Other names | MSD, MSD.EXE |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Microsoft |
Operating system | MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows |
License | Proprietary commercial software |
Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) was a software tool developed by Microsoft to assist in the diagnostics of 1990s-era computers. Users primarily deployed this tool to provide detailed technical information about the user's software and hardware and to print the gathered information, usually for use by support technicians in troubleshooting and resolving problems. [1] [2] [3] The assumptions made by the program were valid until the late 1990s: it does not handle plug-and-play USB or other new technologies that appeared around 2000.
In
PC DOS 6.1 and above, QCONFIG.EXE
provides similar functionality.
[4]
[5] Commercial alternatives include Manifest MFT.EXE
from Quarterdeck's
QEMM.
MSD.EXE
first shipped with
Microsoft Word for Windows, and was later included in
Windows 3,
[1]
MS-DOS 6,
[1]
[2]
[3] and on the
Windows 9x
CD-ROMs. Because
OS/2 and
Windows NT contain code forked from DOS at the DOS 5 level, the versions of MSD.EXE
included here correspond to that of that era (i.e. version 2.0).
Windows NT 3 and
NT 4 have WINMSD
, a program with similar features.
[6] However, the DOS/Windows specific functions were replaced by similar Windows NT concerns.
[6] WINMSDP.EXE
, included in the resource kits, provides the print functionality of MSD.EXE
for WINMSD
. Since NT 5 (
Windows 2000), WINMSD.EXE
has been a loader for
MSINFO32.EXE
.
Users generally started the program from the DOS Command Prompt using the command MSD.EXE
.
[1] Starting the program under a DOS window in either Windows or OS/2 shows only the DOS details allocated for that DOS session, not for the machine in general.
[1]
Aspects of the system for which MSD.EXE
provided technical information:
Microsoft replaced MSD.EXE
with MSINFO32.EXE
.
[7] This has similar features, but targets more recent machines. It first appeared in
MS-Word, and later was distributed with
Plus! for Windows 95 and
Windows 98.
[7] MSINFO32.EXE
under
Windows XP stores system history from
WMI in the
XML files in Windows\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Datacoll
.
[8] In the interest of
backward compatibility, WINMSD
became a loader for MSINFO32
.
System Information in
Windows XP provides a new view of changes to the computer. ... History Information is provided by WMI, and is stored in the Extensible Markup Language (XML) data files located in Windows\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Datacoll
.
Other names | MSD, MSD.EXE |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Microsoft |
Operating system | MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows |
License | Proprietary commercial software |
Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) was a software tool developed by Microsoft to assist in the diagnostics of 1990s-era computers. Users primarily deployed this tool to provide detailed technical information about the user's software and hardware and to print the gathered information, usually for use by support technicians in troubleshooting and resolving problems. [1] [2] [3] The assumptions made by the program were valid until the late 1990s: it does not handle plug-and-play USB or other new technologies that appeared around 2000.
In
PC DOS 6.1 and above, QCONFIG.EXE
provides similar functionality.
[4]
[5] Commercial alternatives include Manifest MFT.EXE
from Quarterdeck's
QEMM.
MSD.EXE
first shipped with
Microsoft Word for Windows, and was later included in
Windows 3,
[1]
MS-DOS 6,
[1]
[2]
[3] and on the
Windows 9x
CD-ROMs. Because
OS/2 and
Windows NT contain code forked from DOS at the DOS 5 level, the versions of MSD.EXE
included here correspond to that of that era (i.e. version 2.0).
Windows NT 3 and
NT 4 have WINMSD
, a program with similar features.
[6] However, the DOS/Windows specific functions were replaced by similar Windows NT concerns.
[6] WINMSDP.EXE
, included in the resource kits, provides the print functionality of MSD.EXE
for WINMSD
. Since NT 5 (
Windows 2000), WINMSD.EXE
has been a loader for
MSINFO32.EXE
.
Users generally started the program from the DOS Command Prompt using the command MSD.EXE
.
[1] Starting the program under a DOS window in either Windows or OS/2 shows only the DOS details allocated for that DOS session, not for the machine in general.
[1]
Aspects of the system for which MSD.EXE
provided technical information:
Microsoft replaced MSD.EXE
with MSINFO32.EXE
.
[7] This has similar features, but targets more recent machines. It first appeared in
MS-Word, and later was distributed with
Plus! for Windows 95 and
Windows 98.
[7] MSINFO32.EXE
under
Windows XP stores system history from
WMI in the
XML files in Windows\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Datacoll
.
[8] In the interest of
backward compatibility, WINMSD
became a loader for MSINFO32
.
System Information in
Windows XP provides a new view of changes to the computer. ... History Information is provided by WMI, and is stored in the Extensible Markup Language (XML) data files located in Windows\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Datacoll
.