Command Prompt Start   All Programs   Accessories   Command Prompt gives you a command prompt window that you can use to run character-mode text-only programs or to issue commands. To run a program, you type its name and its path, if needed at the prompt, and then press the Enter key. Command Prompt is especially useful for command-line utilities such as ping and tracert, which you use for checking network connectivity. If you’ve been using computers for a few years, you may remember DOS, the text-only operat- ing system on which early versions of Windows for example, Windows 3.1 ran. The Command Prompt window looks like DOS, but in fact it’s not DOS. Windows Vista doesn’t include DOS; instead, it includes a Virtual DOS Machine VDM. A VDM runs within Windows and synthesizes a computer running DOS so that Windows can run programs that require DOS. You can customize the way a Command Prompt window looks or even make it run full screen which gives it a very DOS-like look. For most purposes, there’s no advantage in using Command Prompt to issue commands instead of using the Run dialog box choose Start All Programs Accessories Run, or press Windows Key+R except that in Command Prompt you can see the history of the commands you’ve issued in this session.

Recalling a Command You’ve Used

Often, you’ll need to reuse a command you’ve used earlier in the current Command Prompt window, or you’ll need to issue a similar command. Command Prompt stores your recent commands so that you can recall them quickly. To recall a command from the current session, press the  key. The first press displays the pre- vious command, the second the command before that, and so on. If you go too far back in the list, press the  key to go back through the list toward the later commands. Once you’ve reached the command you want to use, you can edit it or add to it, or simply press the Enter key to run it.

Selecting, Copying, and Pasting in Command Prompt

Selecting, copying, and pasting in Command Prompt windows is much clumsier than in graphical windows, but it works well enough once you know how. To use the mouse to select text in Command Prompt, you need to turn on QuickEdit mode. You can turn it on either temporarily or permanently:

Turn on QuickEdit temporarily Click the control-menu box at the left end of the title bar and choose Edit   Mark.

Turn on QuickEdit permanently    Select the QuickEdit Mode check box on the Options page of the Console Windows Properties dialog box or the Command Prompt Properties dialog box. Once you’ve turned on QuickEdit, click to place an insertion point, or drag to select a block of text. To copy, right-click after making a selection. Alternatively, press Enter, or choose Edit Copy from the control menu. Issuing a Copy command in any of these ways collapses the selection, so that it looks as though the Copy operation has failed, but in fact Windows has copied the selection to the Clipboard, from which you can paste it into another program or back into the Command Prompt window. You can also copy information from another program and paste it into Command Prompt by placing the insertion point, then choosing Edit Paste from the control menu.

Customizing Command Prompt

By default, Command Prompt uses a white system font on a black background, but you can change the look by using the Properties dialog box.

Customizing the Current Command Prompt Window

To customize the current Command Prompt window, click the control-menu box at the left end of the window’s menu bar and choose Properties. Command Prompt displays the Properties dialog box.

Command Prompt Errors Involving Special Characters

If Command Prompt gives you the error “<name> is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file” when you try to run a program, or the error “The system cannot find the path specified” when you try to create, delete, or change a directory, chances are that the program or directory name includes a special character such as an ampersand &, a space, parentheses  , a caret ^, a semicolon ;, a comma ,, or a vertical bar |. For example, if you have a folder named Bits&Bobs and issue the command cd bits&bobs to change directory to it, Command Prompt will tell you that “The system cannot find the path specified” and that “‘bobs’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file” - which is true, but not helpful.

To get around this problem, either put double quotation marks around the name of the item that contains the special character in the example, cd  “bits&bobs”, or put a caret immediately before the special character to notify Command Prompt that it’s there for example, cd  bits^&bobs.

Options Page

The Options page of the Command Prompt Properties dialog box contains three group boxes of options:

Cursor Size group box Choose the Small option button, the Medium option button, or the Large option button to specify which cursor size to use. The Small cursor the default looks like a flashing underline; the Medium cursor looks like a flashing block half the character height; and the Large cursor looks like a flashing block the full character height.

Command History group box In the Buffer Size text box, you can adjust the number of commands that Command Prompt stores in its buffer. Storing more commands needs a little more memory, but not enough to worry about. In the Number of Buffers text box, you can adjust the number of processes allowed to have distinct history buffers. Select the Discard Old Duplicates check box if you want the buffered list to omit repeated commands. Omitting them reduces the list and can make it more manageable.

Edit Options group box    Select the QuickEdit Mode check box if you want to be able to use the mouse for cutting and pasting in Command Prompt. Leave the Insert Mode check box selected as it is by default if you like the standard way of inserting text at the cursor, moving along any characters to the right of the cursor instead of typing over them. If you prefer typeover, clear the Insert Mode check box.

Font Page

On the Font page of the Command Prompt Properties dialog box, select the font and font size you want to use for the Command Prompt window.

Layout Page

On the Layout page of the Command Prompt Properties dialog box shown on the right in Fig- ure 6.10, specify how the Command Prompt window should look, where it should appear on the screen, and how many commands it should retain:

Screen Buffer Size group box In the Width text box, specify the number of characters that you want each line in the buffer to contain. Note that this is the buffer, not the window. In the Height text box, specify the number of lines of data that you want to store.

Window Size group box In the Width text box, specify the number of characters for the width of the window. Usually it’s best to set this to the same value as the width of the screen buffer. You can set it to a smaller value and have the window display scroll bars, but you can’t set it to a larger value. In the Height text box, specify the number of lines for the height of the window.

Window Position group box    Use the Left text box and the Top text box to specify the position of the left side and the top of the window. Alternatively, select the Let System Position Window check box if you want to allow Windows to decide where to put the window.

Colors Page

On the Colors page of the Command Prompt Properties dialog box, you can choose colors for the screen text, the screen background, the pop-up text, and the pop-up background. Use the preview boxes to get an idea of the effect you’re creating. Click the OK button to close the Command Prompt Properties dialog box and apply the changes you’ve made.

The Bottom Line

Creating simple word-processing documents with WordPad    WordPad is a lightweight word-processing program that supports font formatting, bulleted lists, paragraph alignment, margin placement, and inserted objects, but not styles or spell checking.  WordPad is good for creating simple wordprocessing documents, but if you need to create complex documents, you’ll probably need a dedicated word-processing application, such as Microsoft Word.

Creating text files with Notepad    Notepad is a text editor that you can use to edit text files or system files. You can run multiple instances of Notepad at the same time, so it’s great for taking notes. But Notepad is text-only, so you can’t apply formatting or insert objects such as pictures.

Inserting special characters with Character Map    Character Map choose Start   All Programs  Accessories   System Tools   Character Map lets you insert into documents characters and symbols that don’t appear on your keyboard.

Manipulating graphics with Paint    Paint is a basic illustration program that lets you create bitmap files BMP, DIB, GIF files, JPEG files JPG and JPEG, Portable Network Graphic files PNG, and TIFF files TIF. You can use Paint to create background images for your desktop, capture images from a webcam, clean up scanned images, or save screens or windows captured using Print Screen or Alt+Print Screen.

Making the most of Calculator    Calculator is an essential utility for performing both basic and scientific calculations. Choose View   Scientific to switch Calculator to Scientific mode, in which you can work in hexadecimal, binary, and octal instead of decimal.

Working from the command line with Command Prompt    If you need to run character-mode programs or issue text commands, choose Start   All Programs   Accessories   Command Prompt, and then work in the Command Prompt window. You can recall a command from the current session by pressing the  key one or more times. You can customize the Command Prompt window by clicking the control-menu box at the left end of the window’s menu bar, choosing Properties, and then working in the Properties dialog box.