Make CMD Useful

Cmd is the command line processor in Windows. This post will describe a few of the absolutely required things you need to do to make cmd a useful tool.

Step #1: Stop using cmd and use Powershell.

I'm only half joking. Powershell is much more powerful and useful, so if you can use it, you really really should.

But if you can't or can't always use Powershell, here's the short list on how to make cmd useful:

1. Use auto-completion (the Tab key)
2. Use macros
3. Setup colors
   

Auto-completion
Auto-completion is on by default. For example, go to C: and type "cd Win<Tab>". Cmd will automatically complete your thought and replace Win with WINDOWS. If that's not what you wanted, hit Tab again and it will go to the next likely match.

Macros
Macros are like abbrievations. They allow you to create a shorter name for something. For example, suppose you are looking for a certain file but you can't remember exactly where you put it on your file system. You'll be moving from one directory to another. Every time you arrive in a new directory you'll want to see if the file you're looking for is there. The command dir shows you that. But dir gives you a list with file names in one column and all kinds of information you don't care about in the other columns. That's not a very efficient use of space when all you care about is the file names.

What you really want to see is just the names, laid out in a many columned format. dir /w will do that. But you want it to pause after each page to give you a chance to read. dir /w /p does that. Finally, you want it to sort alphabetically with folders on top, then files. dir /w /p /O:GN does that.

Clearly, dir /w /p /O:GN is way too much to type over and over again as you navigate around. What we need is a macro so we can shorten that up. I use the name dw for my macro.

So how do we create macros? We use a program in cmd called doskey. First, create a text file and call it "doskeyMacros.cmd." In this file define all your macros, one per line. For example:

dw=dir /O:GN /w /p $*

Now, in cmd type:

doskey /macrofile="doskeyMacros.cmd"

This will load in all your macros. So you can now type dw instead of dir /w /p /O:GN.

There is still a problem. Who wants to execute that doskey command everytime they open cmd? We need that to happen automatically. To do this we will have to edit the registry. But first, create a text file called "cmdAutoRun.cmd" and type this in it:

@echo off
doskey /macrofile="C:\full\path\to\your\doskeyMacros.cmd"

Now we edit the registry. Start->Run->regedit.exe. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor and in the AutoRun key (create it if it's missing) type the full path to your cmdAutoRun.cmd file enclosed in quotes.

Close and reopen cmd and your macros will be loaded.

Setup Colors
If you like the white on black you're done! I like the powershell look, so I change my colors in cmd. Right click on the window header and click "defaults" then switch to the "Colors" tab.

I set Screen Text to r:238, g:237, b:240 and Screen Background to r:1, g:36, b:86

And there you go! Cmd is now a bit more useful than it was before. Enjoy.