# Running a DOS Screenreader Under Command.com via XP?

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 08-Sep-2009 13:41:03

I recently heard that you could use sound blaster cards for speech under DOS with the Tiny Talk and ASAP screenreaders but I'm still not sure how this is possiblle, unless there's some kind of software synth I've never heard of that comes with it. I want to try this on my XP machine via the command.com file, since my Keynote Gold doesn't use a sound blaster card and my Compaq's being worked on. if I unload JFW, can a full DOS screenreader handle command.com as if it was DOS or would it not be able to recognise it since it runs ontop of XP? There's no sense in trying this with JFW, since I want to test out these readers with the sound card.

## Post 2 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Tuesday, 08-Sep-2009 14:30:23

What do you mean about command.com? You can open it just like any other text file but I believe it's a bit code file so it won't make any sense to you, and you can't edit it like you could an autoexec.bat file.
It's a dos component and not XP specific as far as I know.
May be I am remembering it wrong or it has changed, but I doubt it. So you got to explain better what you want to do.

## Post 3 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 08-Sep-2009 15:02:00

There are two ways to open the DOS prompt under XP. You could either go to programs and accessories and then open the command prompt or you could go to run and type in command.com. I use the latter. From what I've heard, the other way doesn't open DOS with the same file. I don't know cause I hardly ever play with this version. After 98, Windows stopped having real DOS in it. I think if you were to go to a true DOS system and try opening command.com, you'd get a file like you described.