Windows XP Desktop
Open DOS Command Window
Open DOS Command Window
Open DOS Command Window
Open DOS Command Window
Open DOS Command Window
An Alternative Way
An Alternative Way
An Alternative Way
An Alternative Way
An Alternative Way
DOS (console) Window
Change Drives
To change to another disk drive, key in the drive letter (
‘A’, ‘C’, ‘D’, etc) followed by a colon (‘:’) then press the
<Enter> key.
Change Drives
The DOS Prompt should now look like the following.
Drive A: is now the current default drive.
The DIR Command
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We have a directory full of disk files
How do we look at what is on the disk or what
files are in a directory?
What is a directory anyway?
Use the DIR command
Entering the DIR Command
/? To Get Help on the DIR Command
DIR Command
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At the top
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Volume label
serial number
drive (and directories)
The DIR Command Shows
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For each file
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file name
file extension
file size (in bytes)
file date (created or last modified)
file time (created or last modified)
at the bottom
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# of files
bytes used
# of directories
bytes available
DIR Command Options
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/P pause after displaying a page
/W display ‘wide’ (five files per column)
/X includes short filenames
Change Sort Order
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/O
- alpha by main file name then extension
/ON - alpha by main file name
/OE - alpha by extension
/OEN - alpha by extension, then main name
/OD - by date and time
/OS
- by size
Alternate format /O:S
EXAMPLES
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Insert your DATADISK in drive A
List all files alphabetically by file name
Find the smallest file
Find the oldest file
How many files have an “.LST” extension
How many files are there on the disk
How many files have 1~299 bytes (size)
How many files do not have an extension
A note on the order switch
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You can reverse the order of the optional
parameter of the ‘sort order’ switch (pg 48).
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If you put a dash ‘-’ in front of the optional
parameter, the order is reversed.
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Examples:
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A:\>DIR /OE
A:\>DIR /OS
A:\>DIR /O-E
A:\>DIR /O-S
wildcards and the DIR
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When you enter DIR you get all files in that
directory listed for you.
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There are 2 wildcards that allow you to select the
files to be listed
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? Replaces a single character
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* replaces a number of characters
The * wildcard
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DIR
DIR PA*
DIR *T
DIR A*LS
lists all files in that directory
lists all files starting with ‘PA’
lists all files ending with an ‘T’
lists all files starting with an ‘A’
and ending with an ‘LS’
DIR *.PPT lists all files with a .PPT
extension
DIR *T.*
lists all files where the last letter
of the file name (not the ext) is “T”
Using your DATADISK
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How many files start with a “P”?
How many files have an extension of “XLS”?
How many files have an extension that starts
with “W”?
How many file names start with “INV”?
How many files have an “SU” somewhere in
their file name (not extension)?
The ? wildcard
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The ? replaces a single character
DIR PALETTE???.BMP lists all files that
start with ‘PALETTE’, then any 3 characters,
then ‘BMP’
DIR “PALETTE ??.BMP” lists all files
starting with ‘Palette[space]’, then any 2
characters, then ‘BMP’.
What happens if you try it without the
quotes?
Using your DATADISK
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How many files have an “N” as the second
letter of their file name?
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How many files have a 3 character extension
that starts with “PP”?
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How many files have a “FT” in the 3rd and 4th
letters?
Default Switches
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DOS saves important settings in a memory
area called the DOS ENVIRONMENT
to see the environment, key in: A:\>SET
the env. variable for DIR is DIRCMD
to change the settings, key in:
A:\SET ‘environment variable”=string
to set DIR commands enter (example)
A:\SET DIRCMD=/P/O
now again, key in A:\>SET
Attributes
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DIR /AH
DIR /AR
DIR /AS
DIR /AA
Hidden files
Read only
System files
Archive files - not backed up