******************************************************************************* 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