Which version of DOS is with XP Pro?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tosca
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Tosca

Hi everyone

I've become interested in using DOS commands that I can access from
Start>Run>cmd. I'm not sure if this is normal or full DOS or a modified
version that is available in this way. I have seen some books and it seems
that the most up to date version of DOS is 6.22. The books mention an
UNDELETE command but that isn't available to me when I enter "help" at the
cursor when the command screen is open. This makes me think that the
version of DOS that I have isn't 6.22. How do I find out the version to
which I have access?

I also saw a book entitled "Windows 2000 Commands Pocket Reference"
published by O'Reilly but there is no similar book specifically for XP Pro.
Are the commands identical in 2000 & XP Pro? If so, I'll go ahead and buy
it.

Finally, I understand that the Recovery Console looks like the command
screen and uses DOS commands. If this is the case, what's the difference
between this and booting to Safe Mode with the command screen? I did this
once quite some time ago and, from recollection, it simply gave me a large
command screen from which I could interrogate my hard drive, copy or edit
files etc. What I'm really asking is "Do I really need the Recovery Console
to aid diagnosis and management of system failure?"

Thanks for your time.
 
The last version of pure DOS was 7.01
This is no longer in use by Windows XP.
All of the original Dos files have been absorbed into XP and almost all can
still be used at the CMD.exe prompt.

You need a 3rd party partition manager to make bootable copies of your
operating system, such as Partition Magic or BootIt NG,

Good Luck,
Jerry
 
Hi Tosca,

DOS was an underlying layer to Win9x (W95, W98, WMe), it was never part of
an NT system (Win2000, WinXP). The command prompt in an NT system gives you
access to shell commands similar to the DOS prompt, but not fully as system
permissions and account restrictions are still recognized. Click start/run
and type cmd, then click ok. From the prompt run HELP /? to get the commands
available and their parameters.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Squire said:
The last version of pure DOS was 7.01
This is no longer in use by Windows XP.
All of the original Dos files have been absorbed into XP and almost
all can still be used at the CMD.exe prompt.

You need a 3rd party partition manager to make bootable copies of your
operating system, such as Partition Magic or BootIt NG,

Good Luck,
Jerry
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that information is incorrect. There is no DOS whatsoever
in any NT-based operating system. The command prompt in XP (which is NT
5.1) is just that, a command prompt. It is not DOS, which is an
operating system. I don't know about books that cover XP's command
line, but here is XP's Command line reference, A-Z:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx

I'm not sure why you thought the OP needed a partition manager, but in
order to make an image of his drive he would need imaging software.
Partition Magic does not include imaging software - Ghost is the
Symantec imaging program. BootIT NG does have an imaging component.

Tosca - To address the question of the difference between the Recovery
Console and Safe Mode with Command Line: the latter is XP's regular
command line without explorer.exe running. Explorer.exe provides the
graphical user interface. An example of when you might want to use this
would be when malware has attached itself to explorer.exe and runs
every time explorer.exe does.

The Recovery Console is fairly limited in what it can do although it can
save an installation when you can't even get into any variety of Safe
Mode or Last Known Good Configuration. Here is a link to an MS website
with an overview of the Recovery Console (TinyURL'd):

http://tinyurl.com/5ywmz

HTH,

Malke
 
Just to bring you up to date,

The copy command in Partition Magic, will copy the full operating system to
an unallocated space that is fully bootable.
And remember what DOS originally stands for:
Disk Operating System.
Which originally consisted of files installed into a directory named DOS.

Keep Smiling :-)
Jerry

--
An Armed Society is a polite society.
GO AHEAD - MAKE MY DAY !


Malke said:
I'm sorry, but that information is incorrect. There is no DOS whatsoever
in any NT-based operating system. The command prompt in XP (which is NT
5.1) is just that, a command prompt. It is not DOS, which is an
operating system. I don't know about books that cover XP's command
line, but here is XP's Command line reference, A-Z:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx

I'm not sure why you thought the OP needed a partition manager, but in
order to make an image of his drive he would need imaging software.
Partition Magic does not include imaging software - Ghost is the
Symantec imaging program. BootIT NG does have an imaging component.
Click to expand...
<Snip>
 
And MS-DOS stands for MicroSoft Disk Operating System.

NT stands for New Technology and XP stands for eXPerience.

Windows XP is NT 5.1 and NT does not have MS-DOS.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
And just remember,
All your storage of files are installed on a disk.
Hence - Disk Operating System, Disk Storage System, whatever.

Jerry
 
Quote..

"DOS was one of the first operating systems for the PC compatible platform,
and the first on that platform to gain widespread use (it was still
widespread more than 10 years later). This was a quick and messy affair (the
variant MS-DOS, sometimes colloquially referred to as Messy DOS, was
developed from QDOS, which literally meant "Quick and Dirty Operating
System")."

Endquote..

The term Disk Operating System was used as a more formal name.. another
example of re-wording for a more acceptable end might be "RTFM" as in Read
The FINE Manual..

However, the above still does not alter the fact that XP is not a 'Windows
Shell' running on a DOS base..
 
Tosca said:
Hi everyone

I've become interested in using DOS commands that I can access from
Start>Run>cmd. I'm not sure if this is normal or full DOS or a modified
version that is available in this way. I have seen some books and it seems
that the most up to date version of DOS is 6.22. The books mention an
UNDELETE command but that isn't available to me when I enter "help" at the
cursor when the command screen is open. This makes me think that the
version of DOS that I have isn't 6.22. How do I find out the version to
which I have access?

I also saw a book entitled "Windows 2000 Commands Pocket Reference"
published by O'Reilly but there is no similar book specifically for XP Pro.
Are the commands identical in 2000 & XP Pro? If so, I'll go ahead and buy
it.

Finally, I understand that the Recovery Console looks like the command
screen and uses DOS commands. If this is the case, what's the difference
between this and booting to Safe Mode with the command screen? I did this
once quite some time ago and, from recollection, it simply gave me a large
command screen from which I could interrogate my hard drive, copy or edit
files etc. What I'm really asking is "Do I really need the Recovery Console
to aid diagnosis and management of system failure?"

Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...

1. The cmd.exe utility included with Windows XP is a DOS *emulator*
that runs under Windows XP. The emulation is based largely on MS-DOS
5, based on my experience with it.

2. The Windows XP Recovery Console is a specialized command prompt
environment that supports a very limited set of commands so as to
allow the repair and recovery of a damaged Windows XP installation. It
includes the ability to read and write NTFS drives, something that no
DOS version ever had. And you do need it, especially if your Windows
XP hard drive is NTFS.

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
Article ID : 314058
http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=314058

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 
Thank you for all of the contributions. I gained the impression that it
isn't "normal" DOS that I access from the XP Pro command screen and that's
been confirmed now.
 
Thank you Rick and Ron. I understand now that the XP Pro command screen
doesn't give me DOS but emulates it. The concern that I had lurking at the
back of my mind was that it may have posed a security threat (in terms of
permissions etc., as you mentioned) but I would have thought that it had
been hilighted as such a threat in the various NGs that I access.

I appreciate now that the Recovery Console gives me something that Safe Mode
with the command screen won't, so I do need it. I have a laptop with a
manufacturere's "version" of XP Pro which isn't a standard retail version,
so it doesn't have the Recovery Console. I realise that I will have to
purchase the retail version of XP Pro but can I use that disc to load the
Recovery Console whilst the OS is my original manufacturer's version? I've
read that it's possible to install the Recovery Console so it's available at
boot up (possibly after pressing F8 to access the Safe Mode (and others)
dialogue), rather than have to have the XP Pro retail disc in the CD drawer.
The manufacturer of my laptop doesn't give me access to the Recovery Console
so I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I may be better to back
everything up, install a standard retail version of XP Pro and then get rid
of my manufacturer's version of XP Pro.

Thank you once again in anticipation of your further helpful coments.
 
Hi Jerry,

My operating system is Windows XP Professional.

On occasions that I happen to see my Boot Menu, Microsoft Windows
Professional Edition is what's listed under "Please select the operating
system to start".

My boot.ini lists one operating system...
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /sos /NoExecute=OptIn

One can, however, set up for a dual booting with MS-DOS®, if the drive is
formatted FAT16 or 32.

[[It also addresses multibooting issues for running Windows XP with earlier
operating systems including Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 9x, and
MS-DOS®. ]]
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/multiboot.mspx

How to Multiple Boot Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95,
Windows 98, Windows Me, and MS-DOS
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q217210

I never really used DOS much, MS-DOS or CBM-DOS. I used GEOS (a
Windows-like Graphic Environment Operating System) when I had my Commodore
64. And my first PC had Windows 3.11. When I bought my first IBM-clone, PC
still meant Programmable Controller. It didn't take long before PC became
the abbreviation for Personal Computer and Programmable Controller became
Programmable Logic Controller or PLC.

One interesting fact to note is that an awful lot of the XP/NT command-line
programs and internal cmd.exe commands are sure similar to MS-DOS versions
of the same programs/commands. It is amazing what you can find in old
MS-DOS books that still applies to XP/NT.

William and Linda Allen have an on-line MS-DOS/MSDOS Batch File course.
http://www.allenware.com/icsw/icswidx.htm The Course is written for Windows
95/98/ME. They do have Windows NT/2000/XP in mind because they offer an
add-on package containing instructions and workarounds for users of Windows
NT/2000/XP who want to try using the Course. Some syntax used differs
between Win95/98/ME and Windows NT/2000/XP. And there are commands
available in 95/98/ME that are not available in NT/2000/XP and vice versa.
Since the XP/NT commands are newer, they have more advanced syntax.

[[Unavailable MS-DOS Commands
The following MS-DOS commands are not available at the command prompt. ]]
Microsoft Windows XP - New ways to do familiar tasks
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/dos_diffs.mspx

I find all of this pretty amazing considering the fact that MS-DOS came out
in 1981 or 1982. :-) That's almost a quarter of a century ago. Eons in
computer years.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Squire said:
And just remember,
All your storage of files are installed on a disk.
Hence - Disk Operating System, Disk Storage System, whatever.

Jerry
Click to expand...


So how do you define an operating system that is loaded from flash memory,
like a USB thumb drive? Obviously it is NOT a *disk* operating system.
Since "disk" implicitly refers to a fixed disk (aka hard drive), explain how
an OS loaded using CD-ROM disc qualifies as a DOS. Stop showing off your
stupidity in trying to lump all of Microsoft's operating systems under a
moniker of DISK Operating System, because those who actually use their
computer know "DOS" means MS/IBM DOS of yesteryear. Based on your
definition, Linux, Windows, MS/IBM-DOS, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, MVS, VSE, OS X,
and every other operating system are all DOS since they typically load their
code into memory from some mass storage subsystem.

The command prompt where you enter commands is a command-line interpreter
program. Any operating system that provides a text-mode console terminal
window must provide one so it can determine the command you enter and what
the command-line interpreter will execute against the system API. Even
under old MS/IBM-DOS, you could use the included command-line interpreter
(command.com) or some 3rd party command-line interpreter. That program
itself is *not* DOS. It is just the user interface program provided so you
can see your input and have that particular program execute its code. Even
if the command weren't internal to that particular command-line interpreter
program, it still had to interpret your input to then locate the external
program to load it into memory (nothing runs unless in memory) and than pass
control to it.

Yes, Windows XP also has a command-line interpreter that you can use inside
a text-mode console window. Actually it has two of them: cmd.exe for the NT
version and command.com for backwards compatibility. However, there is *no*
DOS kernel provided under Windows NT/2000/XP. You are just entering input
to the particular command-line interpreter *program* that the OS provides.
 
I'm with you all the way, Wesley,
I was just turning the needle a little bit for responses.
Some of the answers I received were amazing.
Some really showed their ignorance.

Thanks for your reply,
Jerry


--
An Armed Society is a polite society.
GO AHEAD - MAKE MY DAY !


Wesley Vogel said:
Hi Jerry,

My operating system is Windows XP Professional.
Click to expand...
<Snip>
 
Squire said:
I'm with you all the way, Wesley,
I was just turning the needle a little bit for responses.
Some of the answers I received were amazing.
Some really showed their ignorance.
Click to expand...

Which is interesting, given that they were correct.
 
Wesley Vogel said:
Operating system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system

Disk operating system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_operating_system
Click to expand...


Gee, and here I thought I was posting in a *Microsoft* group. Context is
important and often critical. When taking some generic computer class
discussing how they work in general, DOS might indeed refer to all operating
systems that require loading their loader, kernel, drivers, and other
functions from a mass storage subsystem. However, this is not a general
computing group. This is a Microsoft group, and in THIS context then "DOS"
refers to a specific operating system. Do you really expect every user to
bother putting "MS" in front of every Microsoft product that they discuss
when it is obvious from the context that it is a Microsoft product under
discussion?

In THIS context (i.e., this group), it is not necessary to include "MS" so
as to uniquely identify "MS-DOS" for a particular flavor on an operating
system. It is extremely rare that a user will add "MS" when discussing
Windows; i.e., here Windows means MS Windows (and not the windows you put in
your house, nor does it refer to X-Windows). Here DOS means MS-DOS. In a
Caldera forum, DOS would mean their product, and in an IBM OS/2 Warp forum,
DOS would mean PC-DOS. And if you wanted to mention where Bill Gates got
his DOS to sell to IBM then you cannot say DOS and have to instead say
Seattle DOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS, since you like using them
for reference).

Context is all important. Without it, you cannot communicate (because even
a huge volume written to provide all context for a paragraph-size statement
would itself infer other contexts that would require more books, ad
nauseum).
 
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