Talk:IO.SYS

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If this is not used by XP, then why do I have a (blank) file at C:\IO.SYS? Can I delete it? 61.68.108.125 10:33, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes. I think the only reason Microsoft creates an empty IO.SYS (also MSDOS.SYS) in XP (and other versions of Windows that don't run on top of DOS) is for backwards compatibility with old DOS or Windows 3.x applications (or installers?) that expect those files to be on the boot drive for some reason. --ozzmosis 16:58, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Actually now that I think about this a bit more, even that explanation doesn't make a lot of sense, because IBM PC DOS used IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM, instead of IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS... --ozzmosis 17:08, 27 April 2007 (UTC)