Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!ucsd!hub!tangello!erbo
From: erbo@tangello.ucsb.edu (Eric J. Bowersox)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: TSR to Ignore commands
Summary: edit COMMAND.COM
Message-ID: <2231@hub.UUCP>
Date: 22 Aug 89 06:55:05 GMT
References: <2841@ndsuvax.UUCP> <8200@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <3743@internal.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@hub.UUCP
Reply-To: erbo@tangello.UUCP (Eric J. Bowersox)
Organization: UC Santa Barbara, Campus Club for Computer People (CCCP)
Lines: 37

In article <2841@ndsuvax.UUCP> ncperson@ndsuvax.UUCP (Brett G. Person) writes:
:
:I'd like a progran that will cause dos to ignore certain commands 
:such as FORMAT or COPY etc.  Does such a program exist? 

Use a program that edits binary files (such as FM or Norton Utilities) to edit
COMMAND.COM.  Locate the command table (where words such as "COPY," "REN,"
and the like are located), then, for each command you want to lock out, change
the name to lower case (e.g. change "COPY" to "copy").

Now, if you want to "bring back" those commands in a form you can actually
use, you can write C/Pascal/assembly/etc. versions of those commands, and
place the appropriate commands (COPY.COM or COPY.EXE, RENAME.COM or RENAME.EXE,
etc.) in a directory where ordinary users can't find it.  Alternatively, keep
a copy of the unaltered COMMAND.COM around, under another name (say, 
FULLCMD.COM), and, for each command you want to "put back," write a batch
file which calls FULLCMD.COM with the /C argument.  For instance:

	@echo off
	: This is COPY.BAT.
	fullcmd /c copy %1 %2
	exit

I ran into a similar situation recently, managing a centralized, "check-out"
laptop at the company I work for...the objective being to guard against
users who "know enough to be dangerous but don't know enough to be safe"
(my words).

(Disclaimer:  Our news files have been cleaned out recently, and I missed a lot
of articles, so if this has been posted before, I'm sorry, but that's why.
Also, I have not tried the strategies mentioned above extensively, having many
other responsibilities at work :-|.)

| Disclaimer: "Disclaimer?!  I don't even KNOW her!!" -- M. Coohill |
| * Eric J. Bowersox (ERBO) *  LIVE! from Isla Vista, California!   |
| erbo@cornu.ucsb.edu ...!{ucbvax,ucsd}!ucsbcsl!cornu!erbo          |
| Brain fried error reading drive C -- Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?  |