MS-DOS and MS-DOS Mode
Microsoft Windows are advanced operating systems that build on more than two decades of operating system development, beginning with MS-DOS. Many concepts and conventions used in Windows stem from its MS-DOS predecessor. Furthermore, several diagnostic routines, including installing a new operating system, formatting a new hard drive, checking for low-level hardware problems, and repairing damage from viruses require knowledge of user command prompt interaction.
All versions of MS-DOS were built for specific CPUs and computers: MS-DOS 1.0 was designed for the original IBM PC. Those computers had either one or two floppy drives and had a port for a cassette drive in the back, but did not have support for internal hard drives. As the Intel CPUs increased in power and as the computer became a more advanced, MS-DOS was updated to take advantage of the new features and capabilities but could not effectively overcome some critical limitations such as its lack of native networking support and its memory limitations.
The command prompt was the MS-DOS user interface for those who did not use Windows and involved typing an appropriate command following the C prompt (C:\>) in the proper syntax and pressing the Enter button on the keyboard. Using this prompt is still a fundamental requirement in setting up a new computer system or hard disk drive.