command.com vs cmd.exe

Question

What are the operations that are possible in command.com but not supported in cmd.exe and vice-versa?

These pages give a beginners description: command.com vs cmd.exe and What's the difference between COMMAND.COM and CMD.EXE?

However, I am looking for some practical situations where it is more appropriate (or correct) to use command.com.

Answer 1

On machines where there still is a command.com this is run by the NTVDM. The version included in those systems is—to my knowledge—identical with DOS 6.2 and can therefore be used to run batch files that expect such a system.

For all practical purposes however, you can just use cmd.exe as its commands are (mostly) a super-set of command.com's.

Contrary to Alex' answer, you don't need to run 16-bit programs from command.com. Windows takes care of starting such programs in the NTDVM itself.

As for the commands available in either shell, you can take a look here which has four columns referring to availability in DOS and Windows.

Answer 2

use CMD.EXE to run batch scripts or other interactive terminal operations, such as getting network diagnostics or manually configuring mount-points.

use COMMAND.COM to run legacy DOS programs, such as old games or accounting packages, since it simulates the operation of an ancient DOS computer.

COMMAND.COM can also run batch scripts etc, but has an older, more limited interface which will make it more difficult. It may also consume more memory and CPU resources to do the same task, since it has all the overhead of simulating the ancient DOS computer, which CMD does not.

Answer 3

Bad sysadmins block cmd.exe for security reasons, when locking down a computer, but often forget to do the same to COMMAND.COM - which is about the only time I've used it. As others say though, if you've got legacy stuff, use that, otherwise cmd.exe