DOS Viruses?

Some idiot that I know e-mailed me and told me that he was gonna send me a DOS Virus. I don't think it could harm my computer. Could a DOS virus harm a computer with Windows XP on it? Thanks in advance

I think it is a code made in NotePad that he has converted to .bat

I don't think this guy really knows what he is talking about and even if he did make something evil run through DOS It'd probably just be a bat. or a program that opens the bat. file.

What he is talking about is a very lame sKIDDIE trick where he opens notepad and shoves commands in a file that tells DOS to Destroy The HardDrive or copy files. You can prevent this by not downloading things and if you do download it then open all textfiles of this download through notepad because if you try opening a .BAT like a normal file DOS will automaticly open and obey the commands.

Just open it through notepad and look for commands like DEL & DELTREE.

Thanks. I just won't download anything that ends with .bat on e-mails, and on MSN Messenger. It would be most likely sent to me by MSN Messenger so I will just block his e-mail address from my Hotmail and my MSN Buddy List.

maybe he dosn't really know that much, and is calling a .pif file a dos virus. now that could do some damage but so could a batch file for that matter