In earlier versions of Windows, the way we opened a command window — a DOS window — was by using Start, Run, Command and pressing the Enter key. If we did it a lot, we even created a shortcut to the file c:\windows\command.com

But, in the early versions of Windows XP, Microsoft removed the COMMAND command and substituted the CMD comamnd. However, I just recently found out that they added COMMAND back in one of the service packs.

The “official” Windows XP version of the command to open a “command window” is CMD instead of COMMAND.

Since Windows doesn’t recognize the difference in uppercase and lowercase, cmd.exe, or just cmd, opens a slightly improved command window. For one thing, it sets up the DOSKEY capability automatically. If you knew DOSKEY, you really appreciate that. If you aren’t familiar with DOSKEY, that was the DOS command that created a history of the commands that you had entered — and we could access, edit and rerun those commands by using the scroll keys.

Read more in Windows XP - DOS - COMMAND vs CMD

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I used to use image backups routinely. However, when drives got larger (and when I had so much data on my notebook that I couldn’t back up to its drive’s other partition), and when I decided that Drive Image no longer met my needs, I began to use Karen’s Replicator to do all my backups.

Of course, Karen’s Replicator is a file backup system. It is designed to compare individual files on the source and destination drives (or folders), and then to copy a newer file to the destination.

As I discovered (I knew it in my mind, but not in my soul), Replicator copies if the source file is not at the destination. Rename the file? Now, you get the renamed one copied, too, in addition to the original. Rename a folder, ditto. Move a folder into another folder, ditto.

Replicator offers the option to “replicate file and folder deletions” which would solve this, but in barely a week of starting to use Replicator, I learned that this is a bad choice for most people. Replicator even warns against using it. Why? If you accidentally delete a file, then Replicator runs — and deletes your backup, too!

Read more in Why Not Just Use File Backups?

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