When a Windows batch file is launched via a shortcut (from the Start Menu, for example), its window will typically receive the title of the shortcut.
Is it possible for the batch file to determine the name of its own window?
This question is related to Can a Windows batch file determine its own file name?, but that question asks if the batch file can determine its own filename. I am asking if a batch file can determine its own window name.
StackOverflow user QcFe lent a kind hand by finding this QA on Superuser: https://superuser.com/questions/1155853/how-to-get-the-window-title-text-from-batch-file
The short answer is that Windows provides no simple and direct way for batch files to accomplish this task.
Windows provides the internal title command to set the window title, but no way to retrieve it. (Which is disappointing, because it would be such a simple addition to the title command.)
The functionality can be attained using PowerShell or possibly tasklist, but for the latter, there are issues that need to be addressed if there are more than one command shell window open.
I elected to force the window to have a unique name using the Title command. That way I could reference it correctly for tools that need to know the window title, such as NirSoft's excellent nircmd utility.
Does anyone know if there is any command line args that i could pass to the windows magnifier (magnify.exe) so it would open using the Lens view.
Or maybe some other way, I tried opening and sending a keyboard input using the shortcut to change the view, but often it blinks before changing the view! =/
I just had the need to do the same thing, and wound up here trying to find a solution. It's ridiculous to think that they wouldn't have a command line switch to set the views, so I started just trying some. And behold! I scored:
Magnify.exe /lens (defaults to lens view)
Magnify.exe /fullscreen (defaults to fullscreen view)
Magnify.exe /docked (defaults to docked view)
Good luck!
Magnify.exe /? on the command line does not expose any sort of help for the executable. And a search online does not seem to provide evidence of any command line arguments. Leads me to conclude that magnify.exe does not take command line arguments.
I recommend reading this article on sending keystrokes to another application. His demo app worked for me to send keyboard shortcuts to magnify.exe. His source code is available as well so you can integrate into your application.
you could try something with autoit, its a scripting language similar to basic that is really well suited for automating tasks
Along those lines this autoit script might be helpful - it lists some msdn doco and if you know
autoit a script.
Maginifier UDF
I am using a work-around.
I created a Windows-8-style batch file that has a command "magnify /on".
I'm not sure if the "/on" part is necessary.
The program that I am trying to magnify,
(which is an old DOS program that runs in a DOS-Box),
launches with the magnify window conveniently available for me to change the magnification setting.
I tried to include a command after closing, "magnify /off", but it does not work;
therefore the magnifier window box has to be clicked to change the magnification back to normal.
This is a great case for the UNIX "strings" utility, of which there is a Sysinternals version here
It takes some digging and testing, but I found these options:
wait (doesn't magnify until you hit a key)
noutilman
hardwarebuttonlaunch
fullscreen
lens
docked
hilight
globalhotkey
I have to update a Win32 application in order to handle the drag-and-drop of files over the icon of the executable.
I am not sure about how to proceed. A few researches led me to considering the "WM_DROPFILES" message, but MSDN syas it is "Sent when the user drops a file on the window", while I don't want to open a window.
Think of a command line tool "MyProgram.exe" : if I drag "MyFile.file" on the windows icon "MyProgram" in the desktop, I would like it to execute the same way as it would do when typing ">MyProgram MyFile.file" in the command prompt.
Any idea how to achieve this result ?
While it is true that apps get this for free by parsing the command line, there is a shell interface called IDropTarget you can implement if you need more control. See MSDN and this blog entry for more details.
Windows does this for you automatically. Any program foo.exe accepts drags of any file.
Martyn
I have situation like below.
I'm running some command and then I get a popup with Y/N answer. Is there a possibility to force answer Yes and automatically close the window through command line?
If you want to click a button in an external window, you'll need to hook the window with the button exposed. You can accomplish this by grabbing the window handle via FindWindow, finding the child button, and sending a BM_CLICK with an API call via SendMessage.
you mean a command window within VS ? I don't think there's anything generic, you could run all sorts of things, depends on what your command is - and how much control over it you have - maybe some example of what you're trying to do could help. 'picking' the window will work but depends again on what you're doing, how custom it is etc.
Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 9 years ago.
Improve this question
Is there a better windows command line shell other than cmd which has better copy paste between Windows' windows and console windows?
Enable QuickEdit mode, under the Options tab of your shortcut to the command shell. Mark with the mouse, right-click to copy, right-click again to paste.
While you're there, enable a hotkey (like CTRL + ALT + C) for lightning fast access to the shell.
And no, you can't have CTRL + C for COPY, because CTRL + C means BREAK.
On a related note, the Microsoftee who changed the default setting of QuickEdit mode between Windows Server 2000 and 2003 is an idiot and I heap curses upon him each workday.
Windows PowerShell is the obvious choice when it comes to "better windows command line shell other than cmd". Its clipboard handling isn't that much of an improvement - mark with the mouse, Enter to copy, or right mouse click to paste.
This probably is not exactly what you want, but you can take a look at Console2
I have it configured so that shift+select auto copies and middle click pastes, really handy, internally it uses same old cmd.exe so you are not really getting a different shell.
By the way, I guess Ctrl+C = copy is not the best idea in a command line context because it usually means interrupt running process.
Take Command does support Copy/Cut/Paste from the keyboard and the mouse. It's pretty handy if you do a lot of work from a command prompt. It also supports:
Command and folder history, with popup windows to select prior commands or folders.
Screen scroll back buffer
Enhanced batch commands
Built in FTP/HTTP file access
A toolbar with programmable buttons
Note: It's a paid tool, with price of $99.95.
Depending on what you're trying to do with the shell, rxvt in cygwin is good.
You'll get the nicety of auto copy on selection and middle click paste. The biggest downside is that some windows console apps don't play nice with cygwin.
PowerCmd is cheaper than TakeCommand and has a lot of powerful features - not the least of which is better handling of Cut/Copy/Paste. I've only been using it a short time but I'm really impressed so far:
Summary from the site:
PowerCmd enhances your command prompt
with an easy-to-use Windows GUI-style
interface and allows you to run
multiple consoles within a single
tabbed window. You can easily organize
multiple consoles in vertical,
horizontal, and grid forms. Auto-log,
auto-completion, keywords highlight,
configurable font and colors,
customizable toolbar for frequently
used commands or tools and minimizing
to tray are easy solutions to daily
needs. With PowerCmd, you can save and
restore your sessions from last time.
Site:
http://www.powercmd.com/
Features:
http://www.powercmd.com/features.php
Not sure what specifically you mean by better copy/paste but try Take Command.
Take Command supports Shift+Ins for paste and Shift+Del for cut, but apparently nothing for copy, will dig some more.
There are two portion to cmd.exe. First there is the window that pops up for dealing with the text console. I would replace that with ConEmu. That program is actually meant as a wrapper for the Far File manager but works just fine without it. It is very similar to Console2 but also is much more stable and has better features.
Second there is the command line interpreter. I would replace that with Powershell if you actually need any of its features.
I currently run using ConEmu with a batch file to setup my preferred environment. This is kept in my Dropbox folder so it remains synchronized between my computers.
Have you thought through what behavior you want to replace the current Ctrl+C functionality?
Console 2
http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Console2ABetterWindowsCommandPrompt.aspx
#Chirs
I think you need to clarify shell vs host(emulator). To me it sounds like you need another interface to your existing shell that better supports copy and paste, not another shell that supports more/different features.
I second Pat's suggestion of Console2, it is a very good application and OSS to boot.
The Windows cmd shell, Cygwin Bash, and msysgit Bash shells can be run within Emacs. EmacsW32 provides all three separately. You just have to set the bin directory to use either of the Bash shells. EmacsW32 also provides limited interactions between the Windows clipboard and the top item of the kill ring.
MinGW Shell properly set up with:
right click menu entry
~/.profile file
is well above anything else I have tried.
MinTTY on MinGW/MSYS is nice—nicer than on Cygwin because MinGW/MSYS is faster. Also, if you need cmd.exe behaviour, you can run cmd.exe inside of mintty easily.
See http://code.google.com/p/mintty/.
I use the standard CMD.EXE shell but with a twist: an AutoHotKey script to support clipboard copy-paste as posted in: Keyboard shortcut to paste clipboard content into command prompt window (Win XP)