Try something interesting in MS-DOS

Hey! Do you feel uneasy with MS-DOS? Of course, there are so many commands to remember, so many different situations to face with, and there is such a stupid computer that will not give you any instruction about how to use it. So, it's now time for you to try something interesting in MS-DOS, and you will get rid of that uneasy feeling very quickly.

You should have the knowledge about how to start MS-DOS or how to start a MS-DOS command prompt window. If you don't know, ask someone who knows it, or refer to basic courses about Windows or MS-DOS. Then, you can do the experiments.

Let us start by getting information about how to use a MS-DOS command. If you want to use a MS-DOS command, and you don't know how to use it, just type "<command> /?" where <command> is the command whose usage you want to know, at the command prompt. For example:

DIR /?

Notice that commands in MS-DOS are case-insensitive, but their parameters may be case-sensitive. Now you can see that after the execution of the command "DIR /?", there is such information listed (I was using MS-DOS command prompt in Windows Me):

Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory. DIR [drive:][path][filename] [/P] [/W] [/A[[:]attributes]] [/O[[:]sortorder]] [/S] [/B] [/L] [/V] [/4] [drive:][path][filename] Specifies drive, directory, and/or files to list. (Could be enhanced file specification or multiple filespecs.) /P Pauses after each screenful of information. /W Uses wide list format. /A Displays files with specified attributes. attributes D Directories R Read-only files H Hidden files A Files ready for archiving S System files - Prefix meaning not /O List by files in sorted order. sortorder N By name (alphabetic) S By size (smallest first) E By extension (alphabetic) D By date & time (earliest first) G Group directories first - Prefix to reverse order A By Last Access Date (earliest first) /S Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories. /B Uses bare format (no heading information or summary). /L Uses lowercase. /V Verbose mode. /4 Displays year with 4 digits (ignored if /V also given). Switches may be preset in the DIRCMD environment variable. Override preset switches by prefixing any switch with - (hyphen)--for example, /-W.

If you want to have detailed help of a command, you can use MS-DOS help or Windows NT command line command help. MS-DOS help exists if you've installed MS-DOS 5.0 or higher. Windows NT command line command help exists if you are using Windows NT/2000. To get help through this way, you should type "HELP <command>" where <command> is the command about which you want to know.

If you don't know what commands are available at the MS-DOS command prompt, you can use MS-DOS help by just entering "HELP", or use Windows NT/2000 help and search the index for the topic "commands" and "MS-DOS command".

To switch the display of a Console Window (such as MS-DOS command prompt, started from Windows) between full screen and windowed mode, press Alt + Enter. By default, the display of the program will change.

Now let's do something interesting in MS-DOS. Suppose you are using Windows 95, 98 or Me. Suppose your Windows is installed at C:\WINDOWS.

Use XCOPY command to copy DeskTop directory to another, then browse the new directory by Windows Explorer, then rename all LNK shortcut files to LN_ files, then try some different format of the DIR command to view the directory, then rename the LN_ files all back, in the end delete the directory:

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP C:\WINDOWS\NEWDIR1\ /S

C:

CD \WINDOWS\NEWDIR1

START .

REN *.LNK *.LN_

DIR

DIR *.* /W

DIR *.* /P

DIR *.* /B /P

DIR *.* /V /P

REN *.LN_ *.LNK

DELTREE /Y C:\WINDOWS\NEWDIR1

If your are using Windows NT/2000, you need to switch to %userprofile% first. To do it, type [cd "%userprofile%"]. Notice the use of the quotation marks. Then XCOPY DESKTOP NEWDIR1\ /S.

OK! After this trip I've showed you the easiness of MS-DOS. You don't have to worry about using MS-DOS commands. They are not difficult to master. Try more and you will find them interesting.

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