By André Faust
System commands are commands that can be run from the command prompt or in linux terminology Terminal. the Commands to be similar to DOS. DOS before the days of Windows was standalone operating which was initialized with command.com.
The early programs under DOS the visual interface was dependent on A.S.C.I.I. ( American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters for the visual appearance. in figure 1 show is a screen shot of word Perfect 5.1. As can be seen the graphics are low quality compared to what we have today.
In 1993 Microsoft deployed Windows 3.1 Fig 2. it was one of the GUI (Graphic User Interface),e however it was almost Identical to the Mac Classic. Apple launched a lawsuit against Microsoft which dragged on for years..
DOS (Disk Operating System) was still then OS (Operating System) with Windows 3.1 running on top of it. 1995 was the release date for Windows 95, in 98 Windows 98 introduced into the market, in 99 Windows 98 SE deployed to the consumer market.
All three versions of Windows 9x sere still running on top of DOS the change came with windows millennium in 2000 where Microsoft change the architecture of the Operating system to incorporate DOS in the architecture. the result is that DOS and the windows operating system are the same.
While on the surface the commands may look like DOS, it isn’t. No longer the operating system separate form the windows kernel
Fig 3 is Windows 10 with the command prompt, will it may look like dos commands it isn’t
Below are all the command prompt commands, some of the commands will work with earlier Window versions, but not all.
| System Commands | Description |
| ASSOC | Displays or modifies file extension associations. |
| ATTRIB | Displays or changes file attributes. |
| BREAK | Sets or clears extended CTRL+C checking. |
| BCDEDIT | Sets properties in boot database to control boot loading. |
| CACLS | Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files. |
| CALL | Calls one batch program from another. |
| CD | Displays the name of or changes the current directory. |
| CHCP | Displays or sets the active code page number. |
| CHDIR | Displays the name of or changes the current directory. |
| CHKDSK | Checks a disk and displays a status report. |
| CHKNTFS | Displays or modifies the checking of disk at boot time. |
| CLS | Clears the screen. |
| CMD | Starts a new instance of the Windows command interpreter. |
| COLOR | Sets the default console foreground and background colors. |
| COMP | Compares the contents of two files or sets of files. |
| COMPACT | Displays or alters the compression of files on NTFS partitions. |
| CONVERT | Converts FAT volumes to NTFS. You cannot convert the current drive. |
| COPY | Copies one or more files to another location. |
| DATE | Displays or sets the date. |
| DEL | Deletes one or more files. |
| DIR | Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory. |
| DISKPART | Displays or configures Disk Partition properties. |
| DOSKEY | Edits command lines, recalls Windows commands, and creates macros. |
| DRIVERQUERY | Displays current device driver status and properties. |
| ECHO | Displays messages, or turns command echoing on or off. |
| ENDLOCAL | Ends localization of environment changes in a batch file. |
| ERASE | Deletes one or more files. |
| EXIT | Quits the CMD.EXE program (command interpreter). |
| FC | Compares two files or sets of files, and displays the differences between them. |
| FIND | Searches for a text string in a file or files. |
| FINDSTR | Searches for strings in files. |
| FOR | Runs a specified command for each file in a set of files. |
| FORMAT | Formats a disk for use with Windows. |
| FSUTIL | Displays or configures the file system properties. |
| FTYPE | Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations. |
| GOTO | Directs the Windows command interpreter to a labeled line in a batch program. |
| GPRESULT | Displays Group Policy information for machine or user. |
| GRAFTABL | Enables Windows to display an extended character set in graphics mode. |
| HELP | Provides Help information for Windows commands. |
| ICACLS | Display, modify, backup, or restore ACLs for files and directories. |
| IF | Performs conditional processing in batch programs. |
| LABEL | Creates, changes, or deletes the volume label of a disk. |
| MD | Creates a directory. |
| MKDIR | Creates a directory. |
| MKLINK | Creates Symbolic Links and Hard Links |
| MODE | Configures a system device. |
| MORE | Displays output one screen at a time. |
| MOVE | Moves one or more files from one directory to another directory. |
| OPENFILES | Displays files opened by remote users for a file share. |
| PATH | Displays or sets a search path for executable files. |
| PAUSE | Suspends processing of a batch file and displays a message. |
| POPD | Restores the previous value of the current directory saved by PUSHD. |
Prints a text file. |
|
| PROMPT | Changes the Windows command prompt. |
| PUSHD | Saves the current directory then changes it. |
| RD | Removes a directory. |
| RECOVER | Recovers readable information from a bad or defective disk. |
| REM | Records comments (remarks) in batch files or CONFIG.SYS. |
| REN | Renames a file or files. |
| RENAME | Renames a file or files. |
| REPLACE | Replaces files. |
| RMDIR | Removes a directory. |
| ROBOCOPY | Advanced utility to copy files and directory trees |
| SET | Displays, sets, or removes Windows environment variables. |
| SETLOCAL | Begins localization of environment changes in a batch file. |
| SC | Displays or configures services (background processes). |
| SCHTASKS | Schedules commands and programs to run on a computer. |
| SHIFT | Shifts the position of replaceable parameters in batch files. |
| SHUTDOWN | Allows proper local or remote shutdown of machine. |
| SORT | Sorts input. |
| START | Starts a separate window to run a specified program or command. |
| SUBST | Associates a path with a drive letter. |
| SYSTEMINFO | Displays machine specific properties and configuration. |
| TASKLIST | Displays all currently running tasks including services. |
| TASKKILL | Kill or stop a running process or application. |
| TIME | Displays or sets the system time. |
| TITLE | Sets the window title for a CMD.EXE session. |
| TREE | Graphically displays the directory structure of a drive or path |
| TYPE | Displays the contents of a text file. |
| VER | Displays the Windows version. |
| VERIFY | Tells Windows whether to verify that your files are written correctly to a disk. |
| VOL | Displays a disk volume label and serial number. |
| XCOPY | Copies files and directory trees. |
| WMIC | Schedules commands and programs to run on a computer. |
André The Tech Guy 