MS-DOS Beta's referenced in MS-DOS 6.2 User's Guide

[Battler]

Hello, I'm posting this thread to list the MS-DOS Beta's referenced in MS-DOS 6.2 User's Guide.

1. Page 5, Chapter 2, Section Viewing the Contents of a Directory
There's a DIR listing showing the following among the file:

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COMMAND  COM     53014 09-18-92   6:00a

I think this is MS-DOS 6.00.0204, because if I recall correctly, the COMMAND.COM we do have of that Build, from the leaked MS-DOS 6.00 Source Code, indeed has that file size, and clearly reports itself as 6.00.0204. Though I might be wrong, of course.

2. Page 25, Chapter 2
There's a DOSSHELL screenshot showing the following file:

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COMMAND .COM        46,246  11-28-90

This is MS-DOS 5.00.409c, which we have on the BetaArchive FTP. The file size of COMMAND.COM matches, as does the date/time.

3. Page 68, Chapter 3, Section "Verify Error" Message
There's a Verify Error message screenshot of Microsoft Anti-Virus showing the following:

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Time     :      06:00:00    06:00:00
Date     :    12/01/1992  12/11/1992
Size     :         40038       40374

These seem to be two MS-DOS 6.00 Builds.
Edit: The file is IO.SYS.

4. Page 116, Chapter 5
There's two DIR listings.
a) Compressed parition, listing the following file:

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COMMAND  COM  <DIR>  53022

b) Uncompressed partition, listing the following files:

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IO       SYS     39590
MSDOS    SYS     37416
DBLSPACE BIN     63844

This seems to be yet another MS-DOS 6.00 Build.

This is about all. It seems to be about 5 different Builds referenced by means of file names and date/times in DIR listing, screenshots, etc.

[brazoai1]

Nice trivia... I will read old manuals in another way now.

[DeFacto]

Interesting... Have you compared some of the files with the ones from known DOS betas (besides 0204 and 409c)?

[Battler]

Interesting... Have you compared some of the files with the ones from known DOS betas (besides 0204 and 409c)?

There's nothing to compare them to, that's the problem. Apart from one, they're all MS-DOS 6.00 Beta's, of which we only have one file from 0204, COMMAND.COM in the leaked MS-DOS 6.00 Source Code, but no others from other Builds.

There was a Beta of MS-DOS 6.00 leaked to the Warez BBS's back in the days (it should be easy to find references to it via Google), but I've yet to find an actual downloadable copy of it (so far I've only seen references to it on Warez BBS file lists).

But in comparison, MS-DOS RTM file sizes and dates/times from 5.00 onwards, that I can remember right now:
MS-DOS 5.00 RTM, April 9th, 1991, COMMAND.COM 47845 bytes, IO.SYS 334?? bytes, MSDOS.SYS 37394 bytes
MS-DOS 5.00a RTM, November 11th, 1991, same file sizes as MS-DOS 5.00 RTM
MS-DOS 6.00 RTM, March 10th, 1993, COMMAND.COM 52925 bytes, IO.SYS 40470 bytes, MSDOS.SYS 38138 bytes, DBLSPACE.BIN 51214 bytes
MS-DOS 6.00 Base Edition RTM, March 10th, 1993, COMMAND.COM 51444 bytes, IO.SYS 39510 bytes IIRC (not sure if I remember well the moment, will check my copy later), MSDOS.SYS 38138 bytes
MS-DOS 6.20 RTM, September 30th, 1993, COMMAND.COM 54619 bytes, IO.SYS 40566 bytes, MSDOS.SYS 38138 bytes, DBLSPACE.BIN 64246 bytes
MS-DOS 6.22 RTM, May 31st, 1994, COMMAND.COM 54645 bytes, IO.SYS 40774 bytes, MSDOS.SYS 38138 bytes, DRVSPACE.BIN 66294 bytes.

Feel free to correct the list and/or add to it.

[WinPC]

Not only did I write down the builds of which were referenced in the MS-DOS 6 Concise User's Guide (mine was, as far as I know, the wholely Microsoft-branded original version from MS-DOS 6.0, though I also have a smaller Packard Bell OEM version of the same manual, again, MS-DOS 6.0 in this case), but I even added each and every one of them into my project, the Official Microsoft OS Checklist for The Beta Group and AbandoNet, though the actual build numbers remain unknown.

Also, the RTM release of MS-DOS 6.22 is actually from May 31st, 1993, and NOT May 31st, 1994 (from what I see, it was a slight mistyping), not to mention that if it's possible, you should also add MS-DOS 6.21 from February 1994, since it's also missing from the list.

[Battler]

How on earth can MS-DOS 6.22 RTM be in May 1993, when 6.20 is in September 1993, and 6.21 is in February 1994?

[os2fan2]

The windows 95 manual, has long filenames for the Windows 3.1 wallpaper (in one of its examples), and the Windows 3.1 manual shows the Windows 3.0 wallpaper examples. Worth the note.

[WinPC]

Actually, this was due to the fact that these manuals (at least the Windows 95 User's Guide, but quite possibly also the Windows 3.1 User's Guide) were written during the beta test periods of these products, and as such, had the screenshots taken from beta releases, mostly (if not almost exclusively) later beta releases of these Microsoft products.

This practice was very common, and could easily still be in widespread use - basically, from what I see, beta testers would receive the pre-release versions of Windows, and start writing about them before even the RTM builds were compiled, let alone when the product was actually ready to ship, meaning that in the screenshots, you can still see certain beta-related charactoristics.

For example, in Mastering Windows 3.1, by Bob Cowart, there are numerous screenshots of various pre-release builds of Windows 3.1 (codenamed "Janus"), including one of which appears to be of Build 40 (I had logically concluded such early last year, due to the fact that it was obviously before Build 43e, of which apparently introduced the multimedia features according to the README.WRI file in Build 61d, yet after Build 34e), and others of which appear to be from later builds, including some (with Dr. Watson running within the background) of which appear to be from the 6x series of builds.

Another example is Windows 95 for Dummies by Andy Rathbone, of which has its screenshots (with exception to some of the ones of which were shown in Windows 95 for Dummies 2nd Edition) from various later beta releases of Windows 95, with even some screenshots of File Manager showing "324cab" and also "331cab", confirming the existence of not only the English release of Build 324, but also Build 331, even before either build was released on BetaArchive. Also to note is not only the fact that the screenshots of Windows 95 within the Windows 95-related article in Windows 3.11 for Dummies, also by Andy Rathbone as far as I remember, are from Build 224 (as is even evidenced by the file dates, as well as the charactoristics, both of which are obviously shown within the screenshots), but also the fact that in Andy Rathbone's other book, Windows 98 for Dummies, not only are there a few screenshots of Build 1650 (there was even a screenshot of Build 1546), but there are numerous screenshots of the 17xx series of builds, with the throbber in the upper right Internet Explorer windows, as well as the folder windows, shown underneath the "Close, Minimize, and Maximize" buttons, being of a non-tilted Windows flag logo on a clouded background - The Distractor/Wack0 confirmed that these builds were indeed the 17xx series builds of Windows 98 (codenamed "Memphis"), since he sent me a screenshot of Build 1702 shortly after it was released onto AbandoNet (it's now available here on BetaArchive, since early September).

As for the long file names for the Windows 3.1x wallpaper within some of the later Windows 95 builds, if you installed one of those builds, such as, for example, Build 347, you can clearly see the same charactoristics in that build as you can within the builds of which were shown within the Windows 95 User's Guide.

EDIT: As for MS-DOS 6.22 being from May 31st, 1993, I apologize, I meant to say that rather than it being from May 31st, 1993, it was actually from May 31st, 1994 (this was yet another mistyping, this time, on my part), since you accidentally mistyped it yourself as being from May 31st, 1993, so I tried to correct you.

[Battler]

- WinPC: First off, regarding the multimedia features of Windows 3.1, to quote README.WRI of Windows 3.10.061d:

What's New Since Beta 2 (Build 43e)
-------------------------------------------
Multimedia Audio and Media Control Devices
* Two new accessories, Sound Recorder and Media Player have been
added to the accessories group in Program Manager.
* Drivers for popular sound and MIDI boards have also been added. Open
the Drivers icon in Control Panel and select Add for a complete list of
drivers provided.
* Media control device support is now installed as part of Windows 3.1.

Note: You need to have a the appropriate hardware to take full
advantage of the multimedia features.

It seems like the Multimedia features weren't present in Build 43e, but were present in Build 61d. It also mentions new wallpapers. This makes me think that maybe they meant Build 34e there, but mistyped the Build number. It's not sure though.
Build 43e is also labelled Beta 2 in the README.WRI, and 061d calls itself Final Beta Release.

Also I fixed the year of MS-DOS 6.22 in my original post, thanks for reporting the mistake.

BTW, I have the Slovenian translated edition of Andy Rathbone's Windows for Dummies, about Windows 3.1. The Slovenian edition adds an appendix about Windows 3.1 for Central and Eastern Europe, which it names "Windows 3.1 EE" (meaning "Windows 3.1 for Eastern Europe").

But I haven't spotted any Beta stuff in that book.

[DeFacto]

But I haven't spotted any Beta stuff in that book.

Slovenian books never contain any beta stuff...