13 DOS commands you NEVER knew you NEEDED!

[@jilbertb]

I started working on computers mid 80's. Started on DOS and TSR's. Retired last year... I recently helped some young kid, get his parents PC's on the 'net using DOS cmds. He was amazed to say the least. I also help neighbors with their machines. Now I'm upgrading all my neighbors to W11, even if the machine doesn't meet hardware req. I don't charge them, but i do get a lot of home-baked goodies! 🎉

[@danmar007]

My experience with the various DOS goes back to 1984. I loved DOS. It was lots of fun to use.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Agreed! then when I learned how to create batch files, there was no looking back lol

[@dingokidneys]

When work rolled out Windows 3 in place of DOS, every morning I'd start the machine then close out of Windows to the DOS prompt. I could get everything done so much faster from there than from poking about in Windows. I finally gave that up when we moved to actual Windows versions of the office software but the command line has always remained my friend especially when I moved to Linux.

[@mick-berry5331]

@@dingokidneys Same here. I felt I had control using the command line. A lot of errors could be pinpointed much easier than in consumer-oriented Windows, where you got a nice box telling you 'Your xyz could not be..." 😁

[@sandyrobbie6046]

​ @AskYourComputerGuy Batch files, Key Macros, Hot Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts etc was what pulled me into the rabbit hole, lol. When I moved from using a dedicated Music Sequencer (Roland MC- 500 mkII) to a DOS version of Cakewalk it sped up my work rate by at least 1000%. Took me a at least a decade to let go of the DOS environment and settle into working solely in the Windows environment. That was only achieved by venturing down a second rabbit hole of tweaking Windows till I felt it was running optimally and had lost the desire to 'Phone Home' every 5 minutes. I HATE using a mouse when I work. Keyboard shorts are way quicker. I still use DOSBOX every once in a while to convert my old Cakewalk and MC 500 files to a format compatible with my present DAW (ProTools) when needed. Thanks for a great channel btw. Handy to have a resource like this for when Microsoft throws its curve balls.

[@tg9754]

Wow, this really takes me back in time. I started using PC's in 1983. We had Dos 2.1 before Windows was developed. I also used Dos 6.2 on Floppies. That's all there was for us at that time.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

I kinda felt old admitting that on camera LOL

[@dh2032]

the days a working OS on a single floppy, it not going to long before a single hard-disk, SSD, will not be big enough no matter how terra-bites it has?

[@ianbirkinhead4103]

@@tg9754 remember Xtree Gold, such power, you could put a file on several disks, which overcame the limitation of a floppy disk. Those days desktop computers were a step into a new world, yet looking back so simplistic and limited. I remember buying a 130mb hard drive and asking the sales guy if it was big enough, to which he replied, “plenty, you’ll never fill that up”.

[@ookami-chan3328]

I used MS DOS on my family PC back then as a kid. Then we sold our PC and after years what I got was win 98 -> 2000 -> XP in just a few years which was quite a jump. To this day I use command prompt from time to time, lots of stuff you can only do there and also it feels quite nostalgic 😅

[@senior_ranger]

Back in mid-1990s I did tech support in a call center. Anytime I got an uppity customer who thought he knew more than I did, I'd take him into DOS and troubleshoot from there. They instantly became docile and did exactly what they were told.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Shhhh! That's inside information! 😂😂😂

[@ethimself5064]

🤣🤣🤣

[@ookami-chan3328]

lol power move 😂

[@williamgorsich150]

You signed nda

[@dannybaker8030]

Ahhh... my best memory of the 90s were the 'Sysop from Hell' stories....

[@maxmuster7003]

The most powerfull DOS command is DEBUG. I began to learn how to use debug on a 80286 CPU. Debug was the first DOS command that i used. I came from a Comodore C64 programming in assembly 6502 CPU and it was easy to switch to x86 assembly. Today i am on an android tablet with a DosBox app installed and the emulation of x86 on an ARM CPU works great. I use DosBox to program tiny x86 executable files (using debug download/unzip) and i put all instructions into batch files for open source projects. I made some videos(no speech) to show how it works and to share the projects. Have fun.😊

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Nice!

[@Carol_in_Spain]

My computer usage goes back before DOS. I started computer programming in 1966 using 80 column punch cards and paper tape. When DOS came in it was new technology for us.

[@SandcastleDreams]

My deceased husband's father used to do that! You must be ancient! And I'm an old fart! 😂 I was 7 years old at the time.

[@dingokidneys]

The first program I wrote in year 11 (1977) was on punch cards run on an HP 3000 minicomputer. I didn't terminate my loop and ended up with a HEAP of printout. I learned from that experience.

[@Carol_in_Spain]

@@SandcastleDreams I am 77. I left school in 1966 and started work in computers. Everyone said "Why are you doing that? There is no future in those things" 😂

[@dannybaker8030]

@@dingokidneys Ouch! That was back when we paid for our processor usage!! My pet peeve is when I was in a hurry do didn't number my cards... well, being in a rush ya know I was gonna drop them!!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@dannybaker8030 😂

[@MrBobWareham]

This takes me back, when I built my first computer I used DOS6, I remember my first boot up with a blank screen and a, C:\ in the corner and thought now what, thanks for the memory.

[@AussieD7902]

Thanks for the video on this topic. I knew about dos, but had virtually forgotten about it. Not only have I learnt things from your videos, but have been reminded of others forgotten. (I'm in my late 60s and figure it's a good excuse to forget LOL) Thanks again !! 👍👍

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@CathrineMacNiel]

Soo many Windows user should watch this video. Its full of good knowledge that can prevent a costly walk to a repair shop (or outright a purchase of a new computer). And I say this as a Linux user. For the last point, you can use `sudo` now, also NEVER run an entire console session as Administrator/root and don´t change the Run always as Administrator setting on cmd.exe, as others (a hacker or virus) can also just use it that way.

[@mughug9616]

Command Prompt is officially called Windows Command Processor, but it's also sometimes referred to as ​the command shell or cmd prompt, or even by its filename, cmd.exe. Command Prompt is sometimes incorrectly referred to as "the DOS prompt" or as MS-DOS. Command Prompt is a Windows program that emulates many of the command line abilities available in MS-DOS, but it's not MS-DOS.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@HecsBox]

You went from DOS to Windows 95, skipping the OG Windows and then Windows for Workgroups... timeless classics.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Yeah I'm gonna catch hell for it too lol

[@dennispope1323]

Windows for Workgroups... Didn't that also earn the moniker "Windows for Warehouses"? 😂

[@Ivan_Glamdryng]

@@AskYourComputerGuy I was but I will let you slide. This Time! 😉

[@USBIKER26]

@@AskYourComputerGuy Also Windows 3.0 and 3.1

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@USBIKER26 yep 👍

[@albertlim5675]

I have used IBM PC Dos, MS Dos and DR Dos back in the 80s

[@goboltz26]

you left out trsdos from the Trash-80's ! use edlin and revise your list ! lol

[@steves1749]

In the early 90’s I had a IBM PC. No windows yet. You had to use DOS commands to do everything. I recall building a little program launcher to run Word and Lotus 1-2-3. Which i used daily.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Damn I remember Lotus 1-2-3...#flashback

[@dannybaker8030]

@@AskYourComputerGuy I was a Quattro Pro guy...

[@dannybaker8030]

Back then Word Perfect installed at 1.2 mb, Lotus at 1.4mb and I had a 10 mb drive!!! Woot! what does a guy do wiith all tha space?!! Leisure Suit Larry I guess...

[@asd67lkj]

@@dannybaker8030 I.also was a WP fan.. Also, actually got LLL out to the end ,once. LOL

[@dannybaker8030]

@@asd67lkj I was actually a Quattro Pro guy to be honest

[@Knards]

If sfc /scannow doesn't fix corrupt files, run the DISM command, then run SFC again. SFC depends on the health of the system image to fix corrupt files

[@Jito463]

I ended up writing a .cmd file that I drop into System32 (because command prompt automatically starts there by default), which runs through various DISM fixes and ends with SFC. Comes in so handy, I just do it on every computer I work on now, even if they don't need it at the time.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@Jito463 that's a great idea for future maintenance!

[@redfields5070]

Where is the known good system that DISM compares mine to?

[@Jito463]

@@redfields5070 It compares to an online archive on Microsoft servers. You can restrict internet access and point it to a local install, but I prefer to just let it connect online.

[@jasondrummond9451]

I learned to program on an IBM mainfraime using Fortran and the WatFour and WatFive compilers, 'way back in the mid 70's. In the mid 80's I got my first personal computer - a second hand Commodore 64, where you loaded programs from floppy, or programmed your own stuff using BASIC. I also typed in the ML code for programs published in RUN magazine. My first PC was a Windows 3.11 machine - where you often had to dig into DOS to get things to work - it is still useful!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

After all these years, 100% 👍

[@DamnableReverend]

Use the command line every day on multiple computers. Quickest way to get a lot of stuff done. I'm in my early forties but started using computers at a pretty young age, and it was pretty hard for me to get used to a GUI. Besides the dos-like commands that are still a part of windows, you can download some pretty useful thrid party command line utilities. One of my favourites is ffmpeg. But the list is endless -- and even moreso if you use LInux instead of windows, of course. never thought of using the Type command in the way you describe here. That's pretty cool actually. A neat trick if you dont' want to open a command window and want to issue a command that makes some output in a list especally is to issue the command from the run box, where you can use the > symbol to send the output to a file of your choosing.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Very true! There's tons more advanced features, but for my mostly novice audience, I tried to keep it to the basic stuff that would be most helpful for everyday needs 👍

[@johnwesley256]

Great job on the video! I'm still a noob at DISM due to not needing to use it very often. Great Job! Hmmm... Maybe you should do batch next.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Heard 👍

[@DaveITGuy]

Windows 3.1 was my first O/S.

[@johnmeneses7039]

Actually Windows 3.1 was overlayed on MS Dos and you still had to boot up using an MS Dos autoexec.bat and Config.sys files.

[@mickgibson370]

@@johnmeneses7039 It is still there!

[@TonyFisher-lo8hh]

Win ;3.1 was about the first Win that really worked.

[@Alddyn]

Same...🤜

[@shiriajin]

Would you like a beer? 😂

[@Landvq5rx]

I really love your videos. Thank you for your contribution to the world.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Wow! What a compliment!!! Thank you for the support 👍 ❤️

[@julzm7067]

Telling the machine what you want it to do as opposed to figuring out where someone hid that?! Too logical!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@Chakrawat-Pakshii]

अजुनही असं म्हणता येईल कां, की आधुनिक ‘Windows 11’ सारखी गणक पद्धती ही ‘DOS’ पद्धतीवरच आधारलेली आहे? फक्त अनुवादित अशी?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

That's a judgement call, depends on who you ask. What's important is that there are "alternate" tools (not just Windows tools"). That was the point of the video. Thanks for your comment!

[@bkrich]

DISM and SFC are related, run DISM first to restore health, then run SFC /scannow because that’s what SFC will use to fix files, this is why SFC fails often fails because the image is old or not working properly.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Excellent points 👍

[@whatzause]

This video was helpful, even though I already knew some of those commands. But you gave additional detail which was very good. I hope you will make that other video that you discussed (somewhere at approx 19:30) in your video, which describes copying things to a flash drive. I'd really like to have that, and I have subscribed!

[@maxmuster7003]

My last file that i made is PACMAN.BAT and it is a tiny animation for the command prompt using 3 * 8 = 24 extended ASCII used as User character bios function. The body of the PACMAN is placed inside of 2 character with 8x16 character size and each step the body move 1 pixel to the right side into a third character softly while open and close the mouth. After 8 * 3 steps we use the next right location on screen to repeat all again drawing the 3 ASCII at once, but 8 times with the next triple of character.

[@goboltz26]

most common edits for me back then were emm386.bat config.sys or highmem.sys !

[@tubeDude48]

Many of these commands can be listed by typing: help at the prompt line. Why sfc isn't listed, I don't know! But I can see why DISM isn't. Should also note you can type: the command, then help after it. An exception is: sfc- you MUST type: help sfc for that to work!

[@Jito463]

Alternatively, just add /? after any command you want the flags for. So 'sfc /?' would show the command flags for SFC. Same with DISM, same with any of them.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@Jito463 agreed! I was planning on doing a deeper dive into command, prompt actions and definitely including that 👍

[@Chakrawat-Pakshii]

as regards, the ‘Ping’ response, does the time lag depends on the number of users those have had connected with the site, and gets poorer as the users get adding on?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

It absolutely can, yes. But a website like KZbin, Google or Yahoo would have to have millions more suddenly on the platform during your test to make a noticeable difference - great question!

[@danbromberg]

Good video, but it would've been more helpful had you put the command names next to your timestamps.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Heard 👍

[@maxmuster7003]

DosBox emulates a PC with intel 80386/80387 CPU, a lot of hardware components and MS DOS 5.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@markgreen2170]

if you liked dos, y'all might like freedos ...i have a freedos virtual machine in virtual box with synchronet bbs software installed ...haven't got ppp or modem yet ...just going to pipe to a terminal, running sshd ...haven't messed around with it in a while

[@LairdComanche]

I used MS-DOS 5.0, 5.22, Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows 7, and now Windows 10 - I am NOT happy with installing Windows 11 ... Liked your video, there is one improvement though: Before you run the SFC /scannow run the DISM ... restorehealth - because that refreshes the image to the latest version witch is used by SFC to verify the Systemfiles.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Fair point 👍

[@Jito463]

Your history with MS looks a lot like mine, except I jumped straight to DOS 6.22 (actually started on Amiga), briefly ran ME (for one week), ran Win2K for quite a while before finally switching to XP and also ran Vista before going to Windows 7. While I do have to use Windows 11 at work, because we're a computer store and it's the current version of Windows, I refuse to use it on my home PC. As for DISM, I prefer to run it in stages before proceeding to SFC. /checkhealth /scanhealth /restorehealth Checkhealth checks to see if the image reports any corruption. Scanhealth is probably duplicated with restorehealth, but follows up checkhealth with a scan to confirm if it's healthy. Then restorehealth obviously does what it says.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@Jito463 good tips!

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

5:35 ... It should be noted that not all versions of Windows install Ping by default. You can add it by going to Control Panel --- Programs and Features, then Windows Features and checking the "Simple TCPIP Services" item. This will enable Ping and a whole bunch of other really cool trouble shooting commands.

[@jennifercase9306]

had that Crazy Blue screen. oddly was the fact there were other things like AMD Processor I7 One older even the AMD Put the system on the one that works and Device Manager open Hidden remove all of them and then install drive into new system and will process the new hardware. This is what Mostly takes place Conflicts with older processors

[@rhondae8222]

I appreciate this information. Thank you. 🙂

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

You're welcome!!!

[@asd67lkj]

Thanks for that information. Saved in YT. Do you have a text file with those commands, or do I have to go through. page by page , and create a text file?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Each of them can be found here, great resource! www.lifewire.com/dos-commands-4070427

[@LarsV62]

I wouldn't recommend doing that final tip due to security vulnerabilities. You don't want to accidentally run a command as administrator when the command you use has built-in safety limitations and actually notify you that the option you want to use needs administrator access. Instead, use the standard command line and prefix any command that needs administrator access with the "RUNAS" command. Supply user credentials for a user in the administrators group and password after their parameter switches, and the actual command last.

[@Tio_Loco]

I still have my purchased copy of Spinrite 6.0.. Sometimes it would take 5 or 6 days to go through a Terrabyte HD. But unless there were lots of damaged sectors, Spinrite would save the partition.

[@Loader7272]

the dev has an update for spinrite. 👍

[@Loader7272]

the dev has an update for spinrite. 👍

[@maxmuster7003]

The modern Windows terminal is light years far from MS DOS. Most of the Windows commands not exist in MS DOS or have other switches. Windows is running in the protected mode of the CPU and in a graphic mode of the display device, but DOS is running in the real address mode of the CPU and in the vga text mode. This is a significant difference. The DOS user is free to use all hardware components directly without to get a message of a protection violation. But in Windows the user is inside of a (1984 knocking on your door) concentration camp surrounded with watch towers and electric barbe wires while some of the pig brothers are watching you.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@goboltz26]

lol, nice ! Why does it sound like you just described "wolfenstein 3d" ! !

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@goboltz26 😂

[@stephenlipton525]

Wow Scott you are a youngster :-) I go back to dos 3.1 and DR-Dps which was Digital Research Dos.. Our friend Mr Gates didn't event invent Dos. but yeah Great Video And yes... an old dog has actually learnt a new trick. SFC Keep up the good work!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

LOL yes sir!

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

DOS was a rewrite of CPM (Control Program -for- Microcomputers) written almost a decade earlier by DEC.

[@asd67lkj]

@@Douglas_Blake_579 one of my earlier computers, a Commodore 128, used CPM way before I bought an "IBM" type PC....LOL We must be VERY old,

[@nuk1964]

@@Douglas_Blake_579 CP/M -- Control Program/Monitor, then later Control Program for Microcomputer -- created by Gary Kildall of Digital Research in 1974 Originally made for use on computers based on the 8-bit Intel 8080/8085 CPU (as well as "workalike" CPUs like the Zilog Z-80). PC/MS-DOS would be built from Seattle Computer Product's QDOS -- which was a "clone" of CP/M made for the (then new) 16-bit Intel 8086 CPU (made at a time before Digital Research released their version of CP/M-86 for Intel 8086). Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, CP/M was a "de-facto" standard -- primarily since it served as a "common ground" for application software -- that is, once you had application software that run on CP/M, and that software didn't have any hardware/firmware dependencies for a specific brand/make of computer -- that software can be run on pretty much *any* computer for which CP/M was available.

[@BrunoBaronet]

Great video and reminder, thanks!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

My pleasure!

[@ContantContact]

Yeah, nothing there that I didn't know already. I was using computers before DOS existed. Now using Linux Mint.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Understood. Also understand this channel isn't for those of us who eat, sleep and breathe computers, it's primarily for a novice audience. Speaking of Mint, how do you like it? Considering my Linux distro options for some upcoming "migrate to Linux" videos. I'm pretty set on Mint for usability, any negatives from your end that might be worth mentioning?

[@ContantContact]

@@AskYourComputerGuy Ah yes, Mint. Love it. I wiped Windows on at least 6 machines here, and put Mint on after a short trial. Then, with hardware problems on the two HP x360s I was using 2.5 years ago (when I did the switch), I received a new Framework 16 on Mau1, and put Linux Mint Edge on it. And copied all the files AND settings (email, browser history, everything), and also did my customization for Mint. Everything worked fine, even better since the FW 16 is a faster machine with 64 GB RAM and plenty of disk. I actually believe and know I have a better setup for usability for the kind of work I do, which is office type work, social media, cloud and application in the cloud work. Some of the software I have added is awesome..a lot of it is frankly. I do not currently do gaming, but may do a little if I ever get free time. It might seem crazy, but in Firefox I have 277 tabs open now. I just do too many things roughly at the same time.... I'd like to get it back down to 100 or so. LOL. I really doubt that I will ever use MS or even Apple in the future.

[@Angry13369]

When running cleanup image restore health how will u know if there was a file thT was corrupted will it give u a % where the file was found

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Unfortunately, no.

[@bcBiz]

Used Windows 3.0 iin th elate 1980s Great tips, thanks!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

You bet 👍

[@RealBrotherGG]

Dos started introducing management guis where a user could define often used locations , batch scripts etc, it was around 6.1 i think , dos shell i believe was the first step above msdos. I dont know if anyone actually used it. I was just a kid who had to run everything that once i learned the dos manual on the old 4 color cga packard bell that my family had purchased, i took over to play sierra games

[@visitandolosclasicos]

Well the first dos GUI from m$ was windows 3.0 not windows 95, earlier versions used a text screen based interface to create the windows and objects on screen (windows 1 to windows 386)

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@alabasterdrgn]

Something you failed to properly relate, as have many others regarding dism and sfc is that the work in conjunction. Until I learned that they are dependent I never got either to do much. They are dependent in the sense that the image that dism is managing is the source that sfc is using to compare. If the image is damage and you don't fix that first, then sfc will return that it found corrupt files but was unable to repair them. It's kind of like if you have a flat tire and you jack up the car and take off the damaged tire with out first making sure that you have a usable spare first. If you spare is flat or damaged, then you have completely wasted you time taking the first tire off the car. If you have not had much success with dism fixing problems it's probably because you did things in the right order. I totally understand this as I felt the same way about sfc not repairing files, until I learned the proper order of things. To be fair, many out there in the tech world seem to think everyone just know what they know and assume you know what order to do things in. Failing to understand that you might have lots of experience with tech, but not run into these exact circumstances. I.E. assuming you know the order.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Fair 👍

[@techlifebio]

Good tips. Often the profile corruption is not actually corruption but just a hiccup that prevented windows from starting up properly while loading the profile (not necessarily permanent corruption) and rather than have to start with a fresh profile and all the work getting it set up right, you can just find the path to your old profile in the registry. It will have I think from memory the word ".bak" appended to it. You just rename the key by deleting ".bak" from the name. Then restart. Probably safe to do this from a complete new profile so use your trick to setup a new profile, but don't bother setting it up just go straight to regedit and fix the path name for your previous profile. Google for more complete instructions but that's the gist of it. Various things can cause Windows to decide the profile can't be loaded and create a new blank profile for that user as a safety measure. But the old profile including not just it's files, but it's reference in the registry is still there able to be restored.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Good point! Just trying to appeal to the novices who wouldn't have a clue how to do any of that...but you're 100% right 👍

[@techlifebio]

@@AskYourComputerGuy absolutely, the commands you listed are very useful and well within the novice's reach. Just thought I'd mention about the profile fix in case any one reading decides they want to try and recover their profile without setting up from scratch. At the end of the day a blank profile is a way to get back into a working gui so a very useful tip.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@techbio excellent tip, I appreciate that and I'm sure my viewers will as well 👍

[@USBIKER26]

Another neat command is "shutdown /r /fw /t 1" This will restart to the computer Bios.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

I did consider that one 👍

[@danbromberg]

Any tips for how to do a clean shutdown if the PC freezes?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Press and hold the power button for 10-30 seconds

[@maxmuster7003]

In MS DOS we can open, read, write and close files. If we open a file in MS DOS and regular terminate our executable with the exit function, then DOS close all open files, else a not closed file get lost if the CPU is froozen. So it is a good programming practice to close the file that we had opened as fast as possible.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@maxmuster7003 👍

[@maxmuster7003]

I think no "clean" shutdown is possible if the Windows PC is froozen.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

True

[@colinmaharaj]

I started with dos 4.01, then dos 6, and programmed with turbo C for dos

[@dh2032]

what happen to windows 1 2, 3, 3.11, and even dosshell, that taged on some of the later ms-dos'es,

[@akoayisangogag]

Command prompt is an emulator? When did that happen? It's a command interface like terminal in linux and macos.

[@ndotl]

If it is not mentioned: Disk Operating System. The OS resides on disk. It was preceded by Tape Operating System, or TOS. P.S: Windows 3.1 was the first usable version of Windows. It came before Win95. With Win3.1, you had to terminate programs in the order you opened them. Failing to do so would cause a system crash, which I believe was due to a mismanaged program stack. It was not until Windows NT that it was clear that Microsoft had their act together.

[@mick-berry5331]

NT was actually designed new from the ground up without requiring DOS elements. It introduced a new file system as well. I think they used elements of UNIX.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@ndotl]

@@mick-berry5331 NT: New Technology

[@ndotl]

@@mick-berry5331 NT: New Technology

[@CathrineMacNiel]

@@mick-berry5331 yup, NT was for a while POSIX compatible.

[@Sonya_Makepeace]

I always add lines to the hosts file. It's to stop programs phoning home. My Hosts file has more than a few lines, more like 500.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Same here, but we are both experts. My videos are made for a more novice crowd who likely doesn’t have, or shouldn’t have, a crowded host file.

[@TropicalCoder]

Very useful information, only you start your video showing a blue screen, then the first thing you talk about is checking your hosts file. This will do nothing to fix a blue screen.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Not every DOS command I cover fixes every Windows issue. But having an infected hosts file is a clue to what might be causing the problem. It's a first step in diagnosis, not a guaranteed solution. I have other videos on how to resolve other Windows issues 👍

[@SeekNKnow]

Level 1 Tech Support achieved.

[@NoRageGuy]

I had a lot of fun with 'DR-DOS' & 'Multitasking MS-DOS 4.0' with EMM386 ( loaded with the /MULTI option) before I got access to Windows NT 3.1 🤔

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Nice 😂

[@dr2man]

Can you provide a list of these commands?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

www.lifewire.com/dos-commands-4070427

[@ravani_]

... the fact that i've not only used all of these but actually have batch scripts relying on them and some also providing a navigable menu for command options i often use... i feel old

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

😂

[@maxmuster7003]

For DosBox i download/unzip the choice command for a menu with checking the errorlevel in reverse order highest first. The set command of DOS is not made for user input.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@maxmuster7003 👍

[@bernardmueller5676]

Windows 10/11 is still layered on DOS.Sigh. OS/2 was the right way. All new. Now we have Linux. Great.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@Redlined997_C2S]

I remember having fun with Win 03 and WFWG

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

I just have nightmares (literally) about OS2/Warp. Weren't those good times? LOL

[@Redlined997_C2S]

@@AskYourComputerGuy Indeed!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Those were the days, huh?

[@Redlined997_C2S]

@@AskYourComputerGuy Indeed! Playing with expanded and extended memory.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@Redlined997_C2S OMG yes! Having to allocate one and another...those wee the days, huh???

[@Loady420]

NO WINDOWS??? dude win 3.11 FWG's was the windows that anyone under DOS 6 used. Also in DOS I used Norton Commander witch turned DOS into a GUI it was the best system I had and a CPU X286 at 3MHZ lol

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@robertfoster3214]

Thank you great information l didn't know know about cmd you can do keep it coming

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Glad it helped!

[@ionamygdalon2263]

Could you add on the video description the command that deletes temp files as it is very long? Basically so that one can copy and paste it on his or her Command Prompt. Sorry for the second comment, but I thought this would help most viewers who are not well versed in CLIs...

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

I will try to grab that today if I can, what I would suggest is to just pause the video and type it as shown. I’ll see what I can do.!

[@ionamygdalon2263]

@@AskYourComputerGuy Yes, that is a good alternative 👍 Keep uploading awesome stuff 😁

[@maxmuster7003]

In MS DOS we can use DELTREE and MD to delete the folder and make a new folder. But Windows is crazy and use to much folder for temp files.

[@deucedeuce1572]

Love that Malwarebytes command. I never knew about that. I should check if others do and learn what the options are. That's the kind of things that our security programs need to have. I know Norton can be run from disk without windows at all... but sometimes there are better options.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Agreed! Glsd you found it useful 👍

[@trueriver1950]

And Windows users laugh at Linux for having command line terminals as standard The advantage is that you get some practice using the command line. But that's too much effort for most Windies.

[@maxmuster7003]

I used Debian with a buffered frame buffer device fb0 in 1024x768x32 with a Matrox MGA 4 mb vram but no gui, just the terminal and some executable made with nasm to write directly into the framebuffer.

[@richallen6764]

If I cannot login to Windows, how do I get to a command prompt to run net user for a new account? Will this new account remember all of my settings?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Try CTRL ALT DEL and if you can get to task manager, you can run CMD from there. The new account will remember your programs, probably very few settings. But at least you can get into Windows and start to rebuild, as well as not lose any personal files

[@itz_arnab1478]

Got a 8y old laptop, with win10 innit, wanna dual boot on two different drives (win on SSD) (ubuntu on HDD). BIOS is in legacy boot (MBR scheme) installed ubuntu on HDD using MBR BIOS in legacy. After restart bootloader choice dosent show up. Always booting to windows. How do i fix it without changing to GPT scheme boot to UEFI and setting priority.

[@Nick41622]

A strange thing happened to my Acer laptop this morning. It was stuck on the Acer logo & would not go any further. I held down the left shift key & forced a hard shutdown, then got into the blue recovery screen, from there I restored it back & now it is working fine again. I have no idea why this happened, it was working fine last night.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Short answer Windows 😂

[@AussieD7902]

Two occasions in the past in the past 5 days, I had the opposite. The computer would not shut down, with the "shutting down" spiral continuing to spin. If it happens again, I will investigate it further. (win 10 machine)

[@Nick41622]

​@@AussieD7902 I have had that happen to my PC once or twice. I just thought it may have been doing something. I'm from Australia too.👍

[@AussieD7902]

@@Nick41622 G'day fellow Aussie. I have had a computer that wont start on the odd occasion, this was the only times one wouldn't shut down.

[@Nick41622]

​@@AussieD7902 G'day fellow Aussie to you too. I think sometimes PCs seem to have a mind of their own.

[@LeatVanillaFuture]

dos 6.22 had copy and xcopy what is the difference?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Basically the same. Xcopy has more features

[@sandyrobbie6046]

Dos 6.22 had a feature that if you typed HELP or something similar at the prompt , it would display a list of all the DOS commands along with the correct Syntax etc.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@sandyrobbie6046 yep! Or you can type the command followed by /?

[@Realistoldschool-bm6fb]

Flight simulator,hitch hikers guide to the galaxy, and many more on floppy disk 5.25 and 3.5 inch

[@tomfreeman2456]

the first iteration of windows was windows 3.0 then 3.1 then 3.1.1 ,,these were the ones i used i didnot want to cause I WAS a DOS MAN AT THE TIME I laso worked with DOC, TOS and OS I knpw I am aging myself but athe time of the writing oct 25, 2024 I have bee using computers for 52 years (talk about a dinosor eh.!!!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Us dinosaurs have to stick together! 😂

[@OBrienFamly]

I think I may still have my dos3.1 install disks lying around here somewhere

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Nice! They might be worth some $ if still good LOL

[@KirbyONeilDJSpeed]

Thanks for this Video , some good ones , but on using some commands it just give a demo, on the command's but didn't run them, do I have to have user, not administration Prompt?, Windows Key and X give me a list, so then Picked Command prompt (Admin) is that Why?..

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Sorry, not 100% understanding your question, if you don't mind clarifying. Usually when the command doesn't "run", it's because you didn't type the switches needed (example: sfc without the /scannow option will just show some examples of how to run the command). Maybe that will help answer?

[@bthurmond]

It's not a secret. It's not "underground." It's a good thing it's there!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

For most Windows users, it's more of a secret if they don't know it exists or how to use it 👍

[@maxtrac1]

Can these commands also run in power shell?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Most, if not all

[@maxtrac1]

@@AskYourComputerGuy Thanks.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@maxtrac1 you bet 👍

[@bikeny]

Command # 2 reminds me of the scenes in The Hunt For Red October when the 2 subs are communicating. "Give me a ping, Vasily. One ping only, please."

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

LOL that was absolutely my inspiration for including that. One of my favorite films ever!!!

[@bikeny]

@@AskYourComputerGuy There must be something in the water or the air because ASK LEO just posted a video on the command.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@bikeny good creators copy, great creators steal. There’s no trademarking ideas and, I fully support any other tech KZbinr who wants to put their own spin on content. Leo is a great guy.

[@RayGeroski]

Is chkdsk still valid in the age of SSD?

[@gibbomonster1545]

Yes... just because your disk is an SSD, doesn't change the fact that file system errors can occur. Back in fat16/fat32 day, chkdsk was looking for cross-linked files and un-alloccated sectors. With NTFS, chkdsk now now looks at indexes, security descriptors and the uniqune sequence number journel ( i think USN = unique sequence number) as well as the over-all logical file/directory structures. As far as I'm aware, and I'm probably wrong, it's not a good thing (TM) to get chkdsk to check for surface defects on an SSD. I don't know off the top of my head if chkdsk will run a surface scan if it detects an SSD, if ppl know, please comment.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Excellent answer, thank you. Not 100% about chkdsk /r on SSD. I don't see how it would harm, but also not sure it helps either

[@SeeJayPlayGames]

@@AskYourComputerGuy it harms them because the process of writing to NAND flash cells slowly wears them out. Granted the endurance is rated in TBW (terabytes written) and with most good drives you should be fine for years, but any time you write to the drive it's (ever so) slowly wearing it out. Running chkdsk shouldn't really impact it much, and if you've got errors, you really don't have much of a choice. *But absolutely do NOT run defrag on an SSD* - it won't help performance at all, and it's a fast road to wearing out the NAND flash. I wonder how much impact a Windows swap file has on SSD durability. I don't know, I run a zRAM swap on Linux myself, so I've completely avoided that issue. But I did run Windows for a while, with a swapfile on the disk. At least the drive had a DRAM cache (which not only helps with speed but also durability by helping to minimize write cycles).

[@sandyrobbie6046]

I hate CHKDSK with a passion. After a power outage it ran automatically at bootup and decimated my System Drive. Fortunately I had software called ""Partition Table Disk Doctor 5.61" iirc which enabled me to get me up and running after a few hours. This happened in the middle of a project for a client who had deadlines etc. My Norton GHOST System Backup was outdated as I had installed/ upgraded most of my Software just prior to starting the project and didn't update my system backup. Lesson learned, LOL. Mistake owned but will never change my opinion of CHKDSK. USE with Caution. I think I was running WinXP at that time. Newer Windows versions aren't as 'trigger-happy' with CHKDSK. Active Uneraser by LSoft is excellent data retrieval Software btw. Acronis True Image is excellent for backing up your system and other drives.

[@georgebaker8108]

keep tyhe commands on the screen longer so we can copy them into a file. very helpful info.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

I appreciate that. Noted for future reference 👍

[@sacshellpolk1168]

thanks!

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Welcome!

[@mqcapps]

What about xcopy v diskcopy...

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Diskcopy is good, I think xcopy is better, more advanced features

[@sandyrobbie6046]

@@AskYourComputerGuy Norton Commander is a great File Manger/Command Centre for DOS. The Menu can be Customised as well. Saved me much time during troubleshoots. Norton Utilities for Dos as well. Once managed to save a crashed stiffy by editing a few hex characters of one of the FAT Tables iirc. That enabled me to see and copy data from the disk.

[@maxmuster7003]

The CPU have a virtual x86 mode or v86 mode running in the 32 bit protected mode of the CPU. In the v86 mode Windows can executate some 16 bit DOS executable. So if we have no graphic driver in 32 bit Windows installed and try to run a DOS executable that want to get the vbe mode numbers from the graphic bios it failed. But with the graphic driver installed (radeon or geforce) Windows let our program get the mode numbers from the graphic card bios, like in MS DOS using the Real Address Mode. But 32 bit Windows never let us switch into these graphic modes using the VBE bios.😂

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

😂

[@mjouwbuis]

Command line interpreters are usually called shells nowadays. This may be handy for the viewer to know.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@leatherwiz]

You owe me a beer and a painkiller 😂 I’m old enough to remember computers when the didn’t have a gui….

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Fine 😂

[@ViciousZee]

My friend, 34 is not sooo old 😂 and I used windows 3.1 and 3.11 before windows95..

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

😂💪

[@yawzy4118]

...DOS goes back further then win 95..goes all way back to Win3.11..I cut my PC teeth on an IBM PS2 running Windows 3.11 in DOS 6.22 environment.. quickly upgrading to Windows 98..the year was 2000/2001...at the time of windows 2000 NT going out and ME(last DOS based OS) Into XP...ah, the memories!

[@Dark_Knight_USA]

Greetings: 03:04- Wrong. There was OS prior Win95... Win 3 and variants.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Correct. Relevant to the story, not relevant to the content of the video 👍

[@Dark_Knight_USA]

@@AskYourComputerGuy Greetings: It discussed Win OS Pre millennial so I added that info. Otherwise we'll presented. Bsafe

[@roncaruso931]

OK, so we see the hosts file, and it looks strange. What do we do? Delete the file?

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

There are free host file editors you can download and remove the extra items. Consult a local pro for what the entries mean and whether it's worth a service call

[@MathiasYmagnus]

Thank you

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

You're welcome

[@ethimself5064]

You sure got the comments and replies a humming👍 - 👍

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Happens every time I mispeak...every expert in the world feels they need to point it out 🤷‍♂️

[@ethimself5064]

@@AskYourComputerGuy And I thought it was due to the subject matter. 🤔

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

@ethimself5064 maybe that too. Everyone is an expert

[@HughRailey]

Dos was stable, windows emulates stability by using a world of memory, Linux can run on a fraction of memory .

[@gags730]

LOAD "$",8,1 He forgot this one... 🤣

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

😂

[@1906Farnsworth]

DDOSBox is an actual thing. A program to allow DOS programs to run in Windows that otherwise could not, such as older games. V. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOSBox

[@kewldadsf]

FYI Windows 95 isn’t even close to being the first MicroSoft Windows operating system. Windows 95 was released 10 years after the release and use of Windows 1.0 11/1985. Windows operating systems proliferated the market for years before 95 showed up.

[@djburris1961]

Actually, it's NOT DOS. It will run some DOS commands, but you CANNOT run ANY DOS programs in it.

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

👍

[@SandcastleDreams]

Yeah, I was getting all excited about maybe being able to figure out how to run After Dark Ganes again, LOL! Cause if DOS is still in there...sigh, never mind! It was just a pipe dream. I miss Mowin Maniac and Toaster Run. And dang it! Nobody came out with an updated version!

[@CathrineMacNiel]

@@SandcastleDreams Dosbox can´t run those games?

[@SandcastleDreams]

@@CathrineMacNiel Evidently not! Maybe Linux genius can figure out how to make Linux version?

[@VeggyZ]

Yes I did know - because I grew up with Windows 3.1, lol.

[@Realistoldschool-bm6fb]

I remember dos in the early 80s and playing infocom games

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

Nice 👍

[@Realistoldschool-bm6fb]

The telephone modem to connect to play doom , the Ti 99 4a, Commador , Timex sinclar ,Atari home computer

[@HoundDogMech]

Would have been nice if you had made CHAPTERS Boss

[@AskYourComputerGuy]

There are time stamps in the description 👍

[@RoadToTheCup]

DOS the main part of Windows 95