Administering: Windows Server® 2008 Server Core

Chapter 5. Creating CMD and BAT Files

So far, you've performed all of the Server Core configuration tasks manually, by typing individual commands at the command prompt. Performing tasks manually makes sense when you'll only perform a task once or when you want to learn something new about a command or utility. However, performing repetitive tasks manually is boring, error prone, and inefficient. One of the easiest ways to automate command line tasks is to use batch files. A batch file works just as if you'd typed the commands manually, but you're asking the computer to type them.

Users have relied on batch files of various sorts for many years because they're quick to create, easy to understand, and painless to modify. Testing a batch file is simple—you ...