MS-DOS Editor Corrupts Nontext Files (74191)



The information in this article applies to:
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22

This article was previously published under Q74191

SUMMARY

The MS-DOS Editor should not be used to edit nontext files. If it is used to edit a file that is not a text file, it will display any embedded text in the file, but will most likely corrupt the file when you save it.

MORE INFORMATION

When the MS-DOS Editor is used to edit a file, it will only display the ASCII portion of the file, and will strip out all other characters. Consequently, all nondisplayable characters are lost when you save the file. No error messages or warnings are issued when this occurs.

Problems typically occur if you attempt to edit document files created by word processing programs. The MS-DOS Editor may appear to edit these files properly, but will usually corrupt them when you save them, due to the loss of control information needed by the word processing program.

Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 5/12/2003
Keywords: KB74191