CertiGuide to A+ (Operating Systems)  9  Chapter 0011:  DOS

I  Introduction 1 III  What is DOS?

Let's begin our tour with DOS (Disk Operating System) by looking at what starts up.

On first up the PC doesn't know too much. The first program launched is known as the bootstrap loader, or boot loader.

This is what looks for DOS, or any other operating system that is at the beginning of a diskette or hard drive. Assuming that the DOS start routine is there, the second step occurs, which is loading DOS. Once loaded, on the screen you will see either a CAPTIAL letter A or more commonly a capital letter C, followed by a > symbol, looking like this C>: This is known as the prompt. The prompt is literally telling you it is ready for you to type in a command.

To get a command to work (do something), you type in the name of a command and press the computer’s Enter key.

It is the job of DOS to find the program associated with the name to make it run (work/do something).

I  Introduction 1 III  What is DOS?