What is DOS?

DOS (Disk Operating System) is an operating system for personal computers that was widely used in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was the predecessor to the more popular MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) and Windows operating systems.

DOS is a command-line interface operating system, which means that it uses text commands entered by the user to perform various functions, such as file management, system configuration, and application launching. The user interacts with the system by typing commands into a prompt, which is displayed on the screen.

Some common commands used in DOS include:

DIR: Displays a list of files and folders in the current directory

CD: Changes the current directory to a specified directory

MD: Creates a new directory

RD: Deletes a directory

COPY: Copies a file from one location to another

DEL: Deletes a file

FORMAT: Formats a disk drive

While DOS is no longer widely used as a primary operating system, it remains an important part of computing history and is still used in some embedded systems and specialized applications. Understanding DOS commands and functionality can also be useful in troubleshooting and performing system maintenance on modern Windows-based computers.

DOS stands for DISK OPERATING SYSTEM. When we see C> on screen, this prompt is called DOS prompt, which indicates that the computer is ready to accept a command from the user.