If you are looking for a list of simple DOS commands, there are many available, however they are usually very incomplete, listing only a few. There are a lot more DOS commands than many people realize or remember.

MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. DOS stands for Disk Operating System. It is software, and it was written to control hardware - being the IBM PC. It was introduced in 1981 before Microsoft Windows was barely even thought of. DOS runs with a command line user interface. The last update of DOS was in 1994 to version 6.22.

On the DOS command line, you will find yourself at the “command prompt”. This will look something like “C:\>”. This tells you that drive C (hard disk) is where DOS expects to find whatever command you are about to run. If your files resided on a different drive, then you need to change the DOS prompt eg D:. The command prompt will then look like this “D:\>”

There have been a number of DOS versions brought out over the years. The following are some of them:

1. PC-DOS version

2. MS DOS

3. DR-DOS version

4. 4DOS.

DOS can be used in conjunction with windows. If you are very familiar with DOS commands, sometimes it can even be quicker to take the shortcut to DOS, and type your DOS command on the command line, than to go through the pretty Windows user interface. So it can be advantageous to have on hand a list of simple DOS commands.

Another great use for DOS in today’s era, is when Windows spits the dummy and simply won’t co-operate, DOS commands is what you are left with to communicate with your computer.

Virtually most things you really need to do, can be done with a DOS prompt. So in reality, a list of simple DOS commands can be a great thing to have.

The main DOS commands used mainly deal with directory and file management. There are 71 DOS commands for the DOS command shell provided with Microsoft Windows XP.

The best source for a list of simple DOS commands and their uses is your DOS user manual.