home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- *******************************************************************************
- This patch is for people that are comfortable with sector editors (such as the
- Norton Utilities) or with DOS's Debug program. You should not attempt to do
- this on your hard disk, but rather on a bootable floppy disk (format it with
- /S parameter). Make sure that COMMAND.COM is on that floppy (earlier versions
- of DOS do not copy automatically).
- *******************************************************************************
-
- If you really like DD and DDel you might want to patch your DOS's COMMAND.COM
- file so as you may call DD.COM DIR.COM and DDEL.COM DEL.COM.
-
- MAKE A BOOT DISK TO WORK ON, DO NOT WORK ON YOUR HARD DISK.
-
- If you wish to use the Norton Utilities, follow the instructions in Section 1.
- If you wish to use DEBUG.COM, follow the directions in Section 2.
-
- Read the last section when you are finished.
-
- ----------------------------------
- SECTION 1, Using Norton Utilities.
- ----------------------------------
-
- What you need is a copy of The Norton Utilities (C) or some similar program that
- allows sector editing. First, you will need to load your COMMAND.COM file into
- the Sector Editor.
-
- NU COMMAND.COM
-
- That will load the COMMAND.COM file into Norton Utilities presuming that the
- file is in your current directory. Hit [ESC] to get to the Edit Menu. Look for
- the option to Search for Text (or some similar wording). Select this option.
-
- What you must do now is locate the command table entry for the DIR or DEL
- command (depending on what you want to do).
-
- To do this you must search for a string that consists of the ASCII code that
- equals the number of letters in the command (EX: The (ASCII 3) character for
- the DEL command), followed by the command itself in ALL CAPS. (You can get the
- ASCII 3 character by holding down the ALT key and then pressing the 3 key on the
- NUMERIC KEYPAD, then let go of the ALT key.) Enter the following string:
-
- DIR
-
- That is the string you must look for if you wish to change the DIR command in
- dos. The DEL command also happens to be 3 letters long and would look like the
- previous DIR command table entry except that DIR would be replaced by DEL.
-
- If you were looking to change the COPY command to, say, MOVE, you would need to
- look for COPY since it is 4 characters long (ASCII 4 is ).
-
- [You must always keep the total number of characters the same as was in the
- original COMMAND.COM.]
-
- When it says that it has found it, press a key, and then look for the option to
- edit the file. When you select that you will be placedin the sector editor.
- Hit TAB to move the cursor to the right (ASCII) side of the screen so you can
- edit things.
-
- Anyway, now that you have located DEL or DIR, change a letter in it. I
- changed both of them so as the middle character is a 'U' (DUR and DUL).
- Whatever you change it to will be a valid command (I can type DUR on my
- machine if I want to see a standard dos directory). You MUST use all CAPS.
-
- Now that you have changed it, save the file (hit return in norton, and respond
- to the write/save prompt).
-
- ---------------------------------
- SECTION 2, Using DOS's DEBUG.COM.
- ---------------------------------
-
- The steps involved in using DEBUG to change your COMMAND.COM are quite a bit
- shorter.
-
- Make sure that DEBUG.COM is in your path.
-
- Make sure that you are in the directory that COMMAND.COM resides (most likely
- the root directory of a bootable floppy disk).
-
- Type "DEBUG COMMAND.COM". You should see Debug's '-' prompt appear.
-
- Now you must determine the name of the comand you wish to change. You also
- must decide what you are going to change it to, keeping in mind that the new
- and old command must be of the same length (ie. DIR and DUR). Count the length
- of the command (in characters), we will refer to this value as '##'.
-
- We will refer to the original command, the one you wish to change, as 'OLDCMD'.
- The new command will be refered to as 'NEWCMD'. You must insert your command
- name (in all CAPS) where you see 'OLDCMD' and 'NEWCMD'. You will need to have
- double quotes around them, as will be shown in the commands that follow.
-
- Enter the following:
-
- S100 FFFF ## "OLDCMD"
-
- You will see a value in the form of mmmm:nnnn appear when you hit return.
- Write this down, you will need it in the next step.
-
- Enter the follwoing:
-
- Emmmm:nnnn ## "NEWCMD"
-
- This will do the acutal change, substituting the old command for the new one.
-
- Enter the following:
-
- Dmmmm:nnnn
-
- You should see a screen full of data, with your new command starting it off at
- the top of the list. If you do not see that, enter 'Q' for Quit and start over
- again.
-
- If you do see your new command, then you may continue.
-
- Enter the following:
-
- W
-
- Enter the following:
-
- Q
-
- You are now done.
-
- The following is an example of what you would type and see if you were changing
- the DIR command to DUR (so as you could rename DD.COM to DIR.COM).
-
- ============
-
- C:\>debug command.com
- -s100 ffff 03 "DIR"
- 2E15:8194
- -e2e15:8194 03 "DUR"
- -d2e15:8194
- 2E15:8190 03 44 55 52-03 C0 0F 04 43 41 4C 4C .DIR....CALL
- 2E15:81A0 02 98 0B 04 43 48 43 50-02 1D 19 06 52 45 4E 41 ....CHCP....RENA
- 2E15:81B0 4D 45 03 A4 13 03 52 45-4E 03 A4 13 05 45 52 41 ME....REN....ERA
- 2E15:81C0 53 45 03 1C 13 03 44 55-4C 03 1C 13 04 54 59 50 SE....DUL....TYP
- 2E15:81D0 45 03 55 14 03 52 45 4D-02 04 01 04 43 4F 50 59 E.U..REM....COPY
- 2E15:81E0 03 0A 30 05 50 41 55 53-45 02 0F 13 04 44 41 54 ..0.PAUSE....DAT
- 2E15:81F0 45 02 4D 27 04 54 49 4D-45 02 B7 27 03 56 45 52 E.M'.TIME..'.VER
- 2E15:8200 00 2C 16 03 56 4F 4C 03-25 15 02 43 44 03 7C 1D .,..VOL.%..CD.|.
- 2E15:8210 05 43 48 44 .CHD
- -w
- Writing 92B5 bytes
- -q
-
- C:\>
-
- ============
-
-
- ------------------------
- SECTION 3, You are Done.
- ------------------------
-
- Reboot your machine and see if your changes worked. Test it out by typing in
- your new command (such as 'DUR').
-
- Did it work?
-
- If it did, then you can rename DD.COM to DIR.COM or DDEL.COM to DEL.COM (or
- both if you changed both), and now when you type the normal dos command, you
- will get the external program insted. Nifty, eh?
-
- -=>TTWD
-