NOTES: DougMenu (versatile), MOO (easy configuration), PCMENU and Menux (lean, clean, and fast), WBAT Batch-driven, input fields, buttons.

DougMenu — Rock-solid, mouse- and keyboard-driven command menu.

* * * * *

[added 1994 ?]

DougMenu has been my default shell for DOS since 1994. It will not suit everyone's tastes but it is a smartly designed and simple to use menu...once you get it configured. The small chore is setting up your menu structure. This involves creating a properly formatted text file with all of the commands you wish to launch from the menu. People who are constantly changing their menu may find this tedious and should opt for a menu program whose configuration is more user-friendly. However, once configured DougMenu is simple to use. Commands can also be assigned to function keys. Includes time/date display, built-in screen saver, and menu password feature. Best of all, DougMenu is fast and its memory usage is next to nothing (uses recursive batch file when launching programs). Multi-user compatible. Executable size is 64K.

Author: Douglas Bell (1994).

1994-12-16: v1.77.

Download dmenu177.zip (58K).

AUMenu — Keyboard-only menu handles large number of menu items.

* * * * *

[added 1997, updated 2005-04-28]

AUMenu is a clean looking, powerful, and easy to use DOS menu developed as a companion to the author's Unix AUMenu (shareware). The DOS version is freeware. The interface consists of a list of 10 menu items representing commands or submenus. The number of submenus is limited only by memory. Menu items are selected with the arrow keys or by entering a menu item's number. A user-edited text file stores the menu structure. Can swap out to extended memory or remain resident during program execution. Brief splashscreen delay on startup.

Power user features: Includes a script language (define password access, colors, etc); optional auto logout/ exit after a configured amount of inactive minutes, optional logging of who executes a menu item, and when. The included sample menu files demonstrate well the flexibility of this program.

Author: Eugenio Alvarez / Eugiworks Incorporated (2001).

2001-12-09: v1.4.3b.

Download aumenu143a.zip (84K), which is actually v1.4.3b.

Online manual.

Go to the AUMenu page for more info and screenshots.

RVMS — Simple, effective keyboard-only menu.

* * * 1/2

[added 1995]

"The River View Menu System aims to provide the same degree of functionality as the shareware Magee Automenu program version 3.0." The keyboard driven RVMS is a breeze to use, and it used to be my default shell for DOS. Menus are navigated with the arrow keys and the Pg keys. The simple menu and submenu structure is defined in text files written by the user. Optional descriptions of each menu entry are displayed on a status line. Requires a hearty diet of RAM (256K), a hard disk drive, and DOS 3.3 or higher. EXE size: 53K.

1. Passwords can be used to restrict access to specific menu items.
2. Use of memory resident or non-resident (temp batch file) RVMS commands is possible.
3. A clock is available on screen as is a display of free memory.
4. Screen color customization possible with included RVMSCONF program.

Author: Ian M. Clark, UK (1993).

1993-11-18: v1.0.

Download rvms100.zip (69K).

MOO — Mouse compatible menu; auto configuration, network, and password features.

* * * *

A top pick, especially for network use. Moo is a well designed menu program with network and Windows 3.x awareness. Notable features include mouse support, pulldown menus, automatic menu creation option, network/security features, and memory usage options (memory resident vs. non-memory resident program launching). This package also includes a less impressive 16-bit Windows version. Not readily available on the Net. A Win9x version is available at the author's page.

• Security:
  1. LIMITED MENUS option turns off options that modify MOO menus. Prevents others from changing menus.
  2. Passwords for full menus and individual menu items.
• Three alternative start-up modes, including a limited menu mode (see above) and a special multi-user mode which gives each user an individual temporary BAT file for executing programs.
• Configuration options are several:
  1. Moo can scan disk for DOS and/or Windows programs and automatically create menu entries upon confirmation.
  2. Online configuration menu to add/modify/delete individual programs.
  3. Or, you can manually edit the ascii menu files with a text editor.
  4. Menus/submenus hold up to 500 entries.
• Configurable screen saver, very slick color customization menu.
• Surprisingly small (EXE size is 37K).

Author: Harry Gensler (1992).

1998-08-28: v3.1.

Download moo31.zip (101K).

Access — Auto-configurable, category-based menu system (text mode version also available).

unrated

[added 1999-09-19, updated 2006-03-14]

Access is a simple but effectively designed menu system which displays program categories on a left panel and associated programs on a right panel. A text mode version is available for users with older hardware (8086/8088+).

• During setup, Access can scan your hard drive for programs and set up categories and programs automatically.
• Manually add, edit, and remove programs from main screen.
• Configure hot keys for programs.
• No memory usage during program launching.
• Versions 4+ allow use of Windows icons in addition to the 700+ included. Also: CD player, screensaver, XMS support.
• Versions 4.5+ have optional splash screen, color schemes, and read-only mode (for CD).
• Version 3.01 is available in separate Dutch- and English-language packages. Versions 4.x and 5.00 offer choice of Dutch or English at installation. For v5.00 only, German and French data packs are available separately (5 bytes each).

Tips: Text mode version (v3.01) — If you have a large hard disk, auto-configure feature during install may abort (just add programs to menu manually). To launch programs using mouse, highlight program name and click BOTH mouse buttons.

Author: Ronald Blankendaal, Netherlands (1997-2005). Suggested by Dev Teelucksingh.

Get a more detailed comparison of versions, other info, screenshots & more at the Access page (but [2006-03-14] still very litle on v5.00).

WBAT — Versatile batch tool / menu with support for mouse, input fields, buttons, more.

* * * * *

[added 1999-05-11, updated 2005-12-09]

WBAT is a batch utility that builds dialog boxes with menus, buttons and input fields. No ANSI color codes needed, only color names. Runs under DOS 3.3 or better, or under any Windows, in a DOS box or full screen. VGA monitor recommended. Mouse operation in all environments.

For a demonstration of WBAT's broad capabilities, make sure to run the included demo.bat.

Author: Horst Schaeffer, Germany (2005). Suggested by Robert Bull.

2005-09-17: v2.50.

Download wbat250.zip (54K).

Go to Horst Schaeffer's Software Pages, in English — auf Deutsch, for more info and other software for DOS & Windows.

More in these pages from Horst Schaeffer.

PMENUE — Batch-based menu with mouse support.

* * * * *

[added 1998-06-17]

PMENUE controls batch menues with bar and mouse handling. The selected item number is returned by errorlevel. In addition the environmental variable P is set to the string of the selected item...Background, frames and menu lines may be produced any way you want:: by ECHO (with ANSI colors if you wish); by TYPE from a file; by any utility – ASCREEN for example (supplied), displays ANSI screens or boxes without using any ANSI device driver.

Notes: The demo menus look awesome – but you'll obviously need to be comfortable with batch language to get the most from this program. COM file is only 1.8K; several supporting utilities included. Also see Browse, part of the PMENUE package.

Author: Horst Schaeffer, Germany (1997).

1997-12-19: v2.3.

Download pmenue23.zip (19K).

Go to Horst Schaeffer's Software Pages, in English — auf Deutsch, for more info and other software for DOS & Windows.

More in these pages from Horst Schaeffer.

PCMENU — Lean and clean menu with password protection.

* * * * *

[added 2000-06-06]

Many (most) of the menus available...attempt to be all-purpose DOS 'shells' in addition to being menu systems. PCMENU...is for people who want a menu, period. It is specifically tailored for those who administer large numbers of PCs – but is so simple to use that even beginners seem to like it...PCMENU can run any and all applications on your computer, with or without password protection, and steals NO memory (and very little disk space) from your applications.

• Small (<20K), fast, and very clean appearance. Employs recursive batch file (no memory).
• Mouse support.
• Simple text file configuration.
• Administrative password capability w/ option to disable ESC key; password protect menu items.
• Can call additional menus from main menu, color customization.

Authors: Bob Trevithick, Rick Kiss (1990). Suggested by Jon-Egil Korsvold.

1990-07-22: v1.30.

Download pcms130.zip (33K).

MENUX — 15K, memory efficient menu with mouse support.

* * * *

[added 1998-03-05, updated 2005-06-18]

Menux is an older (1991) menu that's small (15K) and has built-in configuration. Includes mouse support, submenu capability, and zero memory usage during program execution.

• Menux automatically creates a batch file based menu.
• Easy add, delete, update menu item options.
• Automatically sorts menu items.
• Quick item search by first character.
• Uses multi-columns with large number of menu items.

Notes: Although you initially run MENUX.COM to create menus, remember to use the generated MENU.BAT to actually start your menu. Submenu creation is not entirely intuitive; here's a tip from a reader:

Copy menux.com to myx.com (or whatever you like to call it with an x before the . ), start myx.com and make a menu for it (then it will make a bat file named my.bat), make last entry menu.bat. Now you can call my.bat from menu.bat and menu.bat (menux.com) will be restarted when my.bat is finished. I guess Menux will take 40 menu items including submenus...

Author: Yijun Ding (1991). Suggestion and tips by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

1991-08-06 release.

Download menu0891.zip (17K).

Medley — 6K menu with easy configuration, submenu capability, more.

* * *

Medley is a small yet remarkably full featured menu program. The program is only 6K and uses a modest 12K RAM when resident. A second program is used for menu/display configuration, or you can manually create and edit menu files with a text editor.

• Submenu capability (no more than two levels recommended)
• Menu selection is accomplished with user-definable hotkeys- or by moving a menu bar to the desired item.
• Option to prompt for filespecs/parameters when a menu item is selected.
• Built-in pop up DOS command line menu option.
• Menu title and colors are adjustable.
• Built in screen blanker and date/time display.

• Maximum of 20 menu items allowed per menu file.
• No mouse support.

Author: Jim Knopf, aka Jim Button (1992).

1992-07-30 release.

Download medley.zip (31K).

Power Menu — 3.2K menu requires little memory.

* * *

[updated 2004-06-26]

Power Menu's interface consists of a single screen which can display up to 255 menu items. The plain text configuration file must be edited by user. EXE size is only 3.2K and requires only 1.4 KB RAM when launching programs. Power Menu was designed not to use a recursive batch file when launching programs and is thus better suited to network use than some other programs listed here. Free only for non-commercial use on a single machine; other uses require paid license.

Author: Jem Berkes / PC-Tools.Net, Canada (2004).

Power Menu page.

More in these pages from Jem E. Berkes.

Except for RUN, most of these programs require too much memory for some uses. Nonetheless, they represent interesting approaches to making the command line more user friendly.

PICK and CHOOSE   — Pick files from popup list to pass to c-line programs.

* * *

[updated 2005-04-16]

PICK and CHOOSE are two similar programs that act as directory browsers for command line programs that lack them or don't support wildcards. For example, suppose you have a directory of text files (*.txt) that you'd like to view in a certain sequence – but your text file viewer requires that you load each file separately on the command line because it lacks its own directory browser. Typing the commands repeatedly is a bit tedious. You supply PICK /CHOOSE the program name (e.g., MYVIEWER) and optionally the extension of the files you want to view (e.g., *.TXT) as parameters. PICK / CHOOSE then pop up a list of matching files in the current directory, and you highlight a file to pass to the viewing program.

• PICK doesn't allow you to highlight more than one file from the pick list; instead it pops up the list again after each program termination. CHOOSE supports multiple file highlighting with the F2 key- it runs each command in succession without further user input.
• CHOOSE and PICK both allow filtering of pick lists with wildcards- and both support directory changing within their respective lists.
• Both PICK and CHOOSE allow addition of program parameters.
• Features unique to CHOOSE:
  • filespec / wildcards can be entered on CHOOSE's pop-up screen.
  • supports list sorting by name/ext/date/size, including reverse sorting.
  • can be used as a filelist generator using the /L option.
  • supports list scrolling with a mouse and has built-in help.
• Limitations:
  • Both programs may load a new command processor to execute programs (i.e., use additional memory) and remain resident during program execution- both appear to require a hefty measure of RAM (~80K).
  • PICK: "Show Directories Also" option (/D) works under MS-DOS but apparently not under OpenDOS.
  • CHOOSE: Alt-Z toggling of wide/narrow displays doesn't work as advertised (but Spacebar is mapped to same function).

Authors: PICK – Bob Ferguson, Netherlands (2000); CHOOSE – Alan Bretzin (1992).

More in these pages from Bob Ferguson.

RUN — Launch programs using pop-up list.

* * *

Run is a simple program execution aid. RUN pops up a list of EXE, COM, and BAT files contained in the current directory (or any directory if you supply a path on the command line). Scroll or jump through the list using the cursor, Home, End and Page keys. Simply highlight and launch a selected program or press its short-cut letter. You can filter the list by passing RUN an executable wildcard (e.g., RUN *.bat displays only batch files.). There are no hidden "costs" to using RUN (no memory overhead, doesn't load a new command processor); it passes commands to DOS and then kills itself. Documentation is sparse.

USAGE: RUN [drive:\][path\][filespec]

Limitations: Does not allow addition of program parameters.

Author: Bremer Corporation (1995). Suggested by Bjørn Simonsen.

1995-01-02: v7.0a.

Download run.zip (13K).

EXEC — Allows execution of a program from any directory.

* * *

[updated 2004-06-27]

Execute any program from any directory without typing its path. Creates a control file to store program locations. You can pass parameters to programs when executing with EXEC. If you are unsure of a program's name you can type a substring, and EXEC will list possible alternatives. A drawback of this feature is that EXEC always queries the user if the name is correct. It would be nice if there was an option that made using EXEC a less interactive affair. If you are running under DOS, EXEC also has an option to launch Windows and run a Windows program (this doesn't work in a DOS box under Windows).

Notes: 1) Not all programs will launch using EXEC. 2) The EXEC control file is generated for one drive only. Workaround: Since the control file is a text file you can generate separate control files for each drive, and then join them into a master control file.

Author: Wayne Chestnut (1996).

1996-10-18: v2.0. Part of the DOSUT package. Also see the included companion program EX, which doesn't use a data file.

Download dosut048.zip (473K).

Also see: LINK/LN, next item, for a different approach to the "PATH problem".

LINK/LN — Link executable files to file names in other directories.

* * * * *

[added 1998-10-03, updated 2005-04-10]

reviewed by Howard Schwartz (10-2-98)

In Unix, the "ln" program lets you link a real file in directory A, to a filename in directory B. Within directory B, the filename "points to" the real file and reacts (to commands) exactly like it was the real file. LINK/LN allows you to link executable files (i.e., exe and com files) to file names in other directories, within DOS (using a tool like bat2exec, you can also create links for bat files). Why would you want to do this? Doing so lets you execute programs from any directory, without the problems related to DOS's PATH variable. To execute programs in any directory, DOS has you set the PATH variable to all directories containing executable programs. However:

• DOS's COMMAND.COM allows only 128 characters for the PATH command. For this reason there are lots of programs, and DOS tricks, for extending this command to include more directories.
• DOS looks in each of the directories in the PATH variable, one at a time, to find programs to execute. This takes extra time and, in the long run, results in extra wear and tear on your disk.
• The longer the PATH command, the more DOS environment space (and thus, RAM) is permanently used up, whenever you do anything in DOS.

1. Faster execution of programs and less wear on your disk.
2. Saving environment space and RAM, since the PATH variable need contain only one directory.
3. Saving disk space: LINK/LN stores a filename, not a real file, in a directory. This requires about 12 bytes instead of the minimum 2 Kbytes or so (1 cluster) required for a file of any size.
4. For convenience or clarity, you may wish a file to show up in different directories, with different names. You can link a file to file names in one or many directories, using any file names you want.

• There are two types of program that LINK/LN can not successfully handle. These programs use "helper" files which the programs read during startup or execution.
  1. Some programs require that all helper files be in directories listed in the PATH variable. To use LINK/LN with this type of program, either put the helper files in the (one) directory that contains all your links, or, create a directory specifically for helper files and make sure it is listed in the PATH variable.
  2. Some (rare) programs (e.g., schedule, qmodem) will not work unless you run them from the actual directory that they reside in. Again, you can deal with this by placing these programs and their helper files in the (one) directory you use for all your links.
• Finally, the TSR, LINK.COM, does not work well with TSR virus programs like virstop.exe that constantly monitor RAM for viruses. These programs contend for the same "exec" interrupt as link.com. Usually, LINK.COM will work normally if you make sure it is loaded in memory, before the virus program is loaded. You may also find that the companion program, LN.EXE does not work properly unless you temporarily remove TSR virus programs from memory. LN.EXE manages creation and deletion of links by, for example, allowing you to create links for all the exe and com files in a directory, with one command.

Author: Oliver Fromme, Germany (1994).

1994-10-29: v1.1. Free only for private use.

Download linkln11.zip (25K). Note that linkln10.zip, which is still widely available, contains a bad bug.

More in these pages from Oliver Fromme.

X (X.COM) — Run programs from ZIP file.

* * *

[added 1998-03-11, updated 2006-03-14]

With multi-gigabyte drives now common, this program may appear dated. But if you still have limited disk space, or if you dislike leaving tens or hundreds of rarely used DOS programs scattered on your disk, you might find X very useful. With a simple command, it executes zipped programs. To set X up, simply pack desired programs (COM, EXE, BAT) into a single ZIP file (e.g., comlib.zip) and add an environment variable to autoexec.bat [set comlib=PATH\comlib.zip]. You can then run any program contained in the ZIP file. Requires PKZIP/PKUNZIP 1.x or 2.x.

for example: X WHEREIS *.bat

1. A temp directory is created in the root directory of C:\
2. X spawns off PKUNZIP.EXE to extract WHEREIS.*
3. If more than one WHEREIS.* file exists, give the user an error message telling them that the names must be unique.
4. If the extracted file is a BATCH file spawn a second copy of COMMAND.COM and execute it, Else spawn the program that was extracted.
5. Delete all files in the temporary directory.
6. Delete the temporary directory.

Limitations: Programs that require external support / config files, or programs that modify themselves, may not work as expected. If you're already running disk compression software like Stacker or Double Space, X.COM won't save you much disk space. Requires around 30K during program execution.

Author: Keith Ledbetter (1993).

1993-03-27: v3.1. Donationware.

Download x_31.zip (17K).

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