up vote 5 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

How do I get to a DOS prompt in Windows 7?

link|improve this question
3  
There is no DOS in Windows 7. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams May 2 '11 at 22:51
2  
There's an important differentiation: in NT versions of windows (all the modern ones) there is no real DOS, DOS is dead. What there is the Command Interpreter, cmd.exe. The Command Interpreter emulates the functionality of DOS so that you can keep interacting with the system that way. cmd.exe is not always effective for running DOS programs (for this look in to DOSBox), and it's very outdated as a command line interface to Windows (for this use PowerShell, which is installed already in Windows 7). – jcrawfordor May 2 '11 at 22:54
1  
But there is Dosbox - when cmd.exe is not enough. – Turbo J May 2 '11 at 22:56
There's also FAR Manager (free and open source), which is a native 32-bit/64-bit text-mode application that supports the same DOS commands that Cmd.exe does, but in a manner very similar to the famous Norton Commander that was popular among many DOS users: farmanager.com – Randolf Richardson Aug 8 '11 at 3:43
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 10 down vote

Click the Start Orb and type cmd in the search box, then press Enter.

cmd

This assumes that by 'DOS prompt' you are referring to a command prompt. If you want a true DOS environment then Windows 7 doesn't support this. You can however emulate DOS using DOSBox:

DOSBox

link|improve this answer
1  
When I boot my computer with win 7 I get this message "TMGR is missing " I found on Internet somebody was giving this indication "at DOS prompt .....". – Michael May 2 '11 at 23:02
So at "DOS prompt " which does not exist - perhaps ther are some diletants who don't know what they are talking about. Thanks anyway. – Michael May 2 '11 at 23:03
1  
They might be referring to the Repair Console - it's not that they're wrong, just that there's different ways of doing that in Windows 7 now. I would recommend posting your full problem on this site as a new question and people can probably give you more direct help with your "TMGR is missing" issue. – Gareth May 2 '11 at 23:05
2  
+1 for start orb. ;p – Journeyman Geek May 2 '11 at 23:53
@Michael and Gareth: I've found that many people react "Oh, that looks like DOS!" whenever they see a text mode screen. I suspect that much of the confusion is the result of people observing that DOS, for which many programs and applications utilize text-mode, is not graphical to the extent that MS-Windows is, wherein the overwhelming majority of programs and applications are purely graphical due to being GUI-based. – Randolf Richardson Aug 8 '11 at 3:49
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt -- that's as close to a DOS box as you get, but it still takes the old DOS commands: dir, cd, etc.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.