prompt

Changes the Cmd.exe command prompt, including displaying any text you want, such as the name of the current directory, the time and date, or the Microsoft Windows version number. If used without parameters, this command resets the command prompt to the default setting, which is the current drive letter and directory followed by the greater than symbol (>).

Syntax

Parameters

Specifies the text and information that you want to include in the command prompt. /? Displays help at the command prompt.

Remarks

The character combinations you can include instead of, or in addition to, one or more character strings in the text parameter:

Character	Description
$q	= (Equal sign)
$$	$ (Dollar sign)
$t	Current time
$d	Current date
$p	Current drive and path
$v	Windows version number
$n	Current drive
$g	> (Greater than sign)
$l	| (Pipe symbol)
$_	ENTER-LINEFEED
$e	ANSI escape code (code 27)
$h	Backspace (to delete a character that has been written to the command line)
$a	& (Ampersand)
$c	( (Left parenthesis)
$f	) (Right parenthesis)
$s	Space

When command extensions are enabled the prompt command supports the following formatting characters:

Character	Description
$+	Zero or more plus sign (+) characters, depending on the depth of the pushd directory stack (one character for each level pushed).
$m	The remote name associated with the current drive letter or the empty string if current drive is not a network drive.

If you include the $p character in the text parameter, your disk is read after you enter each command (to determine the current drive and path). This can take extra time, especially for floppy disk drives.

Examples

To set a two-line command prompt with the current time and date on the first line and the greater than sign on the next line, type:

The prompt is changed as follows, where the date and time are current:

To set the command prompt to display as an arrow ( —> ), type:

To manually change the command prompt to the default setting (the current drive and path followed by the greater than sign), type:

How to Open Command Prompt

Open Command Prompt to Execute Commands in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, & XP

Some popular Command Prompt commands you might have heard of include ping, netstat, tracert, shutdown, and attrib, but there are many more. We have a complete list here.

While Command Prompt probably isn’t a tool most of you will use on a regular basis, it can really come in handy now and then, maybe to troubleshoot a specific Windows problem or to automate some kind of task.

How you open Command Prompt differs between Windows versions, so you’ll find steps below for Windows 10, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, and Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. See What Version of Windows Do I Have? if you’re not sure.

Open Command Prompt in Windows 10

Select the Start button.

Type cmd.

Select Command Prompt from the list.

Open Command Prompt Through the Start Menu

Another way to open Command Prompt in Windows 10 is to look in its Start menu folder:

Select the Start button.

Select the Windows System folder from the list.

Choose Command Prompt from the folder group.

Open Command Prompt Using Power User Menu

One more method in Windows 10 is through the Power User Menu. If you’re using a keyboard or mouse, choose Command Prompt from the menu that appears after pressing Win+X or right-clicking the Start button.

You might see Windows PowerShell options in the Power User Menu instead of Command Prompt. In more recent versions of Windows 10, Command Prompt has been replaced by PowerShell, but you can still access it from the Power User Menu by editing the taskbar settings.

Open Command Prompt in Windows 8 or 8.1

Select the Start button and then swipe up to show the Apps screen. You can accomplish the same thing with a mouse by selecting the down arrow icon at the bottom of the screen.

Prior to the Windows 8.1 update, the Apps screen can be accessed from the Start screen by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, or right-clicking anywhere, and then choosing All apps.

If you’re using a keyboard or mouse, a really quick way to open a Command Prompt window in Windows 8 is through the Power User Menu—just hold the WIN and X keys down together, or right-click the Start button, and choose Command Prompt.

Swipe or scroll to the right on the Apps screen to locate the Windows System section heading.

Select Command Prompt. You can now execute whatever command you needed to run.

See our List of Windows 8 Command Prompt Commands for a complete list of the commands available through Command Prompt in Windows 8, including short descriptions and links to more in-depth information if we have it.

Open Command Prompt in Windows 7, Vista, or XP

Open the Start menu from the bottom-left corner of the screen.

In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, it’s a bit faster to enter command in the search box at the bottom of the Start menu and then choose Command Prompt when it appears in the results.

Go to All Programs > Accessories.

Choose Command Prompt from the list of programs.

Here’s our List of Windows 7 Commands and List of Windows XP Commands if you need a command reference for any of those versions of Windows.

Other Ways to Open Command Prompt

Command Prompt in Windows XP through Windows 10 can also be opened with a command. This is especially helpful if you like using the Run dialog box or if Windows Explorer has crashed and the Start menu is inaccessible (and thus the directions above don’t work).

To do this, enter cmd into the command-line interface. This can be in the Run dialog box (WIN+R) or Task Manager’s File > Run new task menu.

Elevated Command Prompts and Old Windows Versions

In versions of Windows released before Windows XP, like Windows 98 and Windows 95, Command Prompt doesn’t exist. However, the older and very similar MS-DOS Prompt does. This program is located in the Start menu and can be opened with the command run command.

Some commands, like the sfc command that’s used to repair Windows files, require that Command Prompt be opened as an administrator before they can be executed. You’ll know if this is the case if you get a message like one of these after trying to execute the command:

• check that you have administrative rights
• . command can only be executed from an elevated command prompt
• you must be an administrator

See How to Open an Elevated Command Prompt for help starting Command Prompt as an administrator, a process that’s a bit more complicated than what’s outlined above.

Command Prompt: What It Is and How to Use It

Command Prompt is available in most Windows operating systems

Command Prompt is a command line interpreter application available in most Windows operating systems. It’s used to execute entered commands. Most of those commands automate tasks via scripts and batch files, perform advanced administrative functions, and troubleshoot or solve certain kinds of Windows issues.

Command Prompt is officially called Windows Command Processor, but it’s also sometimes referred to as ​the command shell or cmd prompt, or even by its filename, cmd.exe.

Command Prompt is sometimes incorrectly referred to as «the DOS prompt» or as MS-DOS itself. Command Prompt is a Windows program that emulates many of the command line abilities available in MS-DOS, but it’s not MS-DOS.

Cmd is also an abbreviation for many other technology terms like centralized message distribution, color monitor display, and common management database, but none of them have anything to do with Command Prompt.

How to Access Command Prompt

There are several ways to open Command Prompt, but the «normal» method is via the Command Prompt shortcut located in the Start menu or on the Apps screen, depending on your version of Windows.

The shortcut is faster for most people, but another way to access Command Prompt is via the cmd Run command. You can also open cmd.exe from its original location:

Yet another method for opening Command Prompt in some versions of Windows is through the Power User Menu. However, you might see PowerShell there instead of Command Prompt depending on how your computer is set up.

Many commands can only be executed if you’re running the Command Prompt as an administrator.

How to Use Command Prompt

To use Command Prompt, you enter a valid Command Prompt command along with any optional parameters. Command Prompt then executes the command as entered and performs the task or function it’s designed to perform in Windows.

For example, executing the following Command Prompt command in your Downloads folder would remove all MP3s from that folder:

Commands must be entered into Command Prompt exactly. The wrong syntax or a misspelling could cause the command to fail or worse; it could execute the wrong command or the right command in the wrong way. A comfort level with reading command syntax is recommended.

For example, executing the dir command will show a list of files and folders that exist at any specific location on the computer, but it doesn’t actually do anything. However, change just a couple letters and it turns into the del command, which is how you delete files from Command Prompt!

Syntax is so important that with some commands, especially the delete command, adding even a single space can mean deleting entirely different data.

Here’s an example where the space in the command breaks the line into two sections, essentially creating two commands where the files in the root folder (files) are deleted instead of the files in the subfolder (music):

The proper way to execute that command so as to remove files from the music folder instead is to remove the space so that the whole command is strung together correctly.

Don’t let this scare you away from using Command Prompt commands, but definitely let it make you cautious.

Command Prompt Commands

A large number of commands exist in Command Prompt, but their availability differs from operating system to operating system. You can view which Command Prompt commands are compatible with a specific operating system here:

Following those command lists will prove that there are lots and lots of commands you can use in Command Prompt, but not all of them are used as often as others.

Here are some of the more commonly used Command Prompt commands that are utilized in a variety of circumstances: chkdsk, copy, ftp, del, format, ping, attrib, net, dir, help, and shutdown.

Command Prompt Availability

Command Prompt is available on every Windows NT-based operating system which includes Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000, as well as Windows Server 2012, 2008, and 2003.

Windows PowerShell, an advanced command line interpreter available in recent Windows versions, supplements the command executing abilities available in Command Prompt. Windows PowerShell may eventually replace the Command Prompt in a future version of Windows.

Windows Terminal is another Microsoft-approved way of using Command Prompt and PowerShell within the same tool.