Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Echo

Echo can be used to display text on the screen. You can use this to provide some type of information to the user from a batch file. The basic syntax is

Echo Your Message

When included in a batch file, this command will display in entirety and then display the message, all of which can be a little distracting. As an example, if a batch file has the Echo Hello line, it will output the following text:

Echo Hello
Hello

You can easily turn off the first line (Echo Hello) with the Echo off command. Even the Echo Off command can be suppressed by adding the at symbol, like this:

@Echo off

If you want to display a blank line, add a period after Echo without any spaces, like this:

Echo.

To put all of this together, you can use the following code in a batch file. The first line suppresses the echo (including the command that suppresses echo), and the second line outputs the message "Hello." The third line creates a blank line, and the last line outputs another message.

@Echo off
Echo Hello
Echo.
Echo Let's get started

When this batch file is executed, it will output the following three lines (with the middle line blank).

Hello

Let's get started