What is the differance between MS-DOS 7.0 thats comes with Windows 95 and MS-DOS 6.22 which is the last 'real' version of MS-DOS? Are there any performance differances? What files are missing? Can I get a version that says MS-DOS 7.0 and not Windows 95 at the DOS Prompt? THIS IS NOT HOMEWORK - I want to learn.

ms dos 7 has limited commands

Ms-dos 7.0 also will not run every dos program.

MS-DOS 6.22 was the last stand-alone version of DOS, and as such is the last one that is really made to be run all by itself. Since it's stand-alone, it's much easier to tweak because you don't have Windows getting in the way. (If you change a config.sys or autoexec.bat file, they both try and use those settings - which you may or may not want.) I'm sure MS did a lot of internal changes to 7.x to make it more compatible with running 9x, which would explain the problems running some DOS programs that Hansel mentions. Also, as superal says, they have stripped a *lot* of the commands away from 7.x that came with 6.22. (It's not the first time they did that. They also took away a number of commands from back in 3.0 I do believe - things like "exe2bin".) This time they took away incredibly helpful things like "help", though. Beyond those differences, newer (past 95A) versions of 7.x have "large disk support". (I put the quotes because what they call large now will probably be maxed out in time - just like the 8GB limit used to be huge.) This means that you can have a partition larger than 2048 MB. DOS 6.22 tops out at 2048 MB per partition - with up to four partitions. 7.x also supports LFNs, or Long FileNames, but only after being booted into Windows. (Although I have seen utilities - such as xxcopy on Mick C's web page - that may support it in real mode. {Real mode is when it's booted stand-alone. When you boot into Windows, you are in protected mode. There are some DOS programs - games especially - that can also place a real mode DOS into protected mode.} Real and protected mode have to do with how programs access memory in the system.) Some links... LFNs Real and Protected modes

I find MS-DOS 7.0 from Windows 95 (Or 7.10 from Windows 98) as easy to use as MS-DOS 6.22 As to it not having as many commands as 6.22 They are still available in the OLDDOS Arcive, Older files still from MS-DOS 5.0 and earler can be found in the MS-DOS 6.22 Supplimental Files package (Both available from Mick C's almost legendary powerload site. Most problems with older DOS Games are becouse of memory allocation or just bad programing in the first place! Most will run in 'Real' Mode if not in 'Protected' Mode. As for MS-DOS 7.0 Not being a real DOS at all. My reply is use the correct version for the job! (Interesting notes from MS Support) Support for MS-DOS Mode While most MS-DOS – based applications run well in Windows 95 (Protected Mode) and can run concurrently with other Win32-based and Win16-based applications, a small number of MS-DOS – based applications require exclusive access to system resources to run. In this case, it is the Virtual Memory Manager (Real Mode) that creates this exclusive operating environment for the application called MS-DOS Mode. When an MS-DOS – based application runs in MS-DOS Mode, no other applications or processes are allowed to compete for system resources — all resources are at the exclusive access of the MS-DOS – based application. For related information, See Chapter 22, "Application Support." of the Windows 95 Resource Kit

But please don't think that DOS 7.0 runs in protected mode, it doesn't. It runs it it's very own little virtual world, V86 mode (which isn't actually a mode), this is pretty much like real mode. The extended abilities of a DOS box running under Windows come from various bits of code inside Windows (and running in protected mode) which get executed when certain actions are attempted (e.g. executing an INT instruction or trying to access hardware). A virtual device driver called IFSMGR.VXD handles LFN support, but the DOS program must know how to use it to be able to do so. You can see this in action by going into "System Monitor" and looking at "Kernel: Virtual Machines". Whenever you run a DOS program, or DOS, the number will increase by 1. A "Virtual Machine" is a V86 mode task, this terminology is used by MS for some reason. It describes something which is implemented by the processor rather than something that is achieved through software, so don't be fooled by this! An interesting point is that there is always at least one "Virtual Machine" in operation. I wonder if this means that DOS must be running for Windows to function?

One thing I forgot to mention: Although DOS cannot run in protected mode, DOS programs can. To do so they usually use something known as a DOS protected mode interface (DPMI) server. The reason for this is a little bit involved so I won't go into it unless you ask.