DOS with Windows XP

[agent007]

I am trying to delete some index.dat files that store your history of visited websites in files that are hidden from windows. From the way I understand it you must find them with dos and I was told that you needed to boot the computer in dos to do so. Does anyone have anymore information on this.

[gore]

Nice, a whole page of posts and still no one answered where he could get a version of DOS.


http://www.freedos.org/

Go there and check that out. they have a documentation section so you should be fine. If you were willing to read what WE told you, you should have no problems reading the manuals for Free DOS.

http://www.dosgames.com/

And that is for some fun after you get it installed.

[sysmin770]

I believe that would depend on what browser you are using, if I am not mistaken. Also couldn't you use the "attrib -h" command at the command prompt? I know that the command is still active and that is how you unhide things that are marked as hidden. If you knew were the files were supposed to be located. If I remember correctly "dir /a" should give you a directory listing with file types.

[gore]

Correct. Dir /a will give you a listing of files in the current directory, tell you if its a directory, and shows file extensions of the files in the current directory. For example file.ini. DOS is more powerful than it is given credit for. I have poked fun at it, but that was what it was, poking fun, I use it. I have PC-DOS 6.3 on the original IBM floppies it came on when you bought it.

[Ghost_25inf]

find bootdisk for win98se at www.bootdisk.com then make a disk bootable. after that shutdown and restart the computer with the disk in. Now you are in command.com and can edit or delete the files you need. you should know the location of the files you want to delete so you can navigate to those directories to delete them. you should also be familiar with some dos commands to help you along.
CD space and the direcories name = move to that directory
cd/ = gets you back to the root directory
dir/w = lists the directory
del and name of file = deletes file and directories
copy and file name = copys files
deltree and name = directories and files
edit and full name = edit files
mkdir and name= make a directory
rd and name= remove directory

there are alot more commands but these should get what you want to do.

[jinxy]

Agent007 you can delet the histories that you want to with cmd.exe. There was a post on this subject sometime ago here at AO. I'll see if i can find it and i'll post the link to it.

Here you go take a look at this tute you should be able to get to all that hidden stuff with this, therefor you can get rid of it.

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...internet+files

[Beryllium9]

You won't be able to use DOS to delete them files at all. DOS can't read NTFS partitions, or FAT32 either. If you still want this OS though, there's a version that comes with windows XP. It is quite cut down though and isn't of much use. The only use i've put it to is when updating my BIOS.

All you got to do is stick a blank floppy in the drive, and open windows explorer. Right-click the floppy drive, choose format, and check the box that says 'create an MS-DOS startup disk'. Easy