Microsoft Disk Operating System, commonly referred to as MS-DOS, was an operating system developed by Microsoft for IBM PC-compatible computers. Some synonyms for MS-DOS include Microsoft DOS, MS DOS, DOS, PC DOS, and Disk Operating System. It was first released in 1981 and was widely used in the 1980s and 1990s. MS-DOS was a command-line interface operating system and required users to type specific commands to perform tasks. It was eventually replaced by Windows operating systems, starting with Windows 95. Despite its outdated nature, MS-DOS remains an important part of computing history and is still used in some niche applications.