MS DOS and Windows XP

[klaus]

Using a DOS based program under Win 98 I'm able to handle
the "more than 8 characters names" of most Windows
applications by using their abbreviated DOS name. e.g.
"Microsoft Publisher" is read as "Micros~1" under DOS.

In XP I have not found out in which way those longer names
are changed for DOS. The way mentioned above does not work.
After typing "dir" in the dos prompt there are shown only
the terms used in Windows, which are longer than 8 characters.

Can anyone give me hint?

 

[David Hollway [MVP]]

Using a DOS based program under Win 98 I'm able to handle
the "more than 8 characters names" of most Windows
applications by using their abbreviated DOS name. e.g.
"Microsoft Publisher" is read as "Micros~1" under DOS.

In XP I have not found out in which way those longer names
are changed for DOS. The way mentioned above does not work.
After typing "dir" in the dos prompt there are shown only
the terms used in Windows, which are longer than 8 characters.

Klaus,

Windows XP uses the same mechanism for expressing long file names in
8-character mode.
For example, DIR C:\PROGRA~1 is equivalent to "DIR C:\Program Files".
To get a directory listing that shows the 8 character truncated versions of
filenames, use the /X switch, for example: DIR /X C:\windows
Don't forget that in the Windows XP command shell you get automatic
filename/directory completion - just type the first few characters of a
filename and hit TAB to complete it, e.g:
edit C:\bo -> TAB -> edit C:\BOOT.INI

Hope this helps.

 

[Jason]

If the name you are searching for is is more then one
word you can put them in quotations and search that way
otherwise you can type the whole word out

 

[Sharon F]

Using a DOS based program under Win 98 I'm able to handle
the "more than 8 characters names" of most Windows
applications by using their abbreviated DOS name. e.g.
"Microsoft Publisher" is read as "Micros~1" under DOS.

In XP I have not found out in which way those longer names
are changed for DOS. The way mentioned above does not work.
After typing "dir" in the dos prompt there are shown only
the terms used in Windows, which are longer than 8 characters.

Can anyone give me hint?

CMD.EXE is perfectly capable of handling long filenames that's why you are
seeing the names used by Windows. Your DOS program may not like those long
names though. Is it giving you trouble in this environment? If not, go with
what CMD.EXE provides.

Otherwise... many programs that were capable of running in a DOS window
under Win98 could accept a long file name (or a path with a long filename
and spaces) if it was enclosed in quotes. Instead of Micros~1, use
"Microsoft Publisher."

If still no joy with this program, try Start> Run> command to start
command.com and try running the program in this environment. Command.com is
an additional emulator provided with XP (the XP command prompt shortcut
uses cmd.exe). It uses the old 8.3 naming format. It is not as complete as
XP's cmd.exe or the older command.com in previous versions of Windows but
it may be the ticket needed to get your program to cooperate.