Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Better Command Prompt In Win98 (Read 6009 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Does anyone know if there is a better command prompt available for Windows 98?  The MS-DOS prompt that comes with Win98 completely sucks(it only remembers the last command, and you can only recall one letter at a time, there is no scrollbar, commands have a length limitation, etc.).  I try to use Linux for most command line stuff, but the executables are noticably slower (LAME aps takes about 1.5x in Win98, but about 0.8x in Linux as a brief example).  If the MS-DOS prompt can be tweaked to do any of these things, that would be cool to know too.  Thanks for any help.

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #2 –
Quote
I try to use Linux for most command line stuff, but the executables are noticably slower (LAME aps takes about 1.5x in Win98, but about 0.8x in Linux as a brief example).

Go for Cygwin.

It comes with bash, all flexible commandline tools known from linux (like find, grep, ...) and even standalone(*) rxvt terminal, which makes life with CLI utilities under Windows as easy as under Linux. 

[span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'](*) there's also XWindows port for cygwin with its own terminal emulators, by I prefer rxvt which runs directly as windows app.  [/span]

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #3 –
Or Mingw with Msys, from http://www.mingw.org
Nice alternative to cygwin

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #4 –
Quote
Does anyone know if there is a better command prompt available for Windows 98?  The MS-DOS prompt that comes with Win98 completely sucks(it only remembers the last command, and you can only recall one letter at a time, there is no scrollbar, commands have a length limitation, etc.).  I try to use Linux for most command line stuff, but the executables are noticably slower (LAME aps takes about 1.5x in Win98, but about 0.8x in Linux as a brief example).  If the MS-DOS prompt can be tweaked to do any of these things, that would be cool to know too.  Thanks for any help.

I don't recall if it was still available under '98, but there used to be a utility called 'DOSKEY' that was a part of DOS that 'remembered' issued commands and allowed recall of them using up and down arrow keys, F8, etc.

If it's still there, just enter DOSKEY, return, to invoke it.

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #5 –
Quote
Quote
Does anyone know if there is a better command prompt available for Windows 98?  The MS-DOS prompt that comes with Win98 completely sucks(it only remembers the last command, and you can only recall one letter at a time, there is no scrollbar, commands have a length limitation, etc.).  I try to use Linux for most command line stuff, but the executables are noticably slower (LAME aps takes about 1.5x in Win98, but about 0.8x in Linux as a brief example).  If the MS-DOS prompt can be tweaked to do any of these things, that would be cool to know too.  Thanks for any help.

I don't recall if it was still available under '98, but there used to be a utility called 'DOSKEY' that was a part of DOS that 'remembered' issued commands and allowed recall of them using up and down arrow keys, F8, etc.

If it's still there, just enter DOSKEY, return, to invoke it.

It is -- and could probably be invoked in 'autoexec.bat' upon bootup and apply to all DOS windows opened (if I remember correctly).

Might be worth adding the following to c:\autoexec.bat (if the file exists):

doskey > nul

Cheers,

fewtch

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #6 –
Excellent.  I'm going to try Cygwin first, and play around with DOSKEY a little bit.  Thanks for the great help!

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #7 –
doskey's in all win9x versions including the last, winme

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #8 –
Whereas the free & open Unix-like environments may sound tempting, one must not forget that 4DOS (and 4NT) is probably the most esteemed command interpreter in existence. Several Unix fans admit that 4DOS beats the most common Unix shells hands down.

When you have configured it (aliases, colordir, prompt identifier) it looks really, really good and is extremely fast and convinient to use.

Unike with Unix, key combinations can be aliases, for instance pressing ALT-D could launch DIR /PA. And not to mention, The Holy Tabulator key (I'm eternally grateful to Unix for this one) works like charm.

Other alternative is to install W2k and enjoy the slightly improved command prompt. Supports The Holy Tabulator (really, I love The Holy Tabulator more than anything in computer world  ), can scroll backwards and has a typed command history browsable with the arrow keys.

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #9 –
Quote
I try to use Linux for most command line stuff, but the executables are noticably slower (LAME aps takes about 1.5x in Win98, but about 0.8x in Linux as a brief example).

Hmm...that's strange.  For me, LAME in Windows XP is noticeably slower than LAME in Linux (and in Linux, a GCC compiled version is noticeably faster than Intel C++ 6.0 compiled version - and yes, I also tried Intel's auto-vectorizer and it was still slower than GCC).  If you're using LAME in Linux, I would make sure you have the latest version of GCC (3.2.1 I think) and build it yourself.  Overall, GCC is usually a bit slower than Intel's C++ compiler (even the GCC home page says that in the benchmark section) - I guess LAME is just a special exception.

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #10 –
Hmm, 4DOS sounds good, but it is expensive! On its own, it costs $70, and with 4NT and Take Command, it comes to the nice price of $120! That's a bit too much for me.

So, does anyone have a nice DOS-shell replacement (not Cygwin, that'll confuse others who use my computer too much) that supports The Holy Tabulator (which I also really, really like)?

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #11 –
Yeah, 4DOS is quite expensive!  As niktheblak said, Windows 2K/XP supports The Holy Tabulator (in my opinion, it works better than the *NIX Holy Tabulator because when 2 filenames begin with the same thing, the *NIX Holy Tabulator requires you to type in a letter but the Windows Holy Tabulator cycles though each possibility).  I also like how in 2K/XP, you finally get the pushd and popd commands (that *NIX has had forever), which are really useful, especially when accessing a network drive from the command prompt (because it automatically maps & unmaps it for you).

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #12 –
Hmm, I guess I'll have to switch to Win2000 then. I've been thinking about it for a while, but I've been worried about getting my internet sharing working. A friend of mine has problems with this under Win2000. The same thing is keeping me from going to Linux. Does anyone have a good IPTables howto? I could only find IPChains ones.

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #13 –
Internet Connection Sharing in W2k works exactly like in Win98SE, you just need to tick "Enable Internet Connection Sharing for this connection" from the outbound connection's properties. Just set your clients to obtain IP address automatically, it *should* work like charm.

And as an additional bonus, you should get a noticable increase in encoding speed just by switching to W2k. With my old Celeron system, MPC encoding rose from ~4x to ~6x when I switched from Win98 to W2k. Not to mention better memory management, stability and everything. You just have to sacrifice hardware compatibility

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #14 –
Hmm, doesn't sound too hard. I think I'll try it during the christmas holidays. Mostly I'm hoping these weird mouse problems will go away; my mouse is unresponsive when the computer is starting a program or something like that. It didn't do that before, and I haven't been able to pinpoint what causes it, so I'm attributing it to Windows bit rot :S

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #15 –
Quote
Hmm, I guess I'll have to switch to Win2000 then. I've been thinking about it for a while, but I've been worried about getting my internet sharing working. A friend of mine has problems with this under Win2000. The same thing is keeping me from going to Linux. Does anyone have a good IPTables howto? I could only find IPChains ones.

geezus.. there are PLENTY of iptables how-tos

http://ipmasq.cjb.net
http://iptables.org
http://iptables-tutorial.frozentux.net

If you search freshmeat or sourceforge, you will find plenty of iptables configuring softwares, although I prefer to configure iptables manually at the lowest level.

I've used many NAT/firewall solutions before, both hardware and software, and linux with iptables is easily the best.

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #16 –
Quote
Mostly I'm hoping these weird mouse problems will go away; my mouse is unresponsive when the computer is starting a program or something like that. It didn't do that before, and I haven't been able to pinpoint what causes it, so I'm attributing it to Windows bit rot :S

It's most likely your Windows installation is becoming buggy and unstable because of VMM32.VXD - a monolithic file that MS screwed up on trying to "copy" some of the stuff Linux has did perfectly.

I used VXD Fix which not only corrected my mouse problems, and VMM32 BSOD's, it has kept me from formatting and reinstalling Windows altogether. I can't believe Win98 can run this damn good - its downright scary.

VXD Fix is freeware available at:
http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files007.shtml#VXD

You will need your Windows installation CD, it only uses the files that are on the Win install CD, therefore they are the original OS files. It only works with Win98/Win98SE.

All it does is copy some of the system files that would normally be stuck in "\Windows\System\VMM32\" and extracts them from the original CD into "\Windows\System\", thus over-riding VMM32.VXD's problems.

If you want to know how much crap is associated to the file open the registry editor and look under:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VMM32Files"

Note: If you have a newer version of vmouse.vxd make sure you back it up first, and then use the System File Checker to copy it back into "\Windows\System\VMM32\" and "\Windows\System\" after VXD Fix does its magic.

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #17 –
What? Do you _dare_ compare a single, commercial shell available only in MS platforms with all of the different shells available in *nix platforms???

Absolute nonsense.

http://freshmeat.net/browse/884/?topic_id=884

Try reading some man pages, bash is extremely configurable, and there are so many shells that you cant just state almost anything about shells without lying. For instance, have you ever tried Zsh?

I used 4dos for many years in the nineties. It is good, but not _that_ good, in fact its primitive in comparison to some of what is available. If you do install cygwin, you may try even more shells, i guess. But the real thing will always be better.

win2k default shell (cmd) can even do some primitive (and very dumb) file auto completion, the option is turned off by default in the registry, modify the proper entry or install cacheman and find the option.
She is waiting in the air

Better Command Prompt In Win98

Reply #18 –
Andavari: nope, I tried VXD fix, but the problem remains: when CPU load gets high (such as when a program is starting) the mouse becomes unresponsive. After that, everything is back to normal again. Oh well, after this thread I'll be installing Win2000 soon anyway, and as soon as I get IPMASQ and IPTABLES working, I'll be running Linux more than I do now as well.