DOS mode in XP

[Billinares]

How do you put a computer running XP in DOS mode? I recall under Win98 there
was an option in the start/shut-down function. The only way I know in XP is
booting from a floppy-disk. How do you do it in newer machines without
floppy-drive?

 

[Rock]

How do you put a computer running XP in DOS mode? I recall under Win98 there
was an option in the start/shut-down function. The only way I know in XP is
booting from a floppy-disk. How do you do it in newer machines without
floppy-drive?

You don't. There is no DOS mode underlying XP. It's a different
architecture. The only way to invoke DOS is to boot from a boot floppy
or a boot CD.

 

[R. McCarty]

XP doesn't have DOS Mode. When you boot to a Floppy diskette,
your booting your computer with a 9X/ME style boot. But this type
of boot has no native support for NTFS drive access. It's used to
run DOS mode tools or things like a BIOS Flash updater. When
you create a Boot Floppy inside XP - you're really just creating a
Windows ME style boot diskette with traditional boot code, like
MsDos.Sys, Io.Sys & Command.Com.

From within XP, you can open a Command Prompt (command or cmd).
This mimics or appears like a DOS session, but isn't since it's an app
running inside of XP system.

You can do a Safe Mode boot with command prompt. This still boots
XP in safe mode, but doesn't run the normal "Shell", instead you'll be
in a Command Prompt - but shown full screen. This is the closest you
can get to what most folks understand as "DOS mode" in XP.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

How do you put a computer running XP in DOS mode? I recall under Win98 there
was an option in the start/shut-down function. The only way I know in XP is
booting from a floppy-disk. How do you do it in newer machines without
floppy-drive?

Not to put too fine a point on it, you can't.

There is no way to reboot a WinXP PC into Real Mode DOS unless
you've set up a dual-boot system. The WinNT family of 32-bit
graphical operating systems, of which WinXP is the latest generation,
has never used, included, or "ridden upon" MS-DOS. The Recovery
Console's CLI (Command Line Interface) is the closest you can come to
the old "DOS mode." What, precisely, are you trying to accomplish?

--

Bruce Chambers

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[Ken Blake]

In

How do you put a computer running XP in DOS mode?

You don't.

I recall under
Win98 there was an option in the start/shut-down function. The
only
way I know in XP is booting from a floppy-disk. How do you do
it in
newer machines without floppy-drive?

Unlike Windows 9X, Windows XP (and other members of the NT
family) is not built on MS-DOS, and there is no MS-DOS mode to go
to. Although you may see this as a disadvantage, you should
recognize that this is one of the reasons for its greatly
improved stability.

The only way to do this is by booting from a DOS diskette. But if
you do and your drive is NTFS, you won't be able to see it
without special software, so even that is not as useful as it
might appear.



Why do you want to do this? It's seldom if ever necessary in
Windows XP. Your XP CD is bootable, and that's your startup disk,
if you should need one.

 

[Alex Nichol]

How do you put a computer running XP in DOS mode? I recall under Win98 there
was an option in the start/shut-down function. The only way I know in XP is
booting from a floppy-disk. How do you do it in newer machines without
floppy-drive?

There is no DOS in XP, so you have to load it independently. Either a
floppy or you can use an image of a DOS floppy as the boot section on
burning a bootable CD