[4DOS.INFO]

Alternatives, Alternatives...

This is my link farm for general "vanilla" DOS and batch programming related material.

Links that seem to be dead.

Topics

   MS-DOS Supplements      Alternate DOS Flavours      DOS Extenders 

   Batch Compilers      DOS Script Alternatives   

    Alternative DOS Interfaces      Windows Scripting  

MS DOS Supplements

Batch and scripting related official  MS supplements:

• AccessDOS           Making it easier for people with disabilities to access their personal computer. Contains possibly otherwise useful tools like StickyKeys, SlowKeys, RepeatKeys, BounceKeys, MouseKeys, ToggleKeys, SerialKeys, SoundSentry, TimeOut.
• DOS / Win 95-98-CE Resource Kits       Free Resource Kits for MS-DOS and Windows, batch enhancing tools can be found in the directory /win98/reskit/scripting.
• MS Technet Archive  Technet articles for DOS and all Windows versions
• Powershell 2.0         Windows Powershell, formerly called Monad, is destined to be the new interactive command-line and task-based scripting technology in future Windows versions. It is said to enable administrators to more efficiently and securely automate and control system management tasks on both desktops and servers.
• .NET Framework 3.5  Needed for Powershell 2.0 The Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 redistributable package is the most recent update to the Microsoft .NET Framework and includes everything you need to run applications developed using the .NET Framework. SP1 here. Or get the developer's SDK 2.0.
• XP Support Tools    The Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP are intended for use by Microsoft support personnel and experienced users to assist in diagnosing and resolving computer problems.
• MS NT Reference     In addition to the tools installed with Windows XP, there are over 40 support tools included on the Windows XP CD. You can use these tools to diagnose and resolve computer problems. For more information about these support tools, see Windows Support Tools For information about installing support tools, see Install Windows Support Tools.
• Win NT ResKits      Free subset of the various Windows NT Resource Kits.
• MS-DOS 6.22         Microsoft's MS-DOS 6.22 update files only! Includes BASIC, HELP-System and other useful tools missing from later versions.
• MS-DOS 6.22 Supp.   MS-DOS supplemental files including DOS Shell, Network files, Edlin :-) and more.
• MS-DOS 6.22 StepUp  Microsoft's MS-DOS 6.22 StepUp Files.
• MS Win95Cmd_4.exe   Alternative MS command interpreter giving NT 4`s Cmd.com capabilities to Win95/98/ME users.
• MS Win95Cmd_5.exe   Alternative MS command interpreter giving NT 4`s Cmd.com capabilities to Win95/98/ME users.
• MS Windows Script   Installer for VBScript and JScript for Win XP. Encoder, Wizard, Documentation, Debugger.... MS Scriptcenter is here.

Alternative DOS flavours

Microsoft has officially discontinued support for their DOS. This doesn't mean however that they gave up their copyright :-(

Here are several DOS alternatives, some of them still actively developed, some commercial, some for special purposes, and all of them probably better that the original  :-)

For a (german) overview of the history of DOS software see the relevant pages of Computermuseum München.

• MS-DOS Versions      Download bootdisks or complete versions of MS-Dos 3.3 5.0, 6.22, 7.10, from Microsyen. Not quite kosher, but as long as it lasts...
• MS-DOS 7.10          MS-DOS 7.10 from a Chinese website? It seems to be kosher, however. It is a standalone and independent OS (see description), fully supports large hard disks, large memory, FAT32 drives, Long File Names (LFN), etc. It has lots of enhancements over older versions of DOS, such as MS-DOS 6.x and at the same time offers excellent upward/downward compatibility. With it, you can run both Windows 3.x GUI and Windows 9x (95-98SE, a.k.a. Win4.x) GUI on top of MS-DOS 7.10. - by Wengier
• Concurrent DOS       CCI Concurrent DOS was the predecessor to Multiuser DOS GOLD. Integrated security, remote access, remote support, communications, scripting and diagnostics made a cost-effective, easy-to-support package that is still sold today.

Concurrent DOS was, AFAIR, also the name of a 1986 DR DOS version.

• CPM                  Gaby Chaudry's CPM site. CPM was the OS that Bill Gates took as model when he wrote the first DOS. Another good source for CPM files is Landover BBS
• DOSBox               DOSBox is a DOS-emulator that uses the SDL-library which makes DOSBox very easy to port to different platforms. DOSBox has already been ported to many different platforms, such as Windows, BeOS, Linux, MacOS X...  DOSBox also emulates CPU:286/386 realmode/protected mode, Directory FileSystem/XMS/EMS, Tandy/Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA graphics, a SoundBlaster/Gravis Ultra Sound card for excellent sound compatibility with older games...
• DOSEmu               Download of and information about the Linux DOS Emulation.
• Embedded DOS         by Steve Jones. From a communication with him: "For General Software, Inc., I wrote several more DOSes: OEM-DOS, Network-DOS, Embedded DOS, Embedded DOS-ROM, and Embedded DOS 6-XL. All of these products are now retired, but I thought you would like to add mention of this in your DOS museum." Google still finds several suppliers of embedded DOS systems.
• eRTOS                eRTOS provides the tools you need to develop embedded Intel 8086 andx86 applications quickly. Freeware by now, customer needs only pays for the manual USD 100.
• FreeDOS              FreeDOS aims to be a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system released under the GNU General Public License. Has it's own mailing list and archive. Sourceforge pages are here.
• IBM PC DOS           IBM is offering a free Year 2000 ready version of the classic operating system with Euro symbol, Stacker, and a few other goodies. -- PC-DOS 2000
• MT                   A freeware DOS multitasking kernel. Up to 8 concurrently running dos programs. Ideal for measurement and regulation technique, by Shamrock Software
• MultiDOS             MultiDOS Server is a multitask graphical application which suports the majority of updated Operating Systems, greatly compatible with hardwares and other softwares. It recognizes the following partitions: NTFS (Windows XP/NT), EXT2/EXT3 (Linux), FAT32 (Win95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows ME), FAT16 (DOS), HPFS (OS/2 Warp)
• Multiuser DOS7 Gold A multiuser, multitasking (commercial) DOS with impressive capabilities, by Concurrent Controls
• NewDOS               Have you ever seen a scrollable screen DOS? This is an extension for an existing DOS, with many exciting and useful tools / commands / drivers (e.g. a german Euro-compatible keyboard driver), but I haven't tested it. - by A. Olejko
• OpenDOS              OpenDOS (was DR-DOS, Caldera DOS) is a MS-DOS clone and includes the full range of standard utilities (sort, chkdsk, etc ), most of which are improvements over their counterparts supplied with MS-DOS. There are good support sites at DRDOS Resources and The DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project, where they are working on DR-32, a 32-bit protected mode extension.
• PC-MOS 386           An earlier multiuser PC operating system developed by The Software Link, Inc., Norcross, GA. It ran most standard DOS applications as well as applications written for the 386's Protected Mode.
• Pocket DOS           PocketDOS is based on XT-CE, an IBM PC/XT emulator for Windows CE which emulates a PC with an 80186 processor, 1Mb of RAM, a VGA-compatible display and the standard support chips. This allows most applications designed for PC-compatible computers running MS-DOS to run on most Handhelds, Palms and Pocket PCs. - by Datalight
• Real/32              Commercial DR-Multiuser-DOS, Only infos, no test files. By IMS Ltd.
• ROM-DOS              Commercial DOS for embedded systems. By Datalight
• RxDOS                Small "industry strenght" DOS including source code. RxDOS supports long file names, FAT32 drives, and the entire DOS API. By Mike Podanoffsky
• PTS-DOS 32, DOS 2000    PTS-DOS 32 is a modern DOS with support for FAT-32, large HDD and large RAM. PTS-DOS 2000 has network support, file manager, archiver, internal boot viruses protection and numerous utilities. By PhysTechSoft. Inofficial FAQ here. Another place to get it from is here.
• TriDOS               or Tripple-DOS is a pre-emptive multitasker for DOS on session level a-la Windows in Enhanced mode or OS/2. The current version is very basic. The interface is very simple: you must start Triple-DOS by executing it in real mode DOS, by typing tridos. Downloadable files are here. - by Vadim Drubetsky aka the Black Phantom :-)
• TSX Lite             TSX-Lite is a full, 32-bit, multi-user O.S. that is DOS compatible and supports 2 users with up to 10 tasks each, background batch jobs, DPMI, virtual memory. Cohabits peacefully with DOS. The full TSX DOS32 v6.30 is available here. - by S&H Computer Systems Inc., no longer sold.
• Wendin Dos           by Steve Jones. Wendin-DOS has screen groups like OS/2, and a VAX/VMS-style kernel inside it, so it is multi-user. It runs in *real mode* on a PC/XT. Edonkey or Emule required for this link.
• vDos                 vDos is a Windows program to run those old, but so valuable, DOS applications in all current Windows versions. vDos emulates a DOS PC in a Windows 32 or 64-bit system, Windows XP up to Windows 10. Adapted to serious programs (applications), setup done in minutes, no need for complex wizards.
• ZDOS                 ZDOS is a 32-bit real time OS for the X86 CPU family, written entirely in assembly language. - by Zebor Technology

DOS Extenders

• DOS/4GW               DOS/4G is the most widely used 32-bit DOS extender, designed to allow 32-bit DOS programs to eliminate the inherent DOS 640KB memory limit by addressing all the memory on Intel 386 and above machines in MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, the DOS boxes of OS/2, Windows, Windows NT and Windows 95 and DOS clones. - by Tenberry Software.  Version 1.97 is bundled royalty-free with the WATCOM / Powersoft C/C++ and FORTRAN compilers.
• DOS/16M               Developers of 16-bit DOS programs can now solve the DOS 640KB memory limit problem: just relink with DOS/16M and address all the memory in the machine! The DOS/16M DOS extender is an industry standard: your biggest programs are guaranteed compatible, no matter where. by Tenberry Software
• DOS/32                DOS/32 Advanced DOS Extender is a drop-in replacement for the popular DOS/4GW DOS Extender and compatibles. Being fast, small and flexible DOS/32A can be used in many environments, from embedded systems to DOS emulators, by both developers and end users alike.
• Free DOS Extenders    ... and DPMI hosts, a link collection similar to this one.  - by Christopher Heng.
• HX DOS Extender       Japheth's HX DOS-Extender is a free DOS extender with built-in Win32 PE file format support. Usually the purpose of a DOS extender is to make protected-mode features available for DOS applications. HX fully supports this goal, but goes some steps further. A Win32 API emulation layer is part of HX which allows many Win32 console applications to run in DOS. This emulation goes far beyond similiar approaches in other extenders (Borland's PowerPack, WDOSX or Phar Lab TNT). Furthermore HX implements - limited - support for windows, DirectDraw, GDI and even OpenGL graphics. This allows to run "simple" Win32 GUI apps in DOS as well.
• Pro32 - Dos Extender  Extender for easy protected mode programming. Main features are support for the most common assemblers: NASM, TASM, MASM, Pass32,Windows 3.x, Win 95 and WinNT compatible, compatible with DPMI, VCPI and raw XMS. 
• Phar Lap 286/DOS      and Phar Lap 386 are no longer offered on the web, or at least I cannot find them. If you need them, contact me by email.

Batch Compilers

These compilers are of limited use at best: Some don't support the full spectrum of modern DOS or NT batch commands, in some cases the batch file text remains readable in the EXE-file. I've had no experience with the commercial progs listed here.

• Batch Converter      Batch to Exe Converter. Platforms include DOS, Windows, NT and XP. Test version available.  - by Bionic Software.
• Batch File Compiler  Test version available, commercial prog. -  by Brandon Dargo
• Batlite              Batlite Batch File Compiler 1.73. Freeware. - by Pieter A. Hintjens
• BPO6                 Batch Programmers Overlay : German enhanced command processor with developer's interface, new commands, compiler. - by Marc-Björn Seidel. At this time only available per email request to the author.
• CMD2EXE              Similar to a batch file compiler, CMD2EXE can create an EXE file from one or more batch files. CMD2EXE is able to package batch files and supplementary resource files ( EXE, WAV, GIF, JPG) into a single EXE. The packaged files are written to a work directory upon execution and the primary batch file is invoked. Trialversion. - by Jim Lawless
• PowerBatch           A kind of a language plus compiler. - by Computing Systems Design, Inc.
• Protexe              EXE-file encryption. This ensures that no recognizable ascii text is left in your compiled batches. 30-day unrestricted demo. - by 80x86 Software Productions
• Quick BFC            Quick Batch File Compiler: convert your batch files into actual EXE files in one click. This program may be run on Windows 95/98/Millenium/2000/2003/XP without any limitations. Content of your batch file will be encrypted and protected from changes. - Commercialware by AbyssMedia
• TurboBat             TurboBAT Batch File Compiler 3.24 (aka Bat2Com). -  by Foley Hi-Tech Systems 

DOS Script Alternatives

Interpreted Batch-like Scripting:

• TCC/LE               is the free "light" version of TCC (formerly 4NT, see below). It is much more powerful than CMD.EXE, the command line processor of the Windows NT / XP / Vista line, and easily the best single enhancement for the command line. For a list of features see JP Software
• 4DOS - 4OS2 - TCC/LE - 4NT/TCC - TC   are free or commercial (4NT / TCC / TC) replacements for the command processor of their respective operating systems. They give you  dozens of new commands, internal variables, functions and programming structure elements while keeping basic compatibility with existing batches. Makes most other command line tools redundant. A must-have for every power user. - by JP Software
• BFCU                 Batch File Creation Utility is at the other end of batch writing: creates batch files automatically, by answering 4 questions about what you want to do. :-) - by Chris' Software
• BSH                  A "free-license" 16-bit Unix-like (BASH) shell for DOS. BSH is a powerful replacement for command.com. - by Hubert Schellong.
• EBB                  Easy Batch Builder, a Windows-based application to build DOS batchfiles. - by J. Waldron
• EBL                  Extended Batch Language Plus adds power features to batch files: on-line manual guides creation of bat files, colorful windows use bouncing bar selection, pop-ups, fill-in-the-blank fields, buttons, and action bars. Over 100 built-in commands and functions; English-like commands make stand alone apps. Ideal enhancement to Window 95. - This is an abandoned batch enhancer. - by Seaware Corp

Alternate Scripting Languages:

• FBSL                  Free Basic Script Language: simple and small freeware scripting. - by Gerome Guillemin and Jeethu Rao.
• Perl for DOS          Dos port of Unix Perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language. Free. - by Stuart Phillips. Another A good 32-bit version for Windows is ActivePerl.
• Python for DOS        Python V. 2.nn. Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. Free. - by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum
• REXX                  Restructured Extended eXecutor language (REXX), a programming language that is easy to use for most users - especially users who are not programmers - yet flexible enough for computer professionals. Several free flavours exist, e. g. Personal REXX / DOS, Regina Rexx, Open Object Rexx.
• Ruby                  Ruby is the (32-bit) interpreted scripting language for quick and easy object-oriented programming. It has many features to process text files and to do system management tasks (as in Perl). It is simple, straight-forward, extensible, and portable.

Programming Languages, interpreted or compiled:

• GW Basic 2.02         The original Basic bundled with MS-DOS operating systems on IBM PC compatibles by Microsoft. Microsoft also sold a BASIC compiler, BASCOM, compatible with GW-BASIC, for applications requiring more speed.

• QBasic Cafe           QBasic 1.1 english and german versions, QBasic 3.0, Qbasic 4.5 english and german versions, and chat, forum, downloads etc - by Dieter "Didi" Caspary

• Antonis.de            German QBasic site with lots of downloads (all of the above plus Quick Basic Extended 7.1 aka PDS and the original GW Basic 3.23), forum, FAQs, and lots of related material - by Thomas Antonis 
• Borland Museum        For the "price" of registering you can download several versions of DOS Turbo Pascal, Turbo C, Turbo C++ here.
• DJGPP                DJGPP is a free, complete 32-bit C/C++ development system for Intel 80386 (and higher) PCs running DOS. It includes ports of many GNU development utilities. The development tools require a 80386 or newer computer to run, as do the programs they produce. In most cases, the programs it produces can be sold commercially without license or royalties. - by Delorie Software
• Free Pascal           Still under active developement, syntactically compatible to Turbo Pascal 7.0, versions for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOSX/Darwin, MacOS classic, DOS, Win32, OS/2, BeOS, SunOS (Solaris), Netware (libc and classic), QNX and Classic Amiga.
• Just BASIC            Just BASIC is a programming language for the Windows operating system.  It is free and it is suitable for creating all kinds of applications for business, industry, education and entertainment.  Just BASIC borrows many features from the popular commercial product Liberty BASIC. - by Shoptalk Systems
• Runtime Error 200     Fix for the "Runtime Error 200" of Borland Pascal on fast PCs.
• Open Watcom           Watcom C/C++ compiler and Fortran compiler are now open source projects. FAQ is here.
• Programming Languages German site with a good overview of and links to various DOS programming languages, compilers, assemblers, even exotic ones. - by Frank Steinberg
• Visual Basic for DOS  and others at this link.

Assemblers, Disassemblers:

• MASM                  The Microsoft Macro Assembler (abbreviated MASM) is an x86 high-level assembler for DOS and Microsoft Windows. Currently it is the most popular x86 assembler. MASM 6.11 was the last stand-alone version of MASM available from Microsoft.
  
  This download includes the original install disks for MASM 6.11, along with patches to upgrade to 6.11d (last version that runs on DOS/Win16, with Phar Lap DOS Extender) and 6.14 (includes support for the Intel Pentium Pro processor, the Intel MMX architecture, AMD 3D Technology, and Intel Internet Streaming SIMD Extensions).
• NASM and NDISASM      The Netwide Disassembler is a small companion program to the Netwide Assembler, NASM.

Compilers:

• Digital Mars           Digital Mars C and C++: Free Compilers for Win32, Win16, DOS32 and DOS. Fastest compile/link times, powerful optimization technology, Design by Contract, complete library source, HTML browsable documentation, disassembler, librarian, resource compiler, make, etc., command line and GUI versions, tutorials, sample code, online updates, Standard Template Library, and much more! - by lots of people!
• Open Watcom           In a single package, Open Watcom C/C++ and FORTRAN provides a comprehensive development environment with the tools, SDK's, and libraries you need to create powerful 16- and 32- bit applications for popular PC platforms. Combining an integrated development environment (IDE) and a comprehensive set of tools with state-of-the-art compiler technology, Open Watcom C/C++ and FORTRAN delivers productivity and performance.

DOS Interrupt List:

• RBIL                  (Download) or
• RBIL                  (Online) Ralf Brown's Interrupt List For those of you who want to program their own utilities, plus a few useful Libs, Programs,... - by Ralf Brown

Source Code Search engine:

• Koders                 Searching 205,234,850 lines of code in many programming languages

Alternative DOS Interfaces

Many users came to like a character-based Explorer-like interface to DOS. Later, there were a few graphical ones, and Microsoft added it's own early graphical interface named DOSSHELL to DOS versions 4.nn and 5.nn, iirc. Then, of course, Windows came along. Final Windows for Workgroups 3.11 is still in use by many who use machines without the massive resources later 32bit Win versions need.

• Commanders            Links, some dead, to several Commander clones - by Robert Orndorff
• Connect               Connect may be the best Norton Commander clone: it is a full-fledged DOS shell with a Borland-style interface supporting a powerful text editor (regexes, line-draw, formatting, syntax highlighting, vertical blocks, etc.), a multi-window hex editor, views text/dBASE/HTML files in structured format, file manager with support for 4DOS file descriptions which are preserved on file copy/move/ren, supports Win 9x/NT/2K long filenames, advanced filters, modem terminal, phone book, calendar, calculator, environment editor, CD Player(!), and more. - Freeware by Dima Orlov.
• Console               Console is a Win console window enhancement. Features include configurable font, color, size, background image and transparency (on Win2000 and later). - by Marko Bozikovic.
  A very similar developement is JP Software's TCI, now integrated with 4NT to TC (Take Command).
• DOS Navigator         DOS Navigator (open source project), "the best DOS Shell a man can get" :-)). -  by RIT Research Labs
• DOS Start             is a graphical DOS environment for launching programs and managing files, designed to be highly customizable and flexible to user's preferences and needs. It does not occupy memory while your programs are running, so there is no DOS program not compatible with DosStart. - by Daniel L. Nice
• eConsole              eConsole is a console window for NT (it does now also run under Windows 9x, but some features are simply not available under Windows 9x). eConsole is designed to run any Windows NT console process in a custom window with its own background image and font selection. - by Max Maischein
  A very similar developement is JP Software's TCI, now integrated with 4NT to TC (Take Command).
• Fly DOS GUI           features include 16 bit DOS GUI, drag/dropiplacement of Icons, quick text icons supported (handy for dropping a reminder on the desktop), calendar supports full display of a month at a time with fast preview of daily entries. Up to 65,000 desktops, up to 100 Icons per Desktop, pop up help. Preferred editor, spell checker etc., user definable hot key support, keypad simulation of mouse and more. Freeware by a very shy author who seems to have left his name nowhere.
• Gem/3                 Gem is a graphical user interface for DOS and a Windows precursor. There's a small community still working on developement of this free software.
• Geos                  Geos aka Breadbox Ensemble is now owned by Breadbox Computer Company LLC. This is a Windows-like interface to the operating system and made a big splash in all the mags when it was new. A lite evaluation version is available. NewDeal Office 2000, also available here, is the successor to the famous Geoworks Ensemble office package. Support on GEOS Infobase
• Guidebook             A very nice overview of GUIs can be found at Guidebook, a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces, as well as various materials related to them.
• LCARS 24              Star Trek-style GUI: large clock, cal., games, text editor, maps, animations, file manager, viewers, players, calc., unit conv., utils., refs., sims., for a TrueColor Win 9x or DOS-only laptop with std. graphics card & Sound. Freeware by Bill Morris
• List Plus             Classic great file lister plus simple shell for file operations. Still active & shareware. - by Vernon Buerg. There's a free 32-bit clone called ListXP by Rick Brewster (The original site is down, and the file seems to want to call home, so be careful!).
• MS WfW 3.11           The "classic" alternative interface for DOS :-) Windows for Workgroups was the the last and most stable of the old 16-bit Windows versions (with 32-bit amendments, iirc). For everything relating to Windows 3.nn see Gaby Chaudry's excellent pages (german help, drivers and extensions here, english version here). Earlier Windows versions from 1.01 to 3.0 can be found here
• MS Windows 95/98/ME   These later, partly 32-bit Operating Systems brought a new FAT, Long File Names and much more but still depended on an underlying DOS (which MS tried to hide for marketing purposes). Still a very fine and enhanced multitasking DOS system, if you can spare the resources.
• Norton Commander 5.0  The (commercial) Norton Commander was so universally used that he spawned uncounted share- and freeware clones. Many of these are better and faster than the original and free, see Google for details. - by Symantec
• PC Tools 9.0          Registering required. Version 8 can be found here. The PC Tools were a longtime contender to the Norton Utils, until Symantec bought them and buried them. A DOS shell with many tools, of course not LFN-aware! - by Central Point Software
• PC Valet              This is an excellent DOS shell, super small (assembler code), very fast, and full featured. Runs great in a DOS window on 95, NT, OS/2. Freeware. - by John Junod
• QuickWin              QuickWin is a window application that spawn a Win32 console application redirecting his stdin, stdout and stderr handles to a window. The console application is hiding and all I/O operations are made through QuickWin. This is a very useful program to spawn script programs or console applications in a window environment without opening a DOS box. Alternative source here. - by Jan-Claude Lanz
• QuikMenu III          A commercial program to give DOS a graphical, Windows-like desktop. QuikMenu allows you to customize graphical screen interfaces (up to 50 pages per system) and set up buttons to launch all your favorite DOS programs (including Windows). QuikMenu also contains a full assortment of utilities including a powerful file manager, a calculator, a phone/modem dialer and database, a calendar and more. - by NeoSoft Corp.
• SEAL                  SEAL is a 32-bit graphical user interface (GUI) for DOS. It supports many advanced features, such as a dynamic linking system (XDL), sound and other multimedia functions (SFA), multilingual support, and more! A GPL project on Sourceforge.
• Tandy Deskmate        Tandy DeskMate is a desktop environment that integrates with a number of useful bundled applications. DeskMate was sold by Tandy / Radio Shack and developed primarily for their TRS-80s and Tandy 1000 PC compatibles. Early versions were Tandy specific and would not run properly on other brands of PC compatible computers, however later versions did.
• Visi On               VisiCorp's Visi On was the first full featured desktop GUI for the IBM PC. Legend has it Bill Gates saw a demo of this running at the 1982 comdex running on an IBM PC. He freaked out because Microsoft didn't have anything like this yet, ran back to Microsoft Headquarters, and had them start work on what became Windows.
• XTree Fanpage         Xtree by Xtree Company was the 3rd popular commercial DOS shell (NC and PCT being the other 2). Last XTREE DOS version was 3.0, long since abandoned. Many clones can be found here.
• ZTreeWin              Ztree is a 32bit console mode Xtree clone enhanced to take advantage of the greater possibilities of todays operating systems. Commercial, 30 days trial version. -by Zedtec Inc.

Windows Scripting & Automation

• TC - TCC / 4NT - TCC/LE   Rex Conn's CMD.EXE replacement with hundreds of new commands, variables, functions, batch structural elements and more, now with a tabbed console GUI wrapper. Commercial Software - by JP Software
• AutoIt                AutoIt is a freeware BASIC-like language for automating Windows. It can simulate keystokes, mouse movements and window commands (maximize, minimize, wait for, etc.) in order to automate any windows based task (or even windowed DOS tasks). - by Jonathan Bennet
• AutoHotkey            Free: a keyboard, joystick, and mouse remapper,
  a word recognition engine that expands abbreviations as you type them (auto-replace), a simple yet powerful hotkey scripting language for Windows, supporting both mouse and keyboard macros, a regular scripting language (backward compatible with most existing AutoIt2 scripts). The program includes a script compiler that converts a script to an EXE. It also includes a macro recorder. - by Chris Mallett
• Automate              AutoMate 5 is the leading software for automation of front and back-office IT tasks. Combining raw power with intelligent design, AutoMate enables IT professionals to build and deploy system automation projects in record time. AutoMate tasks are assembled via drag-and-drop, without writing a single line of code, this allows automated tasks to be developed rapidly and maintained at lower cost.  $$$$ :-) - by Network Automation
• Batchrun              Batchrun will let you create batch files using a graphical interface. You can launch any number of programs or dialup connections with just a simple click. The new version offers GUI improvements, new internal commands and wildcard support for copy & delete. Freeware. - by Outer Technologies
• BPL                   BPL is an extended Win32 batch language interpreter that runs portably on Win95/Win98/NT/2000. BPL provides an superset of commands (66 in total) which exceed functionality found in standard command processors. - by Jim Lawless
• Kixtart                The KiXtart free-format scripting language has rich built-in functionality for easy scripting. It also supports COM (providing access to ADSI, ADO, WMI, etc) and thus is easily extensible. Careware. - by ScriptLogic Corp.
• Multibatcher         MultiBatcher is a tool for automation and batch processing of repetitive tasks on the computer. With the built-in automation tasks modules you can e.g. generate image galleries, resize images, FTP upload files to multiple servers, rename files, search-and-replace text in files (optionally using regular expressions), and call external batch scripts and applications (thereby enabling even more uses). Sshareware for 32-bit Windows, - by Microsys
• Powershell 2.0         Windows Powershell, formerly called Monad, is destined to be the new interactive command-line and task-based scripting technology in future Windows versions. It is said to enable administrators to more efficiently and securely automate and control system management tasks on both desktops and servers.
• QuicKeys for Windows  "Wipes the floor with other Windows automation and scheduling tools." - PC Direct. Hmmm. Another Win automation tool for a hefty price. - by Startly Techniologies
• Winbatch              A commercial very powerful Windows scripting language. Lots of free extension libs, compiler. - by Wilson WindowWare
• Wizzard´s Apprentice Write installshield wizard-like install batch files using this great freeware utility for Windows 9x/ME and NT/2K/XP. - by Dion Nicolaas
• Visual Batch File     Visual batch File (free, with banners). Another hard to fínd dead software. - by Corban Software, defunct
• WSH                  Starting page for downloading the (free) Microsoft Windows Scripting Host for Windows 95/98 plus Vbscript, Jscript, documentation and samples. - by Microsoft
• Workspace Macro Pro   and
• Automation Anywhere   Windows automation software with macro scripting and task scheduler. Record & edit mouse and keyboard actions. Features  macro editing, repeat options, easy macro language, Turbo-speed replay, IE plug-in and customizable UI. Shareware. - by Tethys Solutions
• You Can Author        is a simple yet powerful file management automation tool for users of 32-bit Windows XP, Vista or 7. - by Ortron,s Inc.

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