A complete list of DOS commands is a very extensive list. Usually when you search for a list of simple DOS commands, you will only get the top few, or the most popular ones.
Microsoft Corp has MS-DOS as it’s trademark. Disk Operating System is what DOS stands for. The reason it was written (it is software) - was to control hardware. That hardware was the IBM PC. When it was introduced to the computing industry in 1981, Microsoft Windows was not even on the drawing board. The user interface for DOS is a plain simple command line. The last update for DOS which was ver 6.22 happened in 1994.
You will be presented with a DOS command prompt on the DOS command line eg C:\>. This indicated that DOS will search on drive C which is usually your hard disk for the command you are going to run. If your files you want to run are stored in a different location, then you will need to change to the drive where they reside eg typing D: will get you to a D:\> prompt, or E: will get you to a E:\> prompt.
There have been a number of DOS versions brought out over the years. The following are some of them:
1. PC DOS
2. MS-DOS version
3. DR-DOS version
4. 4DOS version
DOS will run very happily within windows if need be. Sometimes, issuing a DOS command on the command line can be a quicker option than going through the attractive interface Windows presents us with. It is in this situation that it could be advantageous to have a list of simple DOS commands on hand.
Another great use for DOS in today’s era, is when Windows spits the dummy and simply won’t co-operate, DOS commands is what you are left with to communicate with your computer.
Since nearly anything of importance can be done on a command line and a DOS prompt. So a list of simple DOS commands is quite a handy little thing to have nearby.
File and directory management are what the main and most common DOS commands are about. Microsoft Windows XP provides DOS command shell, which contains 71 DOS commands.
If you find yourself looking for a list of simple DOS commands, the first place you should go is to your DOS user manual if you still have it.