Special Edition Using MS-DOS® 6.22, Third Edition

Chapter 1. DOS and the Personal Computer

In this chapter

• DOS, Windows, and the PC

• Other Flavors of DOS

• PC Hardware

• What Happens When the Power Is Turned On?

• DOS and Random Access Memory

• DOS and Disks

DOS, Windows, and the PC

You might find it hard to believe, but the personal computer is now more than 20 years old, and so is the MS-DOS operating system. At one time, more than 95% of all the tens of millions of personal computers sold used MS-DOS as the operating system. Nowadays, almost all systems use a variation of the Windows operating system, although DOS compatibility is still provided through DOS subsystems. Previously, in Windows 95/98, you could boot into an MS-DOS command prompt, bypassing the Windows user interface. With the release of Windows ...