4DOS is a command-line interpreter by JP Software, designed to replace the default command interpreter COMMAND.COM in

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 op ...

and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It was written by Rex C. Conn and Tom Rawson and first released in 1989. Compared to the default, it has a large number of enhancements. 4OS2 and 4NT are similar products that replace cmd.exe in

OS/2 OS/2 is a Proprietary software, proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers. It was created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, ...

and

Windows NT Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...

respectively.

Overview

4DOS is most often used as a command-line replacement for the following operating systems: * command-line:

, IBM PC DOS, DR-DOS. * graphical:

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

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. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...

, Windows 98SE. Since Windows NT and Windows 2000 includes both COMMAND.COM and cmd.exe, 4DOS and 4NT and derivatives can both be installed. Earlier versions of 4OS2 can be run under Windows NT, and OS/2 can run the two DOS and Windows NT shells, all three can be used on Windows NT-type machines and OS/2 multiple boot machines. Among the many commands, statements and functions in 4DOS and lacking in DOS/Windows 95–98 COMMAND.COM are reading keyboard input and a simpler method of working with colors of screen and text. The default file extension for 4DOS scripts is .btm. A graphical version of 4DOS, 4OS2, and 4NT, called Take Command, was released with a feature set corresponding to version 4DOS 5.5, 4OS2, and 4NT 2.5 and updated after this. Development on this line stopped with the corresponding

text mode Text mode is a computer display mode in which content is internally represented on a computer screen in terms of characters rather than individual pixels. Typically, the screen consists of a uniform rectangular grid of ''character cells'', ea ...

versions. There was a graphical program Take Command/16, for Windows 3.1. 4OS2 is a similar replacement for IBM's

command interpreter. This was first released at the same time as 4DOS version 4, and has a similar feature set. Like 4DOS, this is released as open source. It appeared in the feature set of 2011's eComStation 2.10, in the freeware os2free project, and is included with ArcaOS. 4NT was first released as ''4DOS for Windows NT'' (versions 1.x, 2.x), but became 4NT until the restructure after version 8. The program is a recompilation of 4OS2, and continues to have features of OS/2's command processor (cmd.exe), such as running

REXX Rexx (restructured extended executor) is a high-level programming language developed at IBM by Mike Cowlishaw. Both proprietary and open-source software, open source Rexx interpreter (computing), interpreters exist for a wide range of comput ...

scripts, and EXTPROC support. A corresponding '' Take Command/32'' exists for this, version 1 corresponding to 4NT 2.5. 4NT and Take Command/32 were released in both

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organiz ...

(Windows 9x) and

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

(Windows NT) forms, with the ANSI version dropped at version 5. A new Win32 program Tabbed Command Interface (TCI), was released at the time of 4NT version 7. This program allowed one to attach (thereby reducing screen clutter) and detach tabbed consoles to a single window. This program requires

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

or later. A new version of Take Command extends the original Tabbed Command Interface, expanded with extra windows to allow input to be composed, to graphically navigate directories and files, and extra features. 4NT is bundled as Take Command Console. A light feature-reduced version of TCC is released as a free download. JP Software then released: * TC (full pack of TCI + TCC) * TCLE (TCI + TCC/LE) * TCC (just the command utility) * TCC/LE This has been released from versions 9 to 12.1, corresponding to the underlying 4NT/TCC version.

Features

4DOS features a number of enhancements compared to COMMAND.COM: * Additional commands * Extended functionality of existing commands * Extended

batch file A batch file is a Scripting language, script file in DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. It consists of a series of Command (computing), commands to be executed by the command-line interpreter, stored in a plain text file. A batch file may contain a ...

processing facilities * Improved command line editing, including filename completion and command history * Support for command aliases, also in scripts * Enhanced wildcards and the ability to filter by file sizes, date and time stamps, and other file characteristics * Extended syntax for redirection and piping * Context-specific help * Colored directory listings * Internal variables and variable functions * A memory swapping mechanism that yielded more free conventional memory * An interactive debugger for batch files * A mechanism for creating, maintaining and displaying file descriptions * Configuration stored in an INI file * Support for the Windows clipboard

History and current status

Originally distributed as

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

, 4DOS has been later released as unsupported freeware. Currently, the source code is available under a modified

MIT License The MIT License is a permissive software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts very few restrictions on reuse and therefore has high license compatibility. Unl ...

but it "may not be used in any commercial product without written permission from Rex C. Conn" and "may not be compiled for use on any operating system other than FreeDOS" – so does not qualify as open source as defined by

Open Source Initiative The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a California public benefit corporation "actively involved in Open Source community-building, education, and public advocacy to promote awareness and the importance of non-proprietary software". Governance The ...

. The last update by JP Software was version 7.50.130, released in August 2004. During its 15-year history, 4DOS underwent numerous updates; here are a few of the most significant.

NDOS

Some versions of the

Norton Utilities Norton Utilities is a utility software suite designed to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain a computer. The latest version of the original series of Norton Utilities is Norton Utilities 16 for Windows XP/Vista/7/8, released 26 Octob ...

for DOS included modified copies of 4DOS called NDOS. The last version of NDOS was bundled with Norton Utilities 8, and corresponded to 4DOS 4.03.

Notes

References

External links

JP Software
creator of 4DOS but no longer supports it. Currently sells similar ''Take Command'' for Windows.
Unofficial 4DOS support site with many batch examples, related documents and programs
*

*
4DOS 7.50 Reference Manual (2 MB PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:4dos 1988 software DOS software DOS command shells Windows command shells