Useful Tools in MS-DOS

[NightShadowPT]

Hi,

Now that the newer ao486 cores have attracted more users, I would like to share with you some of the tools that I use that make my life easier when using MS-DOS:

List updated on the 17th August 2020

• Controlled Copy - Absolutely amazing file copy program. Super fast and with a progress bar. You will never use XCOPY again in your Life.

• Enhanced DOSKEY - Enchanced version of DOSKEY, must have to make command prompt navigation easier and for the Macro functionality.

• QEMM - Memory Manager to replace EMM386. From my experience it provides better results than EMM and it is compatible with more games.

• SoftMPU - A MPU401 software emulator that allows you to use MIDI devices like the MT32, SC-55, SC-88, etc. Also compatible with the emulated versions of these devices

• Launch BOX (MS-DOS version) - MS-DOS version of the popular Launch Box front-end. Makes it easier for those that only want to use MS-DOS as a gaming platform.

• Game Wizard - Allow you to cheat at games and manipulate values in memory.

• DOS32A - A DOS Extender that can replace DOS4GW that many DOS games uses. It can be used in several ways. If a game has a DOS4GW file the DOS32A.exe can be renamed to DOS4GW.exe and replace it. Or you can run the game by using DOS32A game.exe. It wont work with BAT files though that way, or an executable that is not using DOS4GW. Some games have their DOS4GW in their exe file so you will have to use the second method.

• HX DOS Extender - Another DOS Extender. This one can load itself into memory, but it does not seem to be as good as DOS32A.

• DOS command packs - A good long list of useful DOS commands for doing useful stuff like giving the user choices or maybe making a nice ascii text and such.

Most of these are free, shareware or abandonware at this moment. Happy to remove the links to the abandonware ones if required.

Hope this helps and happy to update the list with more suggestions.

Other contributors: Caldor

Cheers

[Caldor]

Another useful tool:

DOS32A - A DOS Extender that can replace DOS4GW that many DOS games uses. It can be used in several ways. If a game has a DOS4GW file the DOS32A.exe can be renamed to DOS4GW.exe and replace it. Or you can run the game by using DOS32A game.exe
It wont work with BAT files though that way, or an executable that is not using DOS4GW. Some games have their DOS4GW in their exe file so you will have to use the second method. There is probably a third way to use it as well, where it loads itself into memory, but I have not figured out how to make that work yet.

Another tool:
HX DOS Extender - This one can load itself into memory, but it does not seem to be as good as DOS32A. But it could have more uses than DOS32A and I have gotten it to load itself into memory.

Another useful resource if you want extra functionality for making batch files and such is this:
DOS command packs A good long list of useful DOS commands for doing useful stuff like giving the user choices or maybe making a nice ascii text and such.

[NightShadowPT]

Thanks Caldor. Added to the main post.

[Schyz]

I would recommend:

4DOS - Replaces the shell and offers very interesting conveniences, like a history of commands (pressing up and down), autocomplete (pressing TAB), coloured dir output depending on the extensions, aliases, support for long filenames from Win9X and lots of things more, and it uses less RAM than doskey+command.com. More info and tutorials in this YouTube playlist.

FakeDR - Optical drive emulator, it uses MSCDEX which helps with several games that won't work with SHUSUCDX.

[Caldor]

FakeDR - Optical drive emulator, it uses MSCDEX which helps with several games that won't work with SHUSUCDX.

Ohh, that looks useful. I am currently installing Virtual CD, because I want something that is not as advanced as Daemon Tools, as it seems to cause Diablo 1 to crash. I have so far not been able to use SHUSUCDX with Windows, but I probably can when mixing this with that fake empty drive FakeCD uses, but I might as well just use fake CD and MSCDEX then.

[Schyz]

I've never tried FakeDR with Windows 9X, I would be surprised if it works. I does work with DOS mode in Win95/98 and with MS-DOS 7.1.

[Caldor]

4DOS is something I personally always try to have running. Being able to use tab to autocomplete file and folder names, and press the up or left arrow to get previously used commands is such a time saver.

Another thing to add is this list of browsers for DOS:
http://www.kompx.com/en/web-browsers-for-dos.htm

There is a thread in the forum about using the Internet in DOS.

Also I made this floppy boot disk based on FreeDOS that can help people get started.
http://dionysus.dk/software/DOS/AO486_floppy.7z

I have added several useful DOS tools to it. Since its FreeDOS, it comes with 4DOS features built in, it has 4 memory settings to boot with, it comes with MiSTerFS and has memory managers set to support it. There is a mount script that can help mount iso files in DOS with a simple command, with the autocomplete feature making it even easier and I added a file manager to it called Volkov Commander, because its very small with its 200kb size so it can fit on a floppy.

Here is a link for Volkov Commander.
https://archive.org/details/TheVolkovCommander_1020

Other Norton Commander alternatives are:
Star Commander:
http://sta.c64.org/sc.html

DOS Navigator:
https://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/dn/

SHSUCD - The alternative to FakeCD and it comes with FreeDOS as well, but can also be used with MS DOS like 6.22 and 7.1
http://adoxa.altervista.org/shsucdx/

[pcfreak324]

Another useful tool is Q87 version 4.13. It is an FPU emulator that allows you to run games and applications that require an FPU. As far as I know, it's the best FPU emulator for DOS.

Download Q87 version 4.13 (demo version): https://www.sac.sk/files.php?d=16&l=Q
Instructions for cracking: http://poligon2.kp4.ru/topic/458

[jrronimo]

My favorite DOS utility has long been MaxDir. Add it to your path (or in the old days I'd just put it in my DOS folder, haha) and start using "di" instead of "dir". It will show you all of your files in columns and with colors helping you to find what you need immediately.

I prefer to have it always show all files in Uppercase and to sort always Alphabetically. You can changes this in its cfg program whose name escapes me.