SHELL--Notes

Default setting

The default command interpreter for MS-DOS is COMMAND.COM. If you do not use
a SHELL command in your CONFIG.SYS file, MS-DOS searches for COMMAND.COM in
the root directory of your startup drive. You need to use the SHELL command
if you want to specify a COMMAND.COM file that is not in the root directory
or if you do not want to use the default environment size for COMMAND.COM.
For information about COMMAND.COM switches, see the <COMMAND> command.

Using switches with a command interpreter

The SHELL command itself does not accept any switches, but if the command
interpreter does, you can include them on the SHELL command line.