More than one generation of those Internet users has already grown up who did not catch the beginning of the rapid rise of Microsoft Corporation and do not even know how to open the command line.

This early version of the Windows operating system, called MS DOS, featured single-tasking (all processes ran sequentially rather than in parallel) and a predominantly text-based interface.

Now, most operations on a Windows computer can be performed exclusively with the mouse, but in those days, even for the simplest actions, you needed to know a lot of complex text commands.

Through a shortcut in the start menu

Running the Run program to open a command prompt is a strange idea, since the required shortcut is right next door.

It can also be quickly found through the Start menu search.

Due to a significant change in the Start menu interface in Windows 8, this method will be implemented slightly differently.

• First you need to go to the tiles with applications (new version of Start) and right-click on a free area. As a result, a panel will pop up at the bottom, giving advanced features.
  In it, you need to click on the icon All applications in the lower right corner.

• Here you will see a list with additional hidden applications, including the Command Prompt shortcut. Now you need to click on the desired shortcut with the right mouse button and select the option to run as administrator in the bottom panel.

Advice! Running with administrator rights is recommended because some commands simply will not run normally.

In Windows 10, search works throughout the system. Therefore, to quickly find the command line, you need to press the combination Win + S and enter the name of the program, in this case it is the command line.

Search for an executable file on the system drive

As mentioned above, the command line is implemented through a small executable cmd.exe file.

From here we can make a logical conclusion that this executable can be found in some folder and run directly.

This is true, the command line executable starting with the seven is stored in the System32 subdirectory of the Windows folder.

Hidden menu in Windows 8 and Windows 10

In the last two versions of the world's most popular operating system, there is a combination of hot keys to open a special menu for advanced users, which contains all the most necessary system utilities.

It is opened by pressing the Win + X keys, and it just found a place for the command line.

Through the context menu in Windows 10 Explorer

Ten has its own unique way to call the command line. It consists in calling this function through Windows Explorer.

To do this, you need to open any folder and, while holding down the Shift key, right-click in any free area of ​​\u200b\u200bthis folder.

As a result, an extended context menu will open, in which there will be an option to call the command line.

As you can see from the methods in this article, the command prompt on Windows operating systems can be invoked in a variety of ways.

This seems to be for such a small program of several hundred kilobytes and with unclear functionality.

But such a misunderstanding can only occur among inexperienced users.

Those people who have been actively using a computer for work and entertainment for more than a year understand perfectly well that cmd.exe is a powerful tool that can instantly produce results if you know how to use it.

That is why the latest versions of Windows, focused on cross-platform (and primarily on compatibility with devices that have a touchscreen), not only did not lose this function, but also acquired additional features for convenient work with it.

How to open a command prompt in Windows

This video discusses several ways to open the command line in windows 7. In windows XP, vista, the command line opens in the same way.

Original: Command-line programs for everyday use in Linux
Author: Rares Aioanei
Publication date: January 31, 2012
Translation: A. Krivoshey
Transfer date: May 2012

1. Introduction

I must admit that I am a command line fanatic. If it's possible, regardless of the desktop environment and distribution I'm using, I open up a terminal and start doing all sorts of nonsense. Of course, this does not mean that everyone should follow me. Most people prefer to use a mouse and a GUI. However, there are many situations where it is easier to complete a task using the command line. And sometimes, for example, when updating the kernel or video card driver, the graphics mode can simply turn off due to some bug in the new version. In the meantime, for example, you need to urgently send a very important letter... All the basic operations performed in graphical mode (of course, with some exceptions) can be performed just as easily on a machine running in the console. If you are interested in this topic, welcome.

2. Tasks

First, let's define what we mean by everyday tasks. It could be email, watching something interesting on YouTube (yes, it's possible), chatting, or just surfing the web. We will talk about all these tasks in our article. By the way, another advantage of working in the command line (besides being efficient and undemanding to system resources) is uniformity. When working on any computer with Linux installed, you don't have to worry about not having your favorite graphical environment installed on it - the programs we're going to talk about will look the same regardless of the presence of a graphical interface. It should be noted that in this article we will talk about the basic concepts and principles of using programs, it is not a step-by-step guide to using them.

2.1. Web surfing

Of course, you won't be able to view images, but console browsers will be very fast, much faster than any graphical counterpart. In addition, the security will also be on top, because some of them do not even support Javascript, unless you compile them with specially given options. Let me introduce links, elinks and lynx. In almost all distributions, they can be installed using the standard package management system, or self-assembled from source code, which is not very difficult, since they have few dependencies. links also has a command line flag (-g) which, if links has been compiled with the right options, produces a simple but fast graphical browser.

On Debian, when I tried to launch the browser using the "links -g" command, I got the message "Graphics not enabled when compiling (use links2 instead for graphics mode)". By installing links2 and entering the command

I got what I wanted. If I need to go to a site in a text browser that uses Javascript for authorization, I use elinks. Nowadays, with the development of the mobile device market, many sites have special mobile versions (and Gmail has an HTML version that is great for such purposes) that can be viewed in text browsers, unless you need images or flash. Another advantage of console browsers is the significantly lower traffic consumption. If you want the most minimalistic and fastest option, we advise you to pay attention to lynx. This is the smallest and fastest browser, even in comparison with its analogue.
Above, I mentioned watching youtube videos on the command line. You can download them using the youtube-dl utility, and then, after a short study of the mplayer options, view them.

2.2. Chat

Most Linux users use Pidgin for this purpose, as it supports a large number of protocols, history (does anyone else remember Gaim?) and has a beautiful interface. What many don't know is that the Pidgin development team offers a command-line equivalent called Finch. It can be installed without problems on most distributions, but be warned that unlike most command line programs, Finch has a lot of dependencies because it is linked to Pidgin, which in turn requires a lot of them. Finch supports all protocols that Pidgin supports. The only difference is in the interface.
When it comes to communication, the Linux community prefers IRC. While Finch already supports IRC, I'd like to introduce an IRC-only client called irssi. It is very easy to use, but do not underestimate its capabilities. irssi allows you to write scripts and supports all the advanced IRC features you might need. When you first start the program creates a configuration file in ~/.irssi/, which can be edited if necessary. It is easy enough to master, as this file already contains a large number of examples of ready-made configurations. I prefer to use irssi directly from the command line:

$irssi -c $host -n $nick

2.3. Multimedia

Who said you need an X server to listen to music? Of course, this is not the case, and there are many applications besides mplayer, which we already talked about, that allow you to do this. Of course I haven't worked with everyone, usually I use mp3blaster. It supports mp3 and ogg, playlists, id3 and has a beautiful and user friendly interface.

It is available in Debian, and is also available in Ubuntu, Mint and their derivatives. OpenSUSE users who have the Packman repository enabled can also install mp3blaster. It doesn't seem to be available in new releases of Fedora, so you'll have to compile it yourself (or build a package).

2.4. News

When I say news, I mean two things: RSS and NNTP, that is, Usenet. Of course, on Linux there is no problem using them, but when it comes to RSS, the same question arises: images. Again, it all depends on the type of news you read. If it's comics, for example, then it's bad. In any case, consider these programs, keeping in mind that they are by no means the only alternative available. I just use them, that's why I write about them.
For RSS I use Snownews, a really small and fast reader. On the project website you can see how the program will look like, since it is almost an exact copy of its interface. Unfortunately I can't please Debian users as the program (as a package) is only available for Lenny. Packages are available for Fedora, Gentoo, BSD and Solaris. What I like about Snownews is that it's really fast, even though XML parsing is quite a challenge.
When it comes to reading Usenet, every Linux veteran should know about Tin, the Threaded Internet News reader. I hope I didn't misrepresent the acronym, correct me if I'm wrong. It has a rich history, is fast and easy to set up, is distributed under a liberal (BSD) license, and is available on almost all Unix-based systems such as BSD, Solaris, and even OpenVMS. I use it for reading news remotely, so I run it with the -r flag because otherwise tin will try to use a local buffer that doesn't exist on my machine. Below I give an example of my settings for Tin.

//edit ~/.newsrc and enter the groups you want to subscribe to, one per line //if you already have such a file, replace the trailing "!" with a semicolon //for the groups you want to subscribe to $ export NNTPSERVER=$server $ tin -Q

3. Conclusion

Research shows that, despite all the efforts to develop graphical interfaces, people are most efficient at the command line. Can't tell if this is true or not. What I can really say is that I myself actually work more productively on the command line, despite the time consuming training in such work. And what do you think about this?

Most users of the Windows operating system are accustomed to launching the desired application or game by double-clicking on the shortcut located on the desktop, or by finding it in Start. Alternatively, you can open the folder where it is installed and run the exe file from there.

Since such launching of applications may not always be suitable, in this article, let's look at several different ways that you can use to launch a program from the command line.

Method 1: Launching a system application

In order to start one of the system applications from the console, the “start” command is used and the desired name is indicated with a space. The name must be the system name. For Explorer, this is explorer , task manager - taskmgr , control panel - control , system configuration - msconfig .

To open notepad write notepad , Windows Media Player - wmplayer , Paint - mspaint , symbol map - charmap . If you write cmd , a new command prompt window will open.

For example, let's open a symbol table. Type in line:

and press "Enter".

Method 2: specifying the full path to the file

If you need to run any other installed application, then you should specify the full path to the program's executable file.

For example, in my Downloads folder there is a program for installing Movie Maker, let's open it. I go into the folder and click on the field where the path is registered. This entire line must be written on the command line (since copy-paste does not work there) and at the end add the name of the utility that we want to run.

The console will say:

c:\users\master\downloads\wlsetup-all

After pressing "Enter", preparations for the installation of the Film Studio began. As you can see, it is not necessary to use capital letters when writing the path, you can only enter small letters.

If there are spaces in the path to the desired file, then a window will appear with a message that the specified file cannot be found. The point is that the command line recognizes the path up to the first space, not the entire string you entered. In the example, she decided that I wanted to open c:\program .

Now let's deviate a little from the topic, and consider how to find out the full path to the program that we want to run.

To do this, find the executable file of the desired application through the Explorer window. To understand that it is him, look so that in front of him in the field "Type" is indicated "Application". Then click on the field at the top - this is the path.

For example, Total Commander is launched by the "totalcmd" file, and it is located along the path: "c:\program files\total commander".

Or another option. If there is a shortcut to the desired application on the desktop, you can not search for it through Explorer. Just right click on it and select "File location".

The window that we have already discussed will open. It will highlight the file that launches the utility, and at the top you can find out the path to it.

3 way: using path

With this command, we will save the path to the folder where the executable file is located, and then run it.

Consider the same Total Commander. In the console we write:

path c:\program files\total commander

Be sure to include a space after "path". It is along this path that the file we need is "totalcmd". Press "Enter".

The specified program will be launched. You don't need to include an extension at the end. Thus, it is possible to run any executable file in the specified folder.

4 way: using the cd command

This command will open the specified folder, and from there we will run the file we need. For example, let's go to the TeamViewer folder:

cd c:\program files\teamviewer

Put a space after "cd". Press "Enter".

This folder contains the file that starts TeamViewer, it has the same name. So I enter:

I press "Enter" and the utility starts.

If you need to open an application that is not installed on the system drive, you can use the path command. If I type:

path d:\program files\ccleaner

(after entering each line, press "Enter"), then CCleaner will open for me. It is he who is installed at the specified path on the D: drive.

But with the help of the cd command, this will not work.

5 way: through the context menu

To do this, find the folder in which the executable file is stored, and right-click on it while holding down the "Shift" key. Then select from the context menu "Open command window".

After that, the folder we need will immediately open in the command line. Enter in the line the name of the file that launches the utility, and press "Enter". It was we who launched CCleaner, located not on the system drive (I have D:).

If you need to run a program that is installed in the same place as the operating system, the steps are the same. Let's open the Google Chrome browser. We find the folder in which the file is stored, which launches it, and select the item mentioned above.

Then we enter the name of the file with the extension . * exe: chrome , and press "Enter". The browser will be launched.

6 way: path in quotes

At the beginning, I mentioned that if there are spaces in the specified path, the file will not open. But if you write it in quotes, then the console will understand everything. Quotes must be double and straight, not commas. They are set using the combination "Shift + E" with the selected English keyboard layout.

You need to write the full path in them and at the end specify the file itself with the extension that will be launched:

"c:\program files\total commander\totalcmd.exe"

Using quotes, you can open programs on both the system drive and the data drive.

There are situations when you need to open a browser with a certain set of parameters, for example: open a certain address in InPrivate mode, launch the browser with add-ons disabled, disable automatic tab recovery when it crashes, etc. Of course, all these operations can be called using the graphical interface of the program, but from the point of view of process optimization, it is better to use the command line. Why, for example, launch the browser in InPrivate mode every time, then enter the address of the payment system, if all this can be done with one click!?

Supported command line options

Table 1 - Supported command line options with a brief description.

Command Line Examples in Internet Explorer 9

Since many people do not use the command line, I will give examples of using commands on desktop shortcuts. Right-click on an empty space on the desktop. Choose Create - Shortcut. AT Property location enter the command from the example.

Simultaneous login to the site with two different accounts

If there is a need to work simultaneously in two mailboxes of the same mail service, we use the parameter to start -noframemerging:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -noframemerging

Now you need to launch two copies of the browser, and then in both go to different mailboxes of the same mail service (for example, I used gmail.com). Moreover, if you log out of one account, the second one will continue to work (which is not available with the normal launch of two copies of Internet Explorer 9).

Figure 1 - Working with two gmail accounts at the same time using the -noframemerging option.

privacy mode

Let's create a shortcut for working with the payment system (in this case, PayPal), in InPrivate mode:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -private paypal.com

Figure 2 - Browser launched with the -private option.

Kiosk mode

Let's say you need to run Internet Explorer in full screen while opening a specific site (in our case, the site). Team:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -k site

Figure 3 - Internet Explorer running in kiosk mode.

Debug mode

For debugging, a web developer needs to launch the browser without all the add-ons, as well as disabling the automatic tab recovery system. We use the following command:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -extoff -nohangrecovery

Figure 4 - Launching a browser with the -extoff option is accompanied by this warning page (always, except when used with -private).

The command line is still a powerful Windows tool used by OS users and supported by many applications. Internet Explorer 9 is no exception - working with the command line is simple and intuitive, and the semantics of the commands clearly reflect the function that it (the command) implements. Don't forget about this toolkit to empower your browser and automate everyday tasks.