As the forerunner to the graphical user interfaces in Microsoft’s Windows platform, MS-DOS helped set the stage for the company’s dominance in the PC software market. When MS-DOS was released in 1981, ...

Nota bene: This is the concluding part of the surprisingly interesting history of the IBM PC. You should probably read part one of the story if you haven't already. In November 1979, Microsoft’s ...

In context: Back in 1980, Tim Paterson was creating a new operating system he called QDOS or Quick and Dirty Operating System. The system was later renamed 86-DOS, as it was being designed to run on ...

That iconic black screen and blinking cursor are no longer in active use, but they're hardly forgotten. It was 30 years ago today that Microsoft released DOS to the world, but the things that happened ...

Reader Steve P. sends in this question: “I’m running Windows 2000 and want to upgrade my system BIOS. The instructions say to create a bootable disk with the format a:/s command. However, the /s doesn ...

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the original IBM PC is how Microsoft ended up with the contract for the operating system. This would eventually make Microsoft's MS-DOS the standard and set ...

Linux is very good at running older software, but even the free and open-source operating system is stumped by the really ancient stuff developed for MS-DOS. Let’s go over how you can get ...

Gary Kildall started Intergalactic Digital Research (later shortened to Digital Research or just DRI) and created the first microcomputer operating system, CP/M, used on many hobbyist personal ...

If you are interested in taking a look at a 35-year-old computer operating system, when computers were equipped with around 4K of memory. You might be interested to know that the Computer History ...

A shattering new form of the “denial-of-service” computer attack could be on the rise, according to a company that controls some of the internet’s core infrastructure. In a conventional DoS attack, ...