Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) was a software tool developed by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
to assist in the diagnostics of 1990s-era computers. Users primarily deployed this tool to provide detailed technical information about the user's software and hardware and to print the gathered information, usually for use by support technicians in troubleshooting and resolving problems.
The assumptions made by the program were valid until the late 1990s: it does not handle
plug-and-play
In computing, a plug and play (PnP) device or computer bus is one with a specification that facilitates the recognition of a hardware component in a system without the need for physical device configuration or user intervention in resolving resou ...
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...
or other new technologies that appeared around 2000.
In
PC DOS
PC or pc may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Player character or playable character, a fictional character controlled by a human player, usually in role-playing games or computer games
* '' Port Charles'', an American daytime TV soap opera
* ...
6.1 and above,
QCONFIG.EXE provides similar functionality.
Commercial alternatives include Manifest
MFT.EXE from Quarterdeck's
QEMM.
History
MSD.EXE first shipped with
Microsoft Word for Windows, and was later included in
Windows 3
Windows 3.x means either of, or all of the following versions of Microsoft Windows:
* Windows 3.0
* Windows 3.1
Windows NT
* Windows NT 3.x
{{Set index article
Microsoft Windows, 3.x ...
,
,
and on the
Windows 9x
Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a line of discontinued Microsoft Windows operating systems released from 1995 to 2000 and supported until 2006, which were based on the kernel introduced in Windows 95 and modified in succeeding version ...
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...
s. Because
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 ...
contain code forked from DOS at the DOS 5 level, the versions of
MSD.EXE included here correspond to that of that era (i.e. version 2.0).
Windows NT 3 Windows NT 3.x may refer to either of, or all of the following versions of Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and ma ...
and
NT 4 have
WINMSD, a program with similar features.
However, the DOS/Windows specific functions were replaced by similar Windows NT concerns.
WINMSDP.EXE, included in the resource kits, provides the print functionality of
MSD.EXE for
WINMSD. Since NT 5 (
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...
),
WINMSD.EXE has been a loader for
MSINFO32.EXE.
Usage
Users generally started the program from the DOS Command Prompt using the command
MSD.EXE.
Starting the program under a DOS window in either Windows or OS/2 shows only the DOS details allocated for that DOS session, not for the machine in general.
Scope
Aspects of the system for which
MSD.EXE provided technical information:
# computer brand and processor information
# memory (total, EMS, and XMS)
# video (type such as VGA and manufacturer)
# network
# operating-system versions
# type of mouse (if installed)
# disk drives (and partitions), excluding CD-ROM drives etc.
# LPT ports
# COM ports
# IRQ status
#
Terminate-and-stay-resident program
A terminate-and-stay-resident program (commonly TSR) is a computer program running under DOS that uses a system call to return control to DOS as though it has finished, but remains in computer memory so it can be reactivated later. This techni ...
s
# device drivers
# other adapters
Successor software
Microsoft replaced
MSD.EXE with
MSINFO32.EXE.
This has similar features, but targets more recent machines. It first appeared in
MS-Word, and later was distributed with
Plus! for Windows 95 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. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...
.
MSINFO32.EXE under
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 ...
stores system history from
WMI in the
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...
files in
Windows\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Datacoll.
In the interest of
backward compatibility
In telecommunications and computing, backward compatibility (or backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, software, real-world product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with Input ...
,
WINMSD became a loader for
MSINFO32.
See also
*
List of DOS commands
This article lists notable commands provided by the MS-DOS disk operating system (DOS), especially as used on an IBM PC compatible computer. Other DOS variants as well as the legacy Windows shell, Command Prompt (cmd.exe), provide many of these c ...
*
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 ...
*
PC DOS
PC or pc may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Player character or playable character, a fictional character controlled by a human player, usually in role-playing games or computer games
* '' Port Charles'', an American daytime TV soap opera
* ...
*
System Information (Windows)
*
System profiler
{{noref, date=September 2018
A system profiler is a program that can provide detailed information about the software installed and hardware attached to a computer. Typically workstations and personal computers have had system profilers as a common ...
References
Further reading
*
{{Microsoft Windows components
Diagnostics
Diagnosis (: diagnoses) is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in a lot of different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". ...
DOS software
External DOS commands