DOS abc's - How to run a program

These tutorials are in sequence. Be sure you understand the content of

     DOS abc's - How a disk is organized and
     DOS abc's - How to enter a command.

RUNNING A PROGRAM
To run a program, go to the directory the program is in and simply type in the program's name. For example, to go to the LOTUS directory and run the 123.EXE program, you would type:

    C:\>cd \lotus    go to directory
    C:\LOTUS>123     run 123.EXE program

The .EXE is a file extension for a program that is ready to run (EXEcute). You'll learn about file extensions in DOS file names.

You can usually (but not always) run a program in a different directory or even a different disk by naming the path to it.

Suppose you're in the ANYWHERE directory on drive C, you could run PARADOX3.EXE in directory DATA on E by typing:

    C:\ANYWHERE>e:\data\paradox3

Note: You don't enter the .EXE extension when naming a program to run.

Also note: The "ANYWHERE" above is a prompt used in examples to indicate that the command will work no matter which directory you're currently in.

Command Syntax
Most programs are run by typing in their name. For example, the earlier DOS version of this software was loaded and run by typing cdedos at the DOS prompt.

However, sometimes additional information, or parameters, must be given to the program when it is run. These are simply typed in after the program name. For example, PKZIP.EXE is widely used to compress files. The following example tells PKZIP to compress all the GIF files in the current directory, creating a file named SMALLPIX.ZIP:

            pkzip smallpix *.gif

When managing your files with DOS, the commands often require additional input; for example, the Format command must be typed with the name of the disk you want to format:

                 format a: