DOS(Disk Operating System)

COMMAND DESCRIPTION

ANSI.SYS Defines functions that change display graphics, control cursor movement, and reassign keys
APPEND Causes MS-DOS to look in other directories when editing a file or running a command
ARP Displays, adds, and removes arp information from network devices
ASSIGN Assign a drive letter to an alternate letter
ASSOC View the file associations
AT Schedule a time to execute commands or programs
ATMADM Lists connections and addresses seen by Windows ATM call manager
ATTRIB Display and change file attributes
BATCH Recovery console command that executes a series of commands in a file
BOOTCFG Recovery console command that allows a user to view, modify, and rebuild the boot.in
BREAK Enable / disable CTRL + C feature
CACLS View and modify file ACL's
CALL Calls a batch file from another batch file
CD Changes directories
CHCP Supplement the International keyboard and character set information
CHDIR Changes directories
CHKDSK Check the hard disk drive running FAT for errors
CHKNTFS Check the hard disk drive running NTFS for errors
CHOICE Specify a listing of multiple options within a batch file
CLS Clears the screen
CMD Opens the command interpreter
COLOR Easily change the foreground and background colour of the MS-DOS window
COMMAND Opens the command interpreter
COMP Compares files
COMPACT Compresses and uncompress files
CONTROL Open control panel icons from the MS-DOS prompt
CONVERT Convert FAT to NTFS
COPY Copy one or more files to an alternate location
CTTY Change the computers input/output devices
DATE View or change the systems date
DEBUG Debug utility to create assembly programs to modify hardware settings
DEFRAG Re-arrange the hard disk drive to help with loading programs
DEL Deletes one or more files
DELETE Recovery console command that deletes a file
DELTREE Deletes one or more files and/or directories
DIR List the contents of one or more directory
DISABLE Recovery console command that disables Windows system services or drivers
DISKCOMP Compare a disk with another disk
DISKCOPY Copy the contents of one disk and place them on another disk
DOSKEY Command to view and execute commands that have been run in the past
DOSSHELL A GUI to help with early MS-DOS users
DRIVPARM Enables overwrite of original device drivers.
ECHO Displays messages and enables and disables echo.
EDIT View and edit files.
EDLIN View and edit files.
EMM386 Load extended Memory Manager.
ENABLE Recovery console command to enable a disable service or driver.
ENDLOCAL Stops the localization of the environment changes enabled by the setlocal command.
ERASE Erase files from computer.
EXIT Exit from the command interpreter.
EXPAND Expand a Microsoft Windows file back to it's original format.
EXTRACT Extract files from the Microsoft Windows cabinets.
FASTHELP Displays a listing of MS-DOS commands and information about them.
FC Compare files.
FDISK Utility used to create partitions on the hard disk drive.
FIND Search for text within a file.
FINDSTR Searches for a string of text within a file.
FIXBOOT Writes a new boot sector.
FIXMBR Writes a new boot record to a disk drive.
FOR Boolean used in batch files.
FORMAT Command to erase and prepare a disk drive.
FTP Command to connect and operate on a FTP server.
FTYPE Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations.
GOTO Moves a batch file to a specific label or location.
GRAFTABL Show extended characters in graphics mode.
HELP Display a listing of commands and brief explanation.
IF Allows for batch files to perform conditional processing.
IFSHLP.SYS 32-bit file manager.
IPCONFIG Network command to view network adapter settings and assigned values.
KEYB Change layout of keyboard.
LABEL Change the label of a disk drive.
LH Load a device driver in to high memory.
LISTSVC Recovery console command that displays the services and drivers.
LOADFIX Load a program above the first 64k.
LOADHIGH Load a device driver in to high memory.
LOCK Lock the hard disk drive.
LOGON Recovery console command to list installations and enable administrator login.
MAP Displays the device name of a drive.
MD Command to create a new directory.
MEM Display memory on system.
MKDIR Command to create a new directory.
MODE Modify the port or display settings.
MORE Display one page at a time.
MOVE Move one or more files from one directory to another directory.
MSAV Early Microsoft Virus scanner.
MSD Diagnostics utility.
MSCDEX Utility used to load and provide access to the CD-ROM.
NBTSTAT Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT
NET Update, fix, or view the network or network settings
NETSH Configure dynamic and static network information from MS-DOS.
NETSTAT Display the TCP/IP network protocol statistics and information.
NLSFUNC Load country specific information.
NSLOOKUP Look up an IP address of a domain or host on a network.
PATH View and modify the computers path location.
PATHPING View and locate locations of network latency.
PAUSE Command used in batch files to stop the processing of a command.
PING Test / send information to another network computer or network device.
POPD Changes to the directory or network path stored by the pushd command.
POWER Conserve power with computer portables.
PRINT Prints data to a printer port.
PROMPT View and change the MS-DOS prompt.
PUSHD Stores a directory or network path in memory so it can be returned to at any time.
QBASIC Open the QBasic.
RD Removes an empty directory.
REN Renames a file or directory.
RENAME Renames a file or directory.
RMDIR Removes an empty directory.
ROUTE View and configure windows network route tables.
RUNAS Enables a user to execute a program on another computer.
SCANDISK Run the scandisk utility.
SCANREG Scan registry and recover registry from errors.
SET Change one variable or string to another.
SETLOCAL Enables local environments to be changed without affecting anything else.
SETVER Change MS-DOS version to trick older MS-DOS programs.
SHARE Installs support for file sharing and locking capabilities.
SHIFT Changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch program.
SHUTDOWN Shutdown the computer from the MS-DOS prompt.
SMARTDRV Create a disk cache in conventional memory or extended memory.
SORT Sorts the input and displays the output to the screen.
START Start a separate window in Windows from the MS-DOS prompt.
SUBST Substitute a folder on your computer for another drive letter.
SWITCHES Remove add functions from MS-DOS.
SYS Transfer system files to disk drive.
TELNET Telnet to another computer / device from the prompt.
TIME View or modify the system time.
TITLE Change the title of their MS-DOS window.
TRACERT Visually view a network packets route across a network.
TREE View a visual tree of the hard disk drive.
TYPE Display the contents of a file.
UNDELETE Undelete a file that has been deleted.
UNFORMAT Unformat a hard disk drive.
UNLOCK Unlock a disk drive.
VER Display the version information.
VERIFY Enables or disables the feature to determine if files have been written properly.
VOL Displays the volume information about the designated drive.
XCOPY Copy multiple files, directories, and/or drives from one location to another.

 

 

MS-DOS
Listing of secret and/or unknown MS-DOS commands and options.

Below is a listing of MS-DOS commands that are not listed in any available help manual or in the commands syntax or are commonly unknown commands. Many of these commands that are known can be very useful when using MS-DOS, while some of the other commands are unknown and/or appear to do nothing.

Please use these commands cautiously, some of the commands can erase data and/or erase data without warning.

ATTRIB , The command is short for ATTRIB -a -h -r - s *.* (removes all attributes of a file).
BACKUP /HP Unknown
DIR , This lists all files including hidden files, does not work in Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000.
DIR ... Lists all directories that do not have extensions. In Windows 95 / Windows 98 will list the contents of the directories previous to the directory currently in.
DOSKEY /APPEDIT Unknown
DOSKEY /COMMAND Unknown
DOSKEY /PERMANENT Unknown
DOSKEY /SCRSIZE Unknown
DOSKEY /XHISTORY Unknown
FDISK /MBR Recreates the Master Boot Record See CH000175 for additional information.
FDISK /PRI See FDISK Page for additional information.
FDISK /EXT See FDISK Page for additional information.
FDISK /LOG See FDISK Page for additional information.
FDISK /Q Prevents fdisk from booting the system automatically after exiting fdisk.
FDISK /STATUS Shows you the current status of your hard drives.
FORMAT /AUTOTEST Formats the hard drive without any prompting.
FORMAT /BACKUP Like /AUTOTEST but it will ask you for a volume label.
FORMAT /Z:n Command used with FDISK supporting FAT32, used to specify the cluster size in bytes where n is multiplied by 512.
MEM /A or /ALL Adds a line into the MEM command tells the available space in HMA.
RESTORE /Y Unknown
RESTORE /Z Unknown
SET DIRCMD=0 Will make all directories hidden however still accessible,
SET DIRCMD= Will get them back.
SHARE /NC Unknown
TRUENAME When placed before a file, will display the whole directory in which it exists.
VER /R Tells you the Revision and if DOS is in HMA.