.ION

JP Software
Industry	Software
Founded	1989
Founder	Rex C. Conn, Tom Rawson
Products	4DOS, 4OS2, 4NT, Take Command

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article .ION, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 9 August 20256 sources

4DOS is a command-line shell developed by JP Software intended to substitute the standard COMMAND.COM in MS-DOS and Windows environments. Created by Rex C. Conn and Tom Rawson, it was first introduced in 1989, offering numerous improvements compared to the original command interpreter.

Comparable tools include 4OS2 for OS/2 and 4NT for Windows NT, both designed as replacements for cmd.exe.

Overview

The primary function of 4DOS is to act as an alternative command-line interface for:

DOS systems such as MS-DOS, IBM PC DOS, and DR-DOS
Windows graphical versions including 95, 98, and 98SE

With Windows NT and 2000 providing both COMMAND.COM and cmd.exe, users have the option to install either 4DOS or 4NT. Earlier releases of 4OS2 are compatible with Windows NT, while OS/2 supports all three shells, allowing users to switch between them in multi-boot setups.

4DOS introduces a variety of enhanced commands and functionalities not found in the standard DOS/Windows 95–98 COMMAND.COM, such as improved keyboard input processing and straightforward control over screen and text colors. Its scripting language utilizes files with a .btm extension.

A graphical user interface named Take Command corresponds with 4DOS version 5.5 and related shells like 4OS2 and 4NT, though development halted simultaneously with their console-based versions. An earlier GUI edition called Take Command/16 was developed for Windows 3.1.

4OS2 serves as the OS/2 counterpart to 4DOS, debuting alongside 4DOS version 4 with similar capabilities. It is distributed under an open-source license and included in OS/2 distributions such as eComStation 2.10, os2free, and ArcaOS.

Originally launched as 4DOS for Windows NT, 4NT originated from recompiling the 4OS2 codebase while maintaining OS/2 command processor features like executing REXX scripts and supporting EXTPROC. Take Command/32 is the graphical equivalent in this product family, offered in both ANSI (for Windows 9x) and Unicode (for Windows NT) editions; support for ANSI ended after version 5.

The Win32 Tabbed Command Interface (TCI), introduced with version 7 of 4NT, allows users to attach or detach tabbed console windows within a single interface on Windows XP or newer systems.

Subsequent releases of Take Command expanded TCI by adding multiple window types for tasks such as input method composition and directory browsing. The package includes 4NT under the name Take Command Console, with a free limited edition known as TCC/LE also available.

JP Software's product range includes:

TC (complete TCI combined with TCC)
TCLE (TCI paired with TCC/LE)
TCC (standalone command processor)
TCC/LE (lightweight free version)

Versions from 9 through 12.1 have been released, corresponding to successive iterations of the underlying 4NT/TCC engines.

Features

Compared to COMMAND.COM, 4DOS provides extensive enhancements:^[1]

Expanded set of commands with extended functionality
Advanced batch file scripting capabilities
Enhanced command line editing featuring filename completion and history recall
Support for defining command aliases usable within scripts
Improved wildcard matching including filters based on file size, modification date, and attributes
More flexible redirection and piping mechanisms
Context-aware help messages and color-coded directory listings
Internal variables along with built-in functions
Memory swapping techniques to conserve conventional memory space
Interactive debugging tools for batch files
Management of file descriptions^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^{[nb 1]}
Configuration handled via INI files
Integration with the Windows clipboard system

History and current status

Originally released as shareware, 4DOS eventually transitioned to unsupported freeware. Its source code is currently distributed under a modified MIT License, which prohibits commercial use without authorization from Rex C. Conn and restricts compilation exclusively to FreeDOS, thus it does not qualify as open source.

The last official update from JP Software was version 7.50.130, issued in August 2004. Over a span exceeding 15 years, 4DOS underwent numerous iterations:

History and current status
Version	Release Date	Notable Enhancements
2.00	1989-02-15	Initial launch; featured improved command-line editing, filename auto-completion, command history, alias support, enhanced wildcard handling, integrated online help, internal variables, memory swapping between disk and EMS, file descriptions, command separators, and a key stacker.
2.20	1989-07-05	Introduced support for executable file extensions.
3.00	1990-03-07	Added cached batch file execution (BTM) for faster processing, extended memory (XMS) swapping capabilities, variable functions, and bracketed variable syntax.
4.00	1991-11-01	Implemented colored directory listings, configuration via 4DOS.INI file, inclusion lists, command grouping, implied CDD functionality, and compatibility with DOS 5 Upper Memory Blocks.
5.00	1993-11-23	Incorporated filters for date/time/size ranges and support for compressed batch files.
5.51	1995-08-22	Enabled long filename support and integrated REXX scripting within .BAT files similar to PC DOS 7.0.
6.00	1997-07-24	Expanded directory search options; introduced interactive configuration through the OPTION command; added exclusion ranges; included a batch file debugger.
7.00	2001-06-18	Added the capability to use @file lists akin to DR-DOS functionality.
7.50	2003-02-24	Introduced user-defined functions.
7.50.1	2006-11-13	Released source-accessible version of 7.50; further development undertaken by Luchezar Georgiev and Jaelani Utomo.
8.00	2009-02-27	Most recent version made available.

NDOS

Certain editions of Norton Utilities for DOS incorporated customized versions of 4DOS known as NDOS. The final iteration of NDOS shipped with Norton Utilities version 8 and corresponded to 4DOS version 4.03.

External links

JP Software, the original developer of 4DOS; currently markets Take Command for Windows as its successor product.
Unofficial support website for 4DOS providing batch script examples, documentation, and related utilities
- Downloads for both shareware and freeware versions of 4DOS
- Reference Manual for 4DOS version 7.50 (PDF - 2 MB)

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[nb 1]

Overview

Features

History and current status

NDOS

See also

External links

Related profiles