If you need an UNDELETE, CHKDSK, UNFORMAT, and other utilities not quite working in FreeDOS right now then consider the free download of DRDOS v7.03 or PTSDOS - 2000© (link to demo version) and save yourself some time and grief trying to live without them? The individual utilities are available from the DRDOS FTP server in the BETA directory of v7.03 but I do not know at this time how compatible they would be with other versions of DOS?

Below are my list of utilities that seem to be overlooked in a Windows World. They are not applications suites or major applications. They are the work-horse applications that make using DOS pleasant and productive.

NOTE: New link to ARJ 2.81a is now available (07-09-04) or get the latest v2.82 from the Arjsoft homepage.

UTILITIES CREATED HERE AT DOS GHOST

SORT PLUS - (DOS v2.x - 8.x) Written by Charles Angelich in 'C' (Borland DOS TurboC++).  Sort+ is a drop-in replacement for MSDOS sort, just rename to 'sort' and copy it to the DOS directory.  Sort+ duplicates the MSDOS sort switches plus adds extra ones Microsoft didn't think we needed such as removing duplicate lines from the output.  Sort+ will display a 'ruler' to help you locate the exact column to begin sorting at (using the /## switch).  Sort+ uses the QuickSort algorithm taken directly from the K&R book describing 'C' programming and is actually 100x's faster than the MSDOS version of sort, honest, I timed them.  MSDOS sort is limited to under 64k files (really closer to 55k) while Sort+ is limited to approximately 800k files using the first 1meg of DOS memory.  If you routinely sort files larger than 800k I would recommend RPSORT (also on this page).  The advantage to SORT+ is that it is a drop-in workalike to MSDOS sort, no rewriting of existing batch files is required to use Sort+ but it will be 100x's faster!  SORT+ works with MSDOS v3.x and newer on any Intel platform including XTs.

SIM(ilarity) SORT - Written by Charles Angelich in 'C' (Borland DOS TurboC++).
SIMSORT is a very unique and interesting sort utility.  SIMSORT is an AI 'fuzzy logic' sort written recently by me while collecting 'taglines'.  Taglines are one line (less than 80 characters) witicisms added to the end of messages.  There are thousands of taglines out there and many are duplicates with minor word-changes.  I wanted to remove the dupes and grouping of similar lines together was the first stage (see FUZZY).  This sort utility tries to actually read the words and group similar lines together.  Obviously it will optionally remove exact matched lines from the output.  Lists of filenames and addresses can be sorted for 'near' duplicates and text files, if separated into single lines, can be 'sorted' to locate repetitive sentences - a presort before generating statistical analysis?  SIMSORT is not as fast as the normal alphabetical sort but will prevent eye-strain trying to locate dupes in large collections of text files where similar words and phrases need to be grouped together.  SIMSORT works with MSDOS v3.x and up on any Intel hardware including XTs.

FUZZY - Written by Charles Angelich in 'C' (Borland DOS TurboC++).
This is the second stage after SIMSORT if elimination of near-dupes is required.  Written recently in 'C' to remove the 'similar' lines within text files after sorting the file with SIMSORT.  FUZZY refers to the 'fuzzy logic' used to determine how closely the words and phrases contained in each line match the words and phrases contained within the previous line(s).  The cutoff point is adjustable as a percentage of similarity using a command line switch and number values within the text are ignored for purposes of comparison (this helps when searching directory listings for dupes).  There are no comparable utilities available that will use AI to eliminate near-dupes, users are required to do this manually one line at a time using an editor.  FUZZY will do this for you automatically.  Removed lines are stored in FUZZ.$$$ in the root directory of whatever drive/partition FUZZY is executed in for your review in the event that you disagree and want to put the line back into the file (see SIMSORT).  FUZZY works with MSDOS v3.x and up on any Intel hardware including XTs.

SEEK PLUS - Written by Charles Angelich in 'C' (Borland DOS TurboC++).
Seek+ will search your entire hard drive including all partitions in any order (abc is not required, bca also works).  Seek+ will abort on any key gracefully and inform you that you requested the 'abort'.  With the 'c' switch SEEK+ will change to the directory of the last file that matches your request.  Standard wildcard syntax is supported for searches of filenames.  Seek+ includes some refinements such as a 'wide-display' with properized filenames, attributes and full path listed along with the usual date/time/size information.  I have updated the original Seek+ over several years.  The built in 'help' display and flexible command line arrangement make SEEK+ very easy to use and SEEK+ is very fast.  SEEK+ was written to save time and be as easy to use as possbile.  SEEK+ will search FAT32 short filenames but does not read beyond the 2+gigabyte partition limit, sorry.
Default Seek+ display:

Ssmyst   Scr      9936   92-03-10   03:10:00  ------  C:\windows
Windowsr Grp      8865  101-10-01   13:04:58  ----a-  C:\windows
Control  Ini      8663  102-03-23   23:29:58  ----a-  C:\windows

BITS - Similar to all the other DOS attrib utilities but with a very 'readable' display the others do not have.  This was a DOS ASM programming exercise (for me).  Use only on DOS FAT16 hard drives and FAT12 floppies!  NOT A DOS FAT32 UTILITY!  Use of this utility to reset attributes on FAT32 drives is unpredictable and probably a bad idea.
Default BITS display:

io.sys        ....................... *System .. *Hidden . ReadOnly .
msdos.sys     ....................... *System .. *Hidden . ReadOnly .
autoexec.bat  . Archive .............................................
windows       ........... Directory .................................

MORE PLUS - (works with DOS v2.x to 8.x) Written by Charles Angelich in ASM (Borland DOS TurboASM).  Drop-in replacement for MSDOS 'more' that will display one-line-at-a-time using the ENTER key or entire screens of text by pressing the spacebar.  More+ does attempt to determine the vertical and horizontal screen format and should work with screens other than just 80x25 if the utility does this in the proper acceptable fashion.  'Q' or 'q' quits the display.  MorePlus is a 'plus' because you can specify a start/end number to limit the number of characters of each line that will display.  All in a little more than 850 bytes.  I wanted one-hand scroll functions and a more elegant method to abort the display than the ctrl-break that Microsoft had given me.  After almost a decade of use Joachim Dathe and I were discussing similarity sorting and he mentioned my MORE utility was a bit non-standard.  I modified the code and emailed the binary to him, hence the "for Dathe" on the HELP screen.  (the archive includes OPTION below)

OPTION - Written by Charles Angelich in ASM (Borland DOS TurboASM).
Comparable to MSDOS 'CHOICE' but much smaller and easier to use from within batch files to display user prompts and wait for a character to use for branching within the batch file.  This is a re-write of code published in PcMagazine many years ago as 'script' for DEBUG to assemble the binary.  My version is only 10 bytes larger but considerably more sophisticated for a 100 byte program.  Yes, that IS one-hundred bytes.  Brief documentation and example batch file included.

MISCELLANEOUS

PocketD Plus v5.3 PocketD Plus v5.3 is a tiny command-line file manager with a separate optional menu-driven interface (MENUD.EXE).  PocketD allows the DOS/Windows user to execute automated tasks too difficult by other means.  PocketD has a staggering 300+ options and sub-options, including filename, string and archive searching (ZIP, ARC, PAK, ZOO, ARJ, LZH, and SFX), detects LZEXE, DIET, PKLITE, COMPACK compression, advanced wildcards, analyse EXE/COM files, safe copy (26 options), scrolling execution and display template(s) (71 params), full on-line help, color user menus, barchart summary, 37 user-defined parameters, recursive disk analysis, environment variable analysis and much more.  The included MENUD.EXE front-end allows the user to build complex command lines from DOS/Windows, automatically providing a full description of the combined operation in English.  Support has been added for Windows 95 long filenames within networks.

CD-ROM God Ver 5.5 is a boot disk that has 50+ CD-ROM drivers.  (Including SCSI) It has basic ATAPI drivers, and model specific drivers.  Collections of drivers on one disk were often called 'God Disks', hence the filename.  If this disk doesn't have your driver only God knows what you need!  (PS: Anyone know where to find any networking 'God Disk's?)

DOS LFN Tools - From the author : "These tools provide easy file management under DOS with long filenames created by Windows 95/98 on FAT32, FAT16 and FAT12 file systems.  To take full advantage of these tools, run them in pure DOS mode - not a DOS box under Windows.  As far as I know this is the only completely FREE solution to handle long filenames in DOS."  DOS LFN Tools Homepage

LBACK - Long filename backup utility.  A derived work using DOS LFN Tools by another author.  LBACK Homepage

NTFSDOS - Quote from the Sysinternals webpage: "NTFSDOS.EXE is a read-only network file system driver for DOS/Windows that is able to recognize and mount NTFS drives for transparent access. It makes NTFS drives appear indistinguishable from standard FAT drives, providing the ability to navigate, view and execute programs on them from DOS or from Windows, including from the Windows 3.1 File Manager and Windows 95 Explorer. ". There is a read/write version but it is not free. - CPA

NTFS4DOS - Quote from the Datapol webpage: "With NTFS4DOS, datapol offers the first datapol recovery tool as freeware for private use. NTFS4DOS offers full access [read and write] to NTFS based file systems with a single boot floppy".

ALIASING - Extending DOS

4DOS - Adds aliasing, online help, new batch file commands, and it's own version of long filenames.

Although 4DOS was ahead of MSDOS, newer versions of MSDOS, and other DOS, have since added many of the aliasing and other functions.  The new batch file commands and the batch file compiler are nice but you become dependent on them and your batch files with new 4DOS commands will not function without 4DOS.  This requires a decision to learn to depend on what other computers will not offer you if the need to use the additional batch file commands ever becomes a reality.  Think about this before you commit to it.

CED - Adds aliasing (macros), command history, and command line editing to early versions of DOS that did not have DOSEDIT - very old and very compatible.

Access to these extended commands will be comparable to newer versions of DOS and should not be a problem.  I have used CED with versions of MSDOS as old as v2.7 up to v6.22 with no difficulties.  Compatible with W31 dosbox and Desqview windows. If you look inside W31 "system.ini" under [NonWindowsApp] you will see "localtsrs=dosedit,ced" as one of the installed default settings.  CED has been around for some years.  Macro equivalent commands can be stored in a plain text file and loaded at bootup saving the time typing them again.

NDOSEDIT - aliasing, command history, not as compatible as the others.

I have this utility which predates the others ( I think? ) and is deserving of mention for that reason.  It is a bit difficult to work with and will occasionally conflict with other software.  I keep it around for nostalgia I guess?  Don't bother with this one, use CED.

OTHER UTILITIES

CTRLALT - useful to programmers, adds emergency `break' function and text screen cut-n-paste.

This TSR adds a lower-level break from applications that are hung (locked) and a cut-n-paste of text from just about any DOS application you can find.  All functions operate at a level below even other utilities.  Popup ASCII charts and other useful functions.  Just the cut-n-paste will save you hours of time if you do any of your own programming at all.  Compatible with every DOS program I can think of.  Works best if loaded before any other TSRs from within autoexec.bat.

XEQ - stores those little COM utilities within itself to save room and keep them all in one place.

Keeping all those little COM file utilities where they can be found and in your path can become quite a pain.  XEQ will stuff them inside of itself until it reaches it's maximum size of 64k, and when you call them they go directly into memory - no temp files the way other 'archivers' would do this.  Files uncompress in memory.  Written by Colin Stearman who previously rewrote the entire ROM code for the Radio Shack Color Computer (nostalgia thing here).

XPORT v2.1 - Transfer files at 115.2k bps using just a serial cable and a null adapter.

Menu driven, easy to use, and fast.  Does not recurse subdirectories automatically.  Best for selective transfers or entire directories.  Small and fast for those 'rescue' disks.

{COMMO} v7.7 - Fastest DOS terminal application I know of.

Small and fast with zmodem, ymodem, xmodem and other popular protocols built in.  Extensive macro language, address book, and can interface to fossil drivers.  All macro files and configuration files are plain ASCII text which makes modification much easier.  No 'special' program required just a text editor or use the built in editor.  Nice - it's what I use for dialup BBS calls.

CDD - Useful for batch file programming, can move across partitions / drives as well as directories.

NEOPAINT - Used to create many of the graphics for this website.

Best graphics paint program for DOS that I know of.  Very impressive and very useable even now compared to W9x applications.  Comes with multiple fonts, stamps, and substitute palette files.  Requires a mouse, mouse driver loaded, and extended or expanded memory.  The logo 'DOS... the GHOST in the Machine' at the site index page and the animated GIF of the old man peeking from behind the letters on the ABOUT page were created by me using Neopaint.  Neopaint was used to create the necessary frames of the old man and then animated using the W31 AGIFED software to complete the optimized animated GIF.

ANSI.COM - Works like the 'echo' batch file command but can send the ESC codes needed for ANSI graphics with no carriage return linefeed to mess it up.  Only 28 bytes! Put this little COM file and others into XEQ.

BOOT v2.01 - Maintain multiple config.sys and autoexec.bat files on one machine.  Useful for squeezing the maximum memory for various applications with special requirements.  Configuration can be done using any text editor.  Simple and easy to use which makes it almost foolproof!

PKTMUX - Multitasking DOS can have more than one simultaneous Internet connection to a single DOS packet driver using this application.  Works well using Desqview here on my machines.

LIST.COM v96d - Premier DOS text file viewing utility that is almost a filemanager.  Very extensive controls.  Can dupe the functions of UNIX 'less' utility.  This version is Y2K compatible and will handle W9x long filenames.  A must have utility.

AS EASY AS v5.70f - DOS spreadsheet

FULL Shareware Version : Requirements: 80286, 386, 486, Pentium; PC/MS-DOS 3.01 and later; 450K free RAM; NetBios Compatible; Math Co-processor:optional; HGA/EGA or better video recommended; 720K disk or Hard Disk (1.5 MB recommended); Mouse, Keyboard; 9/24-pin Dot Matrix Printers, LaserJet, Color HP Deskjets and HP-GL Pen Plotter for color graphics.

AS EASY AS Lite v1.2/R - DOS Spreadsheet

Lite Shareware Version : Requirements: PC/MS-DOS, Ver. 2.11 and later. IBM PC/XT/AT, 286, 386, 486, PS/2. 256K min free RAM. Graphics Monitor (in order to display graphs).  9/24-pin Dot Matrix Printers.  Yes, it will run on an original 256K IBM PC, with just a floppy drive!


RPSORT v1.02 - Sorts large files extremely fast.

A super-fast sort program which handles large files.  RPSORT supports numerous sort key types including regular text keys, C language strings, Turbo Pascal strings, signed and unsigned binary integers of any length and several types of binary integers of any length and several types of binary floating point numbers.


ASIC Compiler v5.0 - Creates tight code for those little utility applications.  Easy to write tight small COM routines if you already are familiar with the BASIC programming language.  I have used it for prototyping before committing time to a 'C' project.


PKPAK by Pkware - Fastest of the Pkware releases.

Comparable compression to the others in use today but predates the ZIP file type.  Use mainly for temporary archives and it's speed in creating them.  This was an interim release during the Pkware vs SEA court battle when the ARC extension was in question.  Speed of execution was an issue between SEA and Katz.  Pkarc was already many times faster than SEA's ARC.  I suspect Phil Katz was rubbing salt in SEA's wounds by releasing this even-faster version during the trial?  Simtelnet used to use this version for their archives of DOS file listings offered for download from their servers.  PKUNPAK is included in the archive.


CUTEMOUSE - TSR currently takes up about 3.5k.

CuteMouse is a DOS based, open source (part of FreeDOS) mouse driver, which supports both serial and PS/2 protocols.  CTMOUSE was written to use as little memory as possible.  We have URLs here for the 'stable' version and the new 'alpha' version.


DCF - DCF probably means 'Disk Copy Fast' but it's an image copier/creator.

Quite fast and efficient and mouse-able from DOS.  DCF does not include empty sectors when creating the image file which keeps the image file sizes smaller. DCF can use/create image files compatibile with Winimage and others.  Although I seldom have a need for floppy sized image files, if/when I do I would want DCF because it's fast and only 50k in size.

Improve Text Display Speeds on Legacy Equipment

ADVID105.ZIP - 39104 bytes - Faster video output with CGA/EGA/VGA.  You must test various versions and determine the best driver from a group of drivers.  I have used this to speed up the Hercules video card displays with some success when other utilities did not speed up Hercules displays.

XANADU20.ZIP- 16951 bytes - Xanadu utils v2.0 HOTDIR/BRCSTAT/QUICKCRT/SFIND.  All good utilities but we want QUICKCRT, it is the one that has worked best for me here on many machines to speed up CGA and even VGA displays.

ZENO25.ZIP - 10410 bytes - Speeds up some screen writes by 100% or more (maybe). Although the previous link is to version 2.5 of Zeno, I am told that v1.74 is actually the newer version.