System Commander#Partition Commander

{{short description|Hard Disk software, including a partition manager}}

{{Infobox software

| name = System Commander

| developer = VCOM

| latest_release_version = 9.04

| operating_system = DOS, Windows

| genre = Bootloader

| license = Proprietary

}}

System Commander (SC for short) is a graphical boot manager/loader software application developed by VCOM. The software allowed for multiple operating systems to be installed onto a machine at once, providing a menu from which the user selected the operating system they wished to boot from. Other software with similar functionality includes NTLDR, LILO, GRUB, and Graphical Boot Manager. One of its components was named Partition Commander.

Overview

System Commander was introduced in 1993 by V Communications,{{cite news

|newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/21/technology/news-watch-when-one-operating-system-just-can-t-satisfy-a-customer.html

|title=When One Operating System Just Can't Satisfy a Customer

|author=Michel Marriott |date=May 21, 1998}} sometimes referred to as VCOM.{{cite news

|newspaper=BizJournals|location=Silicon Valley/San Jose

|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/01/31/daily18.html

|title=V Communications acquired by Parisian firm

|date=February 1, 2005}}{{cite web

|url=https://www.corumgroup.com/transactions/bvrp-v-communications

|title=BVRP - V Communications |date=February 2005

|quote=V Communications is a .. VCOM}}

Description

A major feature of System Commander is its ability to hide partitions. An operating system could be configured to not recognize other partitions, preventing the data of other installed operating systems from being accessed or tampered with.

System Commander requires either 32-bit DOS or Windows (95/98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista) to install.

The software can run in screen resolutions up to 1600x1200.

=Partition Commander=

The package also included a partition manager (VCOM's Partition Commander) for creating, resizing and deleting partitions.{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/technology/circuits/rearranging-rooms-on-the-hard-drive.html

|title=Rearranging Rooms on the Hard Drive - The New York Times

|date=October 6, 2005}} Partition Commander was not the only software in this market; PartitionMagic was a recognized alternative.{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/08/technology/q-a-recarve-a-hard-drive-without-losing-data.html

|title=Recarve a Hard Drive Without Losing Data

|author=By J.D. Biersdorfer |date=May 8, 2003}}{{cite magazine |magazine=Winworld

|url=https://winworldpc.com/product/partition-commander/1x

|quote=It competed directly against Partition Magic. V .. also produced ... and Memory Commander, a 386 Expanded/Extended Memory Manager.

|title=Partition Commander 1.x

|access-date=May 31, 2021}}

A 2005 review noted that some of the conveniences of Partition Magic, such as walk away and let a series of operations take place; with Partition Commander "you have to wait until each task is complete before initiating the next."{{cite magazine

|magazine=PC Magazine

|url=https://in.pcmag.com/utilities-from-pc-ma/7699/partition-commander-60

|title=Partition Commander 6.0

|author=Edward Mendelson |date=September 19, 2005}}