true dos prompt from windows xp pro

[rwilliamstele]

Hello gang,

Have a question. I need to get to a true dos prompt C

Under windows on xp, I know how to go to accesories and get the windows command prompt. But, I need a DOS prompt - is this the same as command prompt?

Thanks.

 

[guitarzan]

Effectively, yes... the same thing. Or, let's put it this way; There is no "DOS" anymore. The "Command Prompt" is the analog of the "DOS Prompt".

 

[vacunita]

For most uses the command Prompt can be comparable to a DOS prompt. However depending on what you need to do, it may not be the same.

Here's some reading for you:

http://commandwindows.com/command1.htm

http://kandleconsulting.com/tutorials/CommandPromptvsDOS.html

Now if you want a true DOS environment, the easiest thing to do, is boot your computer with a Win98 boot disk. It will boot into a real DOS prompt. However its a limited DOS prompt, so you may need to have an additional floppy with whatever dos commands and programs you need to run afterward.




----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[JockMullin]

As Vacunita says, CMD.EXE, the XP command interpreter is a superset of the venerable DOS prompt, with a large number of differences.

However, even under XP, COMMAND.COM still exists. If you start/run command.com you will get a command prompt which is more similar to a "true" DOS prompt, and lacks many of the command and batch file enhancements and long filename support of CMD.EXE. I have seen some cases where legacy DOS programs and batch files run better under that command interpreter.

However, for true DOS compatibility you need DOS, which can be run in a VM environment. But it won't understand NTFS storage or large disk partitions.

Jock

 

[CaptainCommandLine]

I've also had success using DosBox to get old DOS applications working on Vista...

http://www.dosbox.com/