Friday 10 June 2011

MS-DOS secret or unknown commands

Below is a listing of MS-DOS commands that are not listed in any available help manual or in the commands syntax or are commonly unknown commands. Many of these commands that are known can be very useful when using MS-DOS, while some of the other commands are unknown or appear to do nothing.
Use these commands cautiously, some of the commands can erase data and some without warning.
ATTRIB ,The command is short for ATTRIB -a -h -r - s *.* (removes all attributes of a file).
BACKUP /HPUnknown
DIR ,This lists all files including hidden files, does not work in Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000.
DIR ...Lists all directories that do not have extensions. In Windows 95 / Windows 98 will list the contents of the directories previous to the directory currently in.
DOSKEY /APPEDITUtilize doskey functions in MS-DOS command utilities such as edlin and debug.
DOSKEY/COMMANDUnknown
DOSKEY/PERMANENTUnknown
DOSKEY /SCRSIZEUnknown
DOSKEY/XHISTORYUnknown
FDISK /MBRRecreates the Master Boot Record See CH000175 for additional information.
FDISK /PRISee FDISK Page for additional information.
FDISK /EXTSee FDISK Page for additional information.
FDISK /LOGSee FDISK Page for additional information.
FDISK /QPrevents fdisk from booting the system automatically after exiting fdisk.
FDISK /STATUSShows you the current status of your hard drives.
FORMAT/AUTOTESTFormats the hard drive without any prompting.
FORMAT /BACKUPLike /AUTOTEST but it will ask you for a volume label.
FORMAT /Z:nCommand used with FDISK supporting FAT32, used to specify the cluster size in bytes where n is multiplied by 512.
MEM /A or /ALLAdds a line into the MEM command tells the available space in HMA.
RESTORE /YUnknown
RESTORE /ZUnknown
SET DIRCMD=0Will make all directories hidden however still accessible, to get them back SET DIRCMD=
SHARE /NCUnknown
TRUENAMEWhen placed before a file, will display the whole directory that it exists.
VER /RTells you the Revision and if DOS is in HMA.