Looking for bootable command prompt

M

Mexxi

New Member
Hi there,

the thread title says it all: I'm looking for a lightweight bootable command prompt which supports ntfs drives and supports x64 command line tools. Something like Freedos x64 or command.com x64 (if they existed which unfortunately they don't).

So far, all I can do is to boot into Windows' own command shell, but this is far from being lightweight. Every Linux supports booting into a pure command line mode, so there must be something similar for Windows with x64 support. Basically, the recovery console would suffice if it allowed using external command line tools, but afaik this is not the case.

Does anybody know of such an external command interpreter?

Thanks in advance.
 

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Hi Brink,

thanks for the welcome ;) As I already described, that's exactly what I'm using right now:

Mexxi said:
So far, all I can do is to boot into Windows' own command shell, but this is far from being lightweight.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to find a command interpreter that is less resource hogging than Windows' own solution. Currently I boot into an XP x64 safe mode's command shell, but the only difference to the normal safe mode is that this one doesn't start explorer exe. This means that even though you only see the command window, Windows still gets loaded and clogs up RAM that I need. Vista's safe mode command shell is even more resource hungry, so that's even worse.

I'd settle for a recovery console hack that would allow me to use external tools. There are some modifications that give users more freedom when using it, but I haven't seen one that would turn it into a true command interpreter.
 

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I suppose that you could create a Vista recovery disc that only boots straight into the System Recovery Options (WinRE) screen where you can select the Command Prompt option without Windows loading.

I never used any 3rd party command prompt at boot type of program since I always just used Window's included one, so I'm not familiar with any though. :(
 

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  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Thanks for your suggestion. I had actually checked that guide out before I opened this thread, but I thought this one wouldn't support external tools. I took a closer look now and it seems that I can indeed use 3rd party command line tools with it, so thank you :)

Question is whether this is as lightweight as it looks. Since it's based on WinPE 2.0 I kind of doubt that, but I'll find that out soon enough ;)
 

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I hope it is for you. Please let us know how it works out for you. :)
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Thanks for the link Usasma! I've never heard about MinWin, but it's exactly what I need! Too bad that it isn't publically available. However, thanks to further googling about it, I found a tool called Winbuilder which can strip down an XP install disc to a minimal bootable command line only system with a size of only 13Mb. That should be even better than MinWin since it's only half as big. I hope it's able to deal with x64 versions of XP and that it retains the x64 functionality.

I also tested the safe mode command prompt of Windows 7 and as expected it ate more resources than that of XP. I wasn't able to test the bootable recovery console of Vista, because I would have to dig out my Vista DVD for that and finding it won't be easy lol.
 

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It is publicly available - but I have no clue on how to go about getting it.
FWIW - some OEM PC's use it on their installation DVD's (I think Gateway has it for their Vista installations).
 

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Sorry, it is not. If there was, the Microsoft website would have some information on it. I watched Eric Traut's presentation of MinWin and he made perfectly clear that this was an internal development that won't be released publicly, but will be used as basis for future products. That goes hand in hand with the fact that there is no way to either purchase or license it. MinWin is the basis of Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 to a more or lesser extent, so it is already available to some degree, however not in that minimalistic, pure way. It's also notable that there is no information whatsoever about it other than what Eric Traut released and which was then regurgitated in the press. This is awfully little information for such a revolutionary OS that is supposed to be publicly available.

The only thing that actually is available is a personal 150MB build of XP called MinWin. And let's not forget that MinWin is just the internal project name like Longhorn. If it was actually released then the name would most likely be changed anyway.

In the meantime I found a different solution. I made a PE based on Windows Server 2003 x64 and am now stripping it down to lower its RAM usage. It's a complicated process, but in the end it'll be worth it.
 

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