Josh Koffman wrote:

>> Yes, if it a console Windows Application, it should behave like a
>> Windows piece of software
> 
> Could it be you're running the wrong console? I seem to recall that
> there's a difference between doing start/run/command and
> start/run/cmd.

There sure is. That's the thing with talking about a "DOS box". 

The WinNT+ cmd.exe (almost) looks like the DOS box of yore, but isn't --
it's a different, and a full Windows, application. No difference to running
other normal Windows applications.

The command.com is a different beast. It's not a Win32 application, and it
is severely limited compared to cmd.exe. I don't really know why it's there
at all. Possibly for some odd enterprise batch file that uses some strange
feature and doesn't run on cmd.exe.

They are easily distinguishable, though. The first few lines look like

  Microsoft(R) Windows DOS
  (C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1990-2001.

  Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
  (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

While the former proclaims itself as a "DOS box", the latter says it's an
"XP box" :)

(On a side note... I wonder why the copyright notice of cmd.exe goes
farther back than the one of command.com. Historically it's probably
younger. I don't think this is relevant for copyright reasons, though.)

Gerhard

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