Michael Hooker Microscopy Facility (MHMF)

Working with a Command Box in Windows

Although the graphical user interface style of click and drag is powerful and convenient, sometimes it is easier and faster to use the Command Prompt window to operate on files and run simple programs.  This page gives a very brief description of how to open a command box and run some simple build in commands.  Groups of files can be worked on and selected using the wild card specifiers ? and *.  Some of the programs, e.g. tiffsplit4.exe, which provide the real power of the command line box are not listed here.  Also the structure of command line switches are not given here, but to get a feel see the tiffsplit4 manual page.

Stuff which needs to be expanded on:
How to resize a command box
How to specify a file using drive-directory-filename.extension
The ? and * wild cards in file names and, yes, directories
How to make a Command Box shortcut on the 1. desktop, 2. start menu, 3. task bar
Where to place command line programs such as tiffsplit51.exe
Command line program switches
Very useful Dos key edit commands - up arrow - back/forward arrow - F7 key
Output redirection > and >>, the pipe |, 1> =stdout, 2> =stderr

Opening a Command Box (Command Prompt or DOS Box)

• Either click on Start and click on the Command Box (if one is present)
• Or hold down the windows key and press r
• Or click on Start -> choose run and type in "cmd"
  • 
• click on run
  • 
• type in cmd and press enter
  • 
• Command Box will open
  • 

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 the MyComputer 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

Resizing Command Prompt Window

External links:

Wikipedia - Command prompt
Amset - Command Prompt Basics
Bleepingcomputer Introduction to the Windows Command Prompt
Windows 2000 Command Prompt Cheat sheet
PC World Windows' Command Line Puts You in Control

		Copyright 2001-14  Dr. M. Chua, Office of Research, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
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