Copy and paste in the command prompt window

Right-clicking in the Command Prompt window provides some options that allow you to use copy and paste. It's a bit tricky, but handy when you want to copy a lengthy list of filenames into a Word, WordPad, or Notepad document. If you'll be using the keyboard to select only a portion of the text, you first want to use the scroll bar to get up to where you can see where you want to start selecting text. If you'll be using the mouse to select a portion of text, or will be selecting all the text in the window, it's not so important where you start.

To select the entire window, right-click within the window and choose Select All. To select only a portion of the window's contents, right-click within the Command Prompt window and choose Mark. You'll see a square cursor. To select with the keyboard, hold down the Shift key and use the ←, →, ↑, ↓, PgUp, and PgDn keys to extend the selection through the text you want to select. With the mouse, move the mouse pointer to the far-right edge of the window, hold down the left mouse button, and then drag diagonally through the text you want to select.

Once you've selected some text, press Enter to copy the selected text and also clear the selection. From there, you can paste the copied text into any document that accepts pasted text.

You can paste a command into the window, but it has to be a valid DOS command. Just right-click near the command prompt and choose Paste.