Running MS-DOS On PCs With Windows XP Or Later

[Iconoclast]

If you have Windows XP or later, you probably have found the common suspicion that there is no way to run in DOS mode anymore. This was Microsoft's intention to make it this way. But I use DOS mode to play DOS games when my bedtime limiter shuts me down so I can't log on anymore in my Windows XP account. No such software can stop you from DOS mode. If you are lucky enough to have a floppy disk drive, there is a way.

These are the only ways I know of to enter DOS mode if you have Windows XP or later:

• Format a bootable disk (usually a floppy).
• Have an earlier (probably better, too) version of Windows (i.e. 98) installed on a different hard disk, should you have one.

To keep things simple, I will explain formatting a bootable floppy disk instead.

Use the "My Computer" command from the Windows Start Menu.

In the new window that comes up, right mouse-click the "3½ Floppy (A:)" option, and select the "Format" command from the shortcut menu. If you do not see this option, you do not have a floppy disk drive.



I'm too lazy to get rid of the crust around the part of the image at the top-right. Speaking of which, the makers of VBulletin should get rid of that white crust that appears all frickin' over all of the images and buttons. For example, the "Post Reply" button. Anyway, that's enough of that.

In the "Format" prompt that opens, make sure that the settings match those of the image below, and click the "Format" button.

Now restart the computer. I assume nobody needs visual aid as to how to do that. Make sure that before Windows XP starts to load, you have the floppy disk in your floppy disk drive.

In time, your computer should be booting from the floppy disk and running DOS mode...unless your BIOS was configured not to boot from your floppy disk. And now you're done. Just keep these points in mind:

1. You cannot use the "EXIT" command.
2. You cannot switch to your hard disk. If you could do that, Windows XP's user security system of protecting files on the hard disk from users other than administrators would be pointless when you could access the hard disk in DOS mode. Windows XP cannot protect files on the hard disk if it is not running.
3. You can switch between other floppy disks with some of your favorite DOS games. Since I can't log in or use Windows after 10 PM every night, I can still play games in DOS mode. My parents can't install software to stop DOS mode from working...uh, but there are a couple of things dad can do.
4. When you are finished running a program in DOS mode that changes the UI, your computer will ask for the disk with the file "COMMAND.COM" in it's root directory to be inserted. If you inserted a different disk that was ALSO bootable, you shouldn't have this message.

MS-DOS can be boring to some, but not when you know all the commands and how to use it to edit binary.

Speaking of which, I can give you all the binary code for any file on your computer. But I need to know it's directory and file name.

[psilonaut]

Damn that's unnecesary. Remeber how everybody was telling you about emulating different PC environments on Windows would fall under this category?

Try DOS-Box. Very clean and simple to use DOS emulator.

Originally Posted by Iconoclast

[*]You cannot switch to your hard disk. If you could do that, Windows XP's user security system of protecting files on the hard disk from users other than administrators would be pointless when you could access the hard disk in DOS mode. Windows XP cannot protect files on the hard disk if it is not running.
MS-DOS can be boring to some, but not when you know all the commands and how to use it to edit binary.

Speaking of which, I can give you all the binary code for any file on your computer. But I need to know it's directory and file name.

You can browse your hard drives in DOS. There's nothing stopping by default.

And binary? What the crap are you talking about? DOS dosn't require any knowledge of binary. Nobody programs in binary anymore, machine code is as base as it gets anymore. And you can't find the binary code for any file on my computer.... you just can't.

[Kurt]

Dosbox is by far superior to this method, unless of course you can't use it. Good walkthrough, though.

And yeah; who the hell uses binary anymore?

And I need visual aid on how to restart my computer. Can you post some pics of it?

[Iconoclast]

For you, beat the crap out of your PC, unbeat the crap out of it, and it should start up again. JK of course.

Originally Posted by psilonaut

You can browse your hard drives in DOS. There's nothing stopping by default.

And binary? What the crap are you talking about? DOS dosn't require any knowledge of binary. Nobody programs in binary anymore, machine code is as base as it gets anymore. And you can't find the binary code for any file on my computer.... you just can't.

No you can't...unless you're using DOSbox. I would use DOSbox, but I can't because my dad disabled installing software and stuff. That's why I posted this method for those with the same problem. Anyway, why don't you TRY switching to your hard drive before saying you can't? That is, using this method instead of DOSbox. Thank you for your walkthrough, Remorse. When I am able to, I will try (if I remember) using DOSbox.

I didn't say you needed to know binary! I just said it's kind of cool that you can edit binary and regular text files in DOS mode, despite the powerless-looking command line interface.

As for who the hell uses binary...it's the universal programming language. I can't imagine anyone who would need to, but it can be used to make anything beyond our definition of a program on a computer, such as a whole different operating system. Anyway, you can't edit Flash executables published using Flash with Flash Player combined in them without some binary editor...or at least if you're going to edit the title bar description text, Properties/Version info, and stuff like that. I wasn't saying anybody uses binary either, and no standard programmer really needs to know it. Again, I was just saying.

[psilonaut]

Originally Posted by Iconoclast

... Anyway, why don't you TRY switching to your hard drive before saying you can't? ....

Why would anybody bother having a hard drive in their computer if you couldn't browse through it with DOS? Up until the Windows NT stream all MS operating systems worked ontop of DOS. Maybe your drive hasn't been mounted properly?

Originally Posted by Iconoclast

I didn't say you needed to know binary! I just said it's kind of cool that you can edit binary and regular text files in DOS mode, despite the powerless-looking command line interface.

You can edit binary in any kind of operating system. I can edit binary on a peice of paper. None of it will do you any good without some kind of reference as to what it all means.

I can read binary with a reference - example this encoded to ascii standards -
01010100011010000110100101110011001000000110100101 110011001000000110001001101001
01101110011000010111001001111001001000000110001101 101111011001000110010001100101
01100100001000000111010001101111001000000110000101 110011011000110110100101101001
00100000011100110111010001100001011011100110010001 100001011100100110010001110011
-
but without reference it means nothing.

Originally Posted by Iconoclast

As for who the hell uses binary...it's the universal programming language. I can't imagine anyone who would need to, but it can be used to make anything beyond our definition of a program on a computer, such as a whole different operating system. Anyway, you can't edit Flash executables published using Flash with Flash Player combined in them without some binary editor...or at least if you're going to edit the title bar description text, Properties/Version info, and stuff like that. I wasn't saying anybody uses binary either, and no standard programmer really needs to know it. Again, I was just saying.

I think you have some misconceptions as to what binary is. Nobody would ever need binary for flash. You need to know some coding. But not binary. Binary is used as a means of communication on every peice of digital hardware, but nobody programs by entering a series of 1's and 0's.

[Kurt]

but nobody programs by entering a series of 1's and 0's.

Exactly. It's just redundant now that we have advanced programs that will do it for us and more. I know some people still use binary, but that's like saying some people worship Sharpie pens. What?

[Iconoclast]

Originally Posted by psilonaut

Why would anybody bother having a hard drive in their computer if you couldn't browse through it with DOS? Up until the Windows NT stream all MS operating systems worked ontop of DOS. Maybe your drive hasn't been mounted properly?

You can edit binary in any kind of operating system. I can edit binary on a peice of paper. None of it will do you any good without some kind of reference as to what it all means.

I can read binary with a reference - example this encoded to ascii standards -
01010100011010000110100101110011001000000110100101 110011001000000110001001101001
01101110011000010111001001111001001000000110001101 101111011001000110010001100101
01100100001000000111010001101111001000000110000101 110011011000110110100101101001
00100000011100110111010001100001011011100110010001 100001011100100110010001110011
-
but without reference it means nothing.

I think you have some misconceptions as to what binary is. Nobody would ever need binary for flash. You need to know some coding. But not binary. Binary is used as a means of communication on every peice of digital hardware, but nobody programs by entering a series of 1's and 0's.

The reference part doesn't make any sense to me. Binary is binary. There doesn't need to be a key translator or whatever if you know binary if that's what you're trying to say. And it can be learned. Why would it be impossible?

I know you can edit binary in pretty much any operating system. But it's something ironic to do in DOS. Don't ask me what I mean by ironic.

I STILL don't know what 'mount' means, and you STILL didn't tell me what :P means. Try it yourself, LIKE I SAID. Normally, you can access your hard disk in DOS mode. But not if you have Windows XP. Like I said, Windows XP's hard disk protection to lesser users would be worthless if you could just bypass the protection using DOS mode. Windows cannot protect your hard disk's files if Windows is not running, so if you have Windows XP, they modified that you can't access your hard disk in DOS mode unless you have an earlier version of Windows installed as well, for any earlier version does not have administrative user configuration or the ability to protect data on your hard disk. Just try it, and you'll see what I mean. OK? That's why you have to have a bootable floppy disk to enter DOS mode if you have XP, so that your computer is entirely dependent on your floppy disk for operating system instructions. If you could access your hard disk in DOS mode when you have XP, Microsoft would enable MS-DOS mode in the same ways you used to be able to enter it using Windows 98, such as PIF shortcuts, manually choosing to restart in DOS mode, and so on. I hope I have cleared this up now.

[psilonaut]

You didn't clear anything up. You just ignored what I said. I can boot into DOS and browse all of my drives. And go ahead and tell me what this means without using a reference.

01011001011011110111010100100000011010000110000101 110110011011100010011101110100
00100000011000010010000001100011011011000111010101 100101001000000111011101101000
01100001011101000010000001001001001001110110110100 100000011101000111100101110000
01101001011011100110011100100000011010000110010101 110010011001010010000001110101
01101110011011000110010101110011011100110010000001 111001011011110111010100100111
01110010011001010010000001100100011001010110001101 101111011001000110100101101110
01100111001000000111010101110011011010010110111001 100111001000000100000101010011
01000011010010010100100100100000011100110111010001 100001011011100110010001100001
01110010011001000111001100100000011000010111001100 100000011000010010000001110010
01100101011001100110010101110010011001010110111001 10001101100101

[Iconoclast]

Didn't I just tell you that I don't know binary? There does not need to be a key/legend reference either. If you know binary, you know binary. Simple.

Do you have Windows XP?

[psilonaut]

Then there should be a binary to english translator out there right?
And yes I'm running XP 64bit