Goodbye MS-DOS command prompt

My first technology article, back in 1987, was about MS-DOS 3.30. Almost 30 years later, I’m still writing, but the MS-DOS is being replaced as the default shell by PowerShell.

It’s possible that you have been using Microsoft Windows for years – decades, even – without realising that there’s a direct line to Microsoft’s earliest operating system or that an MS-DOS underpinning has carried over from one Windows version to another – less extensive with every revision, but still there nonetheless.

Interestingly, though, there was not always an MS-DOS from Microsoft, and it wasn’t even dubbed that at birth. Back in 1980, the ruling PC operating system was Digital Research’s CP/M for the z80 processor. At the same time, Tim Patterson created Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS). This was a CP/M clone with a better file system for the hot new processor of the day, the 8086.

Until, that is, IBM decided to build an 8086-based PC. For this new gadget, IBM needed to settle on programming languages and an operating system. It could get the languages from a small independent software vendor called Microsoft, but where could it get an operating system? The obvious answer, which a 25-yearold Bill Gates seconded, was to go straight to the source: CP/M’s creator and Digital Research founder, Gary Kildall. What happened next depends on whom you believe. But whether Kildall was really out flying for fun when IBM came by to strike a deal for CP/M for the x86 or not, he didn’t meet with IBM and they didn’t strike a deal.

So IBM went back to Microsoft and asked it for help in finding an operating system. It just so happened that Paul Allen, Microsoft’s other co-founder, knew about QDOS. Microsoft subsequently bought QDOS for approximately $50,000 in 1981. Then, in short order, IBM made it one of the PC’s operating systems, Microsoft renamed QDOS to MS-DOS, and, crucially, it got IBM to agree that it could sell MS-DOS to other PC makers. That concession was the foundation on which Microsoft would build its empire.

Late last year, in Windows 10 Preview Build 14791, the command prompt was put out to pasture. Dona Sarkar, head of the Windows Insider Program, wrote, “PowerShell is now the de facto command shell from File Explorer. It replaces Command Prompt (aka, cmd.exe).”

That ‘de facto’ suggests that it’s not all over for the command prompt. And it’s true: you can still opt out of the default by opening Settings > Personalisation > Taskbar, and turning ‘Replace Command Prompt with Windows PowerShell in the menu when I right-click the Start button or press Windows key+X to Off.

PowerShell was always going to be DOS’s replacement. It consists of a command-line shell and a .Net Frameworkbased scripting language. Over time, it has become a powerful system management tool for both individual Windows workstations and servers. Command.com and its NT-twin brother, cmd.exe, were on their way out.

Cmd.exe is still there, but it’s effectively been packed up in a cardboard box and shoved into the loft. But Command.com and Cmd.exe had a good run. A good way to understand how they held out for so long is to look at DOS as a house under constant renovation. First, all there was the basic structure, the log cabin, if you will, of Microsoft operating systems. That log cabin was given a coat of paint, which is what Windows 1.0 amounted to – MS-DOS all the way, with a thin veneer of a GUI. Over time, Microsoft completely changed the facade in ways that made the old log cabin completely unrecognisable. Over the years, Microsoft replaced more and more of MS-DOS with more modern materials using improved construction methods. Today, after decades, the last pieces of the antique structure are effectively being removed. It’s way past time, too.

Still, it’s been fun knowing you, MS-DOS. While you annoyed me at times, you were also very useful back in your day. I know many programmers and system administrators who got their start with you on IBM PCs and clones.

If you really, really love MS-DOS and still want to run WordStar, the first popular PC word processor, or play Doom, the first great first-person shooter game, you may want to look to FreeDOS. This is an open-source version of DOS and it’s compatible with most MS-DOS programs.

So, while Microsoft is keeping cmd around, albeit on the back burner, if you still must have the full MS-DOS and your floppy disks have long since given up their magnetic ghosts, FreeDOS will let you keep running your DOS programs for years, maybe decades, to come.

If, however, you want to manage modern Windows systems, it’s well past time that you picked up PowerShell. Sooner or later, cmd.exe is going to disappear.

It’s been fun knowing you, MS-DOS. While you annoyed me at times, you were also very useful back in your day