Some Dos Commands Don't Work?

Question

When I try to use some dos commands (eg, find, copy) I get the message:

'whatever' is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

However, some other commands (eg, dir, set, mkdir) work fine. Can somebody please tell me why some commands don't work? (I am using Windows XP).

When I say Dos I mean the Command Prompt

Answer 1

There is a difference between internal and external commands. Internal ones are built into cmd.exe (technically the shell). You'll always have access to them (dir, mkdir...). Others are actually .exe files found somewhere on your drive. Find.exe, for example, is found in \windows\system32.

For external commands to work, you need to actually be (cd) in the directory containing the exe file, specify it fully (e.g. \windows\system32\find) or have a path to the directory containing the command.

Most systems have that path already set. Perhaps yours got munged. To see, type 'path' at the command prompt. You should see a list separated by ; which should include c:\windows and c:\windows\system32. If they don't appear, right click my computer on your desktop, click properties, advanced tab, click enviornment variables. Find path in the system variables list and edit. Make sure that C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS; is there somewhere, or add them yourself. Reboot.

Answer 2

i have not mastered DOS yet but i use it sometimes. some commands are more complicated to use cause you got to add some /somthing or add a C:\somthing before the command, i believe, but dir is preaty easy and simple. i use it alot for ipconfig.... oh and you can also do the command with /? at the end for some more help.... try it with dir, just "dir" then do "dir /?" hope that helps

Answer 3

1-external commands of dos need a path to that directory to run.
2-Your XP may not run win32 applications.

Answer 4

Technically, you aren't using DOS when you are viewing it through the XP desktop... You're using the cmd prmpt. I don't know the exact differences, but they are there.

If I remember correctly, unlike previous windows versions, DOS is not actually included in XP.

Answer 5

The link below from Microsoft gives a complete list.

Answer 6

Most problems can be easily gotten over.
Try this web site, it has a forum on it for you to get what you want.
the creator is a computer engineer.

http://www.annoyances.org

Good Luck.