How to create windows cmd file

If you have every used the Command Line, or CMD, interface in Windows, you probably have some idea of the powerful things it can do. Creating your own CMD scripts, you can do even more, but faster.

A CMD script does the same thing as if you typed commands into the CMD window. If you want to do something on a regular basis, such as telling Windows to turn off your computer after an hour, you can write a script and then you can activate the script whenever you want to run it.

Understanding CMD and Written Commands

In the early days of personal computing almost everything was done by typing command_s into a command line interface. If you wanted to open a program, you had to type the name of the program into the command line. Today, you can simply click or touch an icon on your screen to perform most actions. But Windows still accepts type-written commands in the CMD utility. You can write commands_ to open programs, add or change account permissions, back up files or get information about your computer using the CMD window.

Understanding CMD Scripts

The Command Prompt utility in Windows can be opened at any time, simply by typing «cmd» in the Windows Start menu. Here, you can type all sorts of commands to open programs, change settings and make tweaks to how Windows and its programs perform. In Microsoft’s long history of operating systems, CMD i_s a relative newcomer. In MS-DOS, before Windows was released, when you wanted to run a script, you would save it as a .bat file. While you can still save files with that extension today, most people use the .cmd extension._

Using a Script CMD to Open Notepad

To create and save a CMD switch, it’s best to use a basic text editor. Using a word processor like Microsoft Word makes saving the file a hassle. Notepad is much easier to use. So to demonstrate how CMD works, let’s open use it to open Notepad.

As soon as you press Enter, you will see Notepad open. The command you entered has told Windows to start the notepad.exe program, which is located in the system32 folder, which is inside the Windows folder, on the C: drive. CMD commands are not case-sensitive so you can use lowercase or uppercase letters interchangeably.

Creating Your First Script CMD File

Now that Notepad is open, create your first CMD script file by typing the same line you used in the CMD window into notepad: start «c:windowssystem32» notepad.exe

Save the batch file to your desktop by selecting «Save As» from the File menu. Name the file «firstscript.cmd» and click «Save.» Notepad script commands must be saved with the .cmd extension, rather than the default .txt extension.

Double-click the new CMD file on your desktop. You will see the CMD window open for a fraction of a second and then close as Notepad is launched.

This is hardly a useful script, since a desktop shortcut does the same thing. To create something more useful, let’s edit the file so that it creates a new text file on your desktop listing all of your programs.

Using Echo and Echo Off

While the CMD window wasn’t open long enough to see it, by default it will always display the text that was entered in the CMD file when it runs. For longer scripts, this can be a nuisance, so it’s generally good form to turn this off by using the Echo Off command in the first line of the CMD file. By itself, Echo Off disables the display of any text that follows it. To make the Echo Off command apply to itself, put an @ symbol in front of it. Thus, your two-line CMD script would be:

@echo off

start «c:windowssystem32» notepad.exe

Creating a Text File Script

This CMD script will list all the files you have in your Program Files folder and put that list in a new text file.

The text file will appear in the same folder where the script file itself is. So if the script file is on your desktop, the list-of-files.txt file will also appear on your desktop.

If you want to change the folder where the text file is placed, you can specify its own folder in the script. For example, if you want it to be placed in your Documents folder, use: dir «C:Program Files» > C:UsersDavidDocumentslist_of_files.txt

Creating a Systems Information Script

If you want to use a script to give you needed information, it’s not always necessary to produce a text document with a script. You can have the information posted directly in the CMD window.

The example script below will give you basic information about your computer, including the operating system and version number, the BIOS version, the total physical memory and your computer’s network address. To use the script, type or copy the lines below into a new Notepad file and save it with the .cmd file extension, such as «my_computer_info.cmd.»

In this example, ECHO OFF is used to prevent the CMD window from displaying the script.

The ECHO command is used to display specific text, as well as some equal signs (===) as lines to organize the information in sections.

To insert a comment for your own use — without it affecting the script or appearing in the CMD window — type two colons first. Anything in the same line following » :: « will be commented out from the script.

The PAUSE command directs the CMD program to stay open. Pressing any key on your keyboard will close the window.

@ECHO OFF

:: This CMD script provides you with your operating system, hardware and network information.

TITLE My System Info

ECHO Please wait… Gathering system information.

ECHO =========================

ECHO OPERATING SYSTEM

systeminfo | findstr /c:»OS Name»

systeminfo | findstr /c:»OS Version»

ECHO =========================

ECHO BIOS

systeminfo | findstr /c:»System Type»

ECHO =========================

ECHO MEMORY

systeminfo | findstr /c:»Total Physical Memory»

ECHO =========================

ECHO CPU

wmic cpu get name

ECHO =========================

ECHO NETWORK ADDRESS

ipconfig | findstr IPv4

ipconfig | findstr IPv6

PAUSE

Using Scripts to Shut Down Your Computer

Normally, when you shut down your computer, it happens instantaneously. Suppose, however, that you’re listening to an audiobook or watching a training video — and you know that you will fall asleep after an hour. You can use a CMD script to tell your computer to shut itself down, after a specified period of time, using the shutdown command.

When you use the shutdown command, you need to include two additional switches, or subcommands. The first tells the computer to either shutdown or restart. You can use either -s or — r. The second tells the computer how many seconds to wait before performing the command. For this you use -t, followed by the number of seconds.

To shutdown the computer in one second, use: shutdown -s -t 01

To restart the computer in eight seconds, use: shutdown -r -t 08

To shutdown the computer in two hours use: shutdown -s -t 7200

Backing Up Files With a CMD Script

If you find it tedious to back up your files to a second storage device, using a CMD script makes the process a breeze. For this, use the Robocopy command. For example, if you want to back up all of the files in your Documents folder onto a removable storage device, you can write the command in a CMD file and then — at the end of the day — simply double click the file to activate it.

The Robocopy command needs to know, first — which folder you want to copy and, second — where you want the copy placed. Both the source and destination need to be in quotation marks.

If you’re not certain what your drive letters are, open File Explorer and click on «My Computer.»

For example, if your User name is MyName, your Documents folder is in your C: drive and your Backup folder is in a removable storage D: drive, then the command would be:

robocopy D:UsersMyNameDocuments F:Backup /XA:H /W:0 /R:1 > F:Backupbackup.log

This example is a bit more complicated, since Robocopy offers you a lot of options.

D:UsersMyNameDocuments: the folder you want to back up.

F:Backup: the location of your Backup folder.

/XA:H: ignores hidden files.

/W:0: waits zero seconds between retries, instead of the default 30 seconds.

/R:1: retry only once if the file is locked.

> F:Backupbackup.log: create a backup log placed in the Backup folder.

Note that because this is a mirror backup, if you delete files from the source folder, they will be deleted from the Backup folder the next time you use the script. It would be a good idea to explore additional switches available for Robocopy, so that you ensure that you backup your files the way that works best for you.

Without redirection, Luc Vu or Erik Konstantopoulos point out to:

copy NUL EMptyFile.txt
copy /b NUL EmptyFile.txt

«How to create empty text file from a batch file?» (2008) also points to:

type NUL > EmptyFile.txt
# also
echo. 2>EmptyFile.txt
copy nul file.txt > nul # also in qid's answer below
REM. > empty.file
fsutil file createnew file.cmd 0 # to create a file on a mapped drive

Nomad mentions an original one:

C:UsersVonCprogtests>aaaa > empty_file
'aaaa' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

C:UsersVonCprogtests>dir

 Folder C:UsersVonCprogtests

27/11/2013  10:40    <REP>          .
27/11/2013  10:40    <REP>          ..
27/11/2013  10:40                 0 empty_file

In the same spirit, Samuel suggests in the comments:

the shortest one I use is basically the one by Nomad:

.>out.txt

It does give an error:

'.' is not recognized as an internal or external command

But this error is on stderr. And > only redirects stdout, where nothing have been produced.
Hence the creation of an empty file.
The error message can be disregarded here. Or, as in Rain’s answer, redirected to NUL:

.>out.txt 2>NUL

(Original answer, November 2009)

echo.>filename

(echo "" would actually put «» in the file! And echo without the ‘.’ would put «Command ECHO activated» in the file…)

Note: the resulting file is not empty but includes a return line sequence: 2 bytes.

This discussion points to a true batch solution for a real empty file:

 <nul (set/p z=) >filename

 dir filename
 11/09/2009  19:45                 0 filename
 1 file(s)                         0 bytes

The «<nul» pipes a nul response to the set/p command, which will cause the
variable used to remain unchanged. As usual with set/p, the string to the
right of the equal sign is displayed as a prompt with no CRLF.

Since here the «string to the right of the equal sign» is empty… the result is an empty file.

The difference with cd. > filename (which is mentioned in Patrick Cuff’s answer and does also produce a 0-byte-length file) is that this «bit of redirection» (the <nul... trick) can be used to echo lines without any CR:

<nul (set/p z=hello) >out.txt
<nul (set/p z= world!) >>out.txt
dir out.txt

The dir command should indicate the file size as 11 bytes: «helloworld!«.

Is this article up to date?

Очередная статья будет полезна пользователям если:

— Вы не хотите зависеть от оболочки Windows, от программ notepad, Wordpad, Microsoft Office.

— У Вас не загружается оболочка Windows.

— Нет оболочки Windows, например, вы загружаетесь c Dos или Вам просто интересно как создать файл в командной строке

Начнем.

Для начала, необходимо перейти в командную строку, воспользовавшись сочетаниями клавиш Win+R, в окне Выполнить напечатайте cmd и нажмите кнопку enter

В командной строке перейдите в нужную папку или диск где вы будете создавать файл.

В примере файл мы будем создавать на диске C:

Ниже, на изображении, мы переходим на диск C:

После перехода на диск C: напечатайте команду для создания файла:

copy con Имя вашего файла и нажмите кнопку Enter

В примере, на изображении ниже, мы создаем файл testfile.txt на диске C:

После того, как мы нажали кнопку Enter можно приступать к оформлению текста

или команд внутри файла

После того, как вы напечатали текст.

Помимо текстовых файлов, вы можете создавать cmd файлы с набором команд для

тихой установки приложений или изменений параметров операционной системы через командную строку.

The next article will be useful to users if: