Windows 8 In Depth

Batch Files

Although Windows Script Host is the most powerful tool for creating your own helpful programs, it’s also useful to know how to use the batch file language. Batch files let you take advantage of the hundreds of command-line programs supplied with Windows.

A batch file, at the simplest level, is just a list of command prompt commands that have been typed into a file whose extension is .bat or .cmd. When you enter the name of a batch file at the command prompt, Windows looks for a file with this name in the current directory and in the folders of the PATH environment variable. Windows treats each line in the batch file as a command, and runs them one after the other as if you’d typed the commands by hand. At this simplest level, then, ...