Windows Vista® Inside Out Deluxe Edition

Using Commands

In most respects, entering commands or running programs at the Windows Vista command prompt is the same as using the command prompt of any other operating system—MS-DOS, OS/2, UNIX. If you’ve used one command prompt, you’ve used them all. Every operating system has a command to delete files, another to display lists of files, another to copy files, and so on. The names and details might differ, but it’s the same cast of characters.

Inside Out: Type /? for help

You can get help on any Command Prompt command by typing its name followed by /?. For example, to see a list and explanation of the command-line switches for the Dir command, type dir /?. Alternatively, type the word help followed by the command name—for example, help dir. For ...