Windows copy command syntax and examples

Using copy command, we can copy files from one directory to another directory. This command is similar to the Linux cp command, but it does not match with the full functionality of cp. Windows copy command can be used to copy files only, we can’t copy directories.

The syntax and usecases of copy command are explained below with examples.

Copy the contents of a file to another file

Example: To copy a file from c:\data\file1.doc to D:\backup\file2.doc

If the destination file already exists you will be prompted for confirmation. To suppress this confirmation you can use /Y switch with copy command. This would be useful if you are executing copy command from a batch file.

If the destination file exists, the above command will overwrite the same without asking the user for confirmation.

Copy file to another directory

When we specify a directory path as the destination, the files will be copied with the same name. We can assign a different name by specifying the new name in the destination path. Example is shown below.

To copy the file 1.doc loated at c:\data\documents to the directory c:\data\newdocs

Copy files with white space in name

If the file name has white space within it, we can wrap up the name in double quotes.
Example: To copy file, my resume.doc to another folder

Copy multiple files

We can’t specify multiple file names in copy command. However, we can use wildcards to identify a group of files and then copy all of them in a single command.
For example, to copy all excel files from current folder to another folder F:\backup

To copy all files in current folder to another folder

Use of environment variables

We can use environment variables in the copy command to specify the path of the folders. Like USERPROFILE, SystemRoot, ProgramFiles, TEMP, WINDIR, APPDATA, HOMEPATH.

For example, to copy a file to a user’s documents folder

The above command copies the file to the My Documents folder of the current logged in user.

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Windows «copy» is funny. Type «copy 1 2» and the file «1» will be copied into a new file «2». Now separate them by a plus sign instead of a space (copy 1+2) and you’ll concatenate 1 and 2 and replace the old file «1» with the result of the concatenation!

Yes, we can concatenate two or more files using copy command. You need to separate the list of files using +. You can redirect the resultant data to a new file also.

The above command will not alter the file 1. It creates a new file 3 with the concatenated data of 1 & 2. If no file name is provided it stores the result in the first file.

My Win7 cannot find a copy command, and when i run xcopy, a window flashes and exits.

I have the same problem. If you solved it, could you please explain how?

If you can not find your copy.exe file, you can download it to your windows directory or C:\ Directory depending the setting on your OS you should also be able to copy and run it from system32 or system folder.

how can i combine 2 .exe files and be able to use both after concatenation

I want to copy 2 different files(.exe,.config) from source to destination server of windows.
can you please help me on this command.

Hello i have a problem with my cmd windows 7.when i try to copy a command. Like help > file.pdf. i mean in extension pdf because i have this problem only with .pdf extension but not with .txt.So whe i execute the command. No problem. Then when i go to open the file.pdf ftom user destination the file.pdf doesn’t open say that is corrupted.please do help me .thanks

i have a file contain many lines as sources and another file has the same numbre of lines as destinations. i want to copy first line as source( c:/test/*.txt) to first line in destination ( d:/test2/), secend line ( c:/test/*.pdf) to second line in destination ( E:/test3/)……

Can I use the DOS/Windows “COPY” command in a BAT file to copy a file or a short string of text to computer memory and then paste (Ctrl +V) that string or file into a document?

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.

Windows at command examples

At command, as the name indicates, can be used to schedule applications at specified time and date. This is a built-in command in Windows OS and does not require any separate software to be installed on the computer.

First thing you need to know is that At command requires Task Scheduler service to be running on the system. Otherwise you would get an error like below.

Let’s see few examples on how to use At command.

Schedule a task at a particular time

To schedule a task we just need to specify the time and the command for the task we need to run. For example, if you want to shutdown your computer at 11PM today then you can do this by running the below command.

Schedule a Recurrent Task

We can schedule tasks that run recurrently once in a week or once in a month. We can use /every switch for this purpose. Let’s say you want to automatically run defragmentation on one of the drives once in every week. This can be done by running the below command

After running this command system will initiate defragmentation on C: drive at 10 AM on every Monday.

See the tasks scheduled

We can see the list of scheduled tasks just by running At command without any parameters.

Schedule a task on some other day

We can use /next switch to schedule tasks for a different day. For example to run defragmentation on C: drive on next Thursday you can run the below command.

Schedule tasks to run every day

Using /every switch we can schedule a task to be run every day. For example to shutdown your computer automatically every day at 11PM you can create a task using the below command.

Delete Scheduled Tasks

We can delete scheduled tasks from the database by using /delete switch. We need to pass the id of the task we need to delete. We can see the id for each task by running At command without any parameters. For example to delete the task with the id 1 we need to run the below command.

I’m not sure if it’s related to the topic but I’ll ask anyway.
I need to get the exact location of a process name that a scheduled job is executing. I want to use WMIC JOB (if you have any other suggestions.. let me know) to get that, but I don’t know HOW exactly. I’ve tried several variations but no luck so far.
How should I do that?
I thought of direction like-
wmic job where name=”at2″ get command /value
but no luck.
Thanks in advance.

If it’s not the place to ask, tell me where can I ask.

BTW thanks for the article 🙂

I have tried this wmic command. It seems to be showing the jobs that are scheduled using at command. For the ones scheduled using the GUI task scheduler, it’s not showing any data and displays the message ‘No instance(s) available’.

You can try this command to get the command information.

wmic job where jobid=id get command

I have observed that name field is empty for the jobs scheduled using ‘at’. So you better use the job id. Or running ‘wmic job get command’ will show the commands for all the jobs currently running.

Why jobid=2? How can you be sure?
I want to know the command of a specific job that is not nessecerily running RIGHT NOW. I need it to check for every job exists.

wmic job get command shows “No Instance(s) Available”.
Same at “wmic job where jobid=2 get command”.

Thanks.
BTW Is that a new site running?

I have used 2 just as an example, you need to use the id of your job.
if you want to get it for every job, as I mentioned earlier, run the below command.
wmic job get command

Note that you need to run this from elevated administrator command prompt. otherwise you may get ‘no instance(s) available’ message.

How can I know the jobid? Problem is that I can’t know it (or am I wrong?).
The only thing I can know is the job’s name (‘at2’ for example). The WMIC JOB command need to be based on that.

I’ve tried as administrator (although UAC is disabled), same =\

wmic job shows the jobs that are running at that time.
you can get the job list using at command.

Oh.. so you mean I can forget about WMIC for what I need?

I’ve tried typing only ‘at’ command, all I got is “There are no entries in the list”, while I do have one (named at3). Even if I’ll manage to see the list, is there a way to get somehow only the command itself? (the process name)

I’d be glad for some answers 🙂
Thanks.

My previous replies have the answers.
First use at command to get the job id. If at command doesn’t show it, get it from scheduled tasks UI
Then use the below command.
wmic job where jobid=id get command
As mentioned earlier, this command will work only if the scheduled job is running at that time.

Ha! I got it finally.
Somewhy I haven’t pay attention to what you said earlier “It (WMIC command) seems to be showing the jobs that are scheduled using at command”.
Now I can be 100% sure I won’t need it unfortunately.

Thank you! 🙂
I guess I won’t bother you again with dumb questions… 😛

how would you make it run on log in
kinda’ like:
at login /every:M,T,W,TH,F,SA,SU start iexplore.exe (or any .exe/.bat)

I used the AT command on my Windows 7 OS but it is giving me “access denied” error message.

Run it from elevated administrator command prompt.

disable UAC and should work

Is it possible when running the “AT” command, to add a job name? As in – whenever the scheduled task is created, it creates the task with a job name of “At1” or “At2”, etc. Is there a way to specify what the scheduled task might be called?
– Chris

This is very late, but for the benefit of others having the same question, ‘At’ command does not provide a way to tag the command with a specific id. When we schedule a new task, it automatically tags them with ids like’at1′, ‘at2’, ‘at3’ and so.

Unfortunately this command seems to be deprecated in W10, replaced with some ugly schtasks or something, too bad I really liked the syntax of this one,

How to delete AT1 ,at1 ,at3,at4 .. etc… with command line and leave other windows task running

I tried with schtasks /delete /tn * /F then my all windows task got deleted , I want only AT tasks needs to deleted

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.