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Windows Commands

All supported versions of Windows and Windows Server 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.

Command-line shells

Windows has two command-line 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.

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.

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 both 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.

A reference of exit and error codes for Windows Commands can be found in the Debug system error codes articles that may be helpful to understanding errors produced. Windows Commands also include command redirection operators. To learn more of their use, see Using command redirection operators.

Note

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

Command shell file and directory name automatic completion

You can configure the Command shell to automatically complete file and directory names on a computer or user session when a specified control character is pressed. By default this control character is configured to be the tab key for both file and directory names, although they can be different. To change this control character, run regedit.exe and navigate to either of the following registry keys and entries, depending on whether you wish to change the value for the current user only, or for all users of the computer.

Caution

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.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar

Set these values to that of the control character you wish to use. See virtual key codes for a complete list. To disable a particular completion character in the registry, use the value for space (0x20) as it isn't a valid control character. The type of value for this registry entry is REG_DWORD, and can also be specified by hexadecimal or decimal value.

You can also enable or disable file and directory name completion per instance of a Command shell by running cmd.exe with the parameter and switch /F:ON or /F:OFF. If name completion is enabled with the /F:ON parameter and switch, the two control characters used are Ctrl-D for directory name completion and Ctrl-F for file name completion. 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, select the letter that the command starts with, and then select the command name.

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