Hi,
I was in my A+ class today and the professor told use the most interesting thing. He said that all versions of Windows behind the scenes of the GUI are running text based commands. I have seen this before in Linux. However he then went on to state that all versions of Windows have have a command interpreter that the user can interface with. I was just curious what some other peoples thoughts were about this. I know windows NT side XP, Vista so on has CMD but from the way he was talking he made it, he made it sound like the NT side is very similar to DOS. Maybe I just misunderstood but I was wondering what some other peoples thoughts were. And is more modern Windows such as all the Win NT series and 2000, XP, and Vista still running text based commands in the background when you click on something or do anything. I could see that back in Windows 3.1 and all th 9x series but on the NT side what "command line" is behind the GUI.

Thanks again.

Windows NT is based on IBM OS/2 and yes it has a Command Line, but it was written to have the GUI intregrated, not an add-on.

Windows 1.x to 9x/ME all had seperate MS-DOS SubSystem, therefore it is an Operating System with a seperate GUI.

*NIX is similar in structure to above, the GUI is an add-on

MAC OS9.x and previous were similar to NT

MAC OSX has reverted to a seperate SubSystem and GUI.

This is a very limited explanation, and you really ought to learn how to use GOOGLE and WIKIPEDIA, we can run to hundreds of posts on this subject.....

Win9X line: He is correct; they are built off of MS-DOS and Win 3.1.

WinNT line: He is incorrect; the GUI is part of the kernel and cannot be circumvented*. While there is a command line interpreter, the highest (lowest?) title it can claim is, "Alternate Shell."

* Win2K8 has a special GUI-free version. It literally got a standing ovation. I think Home Server is GUI free as well, but it also claims to be headless, so I don't know.