Microsoft Open-Sources 86-DOS Source Recovered From Paterson's Printouts

Overview

• Microsoft published the 86-DOS 1.00 source on GitHub with links to the original scans on the Internet Archive.
• The code was rebuilt from dot-matrix printouts found in Tim Paterson's garage and transcribed by a volunteer team led by Yufeng Gao and Rich Cini.
• Microsoft's Scott Hanselman said the transcriptions recompile byte for byte to the original binaries.
• The materials include the 86-DOS kernel, early PC-DOS kernel snapshots, utilities like CHKDSK, and the BASIC-86 runtime.
• Paterson donated the printouts to the Interim Computer Museum, and the handwritten notes on the pages serve as a paper trail of features and fixes for researchers.