation / ultrix, VAX / VMS, VAX / Ultrix, MS-DOS, Unix, Windows, Mac OS, Linux, MVS, VM / CMS, FreeBSD, Solaris, and to Mac OS X.

In all MS-DOS code pages, box drawing characters are present, but their number is limited to 40 ( for example in code page 437 ):

Note that code page 852 ( MS-DOS Latin 2 ) is very different from ISO / IEC 8859-2 ( ISO Latin-2 ), although both are informally referred to as " Latin-2 " in different language regions.

This typically means systems that are capable of running Microsoft Windows, Linux, or PC-DOS / MS-DOS, without requiring special drivers.

MS-DOS and Win16 subsystems ( only on i386 ) can run some applications for those platforms, and it has an OS / 2 subsystem for running CLI OS / 2 applications.

It was the only text editor provided with MS-DOS before version 5. 0 of that system, when it was superseded by the full screen MS-DOS Editor.

The first game, Simon the Sorcerer, was released in 1993 for IBM PC compatibles running MS-DOS on three 3. 5 " floppy disks in a large box styled with purple margins, with no speech and only sub-titles used throughout the game.

The MS-DOS was a version specialized for and only bootable on the Tandy 1000, as it would announce on the screen of any other PC-compatible one tried to boot with it ; it included a version of BASICA ( Microsoft's Advanced GW-BASIC ) with support for the enhanced CGA graphics modes ( a. k. a. Tandy Graphics or TGA ) and three-voice sound hardware of the Tandy 1000.

Thus, MS-DOS was for several years sold only as an OEM product.

MS-DOS did not have an API for graphics, and the BIOS only included the most rudimentary of graphics functions ( such as changing screen modes and plotting single points ).

Normally in the MS-DOS operating system, only one program can be running at any given time, and when it wants to stop running, it relinquishes the control to DOS's shell program, < tt > COMMAND. COM </ tt >, using the system call < tt > INT 21H / 4CH </ tt >.

This is a legacy of MS-DOS, which only allowed a 128-byte command line to be passed to an application, making wildcarding by the DOS command prompt impractical.

Aside from IBM's PC DOS, MS-DOS was the only other version available as OEM editions vanished since by this time PCs were 100 % compatible so customizations for hardware differences were no longer necessary.

DWScript is a version of SCRIPT for MS-DOS, called after its author, D. D. Williams, but was never released to the public and only used internally by IBM.

The most enduring element of 86-DOS was its primitive line editor, EDLIN, which remained the only editor supplied with Microsoft versions of DOS until the June 1991 release of MS-DOS 5. 0, which included a TUI-based editor, MS-DOS Editor based on QBasic.

The program filled a required niche in the market, as DOS shipped with only a command-line file manager, until the generally unsuccessful DOS shell that was provided with MS-DOS 4. 0.

To catch on, Microsoft included its own EMM386 in MS-DOS 5. 0, while previously the memory management functionality was only available with Windows.

The Macintosh version has high resolution graphics ( 640x480 ), the MS-DOS and SNES version only low resolution graphics ( 320x200 ) and ( 256x224 ) respectively.

In this case, the only difference might be that the text in GUI text editors will often be black on a white background ( rather than white on a black background as seen when viewing in MS-DOS or Unix console ), thus making some of the art appear to be " inverse ", like a film negative.

Microsoft released comparable but simpler memory managers of its own-HIMEM. SYS for XMS and EMM386. EXE for EMS with MS-DOS 4. 01 in 1989 ; earlier Windows / 386 2. 1 included a built-in EMM which offered EMS to DOS windows during Windows sessions only.

Up to version 5. 0, MASM was available as an MS-DOS application only.

The PC version of Mallard Basic is still available from LocoScript Software as an MS-DOS program which will run under Windows as a Disc only version with licence or with the full Introduction & Reference manual.

Microsoft and IBM DOS variants including MS-DOS, PC DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me ) do not have permissions, only file attributes.

One of Turbo Pascal's strong features was the ability to easily " chain " sub-programs and external modules into memory only as required ; as the average available RAM for a program to load and run in MS-DOS was 384 kilobytes, this became a very important feature.