Windows 2000 Quick Fixes

Chapter 6. The Command Console

New users typically don’t realize that the personal computer operating system started as a user-hostile command console environment named DOS. While inexperienced users generally prefer the graphical user interface, many diehard users like the flexibility offered by a command console. This chapter provides answers to a range of questions about the Windows 2000 command console.

For example, this chapter covers basic command console issues such as how to get help for a particular command, change background and foreground colors, configure screen size, and use the command-line history.

This chapter also covers more complex command console topics. In some situations, for example, you might want a particular driver loaded for every command console you open. Or perhaps you only want that driver loaded for a specific console session. Both scenarios are explained in this chapter. Other advanced topics include using runas to change the user context of the command console, opening a console rooted in a specific folder, controlling console operation when started from a shortcut, and using autocomplete to automatically complete folder and filenames to save typing.

Get help for a command

Many applications support at least some command-line switches or parameters that determine how the application starts or functions. This is true for Windows applications as well as console commands. For example, Microsoft Word supports several switches, one of which is /m , which ...