MS-DOS 7 is a

real mode Real mode, also called real address mode, is an operating mode of all x86-compatible CPUs. The mode gets its name from the fact that addresses in real mode always correspond to real locations in memory. Real mode is characterized by a 20-bit seg ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

for

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. ...

s. Unlike earlier versions of

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

it was not released separately by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

, but included in the

Windows 9x Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS, both of which were updated in subs ...

family of operating systems.

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...

RTM reports to be MS-DOS 7.0, while Windows 95 OSR 2.x and

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to ...

report as 7.1. Windows 9x runs under DOS similar to

Windows 3.1x Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series ran as a shell on top of MS-DOS. Codenamed Janus, Windows 3. ...

, and while according to Microsoft the role of MS-DOS was reduced to a boot loader and acted as the 16-bit legacy device driver layer, it has been stated that there is almost no difference in the relationship between Windows 9x and its included MS-DOS 7.x and Windows 3.x and MS-DOS 6.x.

New features

As the first version in the series, MS-DOS 7.0 added support for

long filename Long filename (LFN) support is Microsoft's backward-compatible extension of the 8.3 filename (short filename) naming scheme used in DOS. Long filenames can be more descriptive, including longer filename extensions such as .jpeg, .tiff, .html, a ...

(LFN) awareness, and its DIR command for example will show them with an LFN driver such as DOSLFN (earlier versions of MS-DOS wouldn’t show long filenames even with such a driver). It also supports for larger extended memory (up to 4GB) via its HIMEM.SYS driver. Various smaller improvements are also introduced, such as enhanced

DOS command This article presents a list of commands used by DOS operating systems, especially as used on x86-based IBM PC compatibles (PCs). Other DOS operating systems are not part of the scope of this list. In DOS, many standard system commands were pro ...

s, more efficient use of UMB memory (

COMMAND.COM COMMAND.COM is the default command-line interpreter for MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me. In the case of DOS, it is the default user interface as well. It has an additional role as the usual first program run after boot (init proc ...

and part of the

DOS kernel IBMDOS.COM is the filename of the DOS kernel. Loaded and initially invoked by the DOS BIOS in IBMBIO.COM during the boot process, it contains the hardware-independent parts of the operating system, including the embedded FAT12, FAT16 and ...

are loaded high automatically), and the fact that environment variables can be used in the DOS command line directly. MS-DOS 7.1 added

FAT32 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on hard disks and other devices. It is often supported for compatibility reasons by c ...

support (up to 2TB per volume), while MS-DOS 7.0 and earlier versions of MS-DOS only supported FAT12 and FAT16.

Logical block addressing Logical block addressing (LBA) is a common scheme used for specifying the location of blocks of data stored on computer storage devices, generally secondary storage systems such as hard disk drives. LBA is a particularly simple linear addressi ...

(LBA) is also supported in MS-DOS 7.1 for accessing large hard disks, unlike earlier versions which only supported

cylinder-head-sector Cylinder-head-sector (CHS) is an early method for giving addresses to each physical block of data on a hard disk drive. It is a 3D-coordinate system made out of a vertical coordinate ''head'', a horizontal (or radial) coordinate ''cylinder'', an ...

(CHS)-based addressing. Year 2000 support was added to DIR command via the new /4 option. MS-DOS 7.x added support for running the graphical interface of Windows 9x, which cannot be run on older MS-DOS releases. Even though VER command usually shows the Windows version, the MS-DOS version is also officially mentioned in other places. For example, if one attempts to run Windows 95 OSR2 or Windows 98’s VMM32.VXD file (renamed to VMM32.EXE) directly from an earlier version of MS-DOS, the following message will be immediately displayed: :Cannot run Windows with the installed version of MS-DOS. :Upgrade MS-DOS to version 7.1 or higher. In the case of Windows 95 RTM, the version number 7.0 is displayed in place of 7.1.

More information

A major difference between earlier versions of

is the usage of the

MSDOS.SYS MSDOS.SYS is a system file in MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. In versions of MS-DOS from 1.1x through 6.22, the file comprises the MS-DOS kernel and is responsible for file access and program management. MSDOS.SYS is loaded by the DOS BI ...

file. In version 7 this is not a binary file, but a pure setting file. The older boot style, where Windows is not automatically started and the system boots into a DOS command shell, could keep on using that same style by setting BootGUI=0 in the MSDOS.SYS file. Otherwise, Windows from Windows 95 onward will automatically start up on boot. However this was in reality only an automatic call for the command

WIN.COM WIN.COM is the executable file used to load versions of Windows that run from DOS. In Windows 3.11 and its predecessors, it is executed either manually from the DOS prompt or as a line in AUTOEXEC.BAT. In Windows 95 and onward it is automatically ...

, the Windows starting program. Windows 95 and 98 are both dependent on MS-DOS to boot the 32 bits kernel and run legacy 16 bits MS-DOS device drivers, although MS-DOS 7 possibly is more "hidden" than earlier versions of MS-DOS. This is also true for Windows Millennium Edition, but "ME" prevents users from booting MS-DOS without booting the 32-bit Windows kernel. Also the paths for (a plausible but actually not necessary) Windows directory and Boot directory are to be set in this new version of the MSDOS.SYS file. Whilst

IO.SYS is an essential part of MS-DOS and Windows 9x. It contains the default MS-DOS device drivers (hardware interfacing routines) and the DOS initialization program. Boot sequence In the PC bootup sequence, the first sector of the boot disk is ...

(although binary different) remained as the initial executive startup file which

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...

booting routines fire up, if located correctly. Also the

file implements the command prompt. The typical DOS setting files

CONFIG.SYS CONFIG.SYS is the primary configuration file for the DOS and OS/2 operating systems. It is a special ASCII text file that contains user-accessible setup or configuration directives evaluated by the operating system's DOS BIOS (typically residing ...

and

AUTOEXEC.BAT AUTOEXEC.BAT is a system file that was originally on DOS-type operating systems. It is a plain-text batch file in the root directory of the boot device. The name of the file is an abbreviation of "automatic execution", which describes its funct ...

essentially retained their functions from earlier versions of MS-DOS (although memory allocation was no longer needed). Although only included in Windows releases (the last ''official'' standalone release of MS-DOS ever was version 6.22), MS-DOS 7.x can fairly easily be extracted from Windows 95/98, and be used alone on other computers, just as the earlier versions. Actually MS-DOS 7.x works fine on many modern (as of 2016) motherboards (at least with PS2-keyboards), in sharp contrast to Windows 95/98. It has to be installed on an

FAT In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers spec ...

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

, and in the case of MS-DOS 7.0 the partition must be located at "the top" of the hard drive and formatted as FAT12 or FAT16. Another difference is that MS-DOS 7.x requires a

80386 The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors80286-class or lower

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

hardware. For manual installation, MS-DOS 7.x can be installed through the SYS command (executing the SYS.COM file), for example from a folder on a Ramdrive created by a bootable disc. Correct versions of IO.SYS (especially) must exist in the same folder as SYS.COM together with MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM (and optionally DRVSPACE.BIN, CONFIG.SYS, and AUTOEXEC.BAT). All other files can be copied thereafter. (In Windows 95/98 they are found in either the root folder or in the C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND folder)

References

Notes

:A.There was a “MS-DOS 7.1” made by China DOS Union, which is the same as the Windows 9x version, but bundled as a standalone OS with a multitude of utilities
Source: WinWorld.
Disk operating systems Microsoft operating systems Proprietary operating systems 1995 software {{DOS-stub

New features

More information

See also

References

Notes