Subst: Ass kicking dos command

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-15 08:04pm

If you've got a nasty long location for a folder you frequently open, or have
moved mp3s and such off a now nonexistant drive and your playlists dont
work, this is THE command for you.

The command is subst. The way it works is like this:

Code: Select all

$ subst <unused destination drive letter, ex: "x:", "y:", "z:"> <source location, ex: "C:\Documents and Settings\User001\Desktop\Folder">

typing that into MSDOS will create a virtual drive in your My Computer
folder and you can now use the shortened drive inplace of the long folder
location. I used mine to fix a playlist problem.

Went from this:

C:\Documents and Settings\Koji\Desktop\Glitch\

to

F:\

It's a beautiful thing, this subst.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-07-15 08:05pm

I'll try it later...

Same reason I don't have Linux. I don't wanna trash my computar!!!

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-15 08:11pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:I'll try it later...

Same reason I don't have Linux. I don't wanna trash my computar!!!

yeah thats what i did. i moved shit off my F: drive (good ol' glitch ::purr::)
and installed linux on the drive. My playlists that pointed to the drive no
longer worked, because the drive was gone. Now I have my playlists
working again.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-07-15 08:18pm

I haven't used SUBST in years (literally). Some programs don't play well with it, either.

It's better to use drive mapping (e.g. NET USE F: \\127.0.0.1\C$\FOLDER)

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-07-15 11:05pm

Wow. So DOS wasn't entirely worthless after all.

It still seems like a half-assed implementation of symbolic links, but still, it's more than I thought the old OS could do.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-16 12:27am

Drooling Iguana wrote:Wow. So DOS wasn't entirely worthless after all.

It still seems like a half-assed implementation of symbolic links, but still, it's more than I thought the old OS could do.

More then windows itself can do, which is frightening.

TheFeniX · Post by **TheFeniX** » 2003-07-16 12:37am

Drooling Iguana wrote:Wow. So DOS wasn't entirely worthless after all.

It still seems like a half-assed implementation of symbolic links, but still, it's more than I thought the old OS could do.

I think you mean MS-DOS. Ah for the MS-DOS days...
Direct control over system resources.
Only the elite had CD-ROMS.
4 MBs of RAM would earn you the admiration of all others.
WTF is "multi-tasking?"
"A mouse? Why the Hell would you need a mouse?"
Expanded Memory...
and much much more....

I remember when I was 9, I REMed a few lines out of the autoexec on my dad's PC to try and get a game to work. Don't ask me how, but it renamed every file extension in DOS with an _.

Ex: start.exe to start.ex_ My dad's computer guy works for hours on that one. Sadly, I was never allowed to touch my dad's PC again.... but he bought me my own so score!

Just so this stays a little on topic: I had forgotten the subst command years ago and always just used mapped drives for easy access to buried files.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2003-07-16 02:12am

kojikun wrote:
Drooling Iguana wrote:Wow. So DOS wasn't entirely worthless after all.

It still seems like a half-assed implementation of symbolic links, but still, it's more than I thought the old OS could do.
More then windows itself can do, which is frightening.

Frightening, perhaps, but not surprising. Not to me anyway.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-07-16 02:19am

phongn wrote:I haven't used SUBST in years (literally). Some programs don't play well with it, either.

It's better to use drive mapping (e.g. NET USE F: \\127.0.0.1\C$\FOLDER)

Net use is good but I like subst.

Paranoid freak that I am I have killed the default shares on my XP box, so no c$, d$, admin$ ond ipc$ on my comp.

To kill of the default shares on a standalone computer just stop the server service

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-07-16 02:20am

BTW, anyone but me remebers edlin?

OR better yet dosshell?

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-07-16 03:24am

I used copy con

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-07-16 04:43am

heh this is becomming the obscure dos commands thread

Anyone else used ansi.sys to change the color in config/autoexec boot?

The background was blue with yellow text.

Also I had one hell of a boot menu.

And I used if exist to check for unique files on the cd.

That had the boonus that I could just choose the option "spel" = game to start the game i wanted to play.

My boot menu detected the cd and then changed into the proper path and started the game.

Hehe those where the days autoexec and config.sys weighted in at around 100k for me

I also hacked command.com and changed the option in edit, when you opened a new file the default was *.txt I changed that to *.*

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-07-16 09:17am

Drooling Iguana wrote:It still seems like a half-assed implementation of symbolic links, but still, it's more than I thought the old OS could do.

Hard links and junctions have existed in Windows since W2K. SUBST on NT is not a DOS command, either, but a native function.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-07-16 09:19am

Faram wrote:heh this is becomming the obscure dos commands thread

Anyone else used ansi.sys to change the color in config/autoexec boot?

I used ANSI colors to mess with my prompt.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-07-16 09:19am

Faram wrote:BTW, anyone but me remebers edlin?

OR better yet dosshell?

I hated EDLIN, but DOSSHELL was useful.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-07-16 09:20am

Faram wrote:Paranoid freak that I am I have killed the default shares on my XP box, so no c$, d$, admin$ ond ipc$ on my comp.

Bah, just firewall your machine and block anything not coming from localhost then.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-07-16 09:21am

TheFeniX wrote: Ah for the MS-DOS days...
Direct control over system resources.
Only the elite had CD-ROMS.
4 MBs of RAM would earn you the admiration of all others.
WTF is "multi-tasking?"
"A mouse? Why the Hell would you need a mouse?"
Expanded Memory...
and much much more....

Lets see...
2X CD-ROM Drive
32MB FPM DRAM
Mouse (via Logitech driver, as MS didn't release theirs for free for many years)
Expanded memory sucked, especially when emulation ate precious conventional memory. Extended worked far better.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-07-16 01:39pm

phongn wrote:Bah, just firewall your machine and block anything not coming from localhost then.

Have a NAT device (D-Link 804) and Kerio for application firewall

TheFeniX · Post by **TheFeniX** » 2003-07-16 02:17pm

phongn wrote:Expanded memory sucked, especially when emulation ate precious conventional memory. Extended worked far better.

Yes, but expanded memory was the only way to get "Crusaders of the Dark Savant" to work. Man I miss that game...

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2003-07-17 02:32am

TheFeniX wrote:Yes, but expanded memory was the only way to get "Crusaders of the Dark Savant" to work. Man I miss that game...

Not rivalled in sheer CRPG goodness until Fallout came out, IMO. Too bad they fucked it up with "Wizardry Gold", but you can still get the original (all 7, in fact). It's called "Wizardry Archives".

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-07-17 02:50am

Faram wrote:heh this is becomming the obscure dos commands thread
Anyone else used ansi.sys to change the color in config/autoexec boot?

The background was blue with yellow text.

Also I had one hell of a boot menu.

And I used if exist to check for unique files on the cd.

That had the boonus that I could just choose the option "spel" = game to start the game i wanted to play.

My boot menu detected the cd and then changed into the proper path and started the game.

Hehe those where the days autoexec and config.sys weighted in at around 100k for me

Ah, yes...

I love custom boot menus. Had my firewall set up for the longest time to boot from a DOS boot menu (via loadlin.exe, naturally... do you think I'd use MS-DOS as a firewall?

)

My 486 laptop also has a custom boot menu that I threw on it, namely because it has a host of old DOS games that I like to fire up sometimes.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-07-17 11:47am

TheFeniX wrote:
phongn wrote:Expanded memory sucked, especially when emulation ate precious conventional memory. Extended worked far better.
Yes, but expanded memory was the only way to get "Crusaders of the Dark Savant" to work. Man I miss that game...

Oddly, the Master of Magic demo required XMS, but the actual game only used EMS.