Windows XP - DOS - COMMAND vs CMD

In earlier versions of Windows, the way we opened a command window — a DOS window — was by using Start, Run, Command and pressing the Enter key. If we did it a lot, we even created a shortcut to the file c:\windows\command.com

But, in the early versions of Windows XP, Microsoft removed the COMMAND command and substituted the CMD comamnd. However, I just recently found out that they added COMMAND back in one of the service packs.

The "official" Windows XP version of the command to open a "command window" is CMD instead of COMMAND.

Since Windows doesn't recognize the difference in uppercase and lowercase, cmd.exe, or just cmd, opens a slightly improved command window. For one thing, it sets up the DOSKEY capability automatically. If you knew DOSKEY, you really appreciate that. If you aren't familiar with DOSKEY, that was the DOS command that created a history of the commands that you had entered — and we could access, edit and rerun those commands by using the scroll keys.

Just press the Up-Arrow to the right command in the history, press back arrow to edit anything you wanted to change, change it, and press Enter. This was, and is, great for doing a few repetitive commands

You can open a command window by Start, Run, cmd. Close it by using the EXIT command -- you can force a close after clicking on the Window's X, but WinXP doesn't really like that. Exit is the proper way to exit a command window.

The COMMAND command, on the other hand, opens a plain command window. The most annoying thing is that the DOSKEy effect is not there...

So, after finding that the COMMAND command is available, I've returned promptly to using the CMD command -- it's shorter and it does everything I want it to do.

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<a href="http://www.terryscomputertips.com/computers/command-vs-cmd-dos-shell.php">COMMAND vs CMD in Windows XP's DOS Shell</a>

Copyright © 2006-2007 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.