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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