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MS-DOS 7

MS-DOS 7.0command.com runs in aWindows console on Windows 95.
Developer	Microsoft
Written in	x86 assembly
OS family	MS-DOS,Windows 9x
Source model	Closed source
Initial release	1995; 30 years ago (1995)
Final release	7.1 / 1999; 26 years ago (1999)
Update method	Re-installation
Package manager	None
Platforms	x86
Kernel type	Monolithic
Default user interface	Command-line interface (COMMAND.COM)
License	Proprietary
Preceded by	MS-DOS 6
Succeeded by	MS-DOS 8[1]
Support status
Unsupported as of July 11, 2006[2]

MS-DOS 7 is areal modeoperating system forIBM PC compatibles. Unlike earlier versions ofMS-DOS, it was not released separately byMicrosoft,^[3] but included in theWindows 9x family of operating systems.^[4]Windows 95RTM reports it as MS-DOS 7.0,^[5] and Windows 95 OSR 2.x andWindows 98 report as 7.1.^[5] The real-mode MS-DOS 7.x is contained in theIO.SYS file.^[6]

After the release of MS-DOS 6, Microsoftpreannounced in 1994 that MS-DOS 7 would incorporatemultitasking and a few other new features planned for the upcoming Windows 4.0,codenamedChicago.IBM also promised a "fancy", multitaskingPC DOS 7.^[7] Continuing whatComputerworld called a "vaporware tornado", Microsoft also projected this revised combination of Windows and MS-DOS to require a low-end computer with only4 MB ofRAM.^[8] Windows 4.0 was released branded asWindows 95, and Microsoft canceled the standalone version of MS-DOS 7 and instead included it with Windows 95.^[9] The proposed multitasking and multithreading technology was canceled from MS-DOS 7.0.^{[citation needed]}

MS-DOS 7.0 adds support forlong filename (LFN) using theVFAT file system,^[10] whereas earlier versions do not show long filenames even with a driver such as DOSLFN. It supports largerextended memory (up to 4GB) via itsHIMEM.SYS driver. Various smaller improvements include enhancedDOS commands, more efficient use ofUMB memory (COMMAND.COM and part of theDOS kernel are loaded high automatically), and usingenvironment variables directly in the DOS command.

MS-DOS 7.1 addsFAT32 support^[11] for larger than 2GB and up to 2TB per volume,^[12] and MS-DOS 7.0 and earlier versions of MS-DOS only support FAT12 and FAT16.^[13]Logical block addressing (LBA) is supported in MS-DOS 7 for accessing larger hard disks, unlike earlier versions which only supportedcylinder-head-sector (CHS)-based addressing. Unlike MS-DOS 7.0, MS-DOS 7.1 recognizes a hard disk beyond the first 8.4GB.^[14]Year 2000 support was added toDIR command via the new /4 option.

MS-DOS 7.x adds support for running the graphical interface of Windows 9x,^[10] which cannot be run on older MS-DOS releases. Even thoughVER command usually shows the Windows version, the MS-DOS version is also officially mentioned in other places. For example, Windows 95 OSR2 or Windows 98'sVMM32.VXD file (renamed toVMM32.EXE) cannot be run directly on an earlier version of MS-DOS, or it will prompt the user to upgrade MS-DOS to version7.1 or higher. In the case of Windows 95 RTM, the version number7.0 is displayed in place of7.1.

According toCaldera which soldDR-DOS, Windows 95 is not one integrated software product, but rather a combination of two products, MS-DOS 7.0 and Windows 4.0, packaged together to look as a single product. Though MS-DOS 7.0 and Windows 4.0 could be readily segregated and marketed as different products, Microsoft stopped marketing Windows and MS-DOS separately with the release of Windows 95.^[15]

A major difference from earlier versions ofMS-DOS is the usage of theMSDOS.SYS file.^[16] In MS-DOS 7, this is not abinary 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, can use that same style by settingBootGUI=0 in the MSDOS.SYS file. Otherwise, since Windows 95, it will automatically start up on boot. However this is only an automatic call for the commandWIN.COM, the Windows starting program. Windows 95 and 98 are dependent on MS-DOS to boot the 32-bit kernel and to run legacy 16-bit MS-DOS device drivers.^[17] MS-DOS progressed as the base operating system ofWindows 3.1x andWindows 9x. Windows 95 is on MS-DOS 7.0, and Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98 are on MS-DOS 7.1.^[18] By default, MS-DOS 7.0 is installed with Windows 95 to theC:\WINDOWS\COMMAND subdirectory, and is loaded prior to the loading of theGUI system. More importantly, the DOS system, which handles files and disk partitioning, manages thedisk storage system.^[10] Moreover, whileIO.SYS is the kernel file of MS-DOS 7, JO.SYS is an alternate filename for IO.SYS that is used for "specific purposes" in MS-DOS 7. JO.SYS supports booting from aCD-ROM drive or a hard disk.^[14]

At Microsoft's 1994preannouncement, the stripped down Windows 4.0 with MS-DOS 7 was expected to be "at the expense of Windows NT" as the biggest competitor of the much more featureful and resource-consuming Windows NT.^[8]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMS-DOS.

• PC DOS 7
• List of DOS commands
• List of DOS system files
• Timeline of DOS operating systems

• Kantaris, Noel; Oliver, Phil (1998).Windows 98 Explained. Bernard Babani Publishing.ISBN 978-0859344562.
• Brown, Bruce; Kratofil, Bruce; Smith, Nigel R. M. (1995).The Windows 95 Bug Collection. Addison-Wesley Longman.ISBN 978-0201489958.
• Sammes, A. J.; Sammes, Tony; Jenkinson, Brian (2000).Forensic Computing – A Practitioner's Guide. Springer.ISBN 978-1852332990.

• Disk operating systems
• Proprietary operating systems
• 1995 software
• Discontinued Windows components
• Discontinued Microsoft operating systems

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