MS-DOS 1.x

Originally 86-DOS, written by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, DOS was a rough clone of CP/M for 8086 based hardware. Microsoft purchased it and licensed it to IBM for use with Microsoft's IBM PC language products. In 1982, Microsoft began licensing DOS to other OEMs that ported it to their custom x86 hardware and IBM PC clones.

For IBM-specific releases, please see the IBM PC-DOS product page.



Release notes

DOS 1.x was very limited in what it could do. It could start applications (.COM and .EXE), and process batch files (.BAT). PC-DOS 1.0 worked with 160KB floppies and did not support folders (all files had to be in the root). The command interpreter supported the following commands:

  • DIR, TYPE, COPY, ERASE, RENAME
  • PAUSE, REM

No pipes, redirection, or device drivers were supported. The DOS API in 1.0 was very limited.

MS-DOS 1.25, the equivalent of PC-DOS 1.10, was the first version licensed to OEMs beyond IBM or Seattle Computer Products.

Some vendors labeled their versions of MS-DOS with different names and version numbers. All of the versions here are believed to be based off of MS-DOS 1.25, even if the vendor called it something else.

Installation instructions

Important: Many of these OEM versions will only run on the specific computers they were designed for. Others may boot on an IBM PC, but certain devices or tools may not operate. Some require special disk formats or drive hardware, such as 8" floppy drives.

Most of these images need to be written with ImageDisk, or some other DOS based disk writer. WinImage can not handle the file system on most DOS 1.x disks.

Those that are compatible with the IBM PC (Such as the Columbia Data Products OEM) can be mounted and booted in an emulator such as MESS or PCE.

Please see the documentation included with each for specifics.

Wanted: Eagle 1600 MS-DOS 1.25 with hard disk diag disk.

Product type
OS
Vendor
Microsoft
Release date
1981
Minimum CPU
Intel 8088 4.77MHz
Minimum RAM
32KB
Minimum free disk space
160KB
User interface
GUI
Platform
DOS
Download count
875 (27 for release)

Downloads

Download name Version Language Architecture File size Downloads
MS-DOS 1.25 (Z-DOS) (5-27-1983) [Zenith Z-100] (5.25-320kb) 1.25 (Z-DOS) (5-27-1983) [Zenith Z-100] English 371.87KB 7
MS-DOS 1.25 (Z-DOS) (8-11-1983) [Zenith Z-100] (5.25-320kb) 1.25 (Z-DOS) (8-11-1983) [Zenith Z-100] English 419.81KB 0
MS-DOS 1.25 [CDP OEM R2.11] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [CDP OEM R2.11] English 399.9KB 0
MS-DOS 1.25 [CDP OEM R2.11] Manual 1.25 [CDP OEM R2.11] English 25.56MB 0
MS-DOS 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.10 Rev B] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.10 Rev B] English 639.32KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.10] Manuals (Dec 1982) 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.10] English 177.02MB 0
MS-DOS 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.11] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.11] English 1.33MB 0
MS-DOS 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.12] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.12] English 247.58KB 2
MS-DOS 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.1x] Manual 1.25 [Compaq OEM r1.1x] English 31.47MB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [CompuSystems OEM] [IBM DisplayWriter] (SSSD-8 inch) 1.25 [CompuSystems OEM] English 357.99KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Corona Data Systems OEM (BIOS 1.03)] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [Corona OEM (BIOS 1.03)] English 67.35KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Corona Data Systems OEM (BIOS 1.07)] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [Corona OEM (BIOS 1.07)] English 132.82KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Eagle PC OEM] (5.25-320K) 1.25 [Eagle PC OEM] English 83.6MB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Hyperion] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [Hyperion] English 338.53KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Micromint MPX-16] (5.25-160k) 1.25 [Micromint MPX-16] English 129.46KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Panasonic JB-3000] (5.25-160k) 1.25 [Panasonic JB-3000] English 1.42MB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Panasonic JB-3000] (8-inch DSDD) 1.25 [Panasonic OEM] [JB-3000] English 104.37KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [SCP OEM] [SCP Cromemco S-100] (8-inch DSDD) 1.25 [SCP OEM][SCP Cromemco S-100] English 435.34KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [SCP OEM] [SCP Tarbell S-100] (8-inch SSSD) 1.25 [SCP OEM] [SCP Tarbell S-100] English 308.68KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Sanyo MBC-550 OEM r1.00] (5.25-160k) 1.25 [Sanyo MBC-550 OEM r1.00] English 112.21KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [TI Professional Computer OEM r1.13] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [TI Professional Computer OEM r1.13 English 206.99KB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [TI Professional Computer OEM r1.13] Manual 1.25 [TI Professional Computer OEM r1.13 English 36.07MB 1
MS-DOS 1.25 [Zenith Z100 PC] (5.25-320k) 1.25 [Zenith Z100 PC] English 205.51KB 2
MS-DOS 1.25 for Commodore CBM B Series 1.25 for Commodore CBM B Series English 90.65KB 1

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