EDIT
If you want to perform any task at computer startup or based on an
event this is very helpful
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/how-to-schedule-computer-to-shut-down-at-a-certain/800ed207-f630-480d-8c92-dff2313c193b
Back to the question
I have two questions:
I want some specific commands to be executed when I start command prompt.
e.g. cls to clear my command prompt.
I want to execute some commands in a batch file and wait for the user to enter new commands (if any).
e.g. A batch file which will take the user to some specified folder and then wait for the user to rename/delete a file from the command prompt.
How can I do it?
If you want a defined set of commands to run every time you start a command prompt, the best way to achieve that would be to specify an init script in the AutoRun registry value. Create it like this (an expandable string value allows you to use environment variables like %USERPROFILE%):
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v AutoRun ^
/t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%"USERPROFILE"%\init.cmd" /f
Then create a file init.cmd in your profile folder:
#echo off
command_A
command_B
...
cls
To remove these changes, delete the registry key:
reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v AutoRun
Make a shortcut
Go to the properties
The bit where it says: C:\Users\<Your username>\Desktop\cmd.exe, you put: -cmd /K <your command here>
e.g.
C:\Users\Lewis\Desktop\cmd.exe -cmd /K color 1f
This is the way to launch 1 command without having to mess about with the registry.
Run multiple commands
You can also use & (and) operator to execute multiple commands.
Eg.
C:\Users\Lewis\Desktop\cmd.exe -cmd /K color 1f & H: & <your command>
Credits: user6589073
I found my answer: I should use the /K switch, using which I can enter a new command on the opened command prompt.
E.g. cmd /K cls will open a command prompt for me and clear it. (Answer for question 1)
and
cmd /K MyBatchFile.bat will start a command prompt, execute the batch file and stay on the command prompt and will not exit. (Answer for question 2).
First, you need to press Windows Key + R.
In the box that appears, type "regedit" (without the quotes).
The Windows Registry Editor should open.
Now, locate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Command Processor.
Once you have clicked on Command Processor on the left side, click Edit on the top bar.
Then go to New > String Value in the Edit menu.
Rename the String Value that appears to Autorun.
Right click on Autorun and select Modify.
Under the "Value Data" area, type in the commands you want to run. You can run multiple by typing && between them.
Expanding a bit, here is an alternative for Windows 10 where multiple aliases can be defined and applied to the Command Prompt upon execution.
Create a file called init.cmd containing aliases on your %USERPROFILE% folder:
init.cmd
#echo off
doskey c=cls
doskey d=cd %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
doskey e=explorer $*
doskey g=git status
doskey l=dir /a $*
Register it to be applied whenever the Command Prompt is executed:
In the Command Prompt, run:
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v AutoRun /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%"USERPROFILE"%\init.cmd" /f
Done
Now the contents of init.cmd will run for executions of cmd.exe namely from:
Taskbar shortcut
WIN+R cmd
By typing cmd in the File Explorer address bar
By running cmd.exe directly from C:\Windows\System32
After registering these settings just remember to close/open:
The Command Prompt so the settings are applied
The File Explorer, if you use to launch the cmd via File Explorer address bar
To unregister it, run:
reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v AutoRun
I have a command to run a python program. I do not want to run this command manually after login, I want this command should run automatically after I logged in to my ubuntu. I am using Ubuntu 16.04.
Here is the command.
sh demo_darknet_yolov3.sh , this shell is placed in this directory littro#littro-System-Product-Name:~/MobileNet-YOLO-master/MobileNet-YOLO-master
Depending on your script, you may want to use the cmd.exe /k <input script> method instead of the registry entry Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor\autorun
I have found with the latter, that other programs that launch cmd are affected by the registry entry. For example, I cannot get Visual Studio Native Tools prompt to work properly because my script gets in the way. In my case, the script is a menu with 5 options including to launch various programs manually (I like to minimize my auto-run programs) and set various environment variables (ie., printers, proxy settings, default versions of programs, etc).
If you are doing something static I think either method works fine.
I would have commented on the question or an applicable answer, but I do not have the reputation to comment.
Related
Is there anyway to create an alias to cd PATH command in cmd?
For example, instead of typing cd C:\John\Pictures I'd like to type just pictures in cmd and press Enter and it should simply take me to C:\John\Pictures.
Is that possible and how?
Here is an alternative for Windows 10:
1. Create a file called init.cmd and save it to your user folder
C:\Users\YourName\init.cmd
#echo off
doskey c=cls
doskey d=cd %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
doskey e=explorer $*
doskey jp=cd C:\John\Pictures
doskey l=dir /a $*
2. Register it to be applied automatically whenever cmd.exe is executed
In the Command Prompt, run:
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v AutoRun /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%"USERPROFILE"%\init.cmd" /f
3. Restart the Command Prompt
Now close/open the Command Prompt and the aliases will be available.
To unregister, run:
reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v AutoRun
You will need to use the doskey command which creates aliases. For example:
doskey note = "C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe"
note
creates a macro to open Notepad, then calls it. The macro (note in the above example) must be valid (e.g. no spaces are allowed).
You can also use parameters:
doskey note = "C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe" $1
note "C:\Users\....\textfile.txt"
By default, doskey macros are only saved for the current session. You can work around this limitation in two ways:
Save the macros in a text file, then load them each time you need them:
A command like:
doskey /macros > %TEMP%\doskey-macros.txt
Will save all the current macro definitions into a text file.
Then to restore all the macros at a later date:
doskey /macrofile=%TEMP%\doskey-macros.txt
After saving the macros in a text file as shown above, instead of loading them every time, run:
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v Autorun /d "doskey /macrofile=\"%TEMP%\doskey-macros.txt\"" /f
so that the macros are set each time you open the cmd.
See this SuperUser answer for more information.
Note: You cannot use command aliases in a batch file.
I would like to be able to open the windows bash terminal from windows explorer with a context menu. Much like you can do in Ubuntu. I have created a subkey in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Directory/Background/shell with the command:
powershell -c start -verb runas cmd '/c start /D "%V" bash.exe'
This works well for opening the bash as admin in most directories, but it crashes if the directory has a space in it. It seems to be that bash only takes part of the string, and then can't find the directory to navigate to. I've tried escape quotes around the %V, e.g """%V""" but that didn't help. Any ideas?
Here's an alternate approach that avoids PowerShell. Create a key named "HKLM\Software\Classes\Directory\background\shell\runas" and give it a default value like "Open in bash as administrator". Create a subkey named "command" and give it a default value of "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" /c start /B /D "%V" bash.exe. Change the path to cmd.exe if you have a different system directory. It has to be the fully-qualified path to cmd.exe. – eryksun
I am running Windows 7 and when I run cmd.exe I want it to start up
in a directory named C:\foo\bar. I remember being able to create a
link to this executable on the desktop and right clicking somewhere
to set the startup menu of the cmd.exe command prompt by filling
out a field in a transient window, but I cannot find it. I have
found the following argument which however seems more complicated.
I want to set the startup directory for cmd.exe via a popup window.
Changing default startup directory for command prompt in Windows 7
Any ideas?
as mentioned by the other posters already:
the regular approach is to edit the shortcut's properties and fill the field labled "start in". simple as that.
however, for some reason this has no effect on UAC enabled systems if at the same time you also enable the "run as administrator" checkbox in the advanced properties of the shortcut.
a solution is to put everything in the "target" field of the shortcut:
%windir%\System32\cmd.exe /K cd /d "E:\My Folder" & sometest.bat
when running on 64bit and you want to explicitly start the 32bit flavour of the command prompt:
%windir%\SysWOW64\cmd.exe /K cd /d "E:\My Folder" & sometest.bat
for additional information on the command line parameters used above see:
cmd.exe /?
cd.exe /?
When you create a shortcut to cmd.exe, you can open the shortcut properties and find under Shortcut tab the Starts in option that will tell cmd.exe where to start, like here:
Open the properties of a shortcut to cmd and set the directory there:
Try this Shortcut Target:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe cd /d %~dp0
Which will start cmd.exe in the shortcut's folder.
I'm terribly new to scripting on windows. Using windows 7 64.
I'm trying to make a .bat file that I can double click, and have it open a command prompt and automatically cd me to a certain directory.
I tried making a .bat file with
#ECHO OFF
cmd "cd C:\my\destination"
Which opens what looks like a command prompt, but doesn't seem to let me type any commands.
I then tried:
#ECHO OFF
start cmd "cd C:\my\destination"
But this just sent me into a loop opening tons and tons of prompts until my computer crashed :) The .bat file was located in the destination directory if that matters.
This works for me:
#ECHO OFF
cmd.exe /K "cd C:\my\destination && C:"
The quoted string is actually two commands (separated by a double ampersand): The first command is to change to the specified directory, the second command is to change to the specified drive letter.
Put this in a batch (.BAT) file and when you execute it you should see a Command Prompt window at the specified directory.
Use the /K switch:
#ECHO OFF
start cmd.exe /K "cd C:\my\destination"
But IMHO, the most useful switch is /?.
Starts a new instance of the Windows XP command interpreter
CMD [/A | /U] [/Q] [/D] [/E:ON | /E:OFF] [/F:ON | /F:OFF] [/V:ON | /V:OFF]
[[/S] [/C | /K] string]
/C Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
/K Carries out the command specified by string but remains
/S Modifies the treatment of string after /C or /K (see below)
/Q Turns echo off
...
And only if it does not work, then Google it, as #Neeraj suggested :D
This could be done like that:
#ECHO OFF
cd /D "C:\my\destination"
cmd.exe
If you need to execute a file or command after you open the cmd you can just replace the last line with:
cmd.exe /k myCommand
#ECHO OFF
%comspec% /K "cd /D d:\somefolder"
The /D will change folder and drive and works on 2000+ (Not sure about NT4)
If you take a look at Vista's open command here, it uses cmd.exe /s /k pushd \"%V\" but I don't think %V is documented. Using pushd is a good idea if your path is UNC (\\server\share\folder) To get UNC current directory working, you might have to set the DisableUNCCheck registry entry...
Why so complicated? Just create an alias to cmd.exe, right click on the alias and navigate to its settings. Change the "execute in" to the path you want to have as standard path. It will always start in this path.
just open a text editor and type
start cmd.exe
cd C:\desired path
Then save it as a .bat file. Works for me.
You can create a batch file "go-to-folder.bat" with the following statements:
rem changes the current directory
cd "C:\my\destination"
rem changes the drive if necessary
c:
rem runs CMD
cmd
anybody know how to minimize the command prompt when running a batch script in Windows 3.11?
in Windows XP, there have a command
start /min start.bat
to minimize the cmd prompt, is it have similiar command in MSDos 6.22?
This little batch code should do what you need.
http://zoombody.com/articles/run-a-batch-script-minimized
The relevant code then needs to be placed at the top of your script:
if not "%minimized%"=="" goto :minimized
set minimized=true
start /min cmd /C "%~dpnx0"
goto :EOF
:minimized
rem Anything after here will run in a minimized window
Here is more information about "%~dpnx0".
There isn't a command that you can use from a DOS prompt, however you can create a PIF file that points to your batch file, in which you can set the default window position (including minimized).
...I think. It's been a couple of decades.
How to minimize the current command prompt:
Purpose:
Close a command prompt after execution.
Open a new command prompt using the same path.
First open command prompt :
Hold down the [Windows] + [R] keys.
Go to this location:
C:\>cd Users\Admin\Desktop
Next excute:
C:\Users\Admin\Desktop>start /min && exit
Results:
A new minimized command prompt should open with the same path.
Alternatively:
Create a script named minimize.bat and type start /min && exit into the script and place it in your system32 folder. In order to have the ability to access it via the command prompt.
Windows 10 makes it very easy to start minimized. Simply create a shortcut and click properties. On the shortcut tab half way down is the "Run:" option witch lets you select how you want the command line window to start up. Just select minimized and your command window will remain minimized from the onset.
Windows10 properties window of a shortcut
Use WinExec to start your batch file and pass SW_SHOWMINIMIZED for the second parameter.
See also, How do I run a batch file with WinExec?