Windows Tips and Tricks

[Probeman]

I'm starting this topic because there's a number of cool tricks I've learned that have been helpful for my own work, especially with regard to command prompt windows.

For example, did you know that in Windows Explorer, when you hold the shift key and right-click the mouse on a folder, you get this menu:



This menu opens a command prompt in the folder selected as seen here:



This window is useful for running batch files or other commands.

Another example, when you are in the folder at this command line, to get an editable text file containing the files in that folder, simply type:

dir *.* > files.txt

or any other filename you would like to save the output to.  Then open the file in any text editor.

[Mike Matthews]

How many times have I used shift and right click to get to 'open with...' and never spotted that 'open command window here'

One tip I got told that I find particularly useful for keeping a maintenance log file: open a new text file and put .LOG on it's own on the first line. Every time you open the file thereafter the current date and time is automatically appended to the end of the file. Put a shortcut to the file on the desktop and it becomes super easy to add date stamped log entries as and when you need.

[jrminter]

Just saw this old but useful tip from Probeman. I noticed the choice was missing from my right-click menu. Stackoverflow to the rescue... Can't get easier than this: Type "cmd" in the location bar.

For an English keyboard, "Alt-D" shifts focus to the location bar, so the quick way is to type "Alt-D" and type "cmd". Sweet!