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I think Windows 3.1 did have one. Accessible at command.com Here's the best source I could dig up https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-command-pr

I think Windows 3.1 did have one. Accessible at command.com Here's the best source I could dig up https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-command-prompt-introduction/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-command-p...

chungy 8y ago
Windows 1.x-3.x didn't really have a command line, the window you use to run command.com was for DOS programs only. Windows programs didn't have a text mode to utilize it. Windows NT's console window was properly accessible to Windows programs, as well as DOS compatibility. Windows 95/98/Me inherited limited forms of text-mode compatibility from NT.
- einr 8y ago
  the window you use to run command.com was for DOS programs only. This is not strictly true. You could launch Windows programs from the DOS box. If you tried to run something like PBRUSH.EXE from true DOS you would get "This program requires Windows" but in a DOS box it would detect that Windows was running and launch the program. I think it is true that there were no Windows-only command line apps though.
  - laumars 8y ago
    By the Win95 era there was. In the 3.x and below era people tended to either be in DOS or be in Windows rather than running DOS in Windows. Or at least that was my experience, YMMV
    - amyjess 8y ago
      Even in the Win95 era, I remember having to boot into DOS to run some games (Redneck Rampage comes to mind).
      - laumars 8y ago
        I think you could largely get around having to boot into DOS mode by enabling a specific setting on the MS-DOS shortcut for those games. I think it unloaded win.com - so you're essentially shutting down Windows rather than rebooting into DOS) but we're talking > 20 years since I've last used that trick so my memory is a bit fuzzy.
        int_19h 8y ago
        In practice, people usually rebooted into DOS mode to play so as to do memory optimization in config.sys & autoexec.bat (HIMEM, EMM386 etc). Although that was for the benefit of older 16-bit games - 32-bit DOS extender stuff like Redneck Rampage wouldn't care.
        laumars 8y ago
        I don’t think you’d need to reboot to take advantage of that because they’re loaded as part of Windows booting and then a lot of the DOS kernel was patched into the Windows kernel for 16bit driver support. I certainly don’t recall ever having any issues with 16 bit games (aside my weird soundcard not working with half the games I tried, but I can’t recall why that was off hand).
        int_19h 8y ago
        It's not a 16-bit driver issue; it's the conventional memory size issue. Remember the old 640 Kb limit? When you had too many DOS drivers loaded, you often ended up with less than 600 Kb free - and some 16-bit games didn't like running that low, hence the need to use HIMEM etc. And while it still works when running DOS apps from Windows, it reduced the amount of conventional memory even further.
        laumars 8y ago
        Yes, I understand the problem but what I’m saying is when you shutdown to DOS (even without rebooting) win.com was shutoff. Since it was win.com that disabled EMM386 you were free to run your HIMEM whatever again. Thus having a full DOS environment without a full reboot (which used to be slow in those days). Thinking about it some more, I think I might have had a subset autoexec.bat I used to run for those occasions. That technique seemed to work for me. Maybe I’m forgetting a tonne of 16 bit games that didn’t play but nothing immediately springs to mind
  - dfox 8y ago
    There was no native support for command line apps (in part because the cooperative multitasking model is not especially conductive to such things), but at least some Win16 development environments came with libraries for emulating console applications (eg. BP7 and Delphi 1 had unit WinCRT which did exactly that).

chungy 8y ago

Windows 1.x-3.x didn't really have a command line, the window you use to run command.com was for DOS programs only. Windows programs didn't have a text mode to utilize it. Windows NT's console window was properly accessible to Windows programs, as well as DOS compatibility. Windows 95/98/Me inherited limited forms of text-mode compatibility from NT.

einr 8y ago
the window you use to run command.com was for DOS programs only. This is not strictly true. You could launch Windows programs from the DOS box. If you tried to run something like PBRUSH.EXE from true DOS you would get "This program requires Windows" but in a DOS box it would detect that Windows was running and launch the program. I think it is true that there were no Windows-only command line apps though.
- laumars 8y ago
  By the Win95 era there was. In the 3.x and below era people tended to either be in DOS or be in Windows rather than running DOS in Windows. Or at least that was my experience, YMMV
  - amyjess 8y ago
    Even in the Win95 era, I remember having to boot into DOS to run some games (Redneck Rampage comes to mind).
    - laumars 8y ago
      I think you could largely get around having to boot into DOS mode by enabling a specific setting on the MS-DOS shortcut for those games. I think it unloaded win.com - so you're essentially shutting down Windows rather than rebooting into DOS) but we're talking > 20 years since I've last used that trick so my memory is a bit fuzzy.
      - int_19h 8y ago
        In practice, people usually rebooted into DOS mode to play so as to do memory optimization in config.sys & autoexec.bat (HIMEM, EMM386 etc). Although that was for the benefit of older 16-bit games - 32-bit DOS extender stuff like Redneck Rampage wouldn't care.
        laumars 8y ago
        I don’t think you’d need to reboot to take advantage of that because they’re loaded as part of Windows booting and then a lot of the DOS kernel was patched into the Windows kernel for 16bit driver support. I certainly don’t recall ever having any issues with 16 bit games (aside my weird soundcard not working with half the games I tried, but I can’t recall why that was off hand).
        int_19h 8y ago
        It's not a 16-bit driver issue; it's the conventional memory size issue. Remember the old 640 Kb limit? When you had too many DOS drivers loaded, you often ended up with less than 600 Kb free - and some 16-bit games didn't like running that low, hence the need to use HIMEM etc. And while it still works when running DOS apps from Windows, it reduced the amount of conventional memory even further.
        laumars 8y ago
        Yes, I understand the problem but what I’m saying is when you shutdown to DOS (even without rebooting) win.com was shutoff. Since it was win.com that disabled EMM386 you were free to run your HIMEM whatever again. Thus having a full DOS environment without a full reboot (which used to be slow in those days). Thinking about it some more, I think I might have had a subset autoexec.bat I used to run for those occasions. That technique seemed to work for me. Maybe I’m forgetting a tonne of 16 bit games that didn’t play but nothing immediately springs to mind
- dfox 8y ago
  There was no native support for command line apps (in part because the cooperative multitasking model is not especially conductive to such things), but at least some Win16 development environments came with libraries for emulating console applications (eg. BP7 and Delphi 1 had unit WinCRT which did exactly that).