All Notepad Batch Commands - Ultimate Guide

Most of the people think notepad is only made to save notes or texts. But few people are there who know the real power of notepad. As an in-built feature in windows, notepad can be used to make HTML ( Hyper Text Markup Language “.html” ), Batch ( “.bat” ), CPP ( “.cpp” ), JS ( Javascript “.js” ), CSS ( Cascade style sheet “.css” ), JAVA ( Java Source File ) etc Files.

In This Chapter, we only focus our mind on Batch Programming.

What Is Batch ?

Basically batch is a scripting language which works in windows, DOS and OS 2 platform and can be programmed in notepad or simply in windows Command Prompt Shell. It Consist of simple commands to be executed by command line interpreter. The file extension type of batch program is “.bat”.

Simple Example Of Batch Program

Below is the simplest code snippet for batch program which is nothing but a hello world program. After execution, this program will display “Hello world” on your computer screen.

@echo off

Title Hello World Program

Color 0a

Echo Hello World

Pause>nul

Exit

How To Save And Execute Batch Program

So you are newbie in batch programming and don’t know how to save and execute above program. Don’t panic, this tutorial will be your next milestone. We will introduce you with the simplest to the most hardest commands here.

To save above program, just copy it and paste inside notepad. Then click on “file>save as” and name it as “hello world.bat” or anything you want. Make sure that you had used “.bat” after file name, because it the file extension type and your program will not work without it. After that Choose File Type as “all files (*.*)” and move to the location where you want to save it. Finally when you have done, Click on the program and it will display a text as in below picture.

Note : We recommend You to use notepad++ instead of simple notepad as it is more responsive.

Some Important Batch Commands And Their Explanation

Below are all the batch or command prompt commands that will definitely help you to get some new ideas.

Command	Explanation
ASSOC	Displays or modifies file extension associations.
ATTRIB	Displays or changes file attributes.
BREAK	Sets or clears extended CTRL+C checking.
BCDEDIT	Sets properties in boot database to control boot loading.
CACLS	Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files.
CALL	Calls one batch program from another.
CD	Displays the name of or changes the current directory.
CHCP	Displays or sets the active code page number.
CHDIR	Displays the name of or changes the current directory.
CHKDSK	Checks a disk and displays a status report.
CHKNTFS	Displays or modifies the checking of disk at boot time.
CLS	Checks a disk and displays a status report.
CMD	Starts a new instance of the Windows command interpreter.
COLOR	Sets the default console foreground and background colors.
COMP	Compares the contents of two files or sets of files.
COMPACT	Displays or alters the compression of files on NTFS partitions.
CONVERT	Converts FAT volumes to NTFS. You cannot convert the current drive.
COPY	Copies one or more files to another location.
DATE	Displays or sets the date.
DEL	Deletes one or more files.
DIR	Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.
DISKCOMP	Compares the contents of two floppy disks.
DISKCOPY	Copies the contents of one floppy disk to another.
DISKPART	Displays or configures Disk Partition properties.
DOSKEY	Edits command lines, recalls Windows commands, and creates macros.
DRIVERQUERY	Displays current device driver status and properties.
ECHO	Displays messages, or turns command echoing on or off.
ENDLOCAL	Ends localization of environment changes in a batch file.
ERASE	Deletes one or more files.
EXIT	Quits the CMD.EXE program (command interpreter).
FC	Compares two files or sets of files, and displays the differences between them.
FIND	Searches for a text string in a file or files.
FINDSTR	Searches for strings in files.
FOR	Runs a specified command for each file in a set of files.
FORMAT	Formats a disk for use with Windos.
FSUTIL	Displays or configures the file system properties.
FTYPE	Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations.
GOTO	Directs the Windows command interpreter to a labeled line in a batch program.
GPRESULT	Displays Group Policy information for machine or user.
GRAFTABL	Enables Windows to display an extended character set in graphics mode.
HELP	Provides Help information for Windows commands.
ICACLS	Display, modify, backup, or restore ACLs for files and directories.
IF	Performs conditional processing in batch programs.
LABEL	Creates, changes, or deletes the volume label of a disk.
MD	Creates a directory.
MKDIR	Creates a directory.