COMMAND.COM

COMMAND.COM

COMMAND.COM in Windows 10
Other names	MS-DOS Prompt, Windows Command Interpreter
Developer(s)	Seattle Computer Products, IBM, Microsoft, The Software Link, Datalight, Novell, Caldera
Initial release	1980; 44 years ago (1980)
Written in	x86 assembly language[1]
Operating system	86-DOS MS-DOS PC DOS DR-DOS SISNE plus PTS-DOS ROM-DOS OS/2 Windows 9x Windows NT (NTVDM) FreeDOS MSX-DOS
Platform	16-bit x86
Successor	cmd.exe
Type	Command-line interpreter

COMMAND.COM is the default command-line interpreter for MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me. In the case of DOS, it is the default user interface as well. It has an additional role as the usual first program run after boot (init process). As a shell, COMMAND.COM has two distinct modes of operation: interactive mode and batch mode. Internal commands are commands stored directly inside the COMMAND.COM binary; thus, they are always available, but can only be executed directly from the command interpreter.