MS DOS - Tips

• Bypass or step through Config.sys and Autoexec.bat

  How to bypass or single step through the startup files Config.sys and Autoexec.bat using the keyboard keys F5 and F8.

• Change the style of the DOS prompt (C:\)

  Description of the options available for styling the DOS prompt.

• Changing the list style of the dir command

  How to change the listing of files and folders when using the dir command with an environment variable.

• Changing the temporary directory

  Description of the temporary directory, and how to change the location using environment variables.

• Check if a file or folder exists

  How to check if a filename or directory exists

• Configure the memory allocated for environment variables

  How to increase the memory available for environment variables at the expense of conventional memory.

• Create FAT32 partitions with size below 512 MByte

  How to get fdisk to create small FAT32 partitions with special parameter.

• Create your own file finder utility

  How to use the FOR keyword in a batch file to search all available partitions for a file mask.

• Create your own sleep / wait program

  How to create your own sleep / wait command, which be used in other batch files.

• Detect if a batch file is executed within Windows

  How to use environment variables to detect that a batch file is executed within Windows.

• Easy compressing and extracting using batch files

  How to wrap a batch file around the pkzip and pkunzip command line utiltities.

• Enhanced DIR that only lists executables

  How to create a batch file that works like a dir command but only lists executables.

• Enlarge the output console screen

  How to change the number of visible lines in a command prompt.

• Environment variables

  Description of environment variables and how to configure them.

• Executing program without specifying path

  Description of the PATH environment variable, and how to configure it.

• MEM with enhanced listing of conventional memory

  Description of the special switch for MEM to diagnose conventional memory usage, and how to put it in a batch file.

• Make disk copy with only one floppy drive

  How to use the diskcopy command to copy floppy disks using only one floppy drive.

• Mapping folder as a virtual drive letter using subst

  Mount a file folder as a drive-letter, like a shortcut to make it easier to access the folder.

• No boot device found or available

  Computer cannot start if no proper boot device exists, or if the active boot device fails.

• Pro and cons for using multiple disk partitions

  Describes the benefits and the costs of using multiple partitions.

• Scandisk command line switches

  List of the available command line switches for scandisk.

• Turn off Himem.sys memory testing

  How to configure Himem.sys so it will not perform memory testing.

• Use multiple DOS startup configurations

  How to configure the config.sys and autoexec.bat to use multiple startup configurations.

• Using Choice to get user interaction

  How to use the Choice program to present a set of options the user can choose from.

• Using ECHO for outputting

  Description of the ECHO command and the possible ways to make output.

• Using Errorlevel to handle program return code

  How to check the ERRORLEVEL variable to get the return code of a program.

• Using FDISK to remove a boot-sector virus

  How to rewrite the master boot record with fdisk to disable a boot-sector virus.

• Using FOR to perform an operation on a file collection

  How to use the FOR keyword to perform an operation on a collection of files that matches a wildcard.

• Using TYPE to create and edit text files

  How to use the TYPE command to perform file manipulation on text files.

• Using batch file input parameters

  How batch files gets input parameters and how to access these parameters in the batch file.

• Using the command prompt as text editor

  How to use the copy command to copy from the keyboard and into a text file.

• Writing a batch file

  How to write a batch file with description of different commands available.