How does command prompt work?

Gackybelton · 30 Nov 2009

any help, I have looked in the internet but the tutorials there are no good, HELP!

Dark Nova Gamer · 30 Nov 2009

Gackybelton said:

any help, I have looked in the internet but the tutorials there are no good, HELP!

Well, what do you want to do with it? It has far to many uses to list.

dave1812 · 30 Nov 2009

Gackybelton said:

any help, I have looked in the internet but the tutorials there are no good, HELP!

If you are familiar with DOS commands, you use them at the Command Prompt. If you don't know them, don't bother with it!!

EAG1945 · 30 Nov 2009

To enter the command prompt, click Start and type cmd or command in the Search programs and files box. You should see cmd.exe at the top of the list. Many commands have to be entered as administrator. To do that, right click cmd.exe and chose run as administrator or hold the ctrl & shift keys and click cmd.exe. Once you are in the command prompt you can type "help", without quotes, for a list of commands and a brief list of what they do. For more information about commands, type the command help and the command name. That will give you a list of the commands, parameters that can be used, what they do and how the command and parameters should be typed.
EAG1945

Barman58 · 30 Nov 2009

Hi Gackybelton, and welcome to Sevenforums

For a basic guide to the command prompt in windows check put this link

The Windows Command Line, Batch Files, and Scripting- Using the Command Shell

one trick that can help is, if you need to find out more about a command line function type the name of the command and a space and /? or -h, this will open the help for the command ...

For example the dir command is used to display a directory listing of files in a folder the command dir /? gives this help page ....

Code:

C:\Users\Nigel>dir /?
Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.

DIR [drive:][path][filename] [/A[[:]attributes]] [/B] [/C] [/D] [/L] [/N]
  [/O[[:]sortorder]] [/P] [/Q] [/R] [/S] [/T[[:]timefield]] [/W] [/X] [/4]

  [drive:][path][filename]
              Specifies drive, directory, and/or files to list.

  /A          Displays files with specified attributes.
  attributes   D  Directories                R  Read-only files
               H  Hidden files               A  Files ready for archiving
               S  System files               I  Not content indexed files
               L  Reparse Points             -  Prefix meaning not
  /B          Uses bare format (no heading information or summary).
  /C          Display the thousand separator in file sizes.  This is the
              default.  Use /-C to disable display of separator.
  /D          Same as wide but files are list sorted by column.
  /L          Uses lowercase.
  /N          New long list format where filenames are on the far right.
  /O          List by files in sorted order.
  sortorder    N  By name (alphabetic)       S  By size (smallest first)
               E  By extension (alphabetic)  D  By date/time (oldest first)
               G  Group directories first    -  Prefix to reverse order
  /P          Pauses after each screenful of information.
  /Q          Display the owner of the file.
  /R          Display alternate data streams of the file.
  /S          Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories.
  /T          Controls which time field displayed or used for sorting
  timefield   C  Creation
              A  Last Access
              W  Last Written
  /W          Uses wide list format.
  /X          This displays the short names generated for non-8dot3 file
              names.  The format is that of /N with the short name inserted
              before the long name. If no short name is present, blanks are
              displayed in its place.
  /4          Displays four-digit years

Switches may be preset in the DIRCMD environment variable.  Override
preset switches by prefixing any switch with - (hyphen)--for example, /-W.

Frostmourne · 30 Nov 2009

EAG1945 said:

To enter the command prompt, click Start and type cmd or command in the Search programs and files box. You should see cmd.exe at the top of the list. Many commands have to be entered as administrator. To do that, right click cmd.exe and chose run as administrator or hold the ctrl & shift keys and click cmd.exe. Once you are in the command prompt you can type "help", without quotes, for a list of commands and a brief list of what they do. For more information about commands, type the command help and the command name. That will give you a list of the commands, parameters that can be used, what they do and how the command and parameters should be typed.
EAG1945

Its Ctrl+Shift+Enter at once.

ignatzatsonic · 30 Nov 2009

Type "Dos primer" into a google phrase search box for all kinds of introductions to the command prompt.

Gackybelton · 02 Dec 2009

thanks guys, barman, that site helped me alot thankyou!!

DeaconFrost · 02 Dec 2009

That has to be the most vague question I've ever seen asked on a computing forum.

dave1812 · 02 Dec 2009

DeaconFrost said:

That has to be the most vague question I've ever seen asked on a computing forum.

LOL! Exactly. Prompting someone to start using DOS commands, simply because they expressed confusion over what the command prompt is, seems premature at best; "dangerous" to the OP's Win installation at worst. Oh, well--it's not my PC! :)