Windows commands

All supported versions of Windows (server and client) have a set of Win32 console commands built in.

This set of documentation describes the Windows Commands you can use to automate tasks by using scripts or scripting tools.

Prerequisites

The information that is contained in this topic applies to:

• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel)
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows 10
• Windows 8.1

Command shell overview

The Command shell was the first shell built into Windows to automate routine tasks, like user account management or nightly backups, with batch (.bat) files. With Windows Script Host you could run more sophisticated scripts in the Command shell. For more information, see cscript or wscript. You can perform operations more efficiently by using scripts than you can by using the user interface. Scripts accept all Commands that are available at the command line.

Windows has two command shells: The Command shell and PowerShell. Each shell is a software program that provides direct communication between you and the operating system or application, providing an environment to automate IT operations.

PowerShell was designed to extend the capabilities of the Command shell to run PowerShell commands called cmdlets. Cmdlets are similar to Windows Commands but provide a more extensible scripting language. You can run Windows Commands and PowerShell cmdlets in Powershell, but the Command shell can only run Windows Commands and not PowerShell cmdlets.

For the most robust, up-to-date Windows automation, we recommend using PowerShell instead of Windows Commands or Windows Script Host for Windows automation.

You can also download and install PowerShell Core, the open source version of PowerShell.

Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making the following changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer.

To enable or disable file and directory name completion in the Command shell on a computer or user logon session, run regedit.exe and set the following reg_DWOrd value:

To set the reg_DWOrd value, use the hexadecimal value of a control character for a particular function (for example, 0 9 is Tab and 0 08 is Backspace). User-specified settings take precedence over computer settings, and command-line options take precedence over registry settings.

Command-line reference A-Z

To find information about a specific command, in the following A-Z menu, click the letter that the command starts with, and then click the command name.

List files with path using Windows command line

My folder structure in a drive is like this (in Windows):

This arrangement continues for 100s of folders. Inside Fd1 of each Folder x there are certain .bat files. I am looking for a way to extract a list of .bat files with entire path using Windows command line to a text file. With little experience of using command prompt I am clueless of how this can be achieved.

I want the output to be a list like this:

Can someone help me?

2 Answers 2

If I understand what you are looking for try

If that works then redirect it into a text file.

You may also find it useful to have a list of command line switches for the DIR command.

I’d suggest using the FOR command with the /R switch.

For example, to find all files in and under the current directory, use:

To start searching from an arbitrary directory, use this form of the command:

And lastly, to look for all batch files under the c:\bin directory, you could do this:

One point I should make, however, is that if you are using this command in a batch file, you will need to double the % signs, so these examples will become:

The use of i as the variable here is completely arbitary, and was first implanted in me in my FORTRAN days.