BetaWiki:Featured article/2024-05
MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) is a monolithic singletasking operating system developed by Microsoft between 1980 and 2000 for x86-based personal computers. It was the de facto industry standard environment on the IBM PC and its clones, although it also shipped with other x86-based computers that were incompatible with IBM.
By default, MS-DOS is driven by a command line interface – the A> or C:\> prompt shown when the command processor is ready to accept input ultimately became one of the unofficial symbols of DOS. Several software vendors have developed programs that add a more friendly user interface to manage files and launch other programs. Microsoft itself included such a program, the MS-DOS Shell, with some versions of MS-DOS.