In WINDOWS 95 you can access the origina DOS environment in the form of window called MS-DOS COMMAND WINDOW or PROMPT (or MS-DOS PROMPT, for short). You can usually get this window from the start menu. This means you can also invoke this by typing ``command'' at the start->run menu.)

The executable file itself is called command.com under the windows directory. (On my Win95. it is found C:\windows\command.com). NOTE: in WinNT, the name is cmd.exe.

Using the MS-DOS PROMPT window: Usually, it shows up as another window on the Win95 desktop. To make this window take over the entire screen, press ALT-ENTER. You can return to the Win95 desktop by pressing ALT-ENTER once more. There are basic window functions (such as making a copy of the window output) you can do from the MS-DOS PROMPT. To access these, left-click the icon on the left of the title bar, or right-click the title bar itself.

Customized Prompt Windows: I find it useful to customize one Prompt Window for each of my frequent area of work: e.g., one for programming in PERL, one for JAVA, one for each of my courses, etc. To do this, you create a shortcut to Prompt Window, and place it on your desktop. For my JAVA work, I name the shortcut "Java Prompt". E.g., if I click the "Java Prompt" icon on my desktop, I instantly get to my working directory for Java (e.g., C:\progs\classes\java).

To modify properties of your shortcut, click the right mouse button over the icon, and choose "properties". Under the "shortcut" tab, you will find several fields which you set: The Target field should be set to the program you want to execute when you click the shortcut (in our case the target is "C:\windows\command.com"). The Start in field should be where you want the working directory to be (for my class using Java, I have "C:\classes\java"). In Win95 (not in WinNT), there is a Batch file field, which you can set to some batch file which is executed when you click the shortcut. THis is useful for setting environment variables (e.g., the path variable).