DOS, or Disk Operating System, is an operating system for computers that does not use graphics and operates using only text commands. DOS was originally designed for IBM by Microsoft, and was commonly considered the standard operating system for IBM compatible personal computers up until the early 1990's . Mainly, the duties of DOS are storing disk files and directing disk names to the corresponding disk addresses. It acts as a platform for launching other programs, called applications. DOS is commonly used to refer to MS-DOS®, or Microsoft Disk Operating System, although it can refer to any other operating system as well. DOS is a 16 -bit operating system that can only support a single user at a time and can only run one program at a time, with a limitation of one megabyte of memory. The advent of Microsoft Windows®, a more powerful, graphical operating system, helped DOS run more advanced computer applications, and through Windows '95®, all Windows programs run on top of DOS as the operating system. There are newer operating systems that don't rely on DOS but are still able to run DOS programs. Two types of these newer operating systems are Windows NT® and the OS2® Warp, an operating system designed by IBM.
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