Command Prompt Basics

Command Prompt Basics
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Open Command Prompt As Administrator

Start - All Programs - Accessories - Right click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator.

Paste Commands Into a Command Prompt

Paste by right clicking in the Command Prompt window and choosing Paste. You may need to then press Enter to run the command or run the last command if pasting multiple commands.

Copy Text From Command Prompt

To copy the text output right click the window - Mark then select the text and press Enter.

Configure Command Prompt

To configure the command prompt. Right click the Command Prompt's titlebar - Properties - Layout tab - and enter 1000 for Screen Buffer Size Height and 43 (or 50) for Window Size Height. Change the Color (Color tab) and Font (Font tab) if you want.

Basic commands

In the command prompt folders are known as directories for historical reasons.

To list the current directory

dir

To list a specified directory

dir "c:\windows"

To list files of a certain type. * means all characters while ? matches a single character.

dir "c:\windows\*.exe"
dir "c:\windows\?otepad.*"

Some other commands to look up in Help.

copy - copy a file
ren - rename a file
del - delete a file
rd - delete a directory
cd - change the current directory

Help

For a list of commands, in a command prompt type



help



For help on a command type



help commandname



or



commandname /?



eg



cd /?


Keyboard Tips

Press Up or Down Arrow key to cycle between previously typed commands.

Ctrl + D and Ctrl + F complete directory/folder paths and filenames for you.
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