MS-DOS Command Prompt for Vista

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hal
  • Start date Start date
In Vista, typing in the Start Search box is a lot like typing
start-run, but a bit more powerful. Anyway, I did specify how I got
there, didn't I...Note that, like the poster I responded to, I didn't
say "search", I said "the start search box". You click on the Windows
Orb, and lo! there is a line just above the Orb that says "Start
Search".

BTW, the subject of this thread is MS-DOS Command Prompt for Vista, not
Start -> Run; also, this is a Vista newsgroup.

Furthermore, let me add that these items are *OS specific*, not
machine-specific...
 
If you install the Platform SDK then typing cmd will start a SDK command
prompt (as one possibility) - thus it is specific to machines with the
Platform SDK installed.

So without knowing what you are choosing one cannot answer your question.
One needs to know the command line you are executing.
 
Death said:
I get the same thing, although my "command" title bar reads Command
Prompt only ... are you logged in as Administrator?

But, there is no difference between the two.

This . guy keeps drumming on this insistance that they are different,
they are not.
Click to expand...

They *are* different! Command.Com and Cmd.exe are not the same thing at
all.

Command.com is the 16-bit command processor for 16-bit DOS applications,
or more precisely it is the command processor for the NT Virtual DOS
Machine (NTVDM), as with all 16-bit applications Command.com runs inside
the NTVDM.

Cmd.exe is the native NT 32-bit command processor. The Command.com that
ships with NT operating systems is not the same as the one in DOS/Win9x
operating systems, it is a special version. The NT version of
Command.com prepares and passes all of the commands it receives to
Cmd.exe for execution. That is why the two CLI's appear seemingly to be
able to run the same commands, they are because Cmd.exe runs the
commands for Command.com so in fact Command.com can take advantage of
the commands available with Cmd.exe.

If you want to see the above in action start the the Task Manager (or
Process Explorer) and then launch Command.com and you will see the NTVDM
start in the Task Manager, you will not see Command.com. Now, give a
bit of work to the Command.com 16-bit processor and keep an eye on the
Task Manager and you will see Cmd.exe appear and then disappear when it
executes the command it received from Command.com. If the amount of
work to do is too little you won't see CMD.EXE appear in the Task
Manager, the work will be over before Task Manager responds. A good
command to run to see this would be the DIR /s command from the root folder:

cd\
dir /s

The dir/s command will list all the files on the volume, to stop the
output of the dir /s command press Ctrl+Break.

John
 
Death said:
John John - MVP wrote:

SNIP


Didn't I say that command within a command prompt starts ntvdm?
The desribed way was to open a command prompt, then run command.
What is the point of doing this?

They are different in that one is 16bit, one is 32bit ... but as they
access the same commands ... I once again ask why is one opening cmd.exe
to run command.com?
Click to expand...

The question to ask is why is one even directly opening Command.Com on
NT systems? There are other differences between command.com and cmd.exe
but there is no sense trying to explain the differences to those who are
convinced that the two CLIs do the same thing.

John
 
Odd definitions of "machine specific" aside, please note that I did not
ask *any* questions. I admit to one *rhetorical* question, but I
(intentionally) didn't even type a question mark after it :-)
 
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