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MS-DOS
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THE MS-DOS SESSION TOOLBAR
The normal way of running a DOS program is in an
MS-DOS session. You can type the DOS commands to run the
program when you're at the DOS prompt, or you can click
the Start Button and then click Run... and afterwards
type in the DOS command to start up the program. If you
don't need any command parameters, you could also just
start up the program by double-clicking the program's
icon in Explorer. When the DOS session starts, it will
probably be in a window, which can be moved around and
re-sized just like any other window. (If your program
starts up in full-screen mode, however, you can change it
to a window by holding down the Alt key and hitting
Enter.) If your program is in a window, you will see a
small MSDOS icon at the top left of the title bar. This
can be clicked in order to choose among various options.
In particular, you would do this if you do not see a
Windows toolbar at the top of your screen (below the
title bar) and would like to turn it on. Once you do have
the toolbar turned on, let your mouse rest for a moment
on each toolbar icon in order to see a small tip pop up
explaining what each icon stands for. (Mark, Copy, Paste,
Full Screen, Properties, Background, and Font.)
Now for a brief explanation of these toolbar icons: Mark
is used with Copy and Paste. When you want to start
marking data for copying to the clipboard, click the Mark
icon. Then move the mouse pointer just outside of the
text you want to copy. As you drag the mouse pointer down
and to the right, a selection rectangle will form around
the text; release the mouse when you have included all
the desired text. Click Copy to make a copy of the text
to the clipboard. You could now start up another DOS
program and Paste the data into it. Full Screen will
switch the application to a window which covers the
entire screen except for the taskbar. Clicking Properties
will get you the Properties sheet for the DOS
application. The Background icon toggles whether the DOS
program keeps on running (i.e., doesn't suspend) when you
switch to another program. You would not want it to
suspend, for example, if it was a DOS communication
program accessing a BBS. With the Font icon you can
choose among various fonts to be used in the DOS text.
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