Re: kmd.exe

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "AndyCh"  on Tue, 23 Mar 2004
16:40:26 -0800


> what is the difference between kmd.exe and cmd.exe (win2000)?

KMD.EXE is a version of CMD.EXE for Win2000 which M$ developed to run on 9x
machines, to bring the immensely greater power and flexibility of WinNT's
command processor to the 9x platform. A few features of native CMD.EXE for NT
are disabled, and others are compromised so that nothing dangerous will happen.
Despite being targeted at 9x purposes, KMD.EXE works on *all* Windows
platforms, from W95 to WXP.

The important thing to understand here is that, from a user's standpoint,
KMD.EXE is "just another program". It does NOT NOT NOT replace your current
command processor aka COMSPEC -- you would be insane to use it that way too.
It simply sits in a directory on your machine, ready to be used by XyWWWeb.U2
in order to -- here's the point -- get uniform results across all platforms.
This overcomes the huge differences among the various native command processors
(versions of COMMAND.COM and CMD.EXE) that are sprinkled across the M$
operating systems. When, for example, we issue a START command with KMD.EXE,
we know what will happen. Whereas with the native command processors, there's
just no telling -- a wide range of things can happen. It's very convenient for
us, and just a couple hundred KB of disk space for you.

The real (M$) name of KMD.EXE is "Win95Cmd.exe". I RENamed it because we can
only pass so many characters to DOS (100, exactly) in Xy4DOS, and RENaming
saves me 5 chars. There's a URL to the source in XyWWWeb.INF. Or look it up
in DejaNews (Google Groups) -- plenty of discussion.

Put it on your machine (per instructions in README.1ST), and then forget about
it. Or play with it, if you wish. But do NOT set it up as your COMSPEC!

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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