DOS technology

In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is a type of firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the booting process (power-on startup). On a computer using BIOS firmware, the firmware comes pre-installed on the computer's motherboard.

family of file systems originally developed by Microsoft

filename extension

file format

computer program that returns control to a non-multitasking OS without exiting, simulating a background process or service

REDIRECT File Allocation Table#FAT32

form of interprocess communication, and is a function common to most command-line interpreters, including the various Unix shells that can redirect standard streams to user-specified locations

filename convention used by old versions of DOS and Windows

ANSI.SYS is a device driver in the DOS family of operating systems that provides extra console functions through ANSI escape sequences. It is partially based upon a subset of the text terminal control standard proposed by the ANSI X3L2 Technical Committee on Codes and Character Sets (the "X3 Committee").

API for MS-DOS allowing programs to access protected mode on 386 (and later) CPUs

table inside a master boot record

technology that allows running 16-bit/32-bit DOS and 16-bit Windows programs on Intel 80386 or higher computers when there is already another operating system running and controlling the hardware

REDIRECT File Allocation Table#FAT12

REDIRECT File_Allocation_Table#Initial_FAT16

process of assigning alphabetical identifiers to volumes

real mode API (Int 21h etc) of the MS-DOS operating system

executable file format used for .EXE files in MS-DOS

data structure used for file access in CP/M, MS-DOS and compatible operating systems

data structure holding volume geometry info in boot records of volumes with FAT, HPFS and NTFS file systems

data structure used in MS-DOS (and compatible) operating systems to store the state of a running program

file format

Software interface that allows the simultaneous running of several DOS programs as well as the direct addressing of the expansion memory in protected mode.