DOS Commands

Listed here are some of the most common MS-DOS commands.

attrib
displays or changes the attributes of one or more files

chdir or cd
displays the current working directory or changes the current directory

chkdsk
checks the status of a disk and displays a status report

cls
clears the screen

copy
copies one or more files to a specified destination

del or erase
deletes the specified files

deltree
deletes a directory and all the files and subdirectories that are in it

dir
displays the contents of a directory

echo
displays or hides the text in batch programs when the program is running

edit
starts MS-DOS Editor, a text editor that can be used to edit text files

exit
quits the MS-DOS command interpreter and returns to the program that started it, if one exists

find
searches for text within a file

format
formats a disk for use with MS-DOS

help
offers help about MS-DOS

md or mkdir
creates a new directory

mem
displays memory usage

more
displays one screen of text at a time

move
moves files to a specified location

msbackup
backs up or restores files from one disk onto another

msd
provides technical information about the computer

print
prints a text file while you are using other MS-DOS commands

rd or rmdir
removes a directory

scandisk
runs the scandisk utility

tree
displays the directory tree of the current directory

undelete
restores files that were previously deleted with the del command

ver
displays the MS-DOS version information

xcopy
copies entire directory trees