Computer World: Creating Batch Files

The World of DOS - Creating Batch Files

Introduction(1)

History(1)

DOS/Win3.11/95/98 vs. NT/ME/XP/2000(1)

Command Index(1)

Navigating DOS(2)

Tips and Tricks(2)

Network/Harware Utilities(3)

How to make and use bootable floppy disks(3)

Batch Files(4)

Creating Batch Files(4)

Batch file utilities and commands(4)

BREAK CALL CHOICE CLS ECHO EXIT FOR GOTO IF LASTDRIVE MSCDEX PAUSE REM SET

The AUTOEXEC.BAT file(4) autoexec.nt config.sys

Types of Batch and System Files(4)

Parameters in batch files(4)

Batch File Library(5)

Subject Index(5)

Helpful DOS Links(5)

Batch Files

What are batch files? Batch files are not programs, pre se, they are lists of command line instructions that are batched together in one file. For the most part, you could manually type in the lines of a batch file and get the same results, but batch files make this work easy. Batch files do not contain "compiled" code like C++ so they can be opened, copied and edited. They are usually used for simple routines and low-level machine instruction, but they can be very powerful. If you look in your C:\, C:\WINDOWS, or C:\WINNT folder you will see a multitude of .BAT, .SYS, .CFG, .INF and other types. These are all kinds of batch files. This may shock you, but while most applications are writen in Basic or C++ they sit on a mountain of batch files. Batch files are the backbone of the Windows operating system, delete them and you've effectively disabled the OS. There is a reason for this. The system batch files on each computer are unique the that computer and change each time a program is loaded. The operating system must have access to these files and be able to add and delete instructions from them.

Creating Batch files

Simple instructions

Open a text editor like notepad(NOT word or wordpad)

Type or copy this text: @ECHO OFF

ECHO.

ECHO This is a batch file

ECHO.

PAUSE

CLS

EXIT

Save this as batchfile.bat, make sure there is no .txt extension after the .bat

Double-click the file icon

This is a little batch file I wrote that I use every day. It deletes the cookies that get dumped to my hard drive every time I go online. I could set my browser preferences not to accept cookies, but sometimes cookies are useful. Some CGI pages are unusable with cookies, sometimes when you enter a password for a Website, the site uses a cookie to remember your password. I just do not need hundreds of cookie files taking up space after I close my browser. With this batch file, all I have to do is double-click it and it deletes my cookies. Feel free to cut and paste this code to your Notepad or Wordpad. Save it as cookiekill.bat on your Desktop.

cls

REM *******************************************

REM **Cookie Kill Program Will not work in NT**

REM *******************************************

deltree /y c:\windows\cookies\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*

pause

cls

REM Cookies deleted!

What does the batch file do? The first line has the command cls. cls clears the screen window of any previous data. The next three lines start with REM for "remark." Lines begining with REM do not contain commands, but instructions or messages that will be displayed for the user. The next two lines begin with the command deltree, deltree not only deletes files but directories and sub-directories. In this case the file is deleting the directory cookies and all the files inside. This directory is automatically rebuilt. The deltree has been passed the parameter /y, this informs the process to answer "YES" to any confirmation questions. Sometimes you type the DEL or one of its cousins, the system will ask "Are sure you want to do this?" setting /y answers these prompts without interupting the process. The pause command halts the process temporarily and shows the users a list of all the files being deleted. cls clears the screen again, another REM line tells the user that the files are deleted. The last line contains only :end and returns the process to the command prompt. This version was created to show the user everything that is taking place in the process. The version bellow does the same thing without showing the user any details.

cls

@echo off

deltree /y c:\windows\cookies\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*

cls

Without REM lines there are no comments. The @echo off command keeps the process from being "echoed" in the DOS window, and without the pause and :end lines, the process runs and exits without prompting the user. In a process this small it is okay to have it be invisible to the user. With more a complex process, more visual feedback is needed. In computing there is fine line between too much and too little information. When in doubt give the user the oportunity to see what is going on.

This version is a little more thurough, deletes alot of junk cls

@ECHO OFF

ECHO. ***********************************

ECHO. ** Clean Cookies and Temp Files **

ECHO. ** Will not work in NT **

ECHO. *******************************

deltree /y c:\windows\cookies\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*

deltree /y c:\progra~1\Netscape\Users\default\Cache\*.jpg

deltree /y c:\progra~1\Netscape\Users\default\Cache\*.gif

deltree /y c:\progra~1\Netscape\Users\default\Cache\*.htm

deltree /y c:\progra~1\Netscape\Users\default\archive\*.htm

deltree /y c:\progra~1\Netscape\Users\default\archive\*.gif

deltree /y c:\progra~1\Netscape\Users\default\archive\*.jpg

deltree /y c:\windows\temp\*.*

deltree /y c:\temp\*.*

deltree /y c:\windows\Recent\*.*

deltree /y c:\recycled\*.*

cls

EXIT

"C:\windows\history\today" will rebuld itself if you delete it. It's not a file, it's a specially configured directory structure that DOS doesn't see the same way that windows does. C:\windows\history\today doesn't actually exist as DOS sees it. Go into the C:\windows\history directory and type DIR/A this will show you the hidden directories and how they are named.

WINNT Version @ECHO OFF

ECHO **************************************************

ECHO ** DEL replaces DELTREE, /Q replaces /Y **

ECHO **************************************************

del /Q c:\docume~1\alluse~1\Cookies\*.*

REM Change alluse~1 in the above line to your userID

del /q c:\winnt\temp\*.*

del /q c:\temp\*.*

del /q c:\winnt\Recent\*.*

del /q c:\*.chk

EXIT

Add these lines for XP - Provided by Patrick R. del /q C:\Windows\Temp\Adware\*.*

del /q C:\Windows\Temp\History\*.*

del /q C:\Windows\Temp\Tempor~1\*.*

del /q C:\Windows\Temp\Cookies\*.*

One thing I do quite often is erase old floppy disks. I might have a stack of them and I don't care what's on them, but I want all the files gone including potential virii(everyone says "viruses" but "virii" is the proper term. Snob!). But I get tired of opening a DOS prompt and typing in the command to format the disk. So I wrote a one line batch file that does it for me. Save it as: "disk_wipe.bat"

format a: /u

Put a disk in the drive and double-click the .bat file icon.

Batch File Utilities and Commands

Any valid DOS command may be placed in a batch file, these commands are for setting-up the structure and flow of a batch file.

CLS

Clears the screen

EXIT

Exits the command-line process when the batch file terminatesEXIT

BREAK

When turned on, batch file will stop if the user presses < Ctrl >-< Break > when turned off, the script will continue until done.BREAK=ON

BREAK=OFF

CALL

Calls another batch file and then returns control to the first when done.CALL C:\WINDOWS\NEW_BATCHFILE.BAT

Call another programCALL C:\calc.exe

Details.

CHOICE

Allows user input. Default is Y or N.

You may make your own choice with the /C: switch. This batch file displays a menu of three options. Entering 1, 2 or 3 will display a different row of symbols. Take note that the IF ERRORLEVEL statements must be listed in the reverse order of the selection. CHOICE is not recognized in some versions of NT. @ECHO OFF

ECHO 1 - Stars

ECHO 2 - Dollar Signs

ECHO 3 - Crosses

CHOICE /C:123

IF errorlevel 3 goto CRS

IF errorlevel 2 goto DLR

IF errorlevel 1 goto STR

:STR

ECHO *******************

ECHO.

PAUSE

CLS

EXIT

:DLR

ECHO $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ECHO.

PAUSE

CLS

EXIT

:CRS

ECHO +++++++++++++++++++++

ECHO.

PAUSE

CLS

EXIT

FOR...IN...DO

Runs a specified command for each file in a set of files. FOR %%dosvar IN (set of items) DO command or command strcuture.

%%dosvar is the variable that will hold items in the list, usually a single leter: %%a or %%b. Case sensitive, %%a is different from %A. The items in the (set) are assigned to this variable each time the loop runs.

(set of items) is one item or multiple items seperated by commas that determine how many times the loop runs.

command or command strcuture is the operation you want to perform for each item in the list.

This code will run through the set (A, B, C), when it gets to B it will print the message: "B is in the set!"FOR %%b in (A, B, C) DO IF %%b == B echo B is in the set!

This line will print the contents of C:\windows\desktopFOR %%c in (C:\windows\desktop\*.*) DO echo %%c

So, you may create your own list or use various objects like files to determine the loop run.

Details.

GOTO

To go to a different section in a batch file. You may create different sections by preceding the name with a colon. :SUBSECTION

Programmers may find this similar to funtions or sub-routines.

@ECHO OFF

:FIRSTSECTION

ECHO This is the first section

PAUSE

GOTO SUBSECTION

:SUBSECTION

ECHO This is the subsection

PAUSE

Skip sections of a batch file@ECHO OFF

:ONE

ECHO This is ONE, we'll skip TWO

PAUSE

GOTO THREE

:TWO

ECHO This is not printed

:THREE

ECHO We skipped TWO!

PAUSE

GOTO END

:END

CLS

EXIT

Looping with GOTO:BEGIN

REM Endless loop, Help!!

GOTO BEGIN

Use with CHOICE

IF, IF EXIST, IF NOT EXISTIF EXIST C:\tempfile.txt

DEL C:\tempfile.txt

IF NOT EXIST C:\tempfile.txt

COPY C:\WINDOWS\tempfile.txt C:\tempfile.txt

Use with "errorlevel"

The generic paramater errorlevel refers to the output another program or command and is also used with the CHOICE structure. If you try and run a command in a batch file and produces an error, you can use errorlevel to accept the returned code and take some action. For example, let's say you have a batch file that deletes some file. COPY C:\file.txt C:\file2.txt

If "file.txt" doesn't exist, you will get the error: COULD NOT FIND C:\FILE.TXT. Instead, use a structure like this to create the file, then copy it by accepting the error.@ECHO OFF

:START

COPY file.txt file2.txt

IF errorlevel 1 GOTO MKFILE

GOTO :END

:MKFILE

ECHO file text>file.txt

GOTO START

:END

ECHO Quitting

PAUSE

an errorlevel of 1 means there was an error, errorlevel of 0 means there was no error. You can see these levels by adding this line after any line of commands: ECHO errorlevel: %errorlevel%

Details.

PAUSE

Pauses until the user hits a key.

This displays the familiar "Press any key to continue..." message.

REM

Allows a remark to be inserted in the batch script.

REM DIR C:\WINDOWS Not run as a command

DIR C:\WINDOWS Run as a command

ECHO

Setting ECHO "on" will display the batch process to the screen, setting it to "off" will hide the batch process.@ECHO OFF Commands are NOT displayed

@ECHO ON Commands are displayed

ECHO can also be used in batch file to send output to the screen: @ECHO OFF

ECHO.

ECHO Hi, this is a batch file

ECHO.

PAUSE

ECHO. sends a blank line.

To echo special characters, precede them with a caret:

ECHO ^<

ECHO ^>

Otherwise you will get an error.

The @ before ECHO OFF suppresses the display of the initial ECHO OFF command. Without the @ at the beginning of a batch file the results of the ECHO OFF command will be displayed. The @ can be placed before any DOS command to suppress the display.

Breaking long lines of code

You may break up long lines of code with the caret ^. Put it at the end of a line, the next line must have space at the begining. Example: copy file.txt file2.txt

would be: copy file.txt^

file2.txt

SET

Use to view or modify environment variables. More.

LASTDRIVE

Sets the last drive in the system.lastdrive=Q

MSCDEX

Loads the CD-ROM software extensions(drivers), usually so an operating system can be then loaded from CD. See the AUTOEXEC.BAT section for special instructions concerning CD ROM installation. Installing windows from a CD when the CDROM is not yet configured

The AUTOEXEC.BAT file

AUTOEXEC.BAT stands for automatic execution batch file, as in start-up automatically when the computer is turned on. Once a very important part of the operating system, it is being less used and is slowly disapearing from Windows. It is still powerful and useful. In NT versions it is called AUTOEXEC.NT, click here for more information.

Before the graphical user interface(GUI, "gooey") of Windows, turning on a PC would display an enegmatic C:\> and not much else. Most computer users used the same programs over-and-over, or only one program at all. DOS had a batch file which set certain system environments on boot-up. Because this was a batch file, it was possible to edit it and add a line to start-up the user's programs automatically.

When the first version of Windows was released users would turn their PCs on, and then type: WIN or WINDOWS at the prompt invoking the Windows interface. The next version of Windows added a line to the AUTOEXEC to start Windows right away. Exiting from Windows, brought one to the DOS prompt. This automatic invocation of Windows made a lot of people mad. Anyone who knew how to edit batch files would remove that line from the AUTOEXEC to keep Windows from controling the Computer. Most users do not even know that DOS is there now and have never seen it as Windows hides the any scrolling DOS script with their fluffy-cloud screen. At work I will often have to troubleshoot a PC by openning a DOS shell, the user's often panic, believing that I have broken their machine because the screen "turns black".

Most current versions of Windows have a folder called "Start-up." Any program or shortcut to a program placed in this folder will start automatically when the computer is turned on. This is much easier for most users to handle than editing batch files.

Old versions of DOS had a AUTOEXEC that looked like this:

@echo off

prompt $p$g

All this really did way set the DOS prompt to ">"

Later versions looked like this:cls

@echo off

path c:\dos;c:\windows

set temp=c:\temp

Lh mouse

Lh doskey

Lh mode LPT1 retry

This AUTOEXEC.BAT loads DOS & then Windows. Sets up a "temp" directory. Loads the mouse driver, sets DOSKEY as the default and sets the printer retry mode. "Lh" stands for Load High, as in high memory.

An AUTOEXEC.BAT from a Windows 3.11 Machine@ECHO On

rem C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE

C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE 2038 512

PROMPT $p$g

PATH C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\LWORKS;C:\EXPLORER.4LC

SET TEMP=C:\DOS

MODE LPT1:,,P >nul

C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE /F:150 /L:1500

C:\WINDOWS\mouse.COM /Y

cd windows

WIN

This version simply sets DOS to boot to Windows.

SET HOMEDRIVE=C:

SET HOMEPATH=\WINDOWS

Whenever a program is installed on a computer, the setup program or wizard will often edit the AUTOEXEC. Many developer studios will have to "set a path" so programs can be compiled or run from any folder. This AUTOEXEC is an example of that: SET PATH=C:\FSC\PCOBOL32;C:\SPRY\BIN

SET PATH=C:\Cafe\BIN;C:\Cafe\JAVA\BIN;%PATH%

SET HOMEDRIVE=C:

SET HOMEPATH=\WINDOWS

This AUTOEXEC sets the path for COBOL and JAVA development BINs. This way, the computer knows where to look for associated files for COBOL and JAVA files if they are not located directly in a BIN folder.

Sets all the devices and boots to Windows.

When the "REM" tags are removed the device commands become visible. @SET PATH=C:C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\OFFICE;%PATH%

REM [Header]

@ECHO ON

REM [CD-ROM Drive]

REM MSCDEX.EXE /D:OEMCD001 /L:Z

REM [Display]

REM MODE CON: COLS=80 LINES=25

REM [Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card]

REM SOUNDTST.COM

REM [Mouse]

REM MOUSE.COM

REM [Miscellaneous]

REM FACTORY.COM

For loading Windows from a CD @echo off

MSCDEX.EXE /D:OEMCD001 /L:D

cd \win95

oemsetup /k "a:\drvcopy.inf"

For loading CDROM drivers

Removing the "REM" tags uncomments the commands and runs them.REM MSCDEX.EXE /D:OEMCD001 /l:d

REM MOUSE.EXE

AUTOEXEC in NT

NT does not use AUTOEXEC.BAT, the file is called AUTOEXEC.NT and should be found in the C:\WINNT\system32 folder. Here is a sample AUTOEXEC.NT file:@echo off

REM AUTOEXEC.BAT is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.

REM AUTOEXEC.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a

REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.

REM Install CD ROM extensions

lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe

REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe)

lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir

REM Install DPMI support

lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

SET PCSA=C:\PW32

dnp16.exe

*.NT and *.CMD

.NT and .CMD may be used as .BAT files were used in earlier versions of Windows. You may notice on NT systems that there are fewer and fewer .BAT files. Try seaching for .NT or .CMD and you will find many of the same types of batch files that were available as .BATs. For example: CONFIG.NT has a similar function to the old CONFIG.SYS of Windows.

CONFIG.SYS

In Windows systems config.sys is used to set the initial values of the environment variables. To see your current settings, type SET on a command line. In early versions config.sys is a text file you can edit. In later versions it is a complied file that cannot be changed in a text editor. In newer NT versions it is not used at all. Try msconfig.exe instead. REM [Header]

FILES=20

BUFFERS=20

DOS=HIGH,UMB

REM [SCSI Controllers]

REM DEVICE=SCSI.SYS

REM [CD-ROM Drive]

REM DEVICE=CDROM.SYS /D:OEMCD001

REM [Display]

REM DEVICE=DISPLAY.SYS

REM [Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card]

REM DEVICE=SOUND.SYS

REM [Mouse]

REM DEVICE=MOUSE.SYS

REM ------------------

REM [Miscellaneous]

REM DEVICE=SMARTDRV.EXE

Types of "batch" files in windows

INI, *.ini - Initalization file. These set the default variables for the system and programs. More

CFG, *.cfg - Configuration files.

SYS, *.sys - System files, can sometimes be edited, mostly compiled machine code in new versions. More.

COM, *.com - Command files. These are the executable files for all the DOS commands. In early versions there was a seperate file for each command. Now, most are inside COMMAND.COM.

NT, *.nt - Batch files used by NT operating systems. More.

CDM, *.cmd - Batch files used in NT operating systems. More.

Answer Files and Unattended Installations

Customizing Unattended Installations

Answer Files

Customizing and Automating Installations

Automate Windows Installations

Batch File Parameters

You may put and use command-line parameters into your batch-files.

Suppose you had a batchfile called "test.bat" and these were the contents:@echo off

if (%1) == (Hi) echo %1

and at the command line you entered: test.bat Hi, the output would be "Hi". If you entered test.bat bye you would get no response because the parameter did not match. the "%1" refers to the first parameter on the command line after the batch file name. If you want to two parameters, the script would look like this:@echo off

if (%1) == (Hi) echo %1 %2

You could also just spit out what someone types in without a condition:

@echo off

echo %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6

Then typing test.bat dont tell me what to do would produce

dont tell me what to do because it is set up to handle 6 parameters and there are six words. You can tease someone by changing the order:@echo off

echo %6 %3 %1 %2 %5 %4

do me dont tell to what

Making your own variables

You may use the SET command to create your own internal paramaters. This batch file:@echo off

set myvar=Hi Joe

echo %myvar% is myvar

Will print Hi Joe is myvar. Notice a few important points. when we initialize myvar there are no % around it. When we use it, it must be between two %. Also, there must be no spaces between the = and the terms. When myvar is not in a set command or between % it is treated as a literal string.

You can make up your own parameter names and have many of them:@echo off

set name=John Smith

set address=1 main street

set city=helltown

echo %name%

echo %address%

echo %city%

You could also assign command line parameters to the variables:@echo off

set name=%1

set address=%2

set city=%3

echo %name%

echo %address%

echo %city%

The command line usually sees the space as a parameter delimiter, use double quotes " to make it ingore the spaces: test.bat "Joe Smith" "1 Main Street" "Helltown".

Something important to remember about SET, it actaully creates a variable name in the file So if you enter SET NAME=Joe on the command line or in a batch file and then go to the command line and enter ECHO %NAME% the response will be Joe. Entering SET with no parameters will also show the whole list of SET variables. These will be erased when you reboot.

The power of command line switches

Most GUI programs have some kind of command line support which means you may automate their operation through batch files. For example, DOS does not have a built-in email sending function like UNIX. However, using an installed email program like Outlook, you may "force feed" the program on the command line. Outlook examples:outlook /c ipm.note will open a blank email, outlook /c ipm.note /m msmith@yahoo.com will open a blank email with the indicated address, outlook /c ipm.note /a myfile.doc attaches a file. More outlook switches, outlook programming.

An example using command line with winzip.

The Windows Installation Catch-22

You have a new computer with a unformated hard drive, or a drive with only DOS loaded. You want to load Windows from a CD, but you can't see the CD ROM from the DOS prompt. This is messy and can be screwed-up easily, luckily mistakes on this don't cause permanent damage. If you're lucky the CD ROM you have came with an installation disk(on floppy, of course). Putting this disk in and running the INSTALL.EXE or SETUP.EXE will install the drivers for you and alter the system files so you can load Windows from the CD ROM(Linux, by the way, has no problem with this!). If there is no INSTALL.EXE on the disk, you will have to edit lines in two files on your Windows 95 Boot/Install floppy disk. These files are: CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Open these files for editing are look for lines that look like these:

REM DEVICE=CDROM.SYS /D:OEMCD001

AndREM C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:OEMCD001

They may or may not be REMed out. You will need to change the "/D:OEMCD001" part of these lines to reflect the CD ROM that you have. For example if you have a Memorex it might be "/D:MSCD001". But be sure, check any manuals you might have lying around. If not, go to the manufacturer's website and down load the installation files. You will also need to figure out which drive letter it will be. If you only have on hard disk, it will be "D:" as in "/D:MSCD001," if you have two hard drives, or your drive is in several partitions, it might be "E:" or "F:". So then the line would be "/E:MSCD001" or "/F:MSCD001"

The Final line in CONFIG.SYS might be like this: DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\SBIDE.SYS /D:MSCD001 /V /P:170,15

olaf Main Index contact Concepts Programming Networking Hardware Operating Systems ||KnujOn

The World of DOS - Network & Hardware Utilities, Boot Disks

Introduction(1)

History(1)

DOS/Win3.11/95/98 vs. NT/ME/XP/2000(1)

Command Index(1)

Navigating DOS(2)

Tips and Tricks(2)

Network/Harware Utilities(3)

How to make and use bootable floppy disks(3)

XP & 2x

Rescue disks v. boot disks

Batch Files(4)

Creating Batch Files(4)

Batch file utilities and commands(4)

The AUTOEXEC.BAT file(4)

Types of Batch and System Files(4)

Parameters in batch files(4)

Batch File Library(5)

Subject Index(5)

Helpful DOS Links(5)

DOS Network Utilities

If your PC is on a network or you are connected to the Internet, you can use a number of DOS Network utilities to check network connections, download files and communicate with other machines.

PING

PING sends a number of bytes(usually 32) to a specified machine in order to test the connection to that machine and to reveal the hostname or IP address. For example, pinging amazon.com would reveal their IP to be 208.216.182.15. You would do this by entering: PING AMAZON.COM at the DOS prompt. Now, to check put 208.216.182.15 in your browser's location windows and hit <--ENTER--> and see what happens.

TRACERT

To do the oposite of PING use TRACERT with the switch "-h" to reveal the number of "hops". Enter TRACERT -h 208.216.182.15 at the DOS prompt and hit <--ENTER-->. This will not only show that the hostname for 208.216.182.15 is AMAZON.COM, but will also show every single host that you are routed through to connect to AMAZON.COM.

TELNET

Typing TELNET at the DOS prompt will open a TELNET session, allowing you to emulate a termial connection with another computer. To learn more about TELNET click here.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is an old, fast way to move data from one machine to another. To learn more about FTP click here.

FTP may be automated in batch files but requires a seperate login script file. The problem is that once DOS establishes an FTP connection, it's running in that shell and not the batch file. What we have to do is call another file, a kind of log-in script, once the FTP connection is established. This file should contain the username, password and FTP commands were going to issue. Our batch file would look like this: @ECHO OFF

FTP -s:login host.com

CSL

EXIT

-s: is a switch that calls out login script, "login" would be the name of the script, but could be called by another name. The contents of the script may look like this:username

password

GET pathname/filename.ext

DISCONNECT

QUIT

Just a simple list of commands that might be typed in an FTP session, preferably in a file that has no extension, that way no other programs attempt to open it when it is called by FTP. The first two should be your username and password for the FTP service, unless the FTP server permits anonymous connections. In this case the command line would have to have -A after the FTP.

CACLS

Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files. Similar to what can be done by right-clicking the file and going to Properties, Security. You can see the current security settings on a file or directoy by entering: CACLS filename or directoryname.

Switches:

/T Changes ACLs of specified files in the current directory and all subdirectories.

/E Edit ACL instead of replacing it.

/C Continue on access denied errors.

/G user:perm Grant specified user access rights. perm = R Read, W Write, C Change, OR Full control

/R Revoke specified user's access rights (only valid with /E).

/P user:perm Replace specified user's access rights. perm = N None, R Read, W Write, C Change (write), OR F Full control

/D Deny specified user access.

General info on Access Control Lists

ACLs on Windows NT

NETSTAT

NETSTAT will tell you the current status of your network or internet connection. Entering NETSTAT at the DOS prompt by itself will reveal the main host you are connected to. Entering NETSTAT -A will reveal all the current TCP and UDP port activity on your PC.

INTERLNK

Got two crapy old PCs, can't afford to upgrade but you want to network them? In older versions of DOS INTERLNK allowed two machines to be connected through a parallel or serial cable.

INTERSVR

Starts the INTERLNK service, allows one machine to behave like a server.

The NET family of commands

All of these commands start with "NET" followed by a space and the second command word. NET by itself will display the definitions of the following second command words:

NET ACCOUNTS NT: Displays password rules for current account

NET COMPUTER NT: Can only be used on a domain controler. Adds or drops a computer from a network. Usage: NET COMPUTER \\computername /add OR /del. Example: "NET COMPUTER \\node62 /add"

NET CONFIG Displays your current workgroup settings.

NET CONTINUE

NET DIAG Runs the Microsoft Network Diagnostics program to display diagnostic information about your network.

NET FILE NT

NET GROUP NT

NET HELP Provides information about commands and error messages.

NET HELPMSG NT: Provides more information for NT error codes. Example: "NET HELPMSG 3001" will return information on error# 3001.

NET INIT Loads protocol and network-adapter drivers without binding them to Protocol Manager.

NET LOCALGROUP NT

NET LOGOFF Breaks the connection between your computer and the shared resources to which it is connected.

NET LOGON Identifies you as a member of a workgroup.

NET NAME NT

NET PASSWORD Changes your logon password.

NET PAUSE NT

NET PRINT Displays information about print queues and controls print jobs.

NET SEND Sends a broadcast message to other network machines. Syntax: NET SEND machine-name message-text Example: NET SEND CLIENT10 Log-off, we're going to bring the server down! Quicker than email and to the point. Will display over all other windows. NET SEND * message-text will broadcast the message to every network machine.

NET SESSION NT

NET SHARE NT

NET START Starts services.

NET STATISTICS NT

NET STOP Stops services.

NET TIME Displays the time on or synchronizes your computer's clock with the clock on a Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, Windows 95, or NetWare time server.

NET USE Connects to or disconnects from a shared resource or displays information about connections.

NET USER NT: Displays accounts on a node

NET VER Displays the type and version number of the workgroup redirector you are using.

NET VIEW Displays a list of computers that share resources or a list of shared resources on a specific computer.

These commands are useful for several reasons:

1. You are running older, non-gui based network software

2. You are running a hybrid network of Win machines and other boxes

3. As the a client machine you may not have normal access to this information(especially useful if your netadmin is an idiot)

4. You are running command-line batches or programs that need to run across the network and you don't have the time to write a full gui-app.

IPCONFIG

ipconfig [/? | /all | /release [adapter] | /renew [adapter] | /flushdns | /registerdns | /showclassid adapter | /setclassid adapter [classidtoset] ] adapter Full name or pattern with '*' and '?' to 'match', * matches any character, ? matches one character. Options /all Display full configuration information. /release Release the IP address for the specified adapter. /renew Renew the IP address for the specified adapter. /flushdns Purges the DNS Resolver cache. /registerdns Refreshes all DHCP leases and re-registers DNS names /displaydns Display the contents of the DNS Resolver Cache. /showclassid Displays all the dhcp class IDs allowed for adapter. /setclassid Modifies the dhcp class id. The default is to display only the IP address, subnet mask and default gateway for each adapter bound to TCP/IP. For Release and Renew, if no adapter name is specified, then the IP address leases for all adapters bound to TCP/IP will be released or renewed. For SetClassID, if no class id is specified, then the classid is removed. Examples: > ipconfig ... Show information. > ipconfig /all ... Show detailed information > ipconfig /renew ... renew all adapaters > ipconfig /renew EL* ... renew adapters named EL.... > ipconfig /release *ELINK?21* ... release all matching adapters, eg. ELINK-21, myELELINKi21adapter.

NSLOOKUP

NAME - print info about the host/domain NAME using default server

NAME1 NAME2 - as above, but use NAME2 as server

help or ? - print info on common commands

set OPTION - set an option

all - print options, current server and host

[no]debug - print debugging information

[no]d2 - print exhaustive debugging information

[no]defname - append domain name to each query

[no]recurse - ask for recursive answer to query

[no]search - use domain search list

[no]vc - always use a virtual circuit

domain=NAME - set default domain name to NAME

srchlist=N1[/N2/.../N6] - set domain to N1 and search list to N1,N2, etc.

root=NAME - set root server to NAME

retry=X - set number of retries to X

timeout=X - set initial time-out interval to X seconds

type=X - set query type (ex. A,ANY,CNAME,MX,NS,PTR,SOA,SRV)

querytype=X - same as type

class=X - set query class (ex. IN (Internet), ANY)

[no]msxfr - use MS fast zone transfer

ixfrver=X - current version to use in IXFR transfer request

server NAME - set default server to NAME, using current default server

lserver NAME - set default server to NAME, using initial server

finger [USER] - finger the optional NAME at the current default host

root - set current default server to the root

ls [opt] DOMAIN [> FILE] - list addresses in DOMAIN (optional: output to FILE)

-a - list canonical names and aliases

-d - list all records

-t TYPE - list records of the given type (e.g. A,CNAME,MX,NS,PTR etc.)

view FILE - sort an 'ls' output file and view it with pg

exit - exit the program

ROUTE

Manipulates network routing tables.

ROUTE [-f] [-p] [command [destination] [MASK netmask] [gateway] [METRIC metric] [IF interface]

-f Clears the routing tables of all gateway entries. If this is used in conjunction with one of the commands, the tables are cleared prior to running the command.

-p When used with the ADD command, makes a route persistent across boots of the system. By default, routes are not preserved when the system is restarted. Ignored for all other commands, which always affect the appropriate persistent routes. This option is not supported in Windows 95.

command One of these:

PRINT Prints a route

ADD Adds a route

DELETE Deletes a route

CHANGE Modifies an existing route

destination Specifies the host.

MASK Specifies that the next parameter is the 'netmask' value.

netmask Specifies a subnet mask value for this route entry.

If not specified, it defaults to 255.255.255.255.

gateway Specifies gateway.

interface the interface number for the specified route.

METRIC specifies the metric, ie. cost for the destination.

All symbolic names used for destination are looked up in the network database file NETWORKS. The symbolic names for gateway are looked up in the host name database file HOSTS.

If the command is PRINT or DELETE. Destination or gateway can be a wildcard, (wildcard is specified as a star '*'), or the gateway argument may be omitted.

If Dest contains a * or ?, it is treated as a shell pattern, and only matching destination routes are printed. The '*' matches any string, and '?' matches any one char. Examples: 157.*.1, 157.*, 127.*, *224*.

Diagnostic Notes:

Invalid MASK generates an error, that is when (DEST & MASK) != DEST.

Example> route ADD 157.0.0.0 MASK 155.0.0.0 157.55.80.1 IF 1 The route addition failed: The specified mask parameter is invalid.

(Destination & Mask) != Destination.

Examples:

> route PRINT

> route ADD 157.0.0.0 MASK 255.0.0.0 157.55.80.1 METRIC 3 IF 2

destination^ ^mask ^gateway metric^ ^

Interface^

If IF is not given, it tries to find the best interface for a given gateway.

> route PRINT

> route PRINT 157* .... Only prints those matching 157*

> route DELETE 157.0.0.0

> route PRINT

DOS PC/Hardware Utilities

DOS comes equipped with a number of very powerful utilities for analyzing and repairing harware problems. If your Graphic User Interface operating system will not open or boot, you may use these utilities to find and fix the problem.

SCANDISK

On older PCs this is called "CHKDSK". If you are in doubt about what version of DOS you are running or how old yor system is, type CHKDSK at the DOS prompt. any newer version of DOS will tell you that CHKDSK is no longer availble and to use SCANDISK instead. Enter SCANDISK C: and the program will open and begin checking your hard drive for physical damage and will also examine the file structure to find various errors. If the errors are not to serious, SCANDISK will fix them for you.

MEM

MEM will tell you how much memory(Random Operating Memory) you have and how much is being used. If you have a program or a process that needs a minimum amount of RAM, use MEM to check.

DEFRAG

Anytime you use SCANDISK, you should use DEFRAG right afterwards. DEFRAG defragments your hard drive, meaning it makes better use of the free space by putting all the used space together in an order that makes data access easier. It's a lot like cleaing up a cluttered closet. Enter DEFRAG C: at the DOS prompt and the program will open. Often, the program will allow you to view the process.

FDISK

Warning! This is very powerful tool and is usually used on new disks or disks that have been recycled. FDISK creates partitions on a hard drive. After you use FDISK, the drive should be formated or "SYSed".

Typing FDISK at the DOS prompt will bring you to s a new command-line dialog:Current fixed disk drive: 1

Choose one of the following:

1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive

2. Set Active partition

3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive

4. Display partition information

Enter choice: [1]

Press ESC to exit FDISK

Be careful not to make any changes you don't want. Enter 4 to look at the present configuration. You may get something like this, but it depends on your own disk:Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage

C: 1 A PRI DOS 7545 FAT32 79%

SET

Displays, sets, or removes Windows NT environment variables. Typing SET will reveal what all the environment variables are set to. An example:COMSPEC=C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\COMMAND.COM

ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\DOCUME~1\ALLUSE~1

NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=1

OS=Windows_NT

OS2LIBPATH=C:\WINNT\system32\os2\dll;

PATH=C:\PW32;C:\WINNT\system32;

PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86

PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7, GenuineIntel

PROCESSOR_LEVEL=15

PROCESSOR_REVISION=0207

PROGRAMFILES=C:\PROGRA~1

PROMPT=$P$G

SMS_LOCAL_DIR=C:\WINNT

SYSTEMDRIVE=C:

SYSTEMROOT=C:\WINNT

TEMP=C:\WINNT\TEMP

TMP=C:\WINNT\TEMP

Your variables may be different depending on your PC model and what software is installed.

To change a variable SET variable=new setting. Example: SET TEMP=C:\WINNT\NEWTEMP would change the default temp directory to a folder called "NEWTEMP." This will change back when you reboot, unless the change is made in the file where the variables are set initially. This used to be simply in config.sys in older Windows systems, but individual setting may be harder to find now. They could be complied files, the AUTOEXEC, network scripts, etc.

SYS

Places a copy of the operating system on the designated disk.

SYS C: A:, places the OS on C: onto the floppy disk in A:. Not found on XP or 2000.

DBLSPACE.EXE

Compresses hard drives to double the space. This enlarges the drive space but does not optimize its use. This utility was more usefull in the days when storage space was expensive and hard to come by. 10 Gigabyte hard drives for $100 have made this utility obsolite.

Creating a Bootable DOS Floppy Disk

Anyone who has or works with a PC (any "IBM compatable", Windows system) should have a Boot Disk. I keep one in my bag. They are easy to make and come in handy quite often. Frankly, anyone who has a PC and doesn't have a boot disk is asking for trouble.

First of all, what is Booting?

Whenever a computer is turned on it goes through a number of complex procedures. If you have a fast computer, it will boot very quickly and you may not even notice what happens. If you have a slower computer, you may catch glimpses of what takes place when you power on. Early systems(and some newer, more complex ones) were booted manually. A computer operator(a human) had to perfrom the functions of bootting that we take for granted. The term comes from "pulling up oneself by the bootstraps," an expression in itself archaic. Most computers come with a BIOS chip. BIOS stands for Basic Input and Output System. BIOS is a low level operating system that allows computers to perform simple functions before more complex operating systems like Linux and Windows can be loaded. BIOS checks to see if you have enough power to run the system. BIOS tests your memory(RAM, SRAM, DRAM, Cache) by filling it with random data and then retreiving the data to see if matches the data put in(if there is a mismatch there may be bad memory chips, if there are no chips the system may not boot). BIOS tries to determine all the devices atatched: keyboard, mouse, disk drives, CDROM, hard-drive, modem, etc(if certain devices are not present, especially a keyboard there will be serious problems in booting). If BIOS finds a hard-drive(fixed drive) it tries to figure out what kind of operating system is loaded on the drive. If there is no operating system on the HD or BIOS can not determine what is on the HD, it will not boot to it.

When BIOS is happy with everything, it turns the show over to the operating system on the hard-drive. However, if your system does not boot, crashes when you boot or does not find an operating system a boot disk will be needed. The standard BIOS procedure is to check the floppy dirve for an operating system first(usually A:\) then it checks the hard-drive. If there is a floppy(removable disk) in the floppy drive with an operating system loaded, this will halt the BIOS process of booting to the hard-drive. If there is a floppy disk in the drive that is blank or has some other program on it, you will get a diskette error. If you are having trouble booting to your hard-drive you will need to interrupt the boot sequence to analyze the problem.

Making the disk

You will need:

A blank 3½ 1.44MB floppy disk

Access to a PC with DOS loaded

Windows 95/98/NT

Click the Start menu, select Programs, click "MS-DOS prompt".

Windows 3.1 & earlier

In the "Main" window click on the "MS-DOS Prompt" icon.

You should now have a DOS prompt.

Put your blank disk(Warning! Everything will be erased on the disk if it's not blank!) in the floppy drive, make sure the write protection is OFF(see the disk instructions on the box if you don't know how to do this).

At the C:\WINDOWS> or C:> prompt type FORMAT A:/S

This command will format the disk in the A:\ drive with a copy of the operating system. The switch /S specifies that the operating system should be added. FORMAT A: would just format this disk as a blank disk that files could be saved on.

Now, type in DIR A: at the DOS prompt or click on the floppy drive icon in "My Computer"

The following files should now be on the disk:

msdos.sys

scandisk.ini

sys.com

scandisk.exe

format.com

command.com

chkdsk.exe

attrib.exe

drivespace.bin

debug.exe

config.sys

himem.sys

edit.com

ebd.sys

fdisk.exe

regedit.exe

scanundo.dat

io.sys

They may not all be there or there may be more, depending on the DOS version. The most important files are io.sys, himem.sys, msdos.sys, command.com, sys.com, edit.exe, regedit.exe, and scandisk. With these programs you can work on a dead computer, as long as it has a working floppy drive. With the disk still in the drive, power down your PC and reboot it. The PC will now boot to the flopy disk with the A:\> as your prompt.

Take the disk out of the dive and turn the write-lock ON this will keep you from writing over this disk and also keep you from getting a virus in the boot sector of the disk where viruses often hide.

Boot disks in XP and 2x

For those of you who have tried to run FORMAT A: /S in XP and 2000, you will notice that /S is not a valid switch. If you do FORMAT/? you will see there is no switch that places the DOS OS on a disk. The SYS command is also no longer available.

In Windows 2000 there is a ultility on the original installation CD in the folder BOOTDISK. To create one manually, use FORMAT A: /U. Find these files on your computer: NTDETECT.COM and NTLDR.SYS and copy them to the disk. Also copy any other files you might need like EDIT.COM or REGEDIT.EXE.

Creating a boot disk for an NTFS or FAT partition

Creating a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition

More boot disk instructions

More boot disk instructions, 2

Bootdisk.com - many flavors

Rescue disks v. boot disks

2000 and XP allow you to create "rescue" disks. While I think it is a good idea to have a resuce disk, it is not the same as a boot disk. A boot disk has a copy of the low-level DOS operating system and allows you to access your harddrive without loading the harddrive's operating system(without loading windows). A rescue disk by-passes the normal windows boot sequence and goes to a special folder in the system directory where backups of your pc configuration are kept.

olaf Main Index contact Concepts Programming Networking Hardware Operating Systems ||KnujOn

The World of DOS - Network & Hardware Utilities, Boot Disks

Introduction(1)

History(1)

DOS/Win3.11/95/98 vs. NT/ME/XP/2000(1)

Command Index(1)

Navigating DOS(2)

Tips and Tricks(2)

Network/Harware Utilities(3)

How to make and use bootable floppy disks(3)

XP & 2x

Rescue disks v. boot disks

Batch Files(4)

Creating Batch Files(4)

Batch file utilities and commands(4)

The AUTOEXEC.BAT file(4)

Types of Batch and System Files(4)

Parameters in batch files(4)

Batch File Library(5)

Subject Index(5)

Helpful DOS Links(5)

DOS Network Utilities

If your PC is on a network or you are connected to the Internet, you can use a number of DOS Network utilities to check network connections, download files and communicate with other machines.

PING

TRACERT

TELNET

Typing TELNET at the DOS prompt will open a TELNET session, allowing you to emulate a termial connection with another computer. To learn more about TELNET click here.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is an old, fast way to move data from one machine to another. To learn more about FTP click here.

FTP -s:login host.com

CSL

EXIT

-s: is a switch that calls out login script, "login" would be the name of the script, but could be called by another name. The contents of the script may look like this:username

password

GET pathname/filename.ext

DISCONNECT

QUIT

CACLS

Switches:

/T Changes ACLs of specified files in the current directory and all subdirectories.

/E Edit ACL instead of replacing it.

/C Continue on access denied errors.

/G user:perm Grant specified user access rights. perm = R Read, W Write, C Change, OR Full control

/R Revoke specified user's access rights (only valid with /E).

/P user:perm Replace specified user's access rights. perm = N None, R Read, W Write, C Change (write), OR F Full control

/D Deny specified user access.

General info on Access Control Lists

ACLs on Windows NT

NETSTAT

INTERLNK

Got two crapy old PCs, can't afford to upgrade but you want to network them? In older versions of DOS INTERLNK allowed two machines to be connected through a parallel or serial cable.

INTERSVR

Starts the INTERLNK service, allows one machine to behave like a server.

The NET family of commands

All of these commands start with "NET" followed by a space and the second command word. NET by itself will display the definitions of the following second command words:

NET ACCOUNTS NT: Displays password rules for current account

NET COMPUTER NT: Can only be used on a domain controler. Adds or drops a computer from a network. Usage: NET COMPUTER \\computername /add OR /del. Example: "NET COMPUTER \\node62 /add"

NET CONFIG Displays your current workgroup settings.

NET CONTINUE

NET DIAG Runs the Microsoft Network Diagnostics program to display diagnostic information about your network.

NET FILE NT

NET GROUP NT

NET HELP Provides information about commands and error messages.

NET HELPMSG NT: Provides more information for NT error codes. Example: "NET HELPMSG 3001" will return information on error# 3001.

NET INIT Loads protocol and network-adapter drivers without binding them to Protocol Manager.

NET LOCALGROUP NT

NET LOGOFF Breaks the connection between your computer and the shared resources to which it is connected.

NET LOGON Identifies you as a member of a workgroup.

NET NAME NT

NET PASSWORD Changes your logon password.

NET PAUSE NT

NET PRINT Displays information about print queues and controls print jobs.

NET SESSION NT

NET SHARE NT

NET START Starts services.

NET STATISTICS NT

NET STOP Stops services.

NET TIME Displays the time on or synchronizes your computer's clock with the clock on a Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, Windows 95, or NetWare time server.

NET USE Connects to or disconnects from a shared resource or displays information about connections.

NET USER NT: Displays accounts on a node

NET VER Displays the type and version number of the workgroup redirector you are using.

NET VIEW Displays a list of computers that share resources or a list of shared resources on a specific computer.

These commands are useful for several reasons:

1. You are running older, non-gui based network software

2. You are running a hybrid network of Win machines and other boxes

3. As the a client machine you may not have normal access to this information(especially useful if your netadmin is an idiot)

4. You are running command-line batches or programs that need to run across the network and you don't have the time to write a full gui-app.

IPCONFIG

NSLOOKUP

NAME - print info about the host/domain NAME using default server

NAME1 NAME2 - as above, but use NAME2 as server

help or ? - print info on common commands

set OPTION - set an option

all - print options, current server and host

[no]debug - print debugging information

[no]d2 - print exhaustive debugging information

[no]defname - append domain name to each query

[no]recurse - ask for recursive answer to query

[no]search - use domain search list

[no]vc - always use a virtual circuit

domain=NAME - set default domain name to NAME

srchlist=N1[/N2/.../N6] - set domain to N1 and search list to N1,N2, etc.

root=NAME - set root server to NAME

retry=X - set number of retries to X

timeout=X - set initial time-out interval to X seconds

type=X - set query type (ex. A,ANY,CNAME,MX,NS,PTR,SOA,SRV)

querytype=X - same as type

class=X - set query class (ex. IN (Internet), ANY)

[no]msxfr - use MS fast zone transfer

ixfrver=X - current version to use in IXFR transfer request

server NAME - set default server to NAME, using current default server

lserver NAME - set default server to NAME, using initial server

finger [USER] - finger the optional NAME at the current default host

root - set current default server to the root

ls [opt] DOMAIN [> FILE] - list addresses in DOMAIN (optional: output to FILE)

-a - list canonical names and aliases

-d - list all records

-t TYPE - list records of the given type (e.g. A,CNAME,MX,NS,PTR etc.)

view FILE - sort an 'ls' output file and view it with pg

exit - exit the program

ROUTE

Manipulates network routing tables.

ROUTE [-f] [-p] [command [destination] [MASK netmask] [gateway] [METRIC metric] [IF interface]

-f Clears the routing tables of all gateway entries. If this is used in conjunction with one of the commands, the tables are cleared prior to running the command.

command One of these:

PRINT Prints a route

ADD Adds a route

DELETE Deletes a route

CHANGE Modifies an existing route

destination Specifies the host.

MASK Specifies that the next parameter is the 'netmask' value.

netmask Specifies a subnet mask value for this route entry.

If not specified, it defaults to 255.255.255.255.

gateway Specifies gateway.

interface the interface number for the specified route.

METRIC specifies the metric, ie. cost for the destination.

All symbolic names used for destination are looked up in the network database file NETWORKS. The symbolic names for gateway are looked up in the host name database file HOSTS.

If the command is PRINT or DELETE. Destination or gateway can be a wildcard, (wildcard is specified as a star '*'), or the gateway argument may be omitted.

Diagnostic Notes:

Invalid MASK generates an error, that is when (DEST & MASK) != DEST.

Example> route ADD 157.0.0.0 MASK 155.0.0.0 157.55.80.1 IF 1 The route addition failed: The specified mask parameter is invalid.

(Destination & Mask) != Destination.

Examples:

> route PRINT

> route ADD 157.0.0.0 MASK 255.0.0.0 157.55.80.1 METRIC 3 IF 2

destination^ ^mask ^gateway metric^ ^

Interface^

If IF is not given, it tries to find the best interface for a given gateway.

> route PRINT

> route PRINT 157* .... Only prints those matching 157*

> route DELETE 157.0.0.0

> route PRINT

DOS PC/Hardware Utilities

SCANDISK

MEM

MEM will tell you how much memory(Random Operating Memory) you have and how much is being used. If you have a program or a process that needs a minimum amount of RAM, use MEM to check.

DEFRAG

FDISK

Typing FDISK at the DOS prompt will bring you to s a new command-line dialog:Current fixed disk drive: 1

Choose one of the following:

1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive

2. Set Active partition

3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive

4. Display partition information

Enter choice: [1]

Press ESC to exit FDISK

C: 1 A PRI DOS 7545 FAT32 79%

SET

Displays, sets, or removes Windows NT environment variables. Typing SET will reveal what all the environment variables are set to. An example:COMSPEC=C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\COMMAND.COM

ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\DOCUME~1\ALLUSE~1

NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=1

OS=Windows_NT

OS2LIBPATH=C:\WINNT\system32\os2\dll;

PATH=C:\PW32;C:\WINNT\system32;

PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86

PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7, GenuineIntel

PROCESSOR_LEVEL=15

PROCESSOR_REVISION=0207

PROGRAMFILES=C:\PROGRA~1

PROMPT=$P$G

SMS_LOCAL_DIR=C:\WINNT

SYSTEMDRIVE=C:

SYSTEMROOT=C:\WINNT

TEMP=C:\WINNT\TEMP

TMP=C:\WINNT\TEMP

Your variables may be different depending on your PC model and what software is installed.

SYS

Places a copy of the operating system on the designated disk.

SYS C: A:, places the OS on C: onto the floppy disk in A:. Not found on XP or 2000.

DBLSPACE.EXE

Creating a Bootable DOS Floppy Disk

First of all, what is Booting?

Making the disk

You will need:

A blank 3½ 1.44MB floppy disk

Access to a PC with DOS loaded

Windows 95/98/NT

Click the Start menu, select Programs, click "MS-DOS prompt".

Windows 3.1 & earlier

In the "Main" window click on the "MS-DOS Prompt" icon.

You should now have a DOS prompt.

At the C:\WINDOWS> or C:> prompt type FORMAT A:/S

Now, type in DIR A: at the DOS prompt or click on the floppy drive icon in "My Computer"

The following files should now be on the disk:

msdos.sys

scandisk.ini

sys.com

scandisk.exe

format.com

command.com

chkdsk.exe

attrib.exe

drivespace.bin

debug.exe

config.sys

himem.sys

edit.com

ebd.sys

fdisk.exe

regedit.exe

scanundo.dat

io.sys

Take the disk out of the dive and turn the write-lock ON this will keep you from writing over this disk and also keep you from getting a virus in the boot sector of the disk where viruses often hide.

Boot disks in XP and 2x

Creating a boot disk for an NTFS or FAT partition

Creating a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition

More boot disk instructions

More boot disk instructions, 2

Bootdisk.com - many flavors

Rescue disks v. boot disks

Windows 95/98: Start, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt. OR Start, Run, and type "COMMAND"

Windows NT/XP/2K: Start, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt. OR Start, Run, and type "CMD"

Now, a black window should appear with prompt like this: "C:\WINDOWS>". If you are using NT it will only say "C:\".

It should look like this:

If the DOS window fills up the whole screen, type EXIT, then right-click on the MS-DOS Icon, click "Properties" and select the "Screen" tab, click on "Window" instead of "Full-screen", click on "Ok" and then reopen the DOS window.

Opening DOS in IBM's OS/2

If you are using the OS/2 platform, follow these instructions for opening a DOS session.

1. Open the "OS/2 System" folder.

2. Open the "Command Prompts" folder.

3. Click on the "DOS Window" icon.

Open a command line in NT/2x

Go to Start, Run, type "COMMAND". In previous versions this was done by entering CMD. In some versions of NT entering CMD may invoke previous versions of DOS. In some versions of WIN2x, CMD will open a command line with spaces in the directory name, COMMAND will open the window with the old 8 character limit.

NT/2x Directory System

NT uses user profiles. Each user will have different Desktop and My Documents folders under different names. There is no directory called "Windows", but there is one called "WINNT." Most NT system files will be found in C:\WINNT\System or C:\WINNT\System32. In some cases %SystemRoot% is used to address the system drive regardless of whether it is Windows or WINNT.

The different user set-ups are in the C:\Documents and settings or C:\DOCUME~1. In this directory there will be a different folder for each user who accesses the machine. You may also see Administrator, Default User, All Users and some other funny virtual user folders. Each folder will have its own Desktop, Start Menu, My Documents, Cookies, Favorites and whatever directory structure the user has made beneath. Programs everyone access are usually found in C:\program files or C:\progra~1(same as Windows).

Navigating DOS

For those who have never used a command line envornment, it can be a little confusing and frustraiting. But don't worry. It's still confusing and frustraiting for people who have been doing it for years. Start by using the DIR command.

DIR

At the C:\WINDOWS> prompt type DIR for "directory". A list of files should fly up the screen faster than you can read. When the prompt comes up again type DIR/P. This will allow the list to be read one page at a time. Hit enter a few times to get to the end of the list and back to the prompt. DIR is a program that reads scans the current directory and lists all the files. /P is called a switch. The P stands for "page" or "pause"(I can never find out which). When you type DIR/P you are passing /P to the program DIR as a Parameter. You can pass other parameters to DIR. Try typing DIR/W, this puts the file list in "wide" format. Now try this, DIR R*.*. This will display all the files that begin with the letter R. The "*.*" part of the parameter is called a wildcard. A wildcard tells the program that anything after the letter R does not matter. Try this one, DIR *.*EXE. This will display all the files with the .EXE extension.

DIR will display all the files, directories, file sizes, time and date or creation.

DIR|MORE will show you the list and prompt to continue. Similar to DIR/P.

DIR/B for bare or brief, shows only the filenames and their extensions.

8 Character Limits

In early systems there was an 8 character limit on file names and directory names. Directory names and file names also could not contain spaces. This scheme still plays a big role in navigating DOS. The standard Windows folder "Program Files" is called "PROGRA~1." The general rule is to count 6 characters in: "PROGRA" then add the ~ and a number. Since we may have multiple files or directories with similar names, we have numbers at the end of the 8 character name. The number is determined by which file or directory was created first. Since Program Files is a built-in directory it gets a 1. If you create a new directory called "Programs" the DOS name will be "PROGRA~2". To view the DOS names, use this command: DIR/X

In some Windows versions you can open a DOS prompt in specific directory by first navigating to it through Windows Explorer, then going to Start, Run, CMD or COMMAND. In most cases it will open the default PATH directory.

For a full list of DIR possibilities enter DIR/? at the command prompt.

Switches

In DIR you placed various slashes and letters after the commands. These are "switches" that modify the behavior of a command. Every command has a different set of switches. A "/A" may mean something for a command and something totally different for another. Sometimes a switch may be preceded by a - instead of a /, sometimes there is no special character at all. For each command look at the help file to see the list of valid switches. You may view the help file of any command by typing the command followed by /? or /HELP in older versions.

Now for a different command. Type in CD.. this should set the prompt to "C:\", meaning that you are now in the root directory C:, C:\WINDOWS is a sub-directory of C:. CD stands for "Change Directory", a program that allows you to move around the directory structure. The .. parameter you passed to program CD tells the program to move up one directory level. Now pass a different parameter, type CD C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP . This will change your directory level to the Desktop folder. Type DIR/P and look at the file listing briefly. Now minimize the DOS window and look at your Windows Desktop. You should see all the same files. Most of the file extensions will be .LNK meaning that they are shortcuts. CD will allow you navigate through the whole directory structure. You may also look at floppy disks: CD A:(sometimes B: also), or CDROMs: CD D:(sometimes E:).

CD.. puts you in the parent directory(up one level)

CD. refers to the current directory

As stated in the DIR section there is an 8 character limit for directory names for many DOS systems. When using CD to move to a directory with a long name be sure to know the DOS name. Example:

CD progra~1 to go to "program files" if you are in the root of C:\, otherwise use CD C:\progra~1 from any other directory.

Using drive letters as commands

To switch from one drive to another simply type the drive letter. Example: D: or A:. For removable media(floppy, CDROM) you must have the media in the drive to move to it.

PATH

PATH sets a directory search order. This is useful in many respects. For example, if you are using a boot disk you are running the DOS operating system from that disk and the more complex commands will only run if you specify the location. If you are at the A: prompt and want to run a command on C: you must type FIND C:\myfile to use the FIND command, or if you are in C: you would need to type A:\FIND C:\myfile. To make things easier, type PATH A:\ at the C:\ prompt. This way the operating system will know to access A: for all the commands.

Some installation programs(especially development environments) will add a line to the AUTOEXEC.BAT like PATH=%PATH%;C:\MSSQL7\BINN this allows programming bins to be accessed from anywhere on the drive.

DOSKEY

Type in DOSKEY at the prompt, the DOSKEY program is now loaded. DOSKEY keeps a history of all the commands you type in each session so you can reuse them without typing them in over and over again. You may view your history by hitting the Up-arrow on your keypad. DOSKEY is active in NT by default, but not in Win2K. Consitency is not one of Microsoft's strong points.

DEL

DEL is the Delete program in DOS. DEL allows you to delete files. For example, typing DEL TEMP.TMP will delete the file temp.tmp. Warning! Using the DEL command in DOS is not like deleting in Windows, there is no Recycle Bin, the files are gone. If you accidentally delete systems files, you are going to have some problems. Only delete files that you are sure about.

EDIT

At the command prompt type EDIT. The screen should turn blue with a menu bar at the top. This is the DOS EDIT program and it can come in handy. Click on the "File" menu then click "Exit". You should be back at the prompt. With EDIT you can view and alter just about any file on your system, even ones Windows will not allow you to. Warning! Altering system or program files in EDIT can have serious consequences. Make copies of any file you edit and work on the copy so the original remains intact incase you screw up. Believe me, making copies is much easier that reloading your operating system. This time EDIT TEST.TXT this will open the editor and create a text file called "test.txt". Type in some random text. For a moment stop using your mouse. Press <-Alt-> and then the Down-arrow on your key pad. This will dropdown the "File" menu. This is how navigation was done before the mouse. Learning how to use the keyboard for navigation can be useful something goes wrong with your computer or your mouse wont work. Save your work and exit the editor. In some early versions of DOS it was called "EDLIN." If EDIT doesn't work try EDLIN instead.

REN

REN is short for "rename" and is used to rename files. Warning! Renaming files is as bad as deleting or altering them. Renaming system files can cause errors since the files point to each other. Type in REN TEST.TXT TEST.DOC. This will rename the text file you just created as an MSWord Document. You may now open Word and edit the TEST file like any other Word file. Type REN TEST.DOC MYFILE.DOC. This renames the file as "myfile" but it is still an MSWord document.

TYPE

TYPE is a program that will show the contents of a file without opening it for editing. Try entering TYPE MYFILE.DOC and you should see the contents of the file you created earlier.

Earlier you learned how to use the /p switch with the DIR command. There is another device which allows you to view directories and file contents a page at a time: MORE. Use the previous command to demonstrate. at the prompt enter TYPE MYFILE.DOC |MORE and hit < enter >. If the file you selected it several pages long, DOS will display the first page and then at the bottom of the screen you will see --more--. DOS is waiting for you to continue. Hit < enter > and it will scroll through the next page.

EXIT

Type this at the prompt to close the current DOS session.

FIND

This is a very usefull tool for searching files for strings(text). If you have lost a file or renamed a file and cannot remember what the name was, you can use FIND to locate it. For example if your name is Joe and the missing file has your name in it, enter FIND "Joe" at the prompt. DOS will search the current directory for any file containing the string "Joe."

MD or MKDIR

Use this to create and name your own DOS/Windows directory.

MD test, creates a directory named "test"

RD or RMDIR

Use this to remove directories.

RD test

MOVE

Moves files from one location to another, as opposed to copying.

MOVE test.txt A:\, moves the file "test.txt" from the current directory to the A: drive.

COPY

Copies files.COPY C:\myfile.txt A:\myfile.txt

XCOPY

"Extended" COPY. Copies files from one or more subdirectories. Slightly more powerful than COPY. XCOPY has all the same functions as COPY but these switches also available:

/D:m-d-y Copies files changed on or after the specified date. If no date is given, copies only those files whose source time is newer than the destination time.

/EXCLUDE:file1[+file2][+file3]... Specifies a list of files containing strings. When any of the strings match any part of the absolute path of the file to be copied, that file will be excluded from being copied. For example, specifying a string like \obj\ or .obj will exclude all files underneath the directory obj or all files with the .obj extension respectively.

/P Prompts you before creating each destination file.

/S Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.

/E Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones. Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T.

/W Prompts you to press a key before copying.

/C Continues copying even if errors occur.

/I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file, assumes that destination must be a directory.

/Q Does not display file names while copying.

/F Displays full source and destination file names while copying.

/L Displays files that would be copied.

/H Copies hidden and system files also.

/R Overwrites read-only files.

/T Creates directory structure, but does not copy files. Does not include empty directories or subdirectories. /T /E includes empty directories and subdirectories.

/U Copies only files that already exist in destination.

/K Copies attributes. Normal Xcopy will reset read-only attributes.

/O Copies file ownership and ACL information.

/X Copies file audit settings (implies /O).

CLS

Clears the screen. Clears previous output in the DOS window. Helps close out batch processes.

SET

Shows the environment values and allows them to be changed. See more in Parameters

FORMAT

Formats a disk for use

FORMAT A:

Genericaly formats a disk for storage use. Most disks are sold pre-formated, nowadays, but the version may not always be compatable with your operating system.

FORMAT B:

Formats a disk in the B drive.

FORMAT A: /S

Places a copy of the operating system on the disk so it is "bootable".

FORMAT A: /U

Totally erases disk, regardless of what was on it before.

UNFORMAT

Recovers a formatted disk.

LABEL

Use for labeling a disk or changing the present label of a disk. To see what the current label is use VOL

LABEL A:MY_FAVORITE_DISK

ATTRIB

There are many "hidden" files on your system. Some are hidden for a good reason, they are system files that programmers did not want users to delete accidentally. Deleting these files my make your computer inoperable. HOWEVER! Hidden files may also be nasty virii or a corrupted file that is causing problems in your computer. Maybe something you downloaded from the Internet is popping-up all the time and causing your browser or system to crash. You look for the file but it's not there, or it is there but you can't delete it: "Access Denied." Access deined! It's my F!ng computer! Fear not my friend! ATTRIB stands for file attributes. Files my be designated as hidden, archive, system or read-only. There are only four and it's easy ro remember because it might give you RASH. Open a DOS prompt and navigate to the C:\> root directory. Type "DIR" and you will get a list of files and directories. Type "ATTRIB" and you will get a similar list, but it is much longer. Type "DIR IO.SYS" or "DIR MSDOS.SYS" and it will probably result in this:File not found

Type in "ATTRIB MSDOS.SYS" and you'll see this:A SHR MSDOS.SYS C:\MSDOS.SYS

Gee, all of the sudden it's there?

This is interesting. Go to the C:\WINDOWS\ directory and do an ATTRIB on a file called "user.da0". This is hidden file that you should be aware of. Why? Because inside is a tiny databse of everything you do. Every file you open, every application you use, every website you visit. You cannot delete or rename a hidden file. To change the attributes, use the following syntax:ATTRIB -R -A -S -H USER.DA0

Now you may delete or rename to your heart's content.

To turn attributes on, let us say that you want to conceal files on your PC from the casual snooper, or from the Boss. Use this syntax:ATTRIB +R +A +S +H filename

- will turn the attributes off, + will turn them on.

DOSSHELL

A shell interface that makes DOS easier to use. This is not part of most current versions of DOS and would have to be loaded seperately.

KEYB and NLSFUNC

These are DOS programs for international language support, they are not available on most PCs sold in the U.S. and must be loaded specially. They are present in version sold in other countries.

KEYB changes the keyboard layout to match foreign keyboard designs. Last time I checked it supported 18 languages. Paramaters of this command alter the configuration of KEYBOARD.SYS.

NLSFUNC is used to load a specific language file, usually COUNTRY.SYS.

Both of these commands have been replaced by GUI programs.

More information

NUMLOCK

Sets the the NUM LOCK on or off. Cannot be run from the command line, must be in a boot batch file like CONFIG.SYS

PROMPT

Changing the DOS prompt. The default DOS prompt is: diskletter:\directoryname>, example: C:\WINDOWS>. But there are many other options available.

Enter PROMPT $p$g at the command-line for the standard prompt.

Try these others:

PROMPT Sets it to "C>"(which is the old pre-windows prompt)

PROMPT $t Makes the current time(military) your prompt

PROMPT $d Makes the current date your prompt

PROMPT $v Makes the Windows Version your prompt

PROMPT $q Prompt is "="

PROMPT $b Prompt is "|"

PROMPT $e Prompt is "<-"

PROMPT $l Prompt is "<"

PROMPT $_ Prompt is nothing(can be scary)

PROMPT $n Makes the current drive letter your prompt

PROMPT $a Opens up a whole host of options. For example, PROMPT $aHello Jerk makes the prompt: Hello Jerk. You could have a user's name as the prompt: PROMPT $aTeddy Roosevelt. Combinations are also possible: PROMPT $aGeorge $t makes the prompt a user's name an the current time.

If you want a particular prompt to be permanent, insert one of these lines into you AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Make your DOS prompt look like the Lost hatch terminal:

PROMPT=$g:

COLOR=0a

PROMPT=$g:$s4$s8$s15$s16$s23$s42

COLOR=0a> :

> : 4 8 15 16 23 42

More recent DOS/Windows versions

$A = &

$B = |

$C = (

$D = Current date

$E = Left arrow

$F = )

$G = >

$H = Backspace

$L = <

$N = Current drive

$P = Current drive and path

$Q = =

$S = space $T = Current time

$V = Windows 2000 version number

$_ = Carriage return and linefeed

$$ = $

More: 1, 2

TREE

Creates a graphic map of directories and sub directories. For example, use a folder like C:\WINDOWS\TEMP or C:\WINNT\TEMP so you wont be overwhelmed while testing it. Typing TREE in this directory might produce: C:.

|-----ms

|-----sms

|-----logs

MS is a subdirectory of TEMP, SMS is a subdirectory of MS, LOGS is a subdirectory or SMS.

TREE/F will show file names in addition to directories.

To send the output to text file: TREE/A>mymap.txt. The /A will use simple formatting that will read better in the output file.

Tips, Tricks and Other DOS topics

< Ctrl > C

To end a process that is running in DOS, hit the control key, "< Ctrl >", and the "C" key at the same time. This will end the process without closing the session.

The DOS window has taken over my screen!

If you are using any version of Windows, type < Alt > and < Tab > at the same time. This will toggle the DOS window into the Windows task bar. From there, right-click on the DOS box in the taskbar and click on "Properties" then the "Screen" tab. You should change the screen selection from "Full-screen" to "Window."

DOS Devices and I/O Redirection

What is redirection? Typically output from DOS commands is displayed to the screen unless otherwise specified. It is possible to send output to a file, a printer and other devices. Devices are the ports on your PC where data move in and out of memory. Your monitor port is a device, the keyboard and mouse are devices. Serial and parallel ports where printers and other external components plug in are devices. Forcing files to the printer:

TYPE filename>LPT1

LPT1 is the device name for the printer port. It also may be PRN, LPT2, or LPT3

(This may only work if your printer is directly attatched to you LPT port, it may not work on a network)

The ">" refers to the direction of the standard output.

TYPE mydoc.txt>LPT1 will send the document right to the printer.

The above is generally for local printers(meaning connected to the ports on the back of your machine). If you are printing on a network, try using the location of the printer with these commands. Example:

TYPE filename>\\severname\printername

So if my printer server was called "NETPRINT" and the printer was called "HPLASER1", the line would be:

TYPE myfile.txt>\\NETPRINT\HPLASER1

Forcing files to a file:

TYPE filename1>filename2

This will dynamicaly move the contents of one file new file, creating and naming the new file at the same time.

TYPE mydoc.txt>mydoc.doc will create a new document called "mydoc.doc" with the contents of "mydoc.txt"

You may also use >> . The difference is that > will overwrite >> will append.

< Redirect input, used with SORT.

More on SORT.

CRTL+P Copies all subsequent input chars to printer

CRTL+S Suspend further output to a device

CRTL+Z Marks end of a file or stream

DOS Devices

AUX - Auxiliary device, usually first serial port

CLOCK$ - Real-time system clock

COM1 - COM4 - Serial ports(asynchronous)

CON - Keyboard and monitor

LPT1 - LPT4

NUL - The "bit-bucket", discards output and provides no input.

PRN - First parallel port, often a printer

The typical difference between COM and LTP is that COM devices may go in two directions(I/O) while LPT is usually only for output.

Why use NUL? Forcing output to NUL ensures it is discarded. Programs usually have some kind of output, generally displayed on the screen. program.exe > output.txt will force the output to a file. program.exe > NUL will force the output to "nowhere."

Print a directory listing with LTP1

More Tips...

Windows Tips

Batch File Programming: Stupid Useless Tricks

Coming under the heading of the "Edison Effect": Thomas Edison could have been the father of electronics when he discovered the electron cloud surrounding heated filaments, but he dismissed it as merely a curiosity. We all bump into curious items, but never pursue thier practical application...

Prefacing commands with +

Also works with commas and semicolons. Generally causes the command to treat it's last letter as it's first argument. For example, +MD will create a directory named D. One exception is echo. It treats the entire word as it's first argument.

N:\temp>dir

Volume in drive N is HDA1_BOOT

Volume Serial Number is 32FF-2953

Directory of N:\temp

. <DIR> 04-17-97 3:24p .

.. <DIR> 04-17-97 3:24p ..

0 file(s) 0 bytes

2 dir(s) 2,215,936 bytes free

N:\temp>+md

N:\temp>dir

Volume in drive N is HDA1_BOOT

Volume Serial Number is 32FF-2953

Directory of N:\temp

. <DIR> 04-17-97 3:24p .

.. <DIR> 04-17-97 3:24p ..

D <DIR> 04-17-97 3:24p d

0 file(s) 0 bytes

3 dir(s) 2,215,424 bytes free

N:\temp>+echo hello

echo hello

Display Windows Revision

Use the undocumented /R option on the VER command.

C:\>ver

Windows 95. [Version 4.00.950]

C:\>ver /r

Windows 95. [Version 4.00.950]

Revision A

DOS is in HMA

Display Error Levels

Use the undocumented /Z option on COMMAND

N:\temp>command /z

Microsoft(R) Windows 95

Return code (ERRORLEVEL): 0

WARNING: Reloaded COMMAND.COM transient

N:\temp>echo test|find "test">nul

Return code (ERRORLEVEL): 0

N:\temp>echo qwerty|find "test">nul

Return code (ERRORLEVEL): 1

N:\temp> exit

N:\temp>

Change Floppy Serial Numbers

Use DEBUG to change data on the disk

This example shows how to "turn off" the serial number display for the disk in the A: drive. The digit shown in blue on the "E" command is the one that toggles display of the serial number.

C:\>DEBUG

-L 0 0 0 1

-E 26 00

-W 0 0 0 1

-Q

C:\>DIR A:

Volume in drive A has no label

Directory of A:\

This example shows how to set the serial number for the disk in the A: drive to any value. Notice the numbers you enter (in red) are mirrored from the serial number you'll get.

C:\>debug

-L 0 0 0 1

-E 26 29 78 56 34 12

-W 0 0 0 1

-Q

C:\>DIR A:

Volume in drive A has no label

Volume Serial Number is 1234-5678

Directory of A:\

Using MORE to Concatenate

MORE is the only command I know that accepts two input methods at once. While MORE is usually used with piping or redirection, it can also be supplied with a filename. If you supply both, MORE will "page" both , so you must be careful the combined length will not exceed a page (or you'll be forced to press a key). Notice with the sample files I generated below how MORE places a CR/LF pair at the beginning of each file, but leaves the ends alone.

Generation of sample files used in this example

E:\>copy con now.txt

Now is the time

for all good men^Z

1 file(s) copied E:\>copy con to.txt

to come to the aid

of their country^Z

1 file(s) copied

Although my example used

type now.txt|more to.txt

the same results are achieved with

more<now.txt to.txt

Using ATTRIB to Search for a File

ATTRIB with the /S option will search all subdirectories for the designated files. This is much faster than the method of using FIND on the output of DIR /S /B. In fact, it runs about twice as fast as the Windows 95 "Find Files or Folders" function. In addition, it always returns the short "8.3" filename. Frustratingly, it also returns the short path appended to the long filename. For example:

H:\>attrib /s longf*.*

A HR LONGFI~2.TXT H:\VB5\MSDEVE~1\Long File Name.txt

There is a temptation to use ATTRIB as a long-to-short filename converter. Unfortunately, the attributes do get displayed first. So you can't be sure what position your filename will be in because you don't know how many attributes there are. Since long file names can contain spaces, you can't just start at the end and work backwards either. The good news is that ATTRIB sets errorlevels based on whether or not it found files. So you can at least use it like a recursive IF EXIST:

attrib /s \somefile.txt

if not errorlevel 1 echo I found "somefile.txt" somewhere on the disk

Surviving Abort, Retry, Fail

If you invoke the undocumented /F option on COMMAND, it will automatically answer "F" to any Abort, Retry, Fail? questions. This eliminates the fear of your program hanging if you reference a floppy that isn't inserted. Although the questions are answered automatically, they still appear on screen...

C:\WINDOWS>COMMAND /F

Microsoft(R) Windows 95

C:\WINDOWS>DIR A:

Not ready reading drive A

Abort, Retry, Fail?

Not ready reading drive A

Abort, Retry, Fail?Volume in drive A has no label

Not ready reading drive A

Abort, Retry, Fail?Fail on INT 24

C:\WINDOWS>if exist a:\nul echo hello

Not ready reading drive A

Abort, Retry, Fail?

Not ready reading drive ?

Abort, Retry, Fail?

C:\WINDOWS> exit

C:\WINDOWS>

Redirection based on IF EXIST

If you use IF EXIST (or IF NOT EXIST) without the required command, you can specify a file for the next command (prompt and all) to be redirected into. Notice the command gets redirected, not the command's output. The redirection only occurs when the IF condition is true and if echo is on. If the condition is false or echo is off, a zero-byte file is generated instead. The bad news is that this only works on Win95 and Win98.

echo on

@if exist nul > test.txt

echo off

In the above example, since NUL always exists, TEST.TXT will contain the string C:\>echo off. Although nobody does it this way, this has obvious applications in capturing prompts without launching a separate DOS shell:

@ctty nul

prompt set value$Q

echo on

if exist nul>temp.bat

hello

echo off

prompt $p$g

ctty con

When the above file is run, it will create a TEMP.BAT with the text set value=hello in it. The ctty nul hides the Bad command or file name error that happens because "hello" is not a valid command.

TRUENAME Simplifies complex paths

Some batch programs may arrive at a path by appending \.. to move around. Afterwards, it may not be clear just where DOS thinks things are. The undocumented TRUENAME command will resolve and simplify 8.3 names whether the files or directories they reference exist or not. TRUENAME even sees through SUBST and JOIN (like anybody uses them nowadays). In the examples below, all commands were entered from the E:\> prompt. The responses all refer to the C: drive.

E:\>TRUENAME C:\PROGRA~1\WINZIP\..\..\WINZIP\PROGRA~1\NUL

C:/NUL

E:\>TRUENAME C:\PROGRA~1\WINZIP\..\..\WINZIP\PROGRA~1\README.TXT

C:\WINZIP\PROGRA~1\README.TXT

E:\>TRUENAME C:\PROGRA~1\WINZIP\..\WINZIP\README.TXT

C:\PROGRA~1\WINZIP\README.TXT

The bad news is that TRUENAME absolutely will not work with long file names. It simply truncates the names until they fit in an 8.3 mask, and will happily give you the bogus name as a result. The good news is that if you change into a directory, running TRUENAME without arguments will give you the real legitimate short name of the directory.

Instant Environment Space

If you need to set lots of environment variables, but you're not sure if there's going to be enough space left for them, you're faced with a tough problem. You have to use the /E option on SHELL in your CONFIG.SYS or with COMMAND to boost your environment space beyond the standard 256 bytes. All well and good on your machine. But if you write for others, maybe they already have a 1024 byte environment. Normally, when you use COMMAND to launch another session, you get a copy of the current environment. But there's an easy way to stop that! Run COMMAND specifying the path for COMMAND.COM (you forgot about that option, didn't you!). You don't have to specify a valid path, but you can if you want to.

E:\>set

TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP

TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP

PROMPT=$p$g

winbootdir=C:\WINDOWS

COMSPEC=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM

PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\UTILS;

windir=C:\WINDOWS

E:\>command .

Specified COMMAND search directory bad

Microsoft(R) Windows 95

E>set

PATH=

E>exit

E:\>command c:\windows

Microsoft(R) Windows 95

E>set

PATH=

E>exit

E:\>

If you have a heavy-duty batch file, you can call it this way:

command \ /c test.bat

Be careful using this technique, because the entire environment is gone (until you exit). That means no PATH. No access to any commands not in the current directory. You might want to make a copy of the PATH before you jump into the clean session. Notice in the example code below I used "noenvironment" as the command search path. It makes it a little more self-documenting.

@echo off

echo Here is the original environment:

set

echo @echo off > test.bat

path >> test.bat

echo echo. >> test.bat

echo echo Here is the clean environment: >> test.bat

echo set >> test.bat

command noenvironment /c test.bat

del test.bat

ECHOing the words ON and OFF

Echo is often used to create secondary batch files, Basic files, and user prompts. Very rarely, you'll need to echo a line that starts with on or off. If so, you can expand on a trick used to create blank lines. You probably already know that echo. (echo followed by a period with no space between) will result in a blank line, but did you know that you can substitute any of these five characters / \ [ ] + instead of the period as well? It turns out that echo followed by any of those six characters will result in echo treating on and off as simple words:

E:\>echo on error goto done

E:\>echo.on error goto done

on error goto done

E:\>echo on

E:\>echo.on

E:\>echo off - opposite of on

OFF

E:\>echo.off - opposite of on

off - opposite of on

Running DOS 5 & 6 Under Windows 95

Now, this is the stupidest thing you could ever want to do. The only time I ever do it is when I want a quick test of some obsolete feature for a compatibility check. Otherwise I reboot my machine (I love System Commander!) into the appropriate OS. Still, to quote Douglas Adams, it's "Mostly harmless". You can see by the picture that I am running 5 different versions of DOS simultaneously. Try not to do too much unless you like seeing Incorrect DOS version on every other command. All you need to do is copy and rename your command.com files ( I picked DOS500, DOS600, etc.). Then use SETVER to put the new names in the version table, for example

setver dos500.com 5.00

setver dos600.com 6.00

setver dos620.com 6.20

setver dos622.com 6.22

After you reboot, you'll be able to use the old versions of DOS simultaneously just like I do. Just don't try to run them from the command line or you'll lock up your DOS window. Either double-click them with Explorer, put them in your Start Menu, or use START from the command line to run them in a separate window.

Get Everything Before Something Else

No, there is no better way to describe it. If you have a string like 2:34:56.78p and you want to take action based on everything before the first colon, you can do it without parsing it character-by-character. The only restriction is that the "colon" has to be one of these ten special characters: [ : , . / \ ; + = ] What you do is GOTO to a label in your program and use the string as the specified destination. Except it won't actually go there. It only reads up to the first special character. Suppose I had these two batch files:

::TEST1.BAT

@echo off

call test2.bat 2:34:56.78p

::TEST2.BAT

@echo off

goto LBL%1

:LBL

echo I didn't go to a label!

goto DONE

:LBL1

echo At label 1

goto DONE

:LBL2

echo At label 2

goto DONE

:DONE

When TEST1 runs, it calls TEST2, passing it 2:34:56.78p as an argument. TEST2 then has a GOTO command which you might think would get interpreted as GOTO LBL2:34:56.78p The amazing thing is that it actually goes to LBL2! Everything from the colon on to the right got ignored! So this is a way to make a jump in your program based on a drive letter, hour, month or who knows what else.

Doctor

DOS Betamax's ...

DOS TIPS

Almost Sixty Helpful Hints to

Allow You and Your System to

Operate Quickly and Efficiently

The following suggestions are chiefly aimed at having DOS and your computer run faster, with less hassle & fewer problems. However, some are more general and may be applied to non-DOS computers, as well. These tips assume a basic knowledge of DOS and its path & directory structure. Some assume usage of DR, MS or PC DOS 5, 6, 7, or newer, but most will work fine for most DOS versions and manufacturers.

I use a disc cache with very aggressive settings, plus a high-end memory manager for my lower, upper, high, expanded, and extended memory areas. I also run a large RAM drive. All this is coupled with a combination of batch files and keyboard macros to gain maximum speed of operations with minimum keystrokes and tedium. These are briefly explained below along with other helpful hints that will allow one to work towards becoming a power user.

Note that deep detail will not usually be gone into. If you want to know more about using certain options, see your DOS or software manuals, view their on-screen help files, or see some of the many Internet websites devoted to DOS tutorials and command references in the DOS Websites section of this site.

With recent, fast computers some of these suggestions may result in little difference unless the processor is overworked. However, on slower systems, or when doing any long complicated chores, each little tweak will add up to noticeable time saved. Even with faster processors, using the following will keep things running efficiently, if for no other reason than to reduce most tasks to just a few keystrokes, thus speeding you up.

Most, if not all, of the DOS programs mentioned here are available via The Internet. Again, see DOS Websites for these and many, many others. A high number of DOS programs are share or free ware, so the cost is minimal to try some wonderful software.

INFORMATION BELOW MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED

Let's Begin...

1/ Partition Hard Drives to Gain Maximum Usage. For older DOS versions, hard drive size is limited. Before version 3.3, size had to be 32 MBs or less. From 5.0, it was 2 GB. One way around that was to use after-market drive management programs to allow for larger drives, but that resulted in compatibility issues.

A better method is to divide the drive into smaller partitions. PC-DOS 3.3 allowed one to have multiple 32-MB partitions and Microsoft's version 4 allowed the same. SInce version 5.0, one can have 2 GB ones, while other DOSes support FAT 32 to allow terrabyte sizes. However, to remain compatible with a wider range of DOS programs over the years, FAT 16 is recommended unless one needs to store multiple, large media files. Simply make multiple 2 GB areas for different purposes. I have a main `C' drive for most programs, a `D' drive for games and `E' is my media partition.

Partitioning has an advantage when keeping all user data in a separate one. Doing so can guard that data in the event of disc damage elsewhere, and can also give protection from those viruses which don't jump partitions. Further to the latter, if one keeps no programs and only data on one partition, the likelihood of data corruption can be reduced. In addition, data on one partition allows easier backups.

2/ Use LABEL to Prevent Accidental Hard Drive Formatting. Label each hard drive and any partitions. If a format is accidentally issued for any fixed (hard) disc, DOS will ask you to type the label name before a format begins.

For an extra measure of security, place an ASCII (ASS-key) space in the label name. LABEL allows spaces anyway, but using an ASCII space requires that one press & hold the ALT key while typing "255" on the number pad, and then releasing the "ALT" key. In order to reformat a hard drive or one of its partitions, the same sequence must be issued when typing the label name. This technique will stop viruses from formatting a drive unless a way around this has been programmed into the virus.

3/ Keep the Path Short and APPENDed Directories to a Minimum. When a command is issued, DOS first looks at DOSKEY or Toddy Macros, 4DOS Aliases, or their equivalents as available from other similar programs. Next it looks for an internal command of the name typed at the command line. If it doesn't find a match, it searches through the current directory. If a command (.com), executable (.exe), or batch (.bat) match is not found there, and if there are no appended directories, DOS refers to the path statement to see in what other directories it may look. In each of those directories it again searches for a matching command, executable, or batch file. The more directories in the path, the longer it takes DOS to find the file required to execute your request.

As for appended directories, using APPEND to allow programs to look for files in additional, designated directories can add further to the problem if the appended directories are set during boot-up. If this is the case, these directories will be searched any time DOS needs to go beyond the current directory.

Be aware also, that major programs may have up to several hundred files in their directories. If those big programs are in the path, DOS may have to look through several large directories full of scores of files to find what you requested. Having those large program directories in the path can add a great amount of time to that search. If APPEND is required, it is best to issue this command before a program needing it is run, then to remove it when the program is closed. (See Below.)

You may shorten your path through the use of batch files to start programs. A batch file directs DOS to the exact directory and executable required to start a given program. This reduces the search to just one directory and allows DOS to go immediately to work. I use this technique so I have only two directories in my path: BATCH and DOS.

Once a batch file is set up to start a program, then you should specify to that program where to look to find the files required to run itself. This is done within the given program, or through the DOS environment via the "SET" command, or by using the DOS "APPEND" command. (See #34, farther on for "SET" tips.) These programs' directories may then be removed from the path statement. Another speed advantage to this is that the program itself no longer has to look through the path to locate its own files because you have directly told it where to locate them.

4/ Place Often-Used Directories near the Start of the Path. Since most commands are going to be DOS ones, place your DOS directory first in the path statement. DOS will find its own commands faster this way since it does not have to search through unnecessary directories. This does not apply to 4DOS Aliases, DOSKEY or Toddy macros, or internal DOS commands; these are always in memory when DOS is running. They are looked through first regardless of which directory is current. However, the speed at which any non-internal commands used by these macros or aliases are accessed is affected by their location in the path (unless one issues complete paths with each command - see next).

5/ Issue Full Path & File Names for all External Commands. Whenever you issue a command, if a full path name is specified, DOS goes straight to the directory containing the command and immediately issues that command. Thus, DOS does not need to look through the path statement's directories at all. This skips a step and possibly a lengthy search.

If the directory happens to contain the command in .com, .exe and .bat forms, be sure to specify the appropriate extension. This method also garners a bonus in the form of protection against "companion" viruses. A companion virus will write a .com file to echo an existing .exe file, but with the virus attached. Since a .com file has priority, it will run first, thus spreading the virus. By using full path names, including the file name extension, one may slow or prevent, to some extent, the spread of this type of virus.

Since it's tedious to type full path names, place your commonly used commands with their full paths in aliases, batch files or macros. This way you will only need enter a few keystrokes to have DOS go directly to work.

For really frequent usage, assign the batch file or macro to a key. (See #47 farther on.)

6/ Keep Files Sorted by Using Subdirectories. The novice user of most any computer system typically fails to keep his or her hard drive sorted and organized. This leads to confusion, slow operating, and sometimes conflicts that make the computer behave in unexpected ways.

In a DOS system, if one allows the root directory to hold a lot of files, the limit can quickly be reached. Most DOS systems only allow 512 directories and files to occupy the root directory of a given drive. Files should be grouped into subdirectories to avoid exceeding that limit. The only files in the root should be the command interpreter (typically COMMAND.com) and configuration files such as CONFIG.sys and AUTOEXEC.bat. Note that it is possible to place some of these elsewhere, but usually they are in the root. Some programs will place certain files in the root directory and that is OK, but if you have a choice, put them into an appropriate subdirectory.

By the same logic, make sub subdirectories as necessary. Should one wish to move or delete a program and its files, if they are grouped in with other things wished to be kept, a lot of time will be wasted sorting out what is not to be deleted. Always create directories for every subject and sub-subject.

For example, if you have a word processor, all the files that processor uses should be in some sort of "WP" directory. Then, if you create data files, make subdirectories for that data with one directory for each category. So you might have one for each family member, and each member might have his own categories under that such as "CAR", "MUSIC", "WORK", and so on. This method is the equivalent of having a file cabinet in which each subject is kept in a separate file folder, or having a separate drawer for each type of tool in a workshop.

You can even take this idea to DOS itself. I have created eighteen subdirectories in my DOS directory. As an example, I placed all DOS' device and system drivers in a subdirectory called "DEVICES". When they are loaded via Config.sys or Autoexec.bat, I show full path names so DOS can find them. Then during normal operation, DOS does not have to look through those extra 20 or so files when perusing the DOS directory.

Continuing with this technique, I managed to cut down the files in the main DOS directory from over 150 to about 35 by putting little or unused DOS files in other directories. This has lessened the search time during the day to day running of DOS.

Many programs will allow you to do this, but be sure they are capable of specifying to themselves where to find those relocated files. As mentioned in #3, farther back, this requires the program having either internal capability or being able to make use of DOS's "SET" or "APPEND" commands. (See #34, farther on for "SET" tips.)

7/ Keep File Names Short. Even if you use long file names in DOS, keep the names no longer than necessary. Long names take up more room and take longer to type, making for more work at the command line. They also mean fewer file names can be displayed at the same time.

If using a directory utility and/or auto-completion, longer file and directory names mean the number of choices will increase. This makes for additional steps and extra time taken to peruse the file list to locate the name you want.

With longer files names, users tend to be less creative in coming up with different first-letter strings in order not to have those first few letters duplicated in multiple file/directory names. The likelihood of having duplicate character strings at the start of the name means they will match too many other file names. That slows down directory and file maintenance.

At the very least, if you use longer file names try to make the first eight letters not match any other file names. To aid in that endeavour, group like files in subdirectories so that subdirectory name is no longer part of the file name. Thus, "IMG_001_2007-12-25.jpg" could be in a directory under IMAGES called "XMAS2007", and the ones shot on the 25th could be in a subdirectory called "12-25". This not only makes it easier when searching for a particular file's name, it greatly aids in hard drive organisation.

8/ Remove Unnecessary Backup and Temporary Files. Computer operation is slowed down when DOS has to look through unnecessary file names. In most cases, programs delete .bak and .tmp files after using them, but some programs are sloppy. As well, if an error occurred or the computer lost power/was shut off before a program had finished & was exited, these files may remain to clutter your hard drive.

To see which, if any, of these are on your computer, issue DIR \*.tmp /P /S. This will list all such files on the current drive, pausing after each screen fills, and include files in subdirectories. If you are not currently running any programs, you may delete the .tmp files. Do the same for *.bak files. You may delete these except for autoexec.bak and config.bak files, or any others you know you've created for your own backup purposes. If you are unsure of certain ones, move them to a flash drive, external hard drive, or floppy disc for safe keeping. If problems arise, you can always restore from the removable media. (Be sure to keep track of in which directory each file was originally.) There are programs available that will clean your drives of these files automatically, if you wish.

9/ Remove Duplicate Files. Files have a way of multiplying on your hard drive. Not only are they usually a waste of space, but they increase the number of files through which to look if they reside in directories included in a given search. This can slow operations if there are a high number of these files.

The solution is to identify & delete these files wherever possible. I say "wherever possible" because some duplicates may be used in different directories by different programs for similar purposes. Eliminating one of those would likely cause a program error. As well, it is wise to have some files duplicated in different directories as back-ups. COMMAND.com is such an example.

To reduce the tedium of finding these duplicates, use a program designed for the purpose. I use PC Tool's FileFind. One of its abilities is to be able to locate duplicate files within, or across, any number of drives. It allows one to include or exclude certain file types, and searches can be narrowed or expanded as needed.

"FileFind" will display the file names, sizes, and dates/times. You may then compare them and mark some or all for deletion, or not. You may also view the files before making a decision. After tagging the files, one "Delete" command eliminates all those chosen.

10/ Consolidate or Archive Files to Save Space. Files are saved on a hard drive in memory allocation units. When a file occupies a given unit, no other file can be kept there. If that file does not take up all the available room in that unit, there is wasted space. This "slack space" can add up if many small files are kept on a drive. However, one large file takes up less room than several small ones. This is because the large file first fills as many units as are required to preserve that file on the drive. Then leaves only the last unit with slack space if the remaining part of the file fails to completely fill that final allocation unit.

The space-saving solution is to combine files together either by physically doing so or by keeping them in compressed archives. The first method means locating like files such as READ-ME files and using a word processor or text editor to place them in to one big file, then deleting the small ones. An other method for text files of the same subject or with the same program is to combine them using the DOS "COPY" command. So all of a program's documentation files could be grouped into one big file and then the individual files could be deleted.

COPY file1 + file2 + file3... big-file.txt

COPY *.txt + *.doc ALL-DOCS.txt

If however, you need to combine non-text files, or must maintain the separateness of each file, a compressed archive is the answer. For an example of one, see EDZIP.bat in Advanced Batch File Examples II. Finally, to gain the maximum space, copy or zip files to another hard drive, flash drive, floppy or zip discs, or burn them to CDs or DVDs. Be aware that data on flash drives generally has a shorter shelf life than that on well-stored discs.

Implementing Numbers Three through Ten, above,

means that you and the operating system and its

programs will do less looking and more doing.

This speeds operations.

11/ Use Wild Cards and Symbols to Lessen Typing. DOS has some built-in shortcuts that may be used instead of typing things out long hand. The Question Mark ( ? ) represents any single character in a filename. So if one wanted to rename the "PROJECT" files in the current directory, instead of renaming each file one at a time, one could use the Question Mark. Note that "PROFILE.txt" will not be included in the renaming:

PROJECT1.txt

PROJECT2.txt

PROJECT3.txt

PROFILE.txt

REN PROJECT?.TXT PROJECT?.DOC

The Asterisk ( * ) represents any number of characters up to the limit of the file-name length usable in your version of DOS. In the preceding example, using the Asterisk reduces typing even further:

REN PROJ*.TXT PROJ*.DOC

To rename all .txt files in that directory:

REN *.TXT *.DOC

One may also use the Dot ( . ) to lessen typing. A single Dot refers to the current directory, a Double Dot to the parent directory. The first example below moves all backup files from the BACKUP directory to the current one. The second moves all the backup files from the current directory to the parent one:

MOVE C:\BACKUP\*.BAK .

MOVE *.BAK ..\

See DOS Characters and Symbols for more.

12/ Cut Down the amount of Typing further by Using Batch Files. Any time you type a complicated command or a series of commands, you should consider making a batch file if you intend to use this command or series again. This applies even if you don't use it regularly. In both cases, a short batch file name is easier to remember than a long character series. If any commands have a sequence of switches (command modifiers) attached, they too, benefit from batch files. (See #13, next, and also the DOS Switches discussion elsewhere at this website.

Part two of this is to use batch files for all your routine work. I am forever copying & moving files to & from my floppy and flash drives. So I wrote "CTB", MTB" and "CFB", "MFB" batch files. They copy/move specified files from the current directory to my `B' drive or vice versa. If no files are specified, all files are copied or moved. Automatic directory listings after the operation confirm the copy/move. See the Batch File Tutorial for some basics on batch file creating, and Batch File Examples for the batch files just mentioned.

13/ Use Switches to Tailor Commands. Most DOS commands have a series of switches that are able to modify the command to make it do more work. They take the form of the command followed by a forward slash and then a letter, word, or word abbreviation. The most common one is the "DIR" command which can sort files by size, name, extension, date, etc., among other options by using switches. In most DOS versions made since 1990, to see what switches are available and their syntax as related to a given command, simply type a command name, followed by a space, a forward slash, and a question mark. For example:

DIR /?

One may take this farther by writing a number of slightly varied batch files containing the same command, but each with selected switches. This serves to vary that command and reduce the number of keystrokes at the same time. Thus one "DIR" batch file might give a wide display with lots of file information, while another might display directories only, and a third might show files only in alphabetical order. These versions might be named "DIRW", "DIRD", "DIRA". To make this idea yet even more powerful, assign these batch files to function keys. (See #47 farther on.) See also the DOS Switches discussion elsewhere at this website.

14/ Use Batch Files to Move to Frequently-Used Directories. In keeping with Tip Numbers 5, 6 & 10, instead of typing long directory paths for commands or to reach the subdirectories you have created, have batch files to do it for you. I have ones that display the files from the DOS directory, take me to my Download & Upload directories, to my Utility and Batch File directories, and so on. In fact, in several cases, I have it set up so that I may choose to simply display the directory without moving, or to actually go to the given directory and display its contents.

I also have simple, 3-letter batch files that display only a directory's .bat, .com, .doc, .exe, .htm, .txt, .zip, or graphics (.gif, .jpg, .pcx, etc.) files, and also one to display my keyboard macros. These keyboard macros are set up to move me to my most-used directories and display the contents in one keystroke, rather than typing in a batch file name and pressing "ENTER". (See #47 farther on, for tips regarding DOS keyboard macros.)

If you have a great many directories, having a batch file shortcut to each one means a lot of small files. As discussed earlier, these take up a lot of room. A good number of them would be little used and when needed, the user may not be able to remember the batch file name. In this case, it is more logical to use a directory utility. This allows one to type a partial directory name and the program will take one there, or it will present a list of possible choices. This saves typing a drive letter and the complete path; plus it removes the clutter of a lot of small batch files. I use Directory Maven, but there are many others from which to choose.

15/ Have Batch Files Start all Major Programs. In keeping with the last three tips, make up batch files for all major programs you use. Not only does this save moving to a program's directory in order to start it, but one can incorporate into the batch file the necessary switches and variables one might typically employ when using that program. You might even write several scenarios for that program and set it up so that a single letter following the batch file name executes the desired scenario.

As discussed later in Tip #34, one could incorporate the environmental necessities required by a program into its batch file to save typing them or to save having them in a DOS startup file. Further, if one needs to temporarily add a program to the path, set ASSIGN, JOIN, SETVER, SHARE, SUBST, or other requirements in order to run a program (especially very old ones), do these only within the batch file that starts each given application. Then place commands to disable or remove them after the close of the program. Using this technique means they won't be taking up memory during other operations nor will they slow things down unnecessarily when the given program is not running.

16/ Employ an Auto-Completion Utility. With this, one types a partial program name, or a command followed by a partial directory or file name, and then strikes a designated key. Upon pressing that key, the directory, file, or program name that matches the first few letters will be completed automatically. If there are more than one match, either a list will be presented, or the matches will be shown in sequence until the desired one appears. This allows one to diminish typing down to only a few characters.

The best ones can even work remotely in other directories. So if one has a directory "C:\UPLOAD\HOLD" with a file called "READ-ME.TXT" in it, a good auto-completion program will complete each portion for you:

DIR C:\U will be completed to DIR C:\UPLOAD

Adding \H will complete to DIR C:\UPLOAD\HOLD

Adding \R will complete to DIR C:\UPLOAD\HOLD\READ-ME.TXT

I use Toddy, but any similar utility will work.

17/ Repeat Commands Quickly with a Command-History Utility. Again, I use Toddy, but there are others. DOSKEY is one that is included with several versions of DOS. This type of utility allows one to call up any command line entry used during a session and then to re-execute it, or to edit and re-execute. This saves typing the same commands over & over. (Note that a user-setable limit is typically allowed so as to prevent days or even weeks worth of commands from being kept, should you not turn your computer off or reboot on a regular basis.)

18/ Maximise Memory Usage with a Memory Manager. Having the maximum Lower (Conventional) Memory available, makes DOS a very happy operating system. If you have a 386 processor, or higher, then you may make use of Upper Memory to load much of DOS and any TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs. Managers also provide access to, and control of, Expanded and Extended Memory. Plus, many offer Protected Mode services so users can run the latest DOS 32-bit protected mode applications.

I use Quarterdeck's QEMM 9.0 for maximum memory management. DR-DOS comes with MEMMAX, MS-DOS with MemMaker. These, as do other memory managers, will juggle and then load as many programs outside of Lower Memory as possible. You must load DOS' HIMEM.sys and EMM386.exe, plus use DOS=HIGH,UMB (or equivalents) in CONFIG.sys to accomplish this. (Realise that "DR-DOS" is pronounced "Dee-Arr DOS".)

Note that even pre-386 computers may also take advantage of some of this capability through after-market software.

19/ Load Large Programs First. If you use DOS's "MEMMAKER", after running it, check your DOS directory for a file called MEMMAKER.STS. In it, you'll see the programs loaded. Note the loading (MaxSize) size for each. Then edit your config.sys and autoexec.bat so that the largest of these are placed first, with the remainder in descending-size order.

The reason for this is that some of these programs take a lot of memory to load but have a small final (running) size. If upper memory is mostly used up by other programs that were loaded first, trying to load a program whose loading size exceeds available remaining memory, will automatically cause it to be loaded low. This is even if there's enough room in upper memory for its final running size.

Having these programs load early while there is still enough headroom available, means they will get loaded and leave room for some smaller programs. This trick will often result in being able to load one, two, or even three more programs high, thus conserving all important low memory. A similar technique may be used with other memory managers that don't juggle the order automatically.

Even without a manager program, one may still take advantage of this method through trial & error juggling of the load order. You may find that a program that couldn't be loaded high, now can. Or, it may be that an exchange of a larger program for a smaller one in upper memory, will increase the amount of lower memory available. Experiment.

20/ Use a Disc Cache to Speed Access. Whenever DOS works, it often must go to the hard drive for information. This takes time, especially if the heads have moved away from the area needing to be read. The less DOS reads the drive, the faster are operations. A cache stores the latest-accessed files in memory; this allows memory-speed access instead of slower disc reading.

In addition, if you enable "Write" caching, files being written will only go to the disc when the system is idle. This allows the command prompt to return or programs to continue, so you may work while disc writing goes on in the background. A disadvantage to this is that data might be lost if there is a power failure or lock-up before the writing has completed. I have never experienced this but those of you in areas where power is less reliable may not want to enable Write Caching. The same suggestion is directed at those experiencing frequent lock-ups because of conflicts or aggressive experimentation.

Most major DOS versions come with a disc cache. DR-DOS uses PC-KWIK or NWCACHE while MS-DOS has one called Smart Drive (SMARTDRV.exe, or SMARTDRV.sys in older versions). There are third-party ones too; Norton's NUCACHE and PC Tools' PC-CACHE come to mind. I use SpeedWare's excellent HyperDisk.

Be sure to lower your BUFFERS setting if using a disc cache. DOS looks at its own buffers before the cache. If there are too many, the delay will be longer before DOS begins to peruse the disc cache. Lower BUFFERS to 10 or less, and remove the Look-Ahead setting completely if that feature is included in your DOS version of BUFFERS. This is the second number in the BUFFERS setting; the one after the comma. It is also known as the "Read-Ahead" buffer or "Secondary Cache". Lowering the BUFFERS number also has the advantage of freeing up more memory, as each takes up 512 - 528k of memory. I have a BUFFERS setting of `4' and have experienced no problems even with older DOS software.

21/ Keep Hard Drives Defragmented for Faster Access. When a file is erased, the space becomes available for DOS to place a new file there. If the new file is too large, it still fills the available space, but the remaining portion of this new file is placed elsewhere on the disc. For very large files, there may be fragments all over the drive. Multiply that by a large number of files, and retrieval speed decreases. Plus, if you are not using a deleted-file directory, the likelihood of DOS's UNDELETE program being able to recover an accidentally deleted file decreases if the file was fragmented. Run a defrag program once a week, or more often if you write and erase a lot of files in a shorter period. DOS supplies DEFRAG but there are others available. I use Norton's Speed Disk.

Have your defrag program place the largest files first on the hard drive. Large files tend to often be program executables, which don't change unless attacked by a virus.

If available, you may request that the defrag program place .exe and .com files first; these are your main program files. These never change size (unless you are experimenting with programming or have a virus), and never increase/decrease in number (unless you add/remove software). So for the most part, they never move.

The defrag program will gloss right over these unchanging files and only deal with the fluctuating file space on the drive. This lessens the time the program takes to complete its operation.

22/ Speed up the Boot Process. To gain a faster boot, implement some or all of the suggestions below if they are available from your computer or DOS version. Be aware that doing some of these may cause problems under certain circumstances.

CMOS and DOS START

Disable Seeks of Floppy Drives and Nonexisting Hard Drives

Disable Checking of Memory Modules

Boot from the Fastest Drive (Boot Order)

Disable the F5/F8 Pause

DOS STARTUP FILES

Disable Memory Manager Checks of Memory Modules

Remove Unnecessary Programs and Start them only as Needed

Remove Unnecessary Tasks and Checks. Implement them only with their Associated Programs

Organise CONFIG.sys and AUTOEXEC.bat in the most Efficient Order

23/ Check and Exercise your Boot Media. When was the last time you tried your boot disc? Do you even know where it is? Are you sure it will still boot your computer? Have you added utilities to your system that are now needed during boot-up? Every month or so, it is wise to try to boot your system using your boot disc. This is to ensure it still works and that it will configure your system as it is currently. Don't wait for a crash or other problem to find out the disc has corrupted information, has bad sectors, or is outdated.

Use SCANDISK or other utility to check for physical damage and corrupted information. Check to be sure all needed drivers, utilities, and files are included. A common forgettable is to have no, or improper, CD-ROM/DVD drivers. For a floppy, add the required new files so that the boot disc will be compatible with your present setup, and then defragment. Lock out the disc to guard against it being written to by you or a virus, and afterwards try it to see if it boots your computer. For CDs, burn a new disc and then verify the integrity of the information by doing a test boot. Flash drives cannot be locked out, so they should be checked for boot and other viruses. In all cases, files should be made to be read-only. A working boot medium is a recovery tool one cannot be without.

24/ Use VERIFY to Check Copied or Moved Files. Many DOS versions have a `/V' switch that will read the file after it is copied or moved to its destination. For such actions within the same hard drive, this is generally unnecessary unless one suspects a failing hard drive. (In that case, replace the drive as soon as possible!)

However, for removable media where the information is not being kept elsewhere, if the files are vital, it is best to be sure they can be read after the operation has been done. Using the `/V' switch causes DOS to see if the file can be read from the destination drive and if it can, it is likely the transfer was successful. I say "likely" because the integrity of the data is not looked at. DOS simply sees if it can read the file without error. This does not guarantee that the file was not corrupted during copy or transfer, but does add a measure of safety for important data transfers.

25/ Use a Task-Swapper. Such software loads all requested programs into memory so they are only a keystroke away. This beats shelling out of a program to access another, or even quitting the program because you cannot access another due to memory constraints. Plus, you are returned to exactly where you left off when switching back to a previous program. This generally requires memory above 1 megabyte and if you want to load a lot of programs, you will have to increase memory further still. I use DR-DOS' Task Manager or Back & Forth by Progressive Solutions. (Note that "DR-DOS" is pronounced "Dee-Arr DOS".)

SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!

Before swapping to another task always save your work. If anything goes wrong or you lose power, your work will have been written to disc. This is very important if you are running several tasks at once, each of which has work or changes that will need to be kept.

This is a good rule even when not task swapping. Save often while working, not just after completion. I set "ALT-S" to save work in any program that allows such a setting to be made. Then while working, I often hit "ALT-S". It's very, very rare that I ever lose work, and then it's only a few sentences, or one change in a graphics program.

26/ Set Up a RAM Drive. A RAM Drive (or virtual disc) is an area of memory that DOS treats as a regular disc drive. At startup, the most used files and software should be loaded on to the RAM Drive which means they are always in memory. Then point programs to the RAM Drive instead of your hard drive. Employing a RAM drive is far faster than accessing a hard drive for files.

On my main system, I have an excessive amount of memory available for a DOS machine (328 MB). It's divided as 1 MB of Lower and Upper memory, a 64 MB RAM Drive and the balance as straight Extended Memory, with Expanded Memory emulated from the latter as necessary. I have all the regularly-used DOS operating system files (including the COMMAND.com and 4DOS.com shells), plus all DOS batch files & keyboard macros on the RAM drive. I also have items such as a file viewer, two text editors and WordPerfect's Spell Checker files always there - plus all their support files. In addition, all programs creating swap or temporary files are directed to place those files on to the RAM drive.

Such a method greatly speeds operations. This type of performance enhancement is especially noticeable with slower processors and hard drives, but is blindingly fast on newer equipment. DOS typically comes with RAMDRIVE.sys or VDISK.sys, but I use Franck Uberto's XMSDisk. It allows a greater number of options and a greater range within each option.

If you decide to use a RAM drive, you must change your path statement to point to the RAM-Drive directories first. Otherwise, instead of proceeding directly to the RAM drive directories, DOS will do a hard disc hunt. Being an unnecessary search, it slows operations. On none of my setups, do I have hard drive directories in the PATH statement. It only references RAM drive directories. All operations are handled through each system's RAM drive.

Be sure to copy to the hard drive any RAM Drive files you have modified and wish to save before turning off or rebooting your computer. They will be lost if you do not. (I eliminate this step by always having programs write directly to a hard drive.) Note that program files need not be copied before shutting down because they are already on your hard drive and were simply copied to the RAM drive upon startup, as they will be at the next startup.

I have a batch file, LOAD-RAM.bat, that is called by AUTOEXEC.bat. It handles the task of placing the appropriate files on to the RAM drive upon bootup. The advantage of this is that during testing I can disable the calling of LOAD-RAM.bat and speed diagnostic operations. Otherwise, I would have to disable each RAM-drive load request individually if each was in AUTOEXEC.bat.

Point your "temp" and "tmp" variables to the RAM Drive. DOS and its programs make & erase files as they operate and they use a "temp" directory to do so, unless one has not been set up. In that case, the program's executable directory is typically used, slowing things more due to the number of files through which the program must look.

Either way, it takes longer to write these files to the hard drive than to memory, so set your "Temp" variables to point to the RAM Drive. In the AUTOEXEC.bat:

MD F:\TEMP

SET TEMP=F:\TEMP

SET TMP=F:\TEMP

Be sure to substitute your RAM drive letter for `F', should it be different. Run your AUTOEXEC.bat file, or reboot to have the changes take affect.

A nice advantage of this is that when the computer is turned off or rebooted, any temporary files remaining are deleted automatically. This is because the RAM drive only exists in memory until power is removed or it is re-initialised by a reboot.

27/ Place Batch Files in Memory. Have your AUTOEXEC.bat create a batch directory on your RAM drive and then copy your batch files to it. Place the RAM drive batch directory at the start of your path statement. These will execute much faster than if they had to be read from the hard drive every time.

4DOS users have part of this capability built in if they use .btm files. 4DOS reads the .btm batch file from the disc only once and then keeps it in memory until completed.

28/ Use "ATTRIB" to Protect Files. For files that you do not want to be modified or erased, change their attributes to "Read-Only" via the ATTRIB command. This is especially good for forms such as a letter or fax template in your word processor, a base template in a spreadsheet program, an html webpage template, or for a DOS batch-file starter file, since these often start and end the same way. Simply change to the directory within the program that holds the file(s) you wish to be protected, and enter:

Attrib +r filename.ext

You may use wild cards ( * ? ) to make blocks of files read-only. This could be employed to make all .com, .exe, and .bat files read-only. Doing so protects against viruses that overwrite such files with their own versions, However, this only works with viruses not smart enough to remove the read-only attribute. Regardless, it's a preventive measure to do this in your DOS directory to prevent accidental erasure. (See Tip #11 for wild card discussion.)

Be sure to use ATTRIB to make your configuration files Read-Only. Programs that modify the AUTOEXEC.bat and CONFIG.sys files will not usually try to remove that attribute in order to make changes. This trick provides a measure of protection, allowing one to decide if and when such changes can be made.

As well, this method provides some protection against attempts by users, other than yourself, to modify your configuration files. Only knowledgeable users will figure out that the Read-Only attribute is blocking them.

29/ Press "CONTROL-C" to Stop any DOS Action. If you have issued a command and things are not going as you intended, press "CONTROL-C" or "CONTROL-BREAK" to stop the work. DOS checks to see if either key combination has been pressed and it will cease operations immediately after reading that key combination. This also usually works within a program.

To be assured that mis-commands are stopped quickly, have "BREAK" set to "On". DOS checks more frequently when BREAK is on. You may set it to "On" from the command line by entering" "BREAK=ON". Entering "BREAK" by itself, tells you its status. To automate this, place "BREAK=ON" at or near the end of your AUTOEXEC.bat.

Be aware that some programs will set BREAK to "off". You may test this by first making sure BREAK is on, then running the program, exiting, and checking the BREAK status again. If it resets BREAK, then place a "BREAK=ON" command at the end of the batch file you should be using to start that program. As you find other programs that reset BREAK, then place the same command at the end of each of their batch files.

30/ Back Up Your Configuration Files. When using a program, one typically alters the look, operation, or setup to suit one's tastes. Those changes are held in some sort of configuration file. If they should become lost, corrupted, or otherwise changed in ways that you do not desire, you would have to reset all the changed parameters.

However, if you have copies of these files, all that is required to restore, or return to, your previous settings, is to copy the appropriate file from the backup to the program directory. Typical DOS configuration files have extensions like: .cfg, .set, .ini, .pif, etc. These examples stand for "Configuration", "Settings" (or "Setup"), "Initialization", and "Program Information File". There are others - see DOS File Extensions, elsewhere at this website.

An easy way to make copies is to add these files to your regular backup routine by including them in the batch files you should be using to do the backups. You may also decide to write an exclusive "Configuration Backup" batch file that would go to each program directory in turn and copy the appropriate files all to one disc. Then it's an easy matter to return to, or restore, any program's settings. You may wish to arrange for all configuration files to be placed into one .zip file with the file name being the date the file was created. If a series of these files are archived, one may then return to any configuration date wished. A batch file can do this automatically including placing the date as the file name. See Batch File Basics for a tutorial on writing simple batch files.

Don't forget your CMOS configuration either. Copy each setting, or if your computer allows, turn on your printer and hit "Print Screen" for each configuration screen. Now, if your battery dies, you'll be able to restore the basic setup of your computer in just a few minutes. The "Print Screen" key is handy for any times when you are changing configuration settings. Having a print out from before any changes are made makes it simple to restore settings if need be, but a hard copy can also be used as a check list.

31/ Use a Phrase to Remember ANSI Colours. If you use ANSI.sys or an equivalent for screen colour control, you may have trouble remembering the colour codes. Here's a chart for those colours and their foreground & background number codes. Afterwards, will be a method you may use to remember the colour order. FOREGROUND BACKGROUND

COLOUR COLOUR

CODE CODE

30 Black 40

31 Red 41

32 Green 42

33 Yellow 43

34 Blue 44

35 Magenta 45

36 Cyan 46

37 White 47

To remember this,

simply use the following phrase:

Boys Ride Green Yaks, But Mary Can Wait

32/ Cut Off Your Mouse's Tail. This may seem a little drastic, but at the least, learn to use a program's keyboard shortcuts and macros. For any program in which you are using the keyboard for data entry, such as a spreadsheet, database, or word processor, it's much faster to not have to remove your hands from the keys to go to the mouse, move up to a menu bar, click on a menu, run down that menu, click on another item, run down that, and so on. If one key stroke can do all that in place of the desk rodent, then learn that keystroke. Even with a tool bar, this method is still faster because your hands never leave the keyboard. You'll be surprised how much faster you'll finish your work by learning and becoming comfortable with key shortcuts.

To facilitate efficient usage, adopt the "claw" hand method. Many, when first learning keyboard shortcuts, will often use two hands to issue "Control", "Alt" and "Shift" keyboard combinations. Instead, learn to use one hand to span the keys. Typically, place the thumb or little finger on the "Control", "Alt" or "Shift" key, span the hand and place the most convenient finger on to the other key. You will eventually find the most comfortable claw position of the hand and it will come as naturally to you as a guitarist's finger patterns do for producing chords on a guitar. Your speed will amaze even yourself as you "span" your way around a program's abilities.

By a similar token, learn to use the program's script or macro language. (Many are just like DOS batch files.) Program in your most frequent operations and assign each to a convenient key or key combination. From then on, one keystroke will eliminate almost all desk-rodent tedium.

All this will be very difficult if you were taught computer using a mouse. You will have to force yourself to adopt these new techniques. However, if you can discipline yourself do this, once you become comfortable with the equivalent keystrokes, you will never go back to the slow, tedious, desk rodent method.

33/ Place Your Mouse to the Left. If you must use the desk rodent, place it to the left of the keyboard. The advantage to this is that one may use the right hand to access the Number Pad, Page Up/Down, Home/End, and Cursor keys, plus their Control, Alt, & Shift variations - all simultaneously with the mouse. This is excellent for eliminating arm movements because instead of using the cumbersome scroll-bars, the cursor or Page-Up/Page-Down keys may be used. Fatigue will be cut back, and the possibility of developing carpal-tunnel syndrome is lessened. In addition, for many programs, the keyboard is much faster than the hoops through which one must jump with a mouse to navigate typical program menus.

After switching the mouse location, leave the buttons as are so that "left-clicking" still uses the left button. This allows one to easily follow instructions in a tutorial or book because one need not mentally exchange the button designations.

Think about dumping your mouse altogether and going with a full-size, weighted, desktop trackball. Now, you may be thinking: "Oh, those horrible little balls...". No, I don't mean one of those laptop finger-balls, nor do I mean one of those mouse thumb-balls. They are horrible. I am referring to a stand-alone, large, desktop unit containing a trackball the size of at least a billiard ball. In some models, the size approaches that of a softball.

The advantages of it are that it is always in the same spot on your desk, you can never run out of `mouse' pad, and arm/wrist movements are greatly diminished. If a weighted one is used, one may also spin & release it to quickly park the on-screen pointer in one corner or another of the screen.

I also find a trackball better during sensitive work, such as pixel-level graphic manipulations. After positioning the pointer, I can easily lift my hand or fingers off the ball and then click without disturbing the pointer location. The trackball housing is rooted to the desk and is much more solid & stable than the movable mouse. I use the excellent Kensington "Expert Mouse", Model #64215 both at work and at home.

Here's an Extra-Extra Tip:

When the trackball begins to skip, becomes sluggish, or is slippery to grip, remove the ball and clean it with methanol or rubbing alcohol. Then take fine-grit sandpaper and cup it in the palm of your hand. Turn the ball within the sandpaper while applying pressure so that the ball's surface becomes dull. Lightly sand the entire surface of the ball. Clean once more with alcohol and replace. You will find the trackball will work as new. Do this whenever the ball becomes shiny from usage.

34/ Reduce Environment Memory Load. Many programs require or, at least, often prefer that a DOS environment variable be set. This is to direct the program to required files, to direct it as to where to place & find temporary files, or to set other parameters. Most have the user place the command in the AUTOEXEC.bat. However, this means that this information is always in memory and taking up space even when their companion programs are not even loaded.

The solution is to place the "SET" command for each program within the batch file you should be using to start that program. Place it on the line just before that which starts the program. After the program-starting line, place another that reads SET parameter= . Note that nothing is to follow the "equals" sign. This removes the variable from memory as soon as the program ends by effectively setting it to `zero'.

The advantages to this are less memory used when the program is not running, a faster bootup (since the variables are not set at that time), and it keeps all program starting commands, switches & variables in one file. The latter is handy for personal reference and for computer housekeeping purposes.

To see how much memory is taken by your current environment, issue: SET > SIZE.ENV. This saves it to a file. Now enter: DIR SIZE.ENV. and look at the file size. It will be slightly larger by a few tens of bytes than the memory used because the file itself requires some disc space. However, this will give you an idea of what is being used. You may cut back on the room allocated for the environment through the "SHELL" command in the CONFIG.sys file if too much has been assigned. See your DOS manual for instructions. Don't make it too small though; you'll need space for any temporary variables created by your and/or your batch files.

For those environment variables that you issue in your AUTOEXEC.bat, be sure to place "SET" commands after those loading drivers or other programs whenever possible.

If they are located before the lines used to load drivers or other programs, DOS passes the information to each of those that follow, whether those programs use the information or not. This takes time and uses memory unnecessarily.

35/ Increase Your Keyboard Buffer Size. If you find during fast typing that keystrokes are no longer being accepted and the computer beeps, or if you hold down a cursor key and a few seconds later a series of beeps emanates, the keyboard buffer has filled. You must then wait for DOS to process the keystrokes to be able to continue.

When a key is pressed, the key code goes to a holding area called the "keyboard buffer". There is only so much room, so if one types quickly or is using a slow program, it will fill. Eliminate this and the associated wait by increasing the buffer size. MS-DOS 7\DOS 95 and later allow this as do modern DOS versions, but there are many after-market programs available for those using earlier versions. I use ANSIPLUS by Kristopher Sweger. My buffer has been increased from the DOS default of 15 characters to 128. I have yet to overflow it.

The advantage of this is more than just being able to type farther ahead on say, a word processor. It also allows you to program ahead. That is, you may issue a series of commands that might ordinarily overflow the buffer, but that will continue to be accepted and issued in turn as the program becomes ready to accept them. Thus you may type those commands and then leave the keyboard to do other things while the program runs unattended. With a menu system, this is not possible because one must wait for the next menu in order to click on the next command. On the other hand, well-written menu systems have first-letter commands that can sometimes be implemented without the menu having to be on screen. For systems with that ability, one may use this trick with them.

36/ Use a Key Stacker. For programs that do not accept command-line start parameters, one ordinarily would start the program and then have to issue a series of commands to get to the start-up screen of choice or to load a file on which to work. With a Key Stacker, one may start the program and issue those keystrokes directly from the command line all at once.

The key Stacker program takes the commands from the keyboard buffer and enters them just as though you had typed them yourself after the program had started. Place these into a batch file and one may start any program and reach any screen or do any work by just issuing the one batch command. Again, I use ANSIPLUS.

38/ Set LASTDRIVE to the actual Last Drive Letter in your System. Your CONFIG.sys assigns the last drive letter used by your system. Some setups have it fixed much higher to allow for user mounting of external components such as USB flashdrives. These are assigned a drive letter as required. Each drive letter uses memory, so an excessive number wastes it. The amount is small, typically 176 bytes, but on memory-strapped systems, it may be a factor.

Inventory the fixed drives on your system and then add letters to account for an external hard drive, camera, flashdrive and so on. Add only enough letters to cover such devices plugged in at the same time. If you only mount one of them at a time, add just one letter. Edit CONFIG.sys to reflect this actual last drive letter and you will save memory.

38/ Make Use of Command-Line Utilities. Many programs are accompanied by utilities that may be used outside the program itself. As well, there are zillions of stand-alone utilities available that can accomplish small and large tasks. These might perform file conversions, screen captures, font changes, text search & replace, function-key programming or even complete keyboard re-mapping, among many other chores or assignments.

Don't be afraid to use old ones, either. They can still perform useful functions, even in today's computer world. I still use various utilities from 1988! They do exactly what I want and I can't think of an improvement that a modern version might incorporate. Most will run fine on fast computers and under the most recent DOS versions. Some of them may not present themselves well on the screen because they might use only four-colour graphics, but so what? If they perform a useful function, they come & go so quickly, that this is of little consequence except to the most eye-candy conscious. For those persons, it may be possible to hide the output and substitute one's own, or to dispense with it all together if a visible result is not necessary or desired. (See the Extra Tip, below.)

The best utilities to use are those that are small (under 50k), are not memory resident, and that serve just one function. This means that they do not take up precious Lower or Upper Memory, and that they execute very quickly. The former is less of a problem in the 21st century because so many of today's utilities use Expanded or Extended Memory. The latter is good because when a utility executes quickly, there are no delays when using it, except on the slowest of processors. That means one may string several of them together in a batch file to accomplish very specific tasks - all with one command or keystroke, and without having to actually start some program and deal with its interface.

Set utilities up to run from batch files via their command-line switches so that the program interface need not be seen. Make them able to work automatically on all the files in a directory, or on specific types of files, or on only those you specify along with the utility name. With a single command, the work will be done! For really fast work, assign your most commonly used utilities to function keys. (See #47.)

For more on command or program modifying, see DOS Switches, and view the Batch File Tutorial to see how to make these utilities work for you with a minimum of hassle by placing the commands into simple batch files.

To learn to hide output, read up on the following possible methods:

Redirect output to nothing via `> Nul'.

Redirect output to a file via `> filename.ext'.

See if the utility you use has a quiet or non-verbose mode via `/q' or `/v-'.

Use `CTTY NUL' before the command which output you want silenced and `CTTY CON' afterwards. (Note that these two commands must be used in a batch file because typing `CTTY NUL' would transfer control away from your keyboard and monitor so no input from the user would be available to type `CTTY CON' afterwards.)

39/ Use DOS to Run Your GUI. Most modern operating systems come with DOS or a DOS emulator. Learn to use it to automate the tedium out of point & click menu surfing and tree climbing. Using batch files and just direct issuing of commands are often shorter and easier than navigating endless menus and pointing at each individual step to complete a task.

40/ Use the Latest DOS Version. Many people believe the latest DOS version is MS-DOS 6.22. Well, it is over a decade and a half old! Many new versions have been developed by other companies since then, and because they are newer, they have capabilities that the old Microsoft one doesn't. These versions are much more powerful and add a lot of new abilities to DOS. Include are updated DOS commands, memory management, FAT 32 capability, and so on.

This tip couples with the next one:

41/ Obtain the Latest DOS Command and Utility Updates or Replacements. As you read in the last tip, just because Microsoft has ceased developing DOS, does not mean others have. Even if you wish to use an older DOS version, you may add capabilities to it by after-market products. Some updated or replaced commands and utilities that come to mind are ANSIPLUS, ColorDIR, EKKO, TODDY, XSET and XXCOPY. DR-DOS has XDIR and XDEL. The `X' in these commands usually stands for "extended".

Another is 4DOS. It is an updated command shell that completely replaces COMMAND.com (the DOS command interpreter). It comes with improved internal commands for both batch files and the command line, and it has many, many built-in environmental variables. 4DOS is extremely powerful and is highly recommended. Its latest updates were added just this year (2009).

42/ Place Important Files First or Last via the Use of Special Characters. Even with an alphabetical list, in a larger directory, it may take a bit to locate a desired file. It would be great if this file could always be first or last in a directory listing. The solution is to use one of the special keyboard symbols as the first character in the file name.

This first list gives the symbols that show at the top of an alphabetical DOS "DIR" listing when used as the first character of a file name. They are in order from top of the directory listing on down.

Exclamation Mark [ ! ]

Octothorpe [ # ]

Dollar Sign [ $ ]

Percent Sign [ % ]

Ampersand [ & ]

Right Single Quote or Apostrophe [ ' ]

Opening Parenthesis [ ( ]

Closing Parenthesis [ ) ]

Dash [ - ]

Have one of these as the first character in a file name and it will be shown before those starting with numbers or letters. If you have other important files in a given directory then use other characters from the list. The above is the order in which these files will appear. Realise that not all directory programs may adhere to this order.

After the above, files beginning with a number appear in order of Zero [ 0 ] through Nine [ 9 ]. Then one more symbol character will appear before the files starting with a letter. It is the "At" [ @ ] sign. However, the "dot" and "dot-dot" representing the current and parent directories come first as thus:

Current Directory [ . ]

Parent Directory [ .. ]

Numbers [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ]

At Sign [ @ ]

Now, to finish up, here are first-character symbols that cause a file to appear at the bottom of a file listing: These are in order from middle of the listing on down to last place.

Circumflex [ ^ ]

Underscore [ _ ]

Left Single Quote [ ` ]

Left Brace [ { ]

Right Brace [ } ]

Tilde [ ~ ]

Be aware that it's possible that under rare circumstances, having a file start with certain ones of the characters shown in the above lists might interfere with a DOS operation. The most likely ones to cause problems are the dollar sign, percent sign, at sign, and the tilde. These are used by DOS for certain purposes, but given that these are legal DOS characters for file names means that DOS should recognise that a file exists with such a character and act accordingly.

I have not had a problem, so I don't recommend not using these, but if odd things happen with directories containing files which first character is one of the above, test to see if it is interfering.

Realise that there are many other ASCII symbols that may be used. They may be created at the DOS prompt by holding the ALT key and typing a number on the number key pad. After releasing the ALT key, the symbol appears. A list of these may be found in many DOS books. Experiment with them to see where they fall in a directory list.

Finally, you may also apply this technique to directory names if you want to have them in a specific order.

43/ Install a Scroll-Back Utility. Missed that error message? Need to see that directory listing from several screens ago? Use a scroll-back utility. It allows the user, via a hot key, to look back through previous screens to view the output there. Some will even show the last screen of some text-based applications. It will often even allow one to scroll "outside" of the current application to see those bygone screens. I use ANSIPLUS.

44/ Keep Software and Utility Discs in their Original Packages. This has a number of advantages. The first is that the discs are likely to be better protected in the manufacturer's packaging as opposed to being out in the open, or in some rack or storage carousel or flip-top box.

That aside, locating a disc when needed is generally far easier if it's in the box with all its documentation, or in the pouch provided with its book. A plus to this is that you have the disc and its information in one location. You'll find this a bonus when years after buying a particular software or reference book, you'll find it's needed but have forgotten some aspect of its operation. Having the documentation right there relieves one of the frustration of searching for it in another location. Keeping all items together also saves having two separate storage systems. Reserve just one shelf or book case with everything organised collectively.

Finally, if you decide to sell or give away the software, the recipient will be much happier if he gets the entire package that came with it. This is never more so true when it is a book with an attached disc. I can't tell you how many times I have located a desired book at a yard sale or similar only to discover the disc is gone. )-:

Please save your future recipients from that disappointment and keep the disc with the book or package.

45/ Reconsider Before Discarding Corrupted Discs. Those discs may not actually be corrupted. If you have portable drives such as an external floppy, zip or hard drive, and carry the drives and their discs in cold weather, they may need to be warmed and dehumidified before usage. Using them while they are cold or immediately after bringing them into a warm area, one may encounter faulty reads and assume a corrupted disc or drive. Moisture can condense on heads and exposed discs during ambient temperature changes. Wait until the drives/discs have warmed and moisture has evaporated before trying again.

If the discs still won't read properly, try using a recovery utility to revive them. I use Norton Utilities' DISKTOOL program and have brought back information I thought was lost.

46/ Become Aware of all of a Program's Capabilities. This includes your operating system and accompanying utilities. Too often I have seen, or heard of, users purchasing new software or upgrading to newer versions so as to obtain some desired capability before they have reviewed what is already in their own libraries. I frequently get comments about the age of some of the programs I use until I explain that despite the eras of those programs, I use them because they already have the capabilities required for modern tasks. Marketers will hate this, but why change if it does what I want?

To this end, if you discover some fresh interest that has resulted in new task requirements, look through your current softwares' manuals or on-screen help systems to see if some or all of that required capability is already available. If so, it has saved you money on, and time spent learning, a new program!

47/ Assign Batch Files to Keys. For batch files you use most frequently, assign them to function keys. Or if you wish to preserve those keys for DOSKEY or other utilities, have the batch files run via Alt-Letter keys. This saves typing even short batch file names over & over. Just saving these few keystrokes makes a huge difference during lengthy computer sessions. I have used them for so long, that they are as commands themselves and are intuitive within my day-to-day computing chores. Keys may be reassigned from within DOS by using PROMPT or ECHO commands, or via ANSIPLUS, DOSKEY, 4DOS, TODDY, or a similar utility. I use ANSIPLUS.

ASSIGNED-KEY EXAMPLES:

Coming up are just a few of the reassigned keys that I use to implement batch files and utilities while working in DOS. Some of them work under specific circumstances, but I won't get into those here. Nor will I discuss what is going on behind these commands. I just want these descriptions to give you an idea of the capabilities I have available by using this method. I hope they will inspire you to use more time-saving keystrokes in your daily computer operations.

Since all my key reassignments are in memory, and so is every batch file and the DOS commands they call upon, these execute instantly. I love to watch a GUI (Graphic User Interface) user's jaw drop when he or she sees how fast things happen using this method - even on slower processors. You've heard the term: "Greased Lightning" ? Well, this setup is Teflon Lightning! (-:

Here we go...

F1 invokes my DR-DOS "Help" system, while Alt-F1 adds a space and `/?' on the command line, and presses "Enter" for me. That's great when I need to get a fast list of switches for any command. I hated having to type that space, `/?' and "Enter" after a command name every time, so I programmed that sequence to a function key.

In a similar fashion, I programmed Alt-8 to type `*.*' because I hated typing that all the time too. Note that the asterisk is above the `8' on the number row above the alphabet keys, hence my reasoning for using that key to invoke the macro.

Control-F1 clears the screen. It saves typing "CLS" and hitting "Enter". Control-F2 clears the screen and presents a wide-format, alphabetical listing of the current directory with each file type in a different colour. Control-F3 returns to the root directory of the current drive, clears the screen, and presents a colour directory listing of files there.

Alt-d and Alt-u go to my DOWNLOAD or UPLOAD directories, which I use constantly while on and off line. A list of files is then displayed alphabetically in wide format with each file type in a different colour.

I often play audio CDs when I am at the computer. To gain maximum memory efficiency, I usually don't leave the player program in memory. Instead, I have it able to be started via a batch file that I then assigned to Alt-c. It's a simple matter to shell out of a program, hit Alt-c, adjust the volume or change the disc or track number, exit the CD program, and then type "EXIT" to return to my program.

But wait!

That's just not good enough.

Let's go farther:

I also assigned "EXIT" to Alt-x, so I don't even have to type that. Also, I have the batch file that is keyed to Alt-c, set up to automatically unload the player program from memory, so I preserve maximum memory. Once the CD is playing, it will continue until it receives another command, so the program is not required to be in memory during playback.

but..., you think: There's still a lot of typing to shell out of one program, start the CD program, and then return to where you were.

You are absolutely correct. That's why I assigned a key macro within those programs to automatically shell out and start the CD program. When I exit the CD program, I am automatically returned to where I was working with no further input required from me. So, with one keystroke, I am in the CD program, and one more in the CD program will exit, remove it from memory, and return me to where I was.

Should I ever need to go to the CD a lot, I could still simply leave it in memory and have direct access to it all the time through its own hot keys. The point is I have a variety of choices - all of which are fast & efficient, and not a desk rodent in sight. (-:

I use Alt-v to load the listing of the current directory into my file viewer from which I may select one to look at. I use Central Point's VIEW.exe for this. It comes with PC Tools and is capable of showing text, spreadsheet, database, word processing and other files types from a variety of software manufacturers. (There are other file viewers available that allow manipulation of the files, as well.) File viewing from the command line is extra handy because I don't need to load the original program if all I need is to quickly look at a particular file.

Alt-g starts a simple graphics viewer in any directory for a quick look at any .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .pcx, .tga, etc file.

Alt-r returns to my desktop and resets to my standard prompt, colour scheme, cursor size & flash rate, and text type.

F9 is my Auto-Complete key. I type the first few letters of a directory or executable file name in the current directory, press F9 and that name will be completed. It is directory aware so that I can auto complete a directory name, add a backslash and a letter, and it will auto complete a subdirectory name within that directory regardless of the drive on which it resides. Finishing up, I can type a few letters of a file name within that remote directory and it too will be completed.

In addition, I can type a command such as REN, the first few letters of a file, then F9, and the file name I wish to change is completed for me. This is done for me via Toddy, a command-line utility similar to DOSKEY, but much more powerful. Toddy also allows me to type the first few letters of a previous command, hit TAB and it will be completed automatically as well.

F10 displays the current directory in wide format, alphabetical order, and with each file type in a different colour.

F11 tags a directory to which I wish to return. F12 returns me there whenever I want, from any drive or directory, anywhere on my computer. This can occur even after a reboot! When returned, a list of the files in that directory is displayed. (See "RETURN.bat" in Advanced Batch Files for a look at how the F11 & F12 batch files work.)

In addition, I have three other key assignments that can be programmed to return to any one of three directories. These are programmed on the fly so that when in any directory, I can hit Alt-Delete, Alt-End, or Alt-Page Down, to tag a directory, To return to any of the three, I hit the equivalent key but instead coupled with the Control key. So as an example, to tag a directory, I can hit Alt-End and to return to it I press Control-End. These three are independent of the F11 & F12 keys described above. I use these three assignments during operations in which I need fast access among several directories - regardless of the drive on which those directories reside. These assignments also survive reboots.

In keeping with the above, Control-F12 toggles back & forth between the current and last directory accessed. This changes as I change directories, so that if I am in my E:\GRAPHICS directory and wish to change to my C:\UTIL directory, I do so via whatever method I choose. Then I can hit Control-F12 to return to E:\GRAPHICS. If however, while in E:\GRAPHICS, I change to E:\TEST, pressing Control-F12 still returns me to C:\UTIL, but pressing Control-F12 again now returns me to the new `last' directory: E:\TEST.

I call this the last example the `A-B' method. The idea was taken from television remote controls that work in the same manner. To explain further: If one is on Channel 3 and wishes to change to Channel 29, `29' is pressed. Hitting the `Recall' button returns one to Channel 3. Further, if one is on 3, goes directly to 29, as above, and while there presses the `Up' button to check the temperature on Channel 30, then presses the `Down' button to return to 29, hitting the recall button still returns one to channel 3 and not 30. This is because the `A' side of the `Recall' operation was never changed from Channel 3 to something else.

Essentially, Channel 3 was programmed into the `A' side of the `Recall' operation, while 29 was programmed to the `B' side. Moving from 29 to 30 and back again via the `Up' and `Down' buttons only changed the `B' side. If the remote had been left on Channel 30 and the `Recall' button pressed to go to Channel 3 then pressed again, Channel 30 would have been the result. Thus pressing `Recall" at any time always returns one to the channel programmed into the opposite slot. In this case, it will be Channel 3 until one either changes 3 by moving up or down and staying at the new channel or by directly entering another number while on Channel 29. Sadly, few remotes work this way any more. They all want to return to the immediately previous channel even if using the `Up' and `Down' buttons. )-:

Getting back to my computer setups, this, and the previous `Directory Return' macros, are examples of dynamic batch file writing in which additional batch files are actually being written (or rewritten) in the background as I press various keys. Each is then ready to return me to where ever I was last, or to any of several directories I had chosen previously. These extra batch files allow me to access information about these changing key assigments and to display them on screen at the touch of a key macro.

Although I won't go into detail here, I use the same technique for a number of other operations such as file editing. Regarding the latter, additional batch files are automatically written during file viewing that will automatically place the name of the most recent one viewed into a batch file so I can edit it should I choose. In all cases, these "sister" batch files track along with the primary ones in that they change as do the primary ones while I work.

Alt-i moves down one level into an IMAGES directory and shows a list. I have many directories containing files that have associated images. This is especially true with my Internet html directories. Whenever I am in any of those directories, a simple ALT-i immediately places me in the images directory associated with those .htm files. To then view any graphic image, I can press ALT-g, as mentioned farther back.

Alt-k. Similar to the above Alt-i, this shortcut moves down one level into a WORK directory and displays any files contained therein. As with the IMAGES directories, I often create WORK subdirectories within many directories. I copy files to the WORK from its parent directory when I wish to preserve a parent directory file as-is until I replace it with the version being worked upon.

This allows me to keep the parent directory uncluttered. Plus, one quick check of any work directory immediately shows me if I have anything on going. The Alt-k shortcut allows this quick check in an effortless way. (I don't use `Alt-w' for this macro because that is programmed to start my word processor.)

Control-l invokes a small DOWN utility that moves down one level to the first available subdirectory. To go to the next sister directory, I have Control-n run a NEXT utility. This way, I can move into each subdirectory in a list without ever having to type the path or even the directory name! Alt-l moves up one level to the next highest directory.

With a combination of the above three, I can move up & down my directory structure at will just by Alt and Control key combinations - again never having to type a path or directory name, should I so choose. In all cases, the directory contents are displayed in alphabetical order, wide format with different colours for each file type. I often employ these after using the Alt-i or Alt-k shortcuts, to quickly return me to the parent directory or move to an adjacent or lower directory.

Alt-z expands any .zip files in the current directory. It keeps the zip file, but my varied key reassignment, Control-z, expands the contents and deletes the .zip file afterwards.

Control-f deletes all files in the current directory with absolutely no questions or prompts. BANG! All gone! An automatic listing after the operation confirms the directory is empty.

That was just a small sampling of the many keyboard reassignments

I have at hand. They do all of my repetitive work and much of the

less typical work I do at the computer. Initially, there was some

thinking involved to recall them all, so of course, I wrote a batch

file to list the macros, in case I forget. (-:

After a while, the key shortcuts become so ingrained that one

no longer really thinks about them. At that point, one becomes

a true power user and can run circles around any GUI interface.

...and now, one final tip:

48/ Buy DOS Books. DOS has been around long enough that many publications are easily available in used books stores at excellent prices. You don't necessarily need one geared to your DOS version because, despite differences, DOS versions have remained true to one another. A good library of books is a must if you are thinking of becoming a power user, or just wish to improve your DOS operating system knowledge. See this website's DOS Publications section to get started.

Be sure to try to find books with included discs. Many will have very useful utilities - even for today. Remember, because DOS has remained true to itself, old DOS programs will run on new versions and new software will run on old DOS versions at least since 1991. This is with few exceptions.

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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Creating Batch Files

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