{"id":1829,"date":"2016-10-21T12:41:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T12:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/command-com\/"},"modified":"2016-10-21T12:41:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T12:41:37","slug":"command-com","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1360\/commandcom","title":{"rendered":"COMMAND.COM"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_commandcom_mean\">What Does COMMAND.COM Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>COMMAND.COM is the default shell for Microsoft operating<br \/>\nsystems, including MS-DOS and Windows versions up through Windows ME. Other<br \/>\nversions of DOS not from Microsoft also have a command shell named COMMAND.COM,<br \/>\nincluding DR DOS and FreeDOS. It allows users to execute commands and run<br \/>\nscripts known as batch files. It has been superseded in Windows NT and by<br \/>\nextension all modern versions of Windows by CMD.EXE and PowerShell.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_commandcom\">Techopedia Explains COMMAND.COM<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>COMMAND.COM is the command shell on MS-DOS and PC-DOS, as well as versions of Windows that depend on DOS (Windows 1.0 to Windows 95, 98 and ME). COMMAND.COM gives users a command line interface to DOS as well as a way to run scripts called \u201cbatch files\u201d with the .BAT file extension. COMMAND.COM reads the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to automatically run commands on startup. Most of these consist of setting environment variables and loading device drivers for the various hardware components installed in the computer.\n<\/p>\n<p>COMMAND.COM has a very simple list of commands for manipulating files, such as DIR for listing directories or DEL for deleting files. As it can be used for writing scripts, it has some simple flow control commands such as IF statements.\n<\/p>\n<p>COMMAND.COM has largely been superseded by CMD.EXE, which debuted in OS\/2 and Windows NT. Since all the versions of Windows since XP have been based on NT, CMD.EXE is now the default shell when opening the Command Prompt in Windows.\n<\/p>\n<p>To maintain compatibility, other DOS versions created by other developers, including DR DOS and FreeDOS, have a shell named COMMAND.COM as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does COMMAND.COM Mean? COMMAND.COM is the default shell for Microsoft operating systems, including MS-DOS and Windows versions up through Windows ME. Other versions of DOS not from Microsoft also have a command shell named COMMAND.COM, including DR DOS and FreeDOS. It allows users to execute commands and run scripts known as batch files. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[230],"class_list":["post-1829","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-privacy-and-compliance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is COMMAND.COM? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of COMMAND.COM and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COMMAND.COM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of COMMAND.COM and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1360\/commandcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1360\/commandcom#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1360\/commandcom\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"COMMAND.COM\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-21T12:41:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1360\/commandcom\"},\"wordCount\":276,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1360\/commandcom#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1360\/commandcom\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1360\/commandcom\",\"name\":\"What is COMMAND.COM? 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