OLD COMPUTER: Forgot command prompt to run windows, can you help?

Question

It's been almost 20yrs since I ran Windows from MS DOS, but my friend has an OLD laptop she wants to ressurect and we can't for the life of use remember the DOS command prompt...come on...someone must be able to help...?

Answer 1

Here you are:
C> prompt $p$g
C:\> Path C:\;C:\windows;C:\dos;
C:\>set Temp=C:\windows\Temp
C:\>cd\dos
C:\Dos>dosshell
_________________
For the mouse
Copy Con:C:\
Auto Exec.Bat (enter)
Mouse (enter)
enter
Hope this helps. Need more help email me at

Answer 2

Type win and press Enter (Return)

This runs in.exe which is the executable program that launches Windows.

If this does not work, try

C:\cd windows [Enter]
C:\win [Enter]

where C:\ is the 'C prompt' and [Enter] is the Enter/Return key. ie, don;t type the C:\ part and simply press the enter/return key for [Enter].

Sorry for being so condescending - I really don't mean to offend. It's only for clarification if someone else is having the same trouble.

You can also edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Either use Notepad in Windows or use the EDIT command in DOS. Then add win or win.com to the last line and save it.

If you use Notepad, make sure that you save the name (including quotes) as "AUTOEXEC.BAT" otherwise it will append a TXT suffix and the file will not run at boot.

If you use EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT from the C:\ prompt, then you will probably not have the mouse driver loaded and you will have to use the ALT key plus F to open the File menu and then the cursor keys to scroll down to save. Then press [Enter] to save it.

Answer 3

Well sure just put in CD\ C:
Then type dir.
CD is change Dir
MD is make dir
DIR is directory
COPY is copy
XCOPY is fancy copy
DEL dealats
Use any thing like XCOPY/? to make it list out all the options
format is format don't use it, hehe
XDIR I think, is a very powerful deleting utility, more powerful than regular DEL
I can't remember them all, been probably 20 years since I used them. But I used to have my DOS book open where I could look them up. I used to have probably 200 Batch Files on my 486 that I wrote myself, so it was very useful to me then, he he.
A lot of them are in the Windows DOS section. Find that directory and do a DIR, and you will see all them listed. Then do a "COMMAND NAME/? And you will get a listing of the options. Some of them are in Command.com. Bring Command.com up on an editor and you will be able to look at them. You will see a name along with machine code.
I don't have a DOS book anymore, or I'd just go get it and give you all the names. :)

Answer 4

Buying software is a bad idea ,If you have winXP you can 1-uninstall any applications you don’t really need . 2-remove visual themes .(like windows blinds) 3-use less protection (make you’re antivirus/firewall only scan the internet ) 4-try to keep minimum services and start up programs (keep only the ones that you need ) …. Start>run>(Type: msconfig ) > (start up / services ) deselect the ones you don’t need. 5-Defragmentation : (right click on every drive the choose Tools , analyze then defragment ). 6-Try to keep free space on you’re hard drive. 7-Increase you’re virtual memory , : (right click My computer >properties > performance tab , click settings ) you can do a lots of stuff there ^_^

Answer 5

You can do this several ways
1- everytime you boot it, at the prompt type "win" and press enter
2- at the prompt type "edit autoexec.bat" and press enter
in here, go all the way to the bottom and add this: "win" (without the quotes) , click FILE, then SAVE then reboot the system, now it should boot right into windows

Hope this helps
good luck

Answer 6

As people have correctly said, after the c:\ you type the word win. However, I shouldn't imagine that such an old computer would have the guts to run any current programs, and overall the speed - or lack of it - would be infuriating.

Answer 7

Simply type "win" (without the speech marks) from the command prompt, and press Enter. i.e., C:\

Answer 8

Try "win".

If that doesn't work try switching into the c:\windows directory and doing a list with the "dir" command, you should see win.com somewhere.

Answer 9

Try, win, then win95
Would have helped if you gave the version of DOS you can find that with ver.

Answer 10

I think you just type win