OK, after a bit more searching, I've come across exactly what we're looking for in a 1K freeware DOS utility - INPUT.COM by Horst Schaeffer

http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/

You'll find INPUT.COM in the PBAT sction on the left. The syntax is painfully simple:

INPUT "Enter phrase here: " variablename

Will prompt the user to enter any alphanumeric string (words, spaces, etc.) and will save it in variablename after pressing enter. Sheesh, and I thought I was coming up with something new.

Folks, this will solve your input problems. But at least Adam got some good code out of it. Ignore my CHOICE code, I am going to use INPUT from now on.

Sigh,

JP

Hmm why don't you use the /p switch of the set command?

set /P disksize="Please enter the desired size of C: in MB: "

getvar does the exact same thing as input.com.. haven't compared the two so maybe input.com may be a little smaller and user friendly.

I'm pretty sure set /p only works in Windows 2000 and XP with cmd.exe, not in a older, pure DOS environment, with command.com..

@Zoster,

Thanks, but the SET /P doesn't work in DOS - that's what I was shooting for.

@RayOK

Yes, I think GETVAR is even made by the same guy (I saw it on his website as well), but it's alot larger than INPUT. I'm putting INPUT on a boot floppy with lots of other tools, so size matters.

I wonder what the WinME version of COMMAND.com would buy us, in terms of additional features. Anyone know?

JP

Personally I would scrap MSDOS and use FreeDOS. Free and much more powerful.

FreeDOS

I have a problem with the INPUT.COM program.

Here's my current test batch file:

@echo offUtilities\INPUT "Enter a new administrator name: " newadminecho %newadmin%pause

Now, when I run this, I get this output:

Enter a new administrator name: SomeAdminECHO is off.Press any key to continue

as you can see, it's not actually setting the variable. Even if I set the variable beforehand, it just retains it's old value. Can anyone help me with this?

Edit: Never mind.. just say this: Note: INPUT does not work under Win NT/2000/XP

Folks,

You will notice that I've rewritten my original post to include the INPUT.COM user input utility and simplified my script quite a bit.

JP

Hello.

How can I put onto a boot cd ?

Please help me.... I'm struggeling.