Unknown Commands And Tricks Of MS-DOS Unveiled

In this blog we have brought together some secret commands of MS-DOS that will prove to be helpful for users in saving their time and efforts.

Command#1: DIR

This command lists all the available files and directories including the ones that are hidden. It displays all the contents of the directory as well as details like last modification time and date, size of the directory.

Command#2: DOSKEY/APPEDIT

This command utilizes the doskey functions in MS-DOS utilities like debug and edlin.
debug command is an external command used to look portions of the system and to write assembly code to perform specified tasks on the system.
Edlin an external command used to edit files in MS-DOS. It can be specified as early version of edit command.

Command#3: FDISK/MBR

This command is used for recreating Master Bootable Record on a hard disk drive. It overwrites the data that is already written on the hard drive. If you want to recreate MBR on a drive other than the primary drive, use FDISK/CMBR. Mention the drive name in .

Command#4: FDISK/PRI

It is used for creating 100 MB DOS partition on the hard disk drive.

Command#5: FORMAT/AUTOTEST

This command is run in order to format a hard drive. It is an external command that wipes out the data from the hard drive.

Command#6: FORMAT/Z:n

This command is used for specifying cluster size in bytes. Here, n is multiplied with 512. It is an external command and is used with FDISK that supports FAT32 file system.

Command#7: MEM/ALL

This command specifies the amount of available space in HMA (High Memory Area). HMA is the first 64 KB of memory beyond 1 MB.

Command#8: TRUENAME

This command is used to display the whole directory of the file before which it is used. For instance if we have a file named test we will give the command TRUENAMEtest and all the directories of test file will be displayed.

Command#9: VER/R

The command states the version of MS-DOS that is presently running and also specifies if DOS is in HMA or not.

Command#10: FDISK/Q

This command prevents the automatic booting of FDISK when it is exited. It is an undocumented command of MS-DOS.

Few Tricks To Work With MS-DOS

Trick#1: Use Tab To Automatically Complete File Names In MS-DOS.
This trick will save unnecessary efforts in typing full names of files and directories in MS-DOS. In the command line type one or two letters of a file name and press the tab key. The names of files and directories will be automatically generated in an alphabetical order. For instance if you are at the C:\> prompt and the following command has been typed:
Cd t
Instead of pressing the enter key after t, press tab. It will generate all the file names starting with letter ‘t’ in an alphabetical manner each time tab is pressed.

Trick#2: Repeat Previous DOS Commands
In MS-DOS, you can quickly repeat previous commands and view history of commands by pressing the arrow keys. For example if you have already run the MEM command, press the Up arrow key to repeat the same command. In the same way pressing the up-arrow will generate all the commands used earlier.

Conclusion
The commands mentioned above are usually not used by as there is a little number of users who are aware of them. The mentioned tricks and commands will help the users to unveil features that were hidden from them till now and will help save their time.