Working with a Command Box in Windows

Using the command box

Generally commands are typed into the command box using the keyboard and are executed once the  enter key (<-enter) is pressed

Change to drive letter and directory where image files are located

• Type in single drive letter followed by a colon and press enter
  •   e.g.   d: (<-enter)
• To change the current directory type cd (space) \users-tmp\2005-10-28 (<-enter)
• In order to save typing
  • Open a MyComputer and browse to directory which contains files to be worked with
  • In the command box type CD (space) and drag the folder icon in the address bar to the Command Prompt box and them press enter.  The directory will change to the directory displayed in theMyComputer window
  • 

Working in the Command Box

• DIR - list directory contents.
  • 
• drive: - change drive letter. e.g. d: (<-enter)
  • 
• CD - change directory e.g. go to top directory (root)  cd \  (Remember to be on the drive which contains the directory before doing cd )
  • 
• MD - make a new directory
• TYPE - list contents of text files. e.g. 2005-10-28.txt
• MORE - pause text display after each screen page. e.g. dir | more
  • 
  • Scrolling will stop at one screen worth of text with.  Press space bar when   ---  More  --- appears to display subsequent pages
  • 
• |  -  the vertical line know as a pipe re-directs screen output to another program. e.g. dir | more

Files specification and wild cards

• ? - matches any single character
• * - match any number of occurrences of any letter

More useful commands

• XCOPY - copy files
• REN - rename a file
• ERASE / DEL - erase files
• TREE  - list directory tree
• HELP - command box help
• PATH - lists directories which are searched to find programs which are not built into Windows

Getting help / hints

• HELP - list commands available.  Note that most commands can be safely ignored.  A sub-list of more useful commands.
  • 
• HELP command name. e.g. HELP DIR
  • 

Aborting running programs

• ctrl+C  (hold down the control key and press C)
• ctrl+Break   (hold down the control key and press the Break key)
• Use task manager (crtl+shift+escape) and kill the cmd.exe process

Finishing up

• Type EXIT (<-enter) - command box will close
• Or click on the X at the top right corner of the window

CMD: Typing a command

Typing a Command  

This section explains how to type a command at the command prompt and demonstrates the "Bad command or file name" message.

• To type a command at the command prompt  

1. Type the following at the command prompt (you can type the command in either uppercase or lowercase letters):
nul 
If you make a typing mistake, press the BACKSPACE key to erase the mistake, and then try again.

2. Press ENTER.
You must press ENTER after every command you type.
The following message appears:
Bad command or file name
The "Bad command or file name" message appears when you type something that MS- DOS does not recognize. Because nul is not a valid MS-DOS command, MS-DOS displays the "Bad command or file name" message.

3. Now, type the following command at the command prompt:
ver 
The following message appears on your screen:
MS-DOS version 6.2.9200 (it may be diffident on different OS)

Learning CMD commands

Here we will learn how to use MS-DOS commands.WE can use MS-DOS commands in command prompt (cmd) of windows operating system. These commands may be very useful and also time saving and some times they may be far more powerful and fast then the user interface of our operating system(here WINDOWS) 

first of all we will learn how to open the command prompt.

friends, Command Prompt is a windows application running in win32 console. We can also say it a command interpreter because a user can directly execute his/her commands without using the GUI of the OS.In our tutorials we will generally call it as CMD which is derived form its executable file's name i.e, CMD.EXE

STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO OPEN CMD

we will use the shortest and ever working method whether there are a lot of ways to open CMD

1. Press [WINDOWS]+[R]. A window will appear like the this one-
   
2. Type "cmd" in the text field and press [ENTER].
3. A new window will appear like this-
   
   
   

The flashing underscore next to the command prompt is called the cursor. The cursor shows where the command you type will appear.