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A complete list of DOS commands is a very extensive list. Usually when you search for a list of simple DOS commands, you will only get the top few, or the most popular ones.

Microsoft Corp has MS-DOS as it’s trademark. Disk Operating System is what DOS stands for. The reason it was written (it is software) - was to control hardware. That hardware was the IBM PC. When it was introduced to the computing industry in 1981, Microsoft Windows was not even on the drawing board. The user interface for DOS is a plain simple command line. The last update for DOS which was ver 6.22 happened in 1994.

The command prompt you will find yourself at when on the DOS command line is this: “C:\>”. From this prompt, you can tell that unless otherwise specified, the next command you issue is expected to be found on the C drive, which is the main hard disk. To change where you want to run your files from, you can issue the following command “D:” or “E:” etc. Then you will find yourself at a “D:\>” prompt or “E:\>” prompt.

Throughout the years there have been many versions of DOS. These include:

1. PC-DOS

2. MS-DOS version

3. DR-DOS version

4. 4DOS version

DOS can be used in conjunction with windows. If you are very familiar with DOS commands, sometimes it can even be quicker to take the shortcut to DOS, and type your DOS command on the command line, than to go through the pretty Windows user interface. So it can be advantageous to have on hand a list of simple DOS commands.

DOS can be used particularly useful in today’s day and age when Windows crashes, and you need basic commands to talk to you computer without having to go through Windows.

You can actually achieve most basic things you want to achieve by typing DOS commands on the command line at the DOS prompt. This is where a list of simple DOS commands can be very handy.

File and directory management are what the main and most common DOS commands are about. Microsoft Windows XP provides DOS command shell, which contains 71 DOS commands.

If you find yourself looking for a list of simple DOS commands, the first place you should go is to your DOS user manual if you still have it.