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Originally Posted by Pierre Lawrence
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(“the C: prompt”), which continues to be bundled with Windows, and for many Windows updates allowed you to run DOS programs (not sure if this is true of the more recent updates). The command prompt continues to be useful for other tasks, however. I recently used it to remove Microsoft Edge from my laptop – which Uninstall will not allow you to do.
Thanks to rcentros for the link on Geoworks – a great read!
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No, The C:\ prompt isn't bundled and isn't DOS except on Windows 1, 2, 286, 386, 3.x, Win95, Win98 and ME.
NT for many years since it came out in 1993 had a Console. That did not allow DOS programs and did not run Command.com. Instead NT had a VM, the NTVDM, to run DOS programs. So this NTVDM also ran DOS programs on MIPS, PowerPC and Alpha. The console or terminal prompt could run NT or OS/2 Console programs. That included NT 3.1, NT 3.51, NT 4.0, Windows 2000, XP and Vista.
At some stage they discontinued OS/2 support and eventually removed the NTVDM (And 32 to 16 bit WOW which used NTVDM for the 16 bit windows code). NT was 32 bit from the start and in NT 4.0 era there was 64 bit for Alpha. Later a 64 bit version for Itanium using XP before the x86-64 bit Windows versions.
Windows 1, 2, 286, 386, 3.x, Win95, Win98 and ME all had real DOS prompts. Up to 3.0 was 16 bit only. Win 3.1x added optional 32 bit drivers, 32 bit TCP/IP and Win32s. Win9x/MW was a mix of 16 bit and 32 bit. No NTVDM or NT console. So win9x ran slow on the Pentium Pro because win9x has no NTVDM, all 16 bit code had to switch the CPU state, which was NEVER intended on the Pentium Pro. NT never executed 16 bit code on the CPU and the DOS prompt used the NTVDM, separate to the Console with a C:\ prompt.
Win9x killed the Pentium Pro (the expensive RAMBus RAM was a factor). The Pentium II was faster for Win9x but slower for "real" Windows, NT 4.0 at the time.
Now if you want to run DOS on Win10, you install DOSBox, an emulator, which is available for almost all OS and CPUs. Even on XP, DOSBox worked better than MS's NTVDM for DOS.