Tired of Typing Long File and Folder Names in DOS? Try This…
Author: Raymond2 Dec
Most advanced computer users will still need to use command prompt or DOS. Like me, there are some things that I still prefer to do it in command prompt. Some tasks are automated with batch scripts which I write myself. One of very annoying thing is typing the long file or folder names in command prompt. It takes slightly longer to type the long file/folder name and then the worst thing is when I get it wrong which will result me in getting the message “The system cannot find the path specified“. Then the second time I will have to type it carefully to avoid typos. Really a waste of time…
Without a doubt that most common mistype folder name in command prompt is “Documents and Settings”. Starting from Windows 2000, you can avoid typing the wrong file/folder names because you can hit the “TAB” key and it will auto complete the word.
Here’s an example of how auto-complete works in command prompt.
If you are at C:\ and type in:
C:\>cd doc
And then press the TAB key, Windows will automatically type in C:\cd “Documents and Settings”
The folders will switch by pressing the Tab key several times. This will work in Windows XP and Vista by default. As for Windows 2000, you’ll need to modify the registry.
1. Go to Start and then click Run.
2. Type regedit and click OK.
3. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor
4. At the right pane of Registry Editor, look for CompletionChar and PathCompletionChar.
5. Double click the name and change the value to 9.
I think that this is an easy and good tip for me to share with you all 
Technorati Tags: autocomplete, dos, command prompt, completionchar, PathCompletionChar
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15 Responses for "Tired of Typing Long File and Folder Names in DOS? Try This…"
Thanks buddy, really an awesome trick, well I used to use the * for the same purpose, like for “Documents and Settings” i use:
cd doc*
and it does the trick.
Hi
I am having problems burning a backup copy of a movie to a DVD+R DL disc. The source media is 8.3 GB (DVD9)
My burner is a Samsung SH-S202N dual layer writer and the program I am using for the backup is DVDFab Platinum4. My operating system is Vista Ultimate.
DVD blank media is Datawrite Printable Surface 8x 8.5GB DVD+R DL.
I have used x8, x4 and x2.4 to see if the speed change would help but to no avail. The program reads the source disc ok and begins to write to the blank media but the target disc is ejected before the burn is completed. Sometimes it ejects at 5% burn and others anywhere up to 50% burn.
From the spec for the burner it will burn dvd+ r dl media at x12. Should I be using x12 during the burn phase even though the discs are x8. I thought the max burn speed of the media I am using is x8.
Please can you help. I have a folder set aside for all you tips for other people.
Thanks
Dave
Really cool even for a fast typer
, thanks Tonz !
The only catch or fall back is that you have to keep changing directory one by one. I would say it takes about the same time if you typed it and did it like this… However, this kinda assures you that you will not error in typing as it searches for the most relevant folder… Also, sometimes you might have to specify more alphabets if you have folders starting with the same name.
Real Cool, thanks for the info, i knew they’re was a function doing this, just couldn’t figure out where it was
!
luckily i am NOT an advanced pc user!yeay!! ;p
Thanks, interesting trick, I didn’t know this one. I usually type dir /x to see the short names, the ugly ones with the ~1, ~2 etc. but this is faster and it works for files as well.
i am very thankful to you
again thanks
haha…now i know how that guy access folder really fast in DOS. thanks raymond.
Hi Raymond,
Thanks for your good share, but its not working in my laptop i have windows xp sp2. I put the values to 9 in regedit. But still it didnt work for me….. any solution for this….
Hi Raymond,
One ago I´ve made a win98 boot disk with useful programs for me, one of them is called “doskey” (yes, similar name to msdos program) that you can use autocomplete. The other useful programs in this floppy are one that you can work with long filenames (i think it is called doslfn), and finaly vc (volkov commander), which supports also long filenames (using doslfn) . All these programs obviusly in real dos mode (fat32 support only), which helped me a lot in win9x era.
The only thing missing now is an utility to read ntfs, i have to search for it on some boot cd.
Your blog is very useful!!
great tip, thanks.
Can you tell me where I can find the keyboard lay-out you used? I’m looking for keyboardlay-out for quite a while now.
TIA
tullius
also press and hold shift and pressing tab will make it go other way round too
Hola a todos queria saber si hay alguna forma de modificar el registro, agregando alguna linea mas en la parte de “command processor” para que en windows vista, la pantalla de modo consola o dos este en pantalla completa?, Gracias antemano.
trabalho de ingles
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