Command Prompt Keyboard Shortcuts For Vista

**aalbaiz** · 31-03-2009

The command prompt is an application that is run from its own window by invoking the Windows Vista™ command interpreter. It is provided by the file cmd.exe that is similar to the old MS-DOS command.com interpreter. The command prompt window can be opened by entering cmd into the Start Menu Search dialog box.

Here are some of the useful keyboard shortcuts for Cmd.exe in vista but before that have some tips for command prompt:-

1. Change the color scheme of the DOS Window

color bf - where b is the background color while f is for the foreground color (they are hex codes).

For instance, if you want to have a white background with black text, type color F0 and press enter. To revert to the original color scheme, type color without any arguments.

For a list of all available colors, type color /? on the command line.

2. Navigate the Command History using Keyboard

If you have a long list of commands in the history, press the function key F7 to navigate through the history list using the arrow keys.

And if you already know the command number, press F9 and directly type that number. Very useful if you have to run some command repeatedly.

3. Chant the Title of the Window to reflect the current time

Do you know that you can put your name or your blog address in the title of the command prompt window. That’s like a neat watermark when you are using that screenshot for your website.

title your_name %time%

That %time% will append the current timestamp to the Window’s title.

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts For Command Prompt:-

F1 – Repeat text typed in preceding line, one character at a time
F2 + Key – Repeat text typed in preceding line, up to first character matching key
F3 – Repeat text typed in preceding line
F6 – Place an end of file character (ˆZ) at current position of command line
F7 – Show all entries in command buffer
Alt + F7 – Clear all entries in command buffer
Ctrl + C – Used to interrupt the output of most command prompt applications
Left Arrow – Move back one character
Right Arrow – Move forward one character
Ctrl + Left Arrow – Move back one word
Ctrl + Right Arrow – Move forward one word
Up Arrow – Display previous command entered
Down Arrow – Display next command entered
Insert – Toggle insert/overtype mode (block cursor implies overtype mode)
Page Up – Display oldest command entered
Page Down – Display newest command entered
Home – Move to beginning of line
End – Move to the end of line
Esc – Erase current line

**Steinbach** · 31-03-2009

You know the frustration when you type some long command only to realize that you made a typo or omitted typing some character. Either type the whole command again or a better option is the F1 key.

F1 prints characters of the previous command one by one.

Alternatively, you can press F2 to copy a certain number of characters from the previous command to the current one. Let me illustrate that with an example:

Say I want to run the command “nslookup www.google.com” but wrote “nslookup www.googlx.com” in a hurry.

Instead of retyping the whole thing, I can say F2 and then say x. This will print all the characters upto “x”. Then you can press F3 to complete the command or type it manually.