Windows Command Prompt Quick-guide

This guide will explain the basics of the Windows command prompt:

The Windows command prompt (cmd.exe) is a
command line interpreter. This is a program that performs instructions typed into it by a user. There is nothing graphical except a text prompt in this program.

To start it up you simply go to start-->run (if it's not there, follow this guide) and type in "cmd" without the quotes, then press "OK":



This will open up the command prompt, which will look like this:



To get a list of commands you can use, type "help" without the quotes into the command line, and press enter. A long list of commands will appear. You won't know how to use any of them yet. To get help for a specific command, type this: "[command name] /?" without the quotes. I'll explain a few first anyway:

TITLE - changes the title of your command line window. The format for this command is "title [the title you want here]" without quotes. So, using this, I've changed the title of the window to:



COLOR - changes the colour of your window. The format for this is a bit trickier, it uses two hex values (hexadecimal numbers). Just type in "color /?" and a simple explanation will make it clear what you have to do. This is what I did:



Matrix-style, right?

Now, the important bit. How to actually get around when using the command prompt. Say you want to move to a different folder, see what files are in it and open files - this is how.

CD - changes the directory (folder) you are in. The format for this command is: drive:location. More detailed help is available by typing "cd /?" into the command prompt. But let's say, for example, you want to go into your program files folder. You type:



If you want to switch to other drives, type in: "[drive letter]:" If I wanted to go to the D drive, I would type: "D:"

DIR - shows the contents of a directory (folder). There are lots of different options for this you can learn about by typing "dir /?"; but just typing "dir" alone lists the contents of the folder you are in currently:



TREE - shows the contents of all subfolders. If you are in the "root" of your drive (e.g. C:\ or D:\). You can press "control+c" to stop a command if you get tired of watching it. You can map out your entire drive and put the content into a text file by typing the following:



Some other commands include "mkdir" which creates a directory, "copy" which copies a specified file, "cls" which clears the screen, "prompt" which can change your command prompt to whatever you want, "time" which you can view and alter your system time with, "echo" which will repeat whatever you input and "exit" which you close your command window. A more complete list can be obtained by typing "help" while using the command line, or here

More dangerous commands which you could easily mess your computer up with include "assoc", "attrib", "convert", "del", "format", "ren" and "rmdir". Don't go using these unless you know what you're doing first.

You can launch other applications from the command line like "calc" - the calculator. You can schedule tasks, set your computer a time to shut down, and much more.

I hope this guide has given you a good overview of the Windows command line, and how to use a few of the basic functions.

 

hmm nice guide, u should make a directory

like..

(word)-meaning
(word)-meaning

 

Pretty nice intro guide. Maybe explain some more on how to read the help, and understand what it means.