Devenv command-line switches

Devenv lets you set various options for the IDE, build projects, debug projects, and deploy projects from the command line. Use these switches to run the IDE from a script or a .bat file (such as a nightly build script), or to start the IDE in a particular configuration.

For build-related tasks, it’s recommended that you use MSBuild instead of devenv. For more information, see MSBuild command-line reference.

For information about switches that are related to VSPackage development, also see Devenv command-line switches for VSPackage development.

Devenv switch syntax

Commands that begin with devenv are handled by the devenv.com utility, which delivers output through standard system streams, such as stdout and stderr . The utility determines the appropriate I/O redirection when it captures output, for example to a .txt file.

Alternatively, commands that begin with devenv.exe can use the same switches, but the devenv.com utility is bypassed. Using devenv.exe directly prevents output from appearing on the console.

The syntax rules for devenv switches resemble the rules for other DOS command-line utilities. The following syntax rules apply to all devenv switches and their arguments:

Commands begin with devenv .

Switches aren’t case-sensitive.

You can specify a switch by using a hyphen («-«) or a forward slash («/»).

When specifying a solution or project, the first argument is the name of the solution file or project file, including file path.

If the first argument is a file that’s not a solution or project, that file opens in the appropriate editor, in a new instance of the IDE.

When you supply a project file name instead of a solution file name, a devenv command searches the parent folder of the project file for a solution file that has the same name. For example, the command devenv myproject1.vbproj /build searches the parent folder for a solution file that’s named myproject1.sln .

One and only one solution file that references this project should be located in its parent folder. If the parent folder contains no solution file that references this project, or if the parent folder contains two or more solution files that reference it, then a temporary solution file is created.

When file paths and file names include spaces, you must enclose them in quotation marks («»). For example, «c:\project a\» .

Insert one space character between switches and arguments on the same line. For example, the command devenv /log output.txt opens the IDE and outputs all log information for that session to output.txt.

You can’t use pattern-matching syntax in devenv commands.

Devenv switches

The following command-line switches display the IDE and do the described task.

Command line switch	Description
/Command	Starts the IDE and executes the specified command. devenv /command «nav https://docs.microsoft.com/»
/DebugExe	Loads a C++ executable under the control of the debugger. This switch isn’t available for Visual Basic or C# executables. For more information, see Automatically start a process in the debugger. devenv /debugexe mysln.exe
/Diff	Compares two files. Takes four parameters: SourceFile, TargetFile, SourceDisplayName (optional), and TargetDisplayName (optional). devenv /diff File1 File2 Alias1 Alias2
/DoNotLoadProjects	Opens the specified solution without loading any projects. devenv /donotloadprojects mysln.sln
/Edit	Opens the specified files in a running instance of this application. If there are no running instances, it starts a new instance with a simplified window layout. devenv /edit File1 File2
/LCID or /L	Sets the default language for the IDE. If the specified language isn’t included in your installation of Visual Studio, this setting is ignored. devenv /l 1033
/Log	Starts Visual Studio and logs all activity to the log file. devenv /log mylogfile.xml
/NoSplash	Opens the IDE without showing the splash screen. devenv /nosplash File1 File2
/ResetSettings	Restores Visual Studio default settings. Optionally resets the settings to the specified .vssettings file. devenv /resetsettings mysettings.vssettings
/Run or /R	Compiles and runs the specified solution. devenv /run mysln.sln
/RunExit	Compiles and runs the specified solution, minimizes the IDE when the solution is run, and closes the IDE after the solution has finished running. devenv /runexit mysln.sln
/SafeMode	Starts Visual Studio in safe mode. This switch loads only the default environment, the default services, and the shipped versions of third-party packages. This switch takes no arguments.
/UseEnv	Causes the IDE to use PATH, INCLUDE, LIBPATH, and LIB environment variables for C++ compilation. This switch is installed with the Desktop development with C++ workload. For more information, see Setting the Path and Environment Variables for Command-Line Builds.

The following command-line switches don’t display the IDE.

Windows Command Line : START Command Switch /I meaning?

From ss64.com: /I : Ignore any changes to the current environment.

What does that mean? If you could give examples of usage and what it effects or doesn’t effect, that would be great (none provided on website and have google searched with no luck).

3 Answers 3

If you modified the current environment by defining a variable;

App.exe would see %foo% as being «bar»

App.exe would see %foo% as being undefined.

/I means that The new environment will be the original environment passed to the cmd.exe and not the current environment. Any changes made to the environment variables, paths, will not reflect in the current START instance.

It Passes the Cmd.exe startup environment to the new Command Prompt window, and nothing else.

From running start /? on my W7 box:

The new environment will be the original environment passed to the cmd.exe and not the current environment.

So the environment variables given are the ones given to the instances of cmd that start is invoked from, rather than the current environment stored on the system.

Now if I were to invoke a batch file which ran echo %lol% , but using the /I switch for start — %lol would not be defined, because I have changed the original environment settings passed to my original cmd.exe .

Why would you use it? Well say you needed to change %PATH% temporarily but then invoke a script that perhaps relied on the original version. start /I would be ideal here because no matter what you set it to, the environment passed to the cmd started by start will be whatever it was before you started your first instance of cmd .

How to use a Command Line switch on Windows 10

May 26, 2020
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An app instance can be modified when it is run with a command-line switch. The switch tells the app to run in a particular state or to disable a certain feature when it runs. The change isn’t permanent and only subject to that one instance when the app is run.

Command-line switch

A command-line switch is basically an argument that is sent to an app or script. The app doesn’t necessarily have to be a command-line app. GUI desktop apps like Chrome can also be used with command-line switches. In fact, browsers are one of the most common desktop apps to be used with them.

In order to run an app with a command-line switch, the app itself must support them. You cannot invent a switch or use one from a different app. It is strictly subject to what an app does and does not support.

There are two ways to use a command-line switch on Windows 10.

Use Command-line switch – Command Prompt

To use a command-line switch from the Command Prompt, you need to first find the switch that you will use. For this, we’re going to use Chrome as an example.

1. Open Command Prompt.
2. Use the cd command to move to the folder with the EXE or shortcut to the app you want to run with a switch

1. Use the following syntax to open the app with the switch.

or for a shortcut to an app;

Example

Use Command-line switch – Shortcut

An app’s shortcut can be modified so that when it is used to open the app, it runs with a command-line argument. Again, we’re using Chrome for our example.

1. Create a shortcut to the app you want to run with a Command-line switch. You can drag & drop it onto the desktop from the Apps list in the Start menu or right-click it and select the desktop option from the context menu.
2. Once you have a shortcut, right-click it and select Properties.
3. Go to the Shortcut tab and click inside the Target field.
4. At the very end of the path in the Target field, add one space.
5. Add two dashes, and enter the switch (see example below)

1. Click Apply and close the Properties window.
2. Use the shortcut to open the app, and it will run with the command-line switch you added.

Conclusion

A command-line switch is a convenient way to change the behavior of an app without making it permanent. The switch only modifies the app’s instance for the one time it is used to run it. If you use the shortcut method instead of the Command Prompt method, you will always have a quick way to run the app with a switch without having to type it out each time.

Command-line switches for Microsoft Office products

When you launch a Microsoft Office product, the startup process runs in a standard way. Microsoft Word, for example, displays the Word splash screen and loads the Normal template. But suppose you want Word to start without its splash screen and then load a template other than the Normal template. Or, you want to customize the process even more by loading an add-in or running a macro upon startup. You can add options like this by using subcommands called command-line switches to an Office app’s startup command.

If you want to use the customization just one time, you can type the command and switch in the Run dialog box (Start menu) in Microsoft Windows. If you want to use a particular switch many times or every time that you start the app, you can create a desktop shortcut that starts the program by using the same switch and parameters. This article describes how to do both. It also includes a table that lists all of the switches and parameters that are available in the desktop Office apps.

Using a command-line switch doesn’t mean you have to type the whole startup command at the command prompt. You can start the Office app as usual, by clicking the program icon on the desktop, or by clicking the program name on the Start menu. All startup methods essentially do the same thing: they run the app’s .exe file, even if you don’t actually type the command or even see it.

A command-line switch is a modifier that is added to the .exe file. A startup file with a switch looks like this.

In this example, a command-line switch has been added to the .exe file for Microsoft Outlook. The switch consists of a forward slash and a word or abbreviation that indicates the switch’s action. This switch tells Outlook to launch without showing the Reading Pane.

A switch is sometimes followed by one or more specific instructions called parameters, which give the program further information about how to run the .exe command. For example, the following command tells Outlook to load a specific profile name upon startup.

Switch names cannot be abbreviated and are not case-sensitive. However, their parameters are sometimes case-sensitive.

Here are the names of the startup commands for the Office products Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PowerPoint viewer, Outlook, and Access.

How to use the Windows command line (DOS)

This page covers the basics of navigating and using the Microsoft Windows command line. On this page, you learn how to move around in the command line, find files, manipulate files, and other important commands. Keep in mind that there are over 100 different commands used in MS-DOS and the Windows command line. If you are interested in learning about the command line in more detail, see our DOS and command prompt overview, which gives a description and example for every command.

Get into the Windows command line

Open a Windows command line window by following the steps below. If you need additional information or alternative methods for all versions of Windows, see: How to get to an MS-DOS prompt or Windows command line.

1. Click Start.
2. In the Search or Run line, type cmd (short for command), and press Enter .

Understanding the prompt

After following the steps above, the Windows command line should be shown (similar to the example below). Windows often starts you at your user directory. In the example below, the user is Mrhope. So, C:\Users\Mrhope> is our prompt. This prompt shows that we’re in the C: drive (default hard drive letter) and currently in the Mrhope directory, a subdirectory of the Users directory.

Key tips

• MS-DOS and the Windows command line are notcase sensitive.
• The files and directories shown in Windows are also found in the command line.
• When working with a file or directory with a space, surround it in quotes. For example, the directory My Documents would be «My Documents» when typed.
• File names can have a long file name of 255 characters and a three character file extension.
• When a file or directory is deleted in the command line, it is not moved into the Recycle Bin.
• If you need help with any of command, type /? after the command. For example, dir /? would give the options available for the dir command.

Listing the files

Let’s learn your first command. Type dir at the prompt to list files in the current directory. You should get an output similar to the example image below. Without using any dir options, this is how dir output appears. As shown, you are given lots of useful information including the creation date and time, directories ( ), and the name of the directory or file. In the example below, there are 0 files listed and 14 directories, indicated by the status message at the bottom of the output.

Every command in the command line has options, which are additional switches and commands that can be added after the command. For example, with the dir command, you can type dir /p to list the files and directories in the current directory one page at a time. This switch is useful to see all the files and directories in a directory with dozens or hundreds of files. Each of the command options and switches is listed in our DOS command overview. We offer guides for individual commands, as well. For example, if you want to see all the options for the dir command, refer to our dir command overview for a complete option listing.

The dir command can also be used to search for specific files and directories using wildcards. For example, to list files or directories that begin with the letter «A» you could type dir a* to list only the AppData directory, in this above example. See the wildcard definition for other examples and help with using wildcards.

Moving into a directory

Now that we’ve seen a list of directories (shown below) in the current directory, move into one of those directories. To move into a directory, we use the cd command, so to move into the Desktop type cd desktop and press Enter . Once you’ve moved into a new directory, the prompt changes. So, in our example, the prompt is now C:\Users\Mrhope\Desktop>. You can see what files are found in this directory by typing the dir command again.

Understand the files

In the Desktop directory, as shown in the above example, there are 23 files and 7 directories, representing different file types. In Windows, you are familiar with files having icons that help represent the file type. In the command line, the same thing is accomplished by the file extensions. For example, «forum posts.txt» is a text file because it has a .txt file extension. Time.mp3 is an MP3 music file and minecraft.exe is an executable file.

Most users are only concerned with executable files, which as mentioned above, are files ending with .exe, .com, and .bat. When the file name is typed in the command line, the program runs, which is the same as double-clicking a file in Windows. For example, if we wanted to run minecraft.exe, typing minecraft at the prompt runs that program.

Keep in mind that if the executable file you are trying to run is not in the current directory, you get an error. Unless you have set a path for the directory with the executable file, which is how the command line finds external commands.

If you want to view the contents of a file, most versions of the command line use the edit command. For example, if we wanted to look at the log file hijackthis.log, we would type edit hijackthis.log at the prompt. For 64-bit versions of Windows that do not support this command, you can use the start command (e.g., type start notepad hijackthis.log) to open the file in Notepad. Additional information about opening and editing a file from the command line is available on the page linked below.

Moving back a directory

You learned earlier the cd command can move into a directory. This command also allows you to go back a directory by typing cd.. at the prompt. When this command is typed, you’ll be moved out of the Desktop directory and back into the user directory. To move back to the root directory type cd\ to get to the C:\> prompt. If you know the name of the directory you want to move into, you can also type cd\ and the directory name. For example, to move into C:\Windows>, type cd\windows at the prompt.

Creating a directory

Now with your basic understanding of navigating the command line, let’s start creating new directories. To create a directory in the current directory, use the mkdir command. For example, create a directory called «test» by typing mkdir test at the prompt. If created successfully, you are returned to the prompt with no error message. After the directory is created, move into that directory with the cd command.

Switching drives

In some circumstances, you may want to copy or list files on another drive. To switch drives in the Windows command line, type the drive letter of the drive followed by a colon. For example, if your CD-ROM drive is the D drive, you would type d: and press Enter . If the drive exists, the prompt changes to that drive letter. If the drive does not exist or is not accessible (e.g., no disc in CD-ROM drive), you get an error.

Creating a new file

You can create a new file from the command line using the edit command, copy con command, or using the start command to open a file.

Creating a new batch file

In the new test directory, let’s create your first file. In most circumstances, you never need to create any file at the command line, but it is still good to understand how files are created. In this example, we are creating a batch file. A batch file is a file that ends with .bat and helps automate frequently used commands in the command line. We are calling this batch file example, so type edit example.bat at the prompt. As mentioned in the document on creating a file, if the edit command does not work, use the start command to open the batch file in Notepad. To perform this action, you type start notepad example.bat into the prompt.

Both of the commands above open a new blank example.bat window. In the file, type the three lines below, which clear the screen with the cls command and run the dir command.

After these three lines are typed into the file, save, and exit the file. If you are in the edit command, click File (or press Alt + F ) and then Save. After the file is saved and you are back at the command prompt, typing dir displays the «example.bat» file in the test directory.

Now, run the batch file to get a better understanding of what a batch file does. To run the batch file, type example at the prompt, which executes the batch file, clears the screen, and runs the dir command.

Moving and copying a file

Now that we’ve created a file, let’s move it into an alternate directory. To help make things easier, create another directory for the files. So, type mkdir dir2 to create a new directory in the test directory called dir2. After the new directory is created, use the move command to move the example.bat file into that directory. To do this, type move example.bat dir2 at the prompt. If done successfully, you get a message indicating the file was moved. You could also substitute the move command for the copy command to copy the file instead of moving it.

Rename a file

After the file is moved into the dir2 directory, move into that directory with the cd command to rename the file. In the dir2 directory, use the rename command to rename the example file into an alternate name. Type rename example.bat first.bat at the prompt to rename the file to «first.bat.» Now, when using the dir command, you see «first.bat» as the only file.

When renaming any file, make sure the file has the same file extension. If you were to rename the .bat file to a .txt file, it is no longer an executable file only a text file. Also, keep in mind that renaming the file to a different file extension does not convert the file. For example, if you renamed the file as an .MP3, it may look like an MP3 in Windows, but it’s not going to play music.

Deleting a file

Now that we’ve had our fun with our new file, delete the file with the del command. Type del first.bat to delete the first.bat file. If successful, you are returned to the prompt with no errors, and the dir command shows no files in the current directory.

When deleting files, you can also use wildcards to delete multiple files at once. For example, if the directory contained several .GIF image files you could type del *.gif to delete all files ending with the .gif file extension.

Renaming a directory

Go back one directory to get back to the test directory using the cd.. command mentioned earlier. Now, rename our dir2 directory to something else using the same rename command we used earlier. At the prompt, type rename dir2 hope to rename the directory to «hope.» After this command is completed, type dir and you see one directory called «hope.»

Removing a directory

While still in the test directory, remove the hope directory using the rmdir command. At the prompt, type rmdir hope to remove the hope directory.

If the directory you are trying to remove contains any files or directories, you’ll receive an error. To prevent this error, use the /s option. For example, if the hope directory still had the first.bat file, you would need to type rmdir /s hope at the prompt.

Running a program

Any executable file can run from the command line by typing the name of the file. For example, if you listed files using the dir command and see a file named «myfile.exe,» typing «myfile» at the command line runs that program.

How to list available commands

After getting a good understanding of using the command line from the steps shown above, you can move on to other available commands by typing help at the command line. Typing «help» displays a list of available commands with a brief description of each command.

Closing or exiting the command line window

After you are done with the Windows command line, you can type exit to close the window.

In conclusion

Now you have a good understanding of how to navigate the command line, create directories and files, rename directories and files, and delete. As mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of other commands you can use at the command line. If you want to expand your knowledge further, we recommend looking at the options available for each command above and reviewing our commands overview page. You can also use our search to find any command by the name of the command or by the action it performs.