TIMEOUT.EXE alternative for legacy Windows OSes?

If you're looking for an alternative to TIMEOUT.EXE on legacy versions of Windows that don't include it by default (prior to Windows Vista), you can achieve the same effect using the PING command. Here's how you can use it:

batchCopy code
@echo off

echo Waiting for 5 seconds...

ping 127.0.0.1 -n 6 > nul

echo Done.

In this example, the ping command is used to introduce a delay of 5 seconds. The -n 6 option tells ping to send 6 echo requests (pings) to the loopback address 127.0.0.1, with each ping introducing a delay of about 1 second. The > nul part suppresses the output of the ping command.

You can adjust the number of echo requests (-n) and the loopback address as needed. Just keep in mind that this method may not be as precise as using TIMEOUT.EXE or more modern alternatives, but it works for basic delay purposes on older Windows systems.