MS-DOS

MS-DOS (short for Microsoft Disk Operating System) is an operating system built for x86 based personal computers. It was the most popular of the DOS family of operating systems being the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers.

While it reined supreme during the 1980’s through to the mid-1990s, it was slowly replaced by operating systems that offered a graphical user interface (GUI) especially so by the Microsoft Windows.

Due to MS-DOS, and DOS in general being around for a long period almost all programs written for it will not run on a modern operating system, requiring software like DOSBox to emulate its architecture to allow old software and games to be run on modern systems.