Why I find Windows 95's "DOS" unsatisfactory.

["Michael Edwards" mje@xxxxxxxx]

                         Michael Edwards.

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[Rene von Rentzell:]

>I am not sure why you think the DOS that Windows comes with is incomplete.
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   Well, there are commands missing which previous versions had. "Tree" is
one I can think of, and I have an idea there are a few others. You also used to
be able to type "help " or "fasthelp " to get
information on switches, etc. to use with commands, and you can't do that with
Windows 95's DOS commands. (Both the help and printed manuals in Windows 95 are
totally hopeless - they really only cover the very things you can most easily
find out by poking around.)
   Also, you cause a bit of trouble if you start trying to use disk utilities
such as Norton's or XTree Gold. The inability to use these with Windows, even
when in a DOS window, is to me a severe handicap and has crippled my computer
use in the year and a half I've been using Windows. (I've always depended on
these for managing my files and subdirectories, and think Windows Explorer is a
pathetic substitute.) (Some of the Norton utilities freeze the computer; XTree
Gold will work, but Windows issues warning messages that put me off and make me
feel it would be dangerous to go ahead.)
   I do seem to recall a couple of other things wrong with it, although I
can't recall what they might be. I just know that my overall impression of this
"DOS" is not a very satisfactory one.
   Oh, yes, one other thing, although whether Windows' "DOS" is to blame I'm
not sure: when I try to run Turbo Pascal programs I've written, either within
Turbo Pascal or from an .exe file, I find that programs don't run properly that
I know should run and always did before, and I get "divide by zero" run-time
error messages when I haven't even done an arithmetical calculation, and things
like that. Writing programs was one of my main computer hobbies, but it's just
about ruled out under my current set-up.
   No, I don't think I'll ever feel at ease under this system, and I somehow
have to go back to DOS 6.22 for all my DOS programs - and I suppose for
XY-Write, too.

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>In my case, when I move to a new Windoze computer, the first thing I do is open
the file
>"MSDOS.SYS" in the root directory and set the line "BootGui=0".
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   Well, thanks for the hint. Perhaps I should experiment with that - but
that would be just like booting up in DOS mode, wouldn't it? (That is, when you
close Windows with Alt-F4, and select "restart in DOS mode".) That does work a
bit better than a DOS window from Windows (in its full version), although it's
still not really satisfactory (and I still have the Turbo Pascal problem). And
the computer freezes, even in that mode, if I try to undelete files or do other
disk-related stuff, unless I remember to run a command called "lock", although I
have no idea what that does. And even if you run it and say "yes" to the
question, sometimes it gets undone somehow and acts like "no" and later freezes
on running one of the utilities I referred to.

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>After that, the computer loads DOS and stops, when you turn it on. If you want
to continue to Windows, you type "Win". The DOS that I get there seems quite
regular to me. Did you try this?
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   I haven't made the alteration to MsDos.sys you mentioned (I don't like
messing around with system files unless I feel totally sure of what I'm doing) -
but, as I said above, I believe Alt-F4 followed by "restart in DOS mode" is the
same as what you mention. As described above, it's not ideal.

             Regards,
             Michael Edwards.