Using AutoRun to Execute Commands When Command Prompt Starts

Command Prompt's equivalent to the old MS-DOS Autoexec batch mechanism is a feature called AutoRun. By default, Command Prompt executes on startup whatever it finds in the following two registry values:

• The AutoRun value in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor
• The AutoRun value in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor

The AutoRun value in HKLM affects all user accounts on the current machine. The AutoRun value in HKCU affects only the current user account. If both values are present, both are executed-HKLM before HKCU.

Both AutoRun values are of data type REG_SZ, which means they can contain a single string. (You can enter a multistring value, but Windows ignores all but the first string.) To execute a sequence of separate Command Prompt statements, therefore, you must use command symbols or store the sequence as a batch program, and then use AutoRun to call the batch program.

To specify an AutoRun value, open a registry editor and navigate to the Command Processor key in either HKLM or HKCU. Create a new string value there, and name it AutoRun. Then specify your command string as the data for AutoRun, exactly as you would type it at the command prompt.

To disable AutoRun commands for a particular Command Prompt session, start Cmd with /D. For more about Command Prompt's command-line syntax, see the next section.