All Things Microsoft > Microsoft Software

dos aliases?

(1/4) > >>

Master of Reality:
is there an equivalent to aliases in DOS? I want to change the deltree or format command to have an aliases of dir or cd(not on my own windows computer, but someone elses)

voidmain:
"dir" and "cd" are built-in commands to the COMMAND.COM shell.  The only way to change them would be to hack COMMAND.COM.  DOS is brain dead.

saddlemagic:
I recall doing things like that. It was some years ago and the archived memories take time to access. I think we used third party programs, something out of DOS-Power Tools from PC Magazine or the like.

Depending on the path statement or the working directory, you might get away with pulling something like that through a batch file.

I'll think on it a little bit. Do you have any other commands than CD of DIR that could be used? As already mentioned, they are internal to Command.com and are somewhat protected.

How bad do you want to "mess" with this 'puter?

beltorak0:
i still have that book.  It's where i learned assembly.  load command.com into debug; you can only replace it with a command of the same length; so you're limited to two chars for "cd"; however, you can change "cd" to "  " and change "chdir", giving you a whole three more letters to play with.
make sure you back up command.com; it suckes when you get "invalid command.com.  insert system disk into drive <whatever>".  I had to re-buy DOS 3.3 twice because of being stupid -- well, my dad bought it.  Anyway.

You can also change the filenames "autoexec.bat" and "config.sys" if you're so inclined -- they can be anything that will fit into the space provided... change it to "system/i.vf2" if you really want. it'll work.  truely brain dead indeed.

-t.

saddlemagic:
PowerTools was great. You had 3.3 I believe that was the first. There was also PowerTools for DOS4 and DOS5. That I know of. 4 was weak, 5 kicked! As far as I know all the 3.3 routines still worked on all DOS versions.

I never had the book for 3.3, I did have the books for 4 and 5 but, unfortunatly they were lost in my last move. Bantam Publishing, $50 a pop brand new with the disks.

I do have all the software and still use a few routines on my Win3.1/DOS6.22 machine.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page