Windows 7 / Getting Started

Disabling Command Extensions

To run an old batch file that does not function with the extended version of CMD's built-in commands, you can explicitly disable extensions with /e:off on the CMD command line. For example, to run an incompatible batch file, use the following:

cmd /e:off oldbatch.bat

If this needs to be the rule rather than the exception, you have my sympathies, and you can disable extensions by default through the Registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions. If this DWORD value is present and set to 0, command extensions are disabled.You can use /e:on on the command line to enable extensions for a particular instance of CMD.

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In this tutorial:

  1. The CMD Command-Line
  2. CMD Versus COMMAND
  3. Running CMD
  4. Opening a Command Prompt Window with Administrator Privileges
  5. CMD Options
  6. Disabling Command Extensions
  7. Command-Line Processing
  8. Console Program Input and Output
  9. Using the Console Window
  10. I/O Redirection and Pipes
  11. Copy and Paste in Command Prompt Windows
  12. Command Editing and the History List
  13. Name Completion
  14. Enabling Directory Name Completion
  15. Multiple Commands on One Line
  16. Grouping Commands with Parentheses
  17. Arguments, Commas, and Quotes
  18. Escaping Special Characters
  19. Configuring the CMD Program
  20. The Search Path
  21. Changing the Path
  22. Predefined and Virtual Environment Variables
  23. Setting Default Environment Variables
  24. Built-in Commands
  25. Extended Commands
  26. Listing Files with the Dir Command
  27. Paginating Long Listings
  28. Printing Directory Listings
  29. Sorting Listings
  30. Locating Alternate File Streams
  31. Setting Variables with the Set Command
  32. Conditional Processing with the if Command
  33. Scanning for Files with the for Command
  34. Using the for Command's Variable
  35. Processing Directories
  36. Numerical for Loop
  37. Getting More Information