Command Prompt tricks, Hacks, and secrets
in WindoWs 8, 7, Vista, and XP
The Windows Command Prompt tool, and many of its commands, might seem boring
or even relatively useless at first glance, but as anyone who has ever used the
Command Prompt very often can tell you, there's much to love!
Below are several Command Prompt tricks and other Command Prompt hacks that I
guarantee will get you excited about many of the mundane sounding Command Prompt
commands like telnet, tree, or robocopy... okay, robocopy sounds pretty cool.
Some of these Command Prompt tricks and hacks are special features or uses of the
Command Prompt itself, while others are just neat or relatively unknown things you can
do with certain commands. Enjoy!
1 . Use Ctrl-C to Abort a Command
Just about any command can be stopped in its tracks with the abort command: Ctrl-C.
If you haven't actually executed a command, you can just backspace and erase whatyou've typed, but if you've already executed it then you can do a Ctrl-C to stop it.
Warning: Ctrl-C isn't a magic wand and it can't undo things that aren't undoable, like a
partially complete format command. However, for things like the dir command that
seem to go on forever or questions you're asked at the prompt that you don't know the
answer to, the abort command is an excellent Command Prompt trick to know.
2 . View a Command's Results One Page (or Line) at a Time
Ever run a command, like the dir command, that produces so much information on the
screen that it's almost useless? You're not alone.
One way around this is to execute the command in a special way so whatever
information is generated is shown to you one page, or one line, at a time.
To do this, just type the command, the dir command for example, and then follow it with
the pipe redirection operator and then the more command.
For example, executing dir /s | more will generate the thousands of lines of results that
you expect from the dir command, but the more command will pause each page of
results with -- More -- at the bottom of the page, indicating that the command is not
done running.
See Command Prompt Trick #7 below for a different solution to this problem.
Many commands require that you execute them from an elevated Command Prompt in
Windows - in other words, execute them from a Command Prompt that's run as an
administrator.
You can always right-click on any Command Prompt shortcut and choose Run as
administrator but creating a shortcut to do the same thing can be a huge time saver if
you're a frequent Command Prompt power user.
To complete this Command Prompt trick, just create a Command Prompt shortcut on
the desktop, enter the shortcut's properties and then select the Run as administrator
box located in the Advanced button on the Shortcut tab.
The fact that the function keys actually do something in the Command Prompt is maybe
one of the best kept secrets about the tool:
F1: Pastes the last executed command (character by character)
F2: Pastes the last executed command (up to the entered character)
F3: Pastes the last executed command
F4: Deletes current prompt text up to the entered character
F5: Pastes recently executed commands (does not cycle)
F6: Pastes ^Z to the prompt
F7: Displays a selectable list of previously executed commands
F8: Pastes recently executed commands (cycles)
F9: Asks for the number of the command from the F7 list to paste
5 . Hack the Prompt Text
Did you know that the prompt itself in the Command Prompt is completely customizable
thanks to the prompt command? It is, and when I say customizable, I mean really
customizable.
Instead of C:\>, you can set the prompt to any text you want, have it include the time,
the current drive, the Windows version number, you name it.
One useful example is prompt $m$p$g which will show the full path of a mapped drive
in the prompt, alongside the drive letter.
You can always execute prompt alone, without options, to return it to its sometimes
boring default.
Command Prompt Trick #17 is full of arrow key shortcuts, a few of which are similar to
these function key tricks.
Believe it or not, the help command does not provide help for every Command Prompt
command. However, any command can be suffixed with the /? option, usually called
the help switch, to display detailed information about the command's syntax and often
times even some examples.
I doubt that the help switch is the coolest Command Prompt trick you've ever heard of,
but it's hard to disagree that it's one of the more useful.
Unfortunately, neither the help command nor the help switch offer much in the way of
explaining how to interpret the syntax. See How To Read Command Syntax if you need
help with that.
7 . Save a Command's Output to a File
An incredibly useful Command Prompt trick is the use of redirection operators,
specifically the > and >> operators.
These little characters let you redirect the output of a command to a file, giving you a
saved version of whatever data the command produced in the Command Prompt
window.
For example, let's say you're about to post a computer problem to an online forum and
you want to provide really accurate information about your computer. An easy way to
do that would be to use the systeminfo command with a redirection operator.
For example, you might execute systeminfo > c:\mycomputerinfo.txt to save the
information provided by the systeminfo command to a file. You could then attach the
file to your forum post.
See How To Redirect Command Output to a File for more examples and a better
explanation of how to use redirection operators.
8 . View a Drive's Entire Directory Structure
I think one of the neatest little commands is the tree command. With tree, you can
create a kind of map of the directories on any of your computer's drives.
Execute tree from any directory to see the folder structure under that directory.
Tip: With so much information, it's probably a good idea to export the results of the tree
command to a file. For example, tree /a > c:\treeresults.txt, just as explained in
Command Prompt Trick #7.
9 . Customize the Command Prompt Title Bar Text
Tired of that Command Prompt title bar text? No problem, just use the title command to
hack it say whatever you like.
For example, let's say your name is Maria Smith, and you want to express your
ownership of the Command Prompt: execute title Property of Maria Smith and the
Command Prompt's title bar will change immediately.
The change won't stick, so the next time you open Command Prompt the title bar will
be back to normal.
The title command is usually used to help give a custom appearance in script files and
batch files... not that I'm saying titling it with your name isn't a good idea!
But what if you do just want to copy a short section of text to the clipboard? It's not too
hard but it's not very intuitive either.
Right-click anywhere in the Command Prompt window and choose Mark. Now, highlight
with your left mouse button whatever you'd like to copy. Once your selection is made,
press Enter.
Now you can paste that information into whatever program you'd like.
If you've ever worked in the Command Prompt for very long, you know that it can be
really frustrating executing the cd/chdir command over and over again to get to the right
directory you want to work from.
Luckily, there's a super easy Command Prompt trick that will let you open a Command
Prompt window from whatever folder you're viewing in Windows.
All you have to do is navigate, in Windows, to the folder you want to start working from
in the Command Prompt. Once there, hold down your Shift key while you right-click
anywhere in the folder. Once the menu pops up, you'll notice an entry that's not usually
there: Open command window here.
Click it and you'll start a new instance of the Command Prompt, ready and waiting at
the right location!
If you're a Command Prompt power user, you'll immediately recognize the value in this
little trick.
12 . Drag and Drop For Easy Path Name Entry
Most Command Prompt commands require you, or have options, to specify full paths to
files or folders but typing out a long path can be frustrating, especially when you miss a
character and have to start over.
For example, in Windows 7, the path to the Accessories group in my Start Menu is C:
\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
\Accessories. Who wants to type that all in manually? Not me.
Luckily there's a Command Prompt trick that makes this much easier: drag and drop.
Just navigate to the folder you want the path for in Windows Explorer. Once there, drag
the folder or file to the Command Prompt window and let go. Like magic, the full path is
inserted, saving you a considerable amount of typing depending on the length and
complexity of the path name.
Note: Unfortunately, the drag and drop feature does not work in an elevated Command
Prompt.
13 . Shut Down or Restart Another Computer
System administrators in a business environment do this all the time for lots of reasons,
but you can also shut down or restart another computer on your network, all from your
computer's Command Prompt.
The easiest way to shut down a computer remotely is to execute shutdown /i from the
Command Prompt which will open the Remote Shutdown Dialog, shown here. Just
enter the name of the remote computer (which you can get by running the hostname
command on the other PC), choose what you want to do (restart or shutdown), select
some other options and then click OK.
So whether you're brushing up on your command skills or just scaring a family member,
this Command Prompt trick is a fun one.
You can also shut down or restart another computer strictly from the Command Prompt
with the shutdown command, without using the Remote Shutdown Dialog.
14 . Use Robocopy as a Backup Solution
Thanks to the robocopy command, you don't need to use Window's backup software or
install a third party program to manage your backups.
Just execute robocopy c:\users\tim\documents f:\backup\documents /copyall /e /r:0
/dcopy:t /mir, obviously replacing the source and destination folders with whatever
you'd like to backup and where. The robocopy command with these options functions
identically to an incremental backup software tool, keeping both locations in sync.
You don't have the robocopy command if you're using Windows XP or earlier. However,
you do have the xcopy command, which can be used to do something very similar:
xcopy c:\users\tim\documents f:\backup\documents /c /d /e /h /i /k /q /r /s /x /y.
No matter which command you choose to use, just create a script file containing the
command and schedule it to run in Task Scheduler and you'll have your own custom
made backup solution.
I've chosen to use the robocopy command on my personal computers as my only local
backup solution because I like the level of control it gives me. Hopefully you take that
as a vote of confidence in this incredibly useful Command Prompt trick.
15 . View Your Computer's Important Network Information
Maybe just for your own information, but certainly when you're troubleshooting a
network or Internet problem, you'll probably at some point need to know details about
your computer's network connection.
Everything you'd want to know about your network connection is available somewhere
in the Control Panel in Windows, but it's much easier to find, and much better
organized, in the results from the ipconfig command.
Open Command Prompt and execute ipconfig /all. What displays on screen next is
everything important about your network connection: your IP address, hostname,
DHCP server, DNS information, and much, much more.
Combine this hack with Command Prompt Trick #7 and you've got a very easy way to
get information about your connection to someone helping you with a problem.
16 . Map a Local Folder Just Like a Network Drive
The net use command is used to assign shared drives on a network to your own
computer as a drive letter, but did you know there's another command that can be used
to do the same thing to any folder on any of your local hard drives?
There is and it's called the subst command. Just execute the subst command, followed
by the path of the folder you wish to appear as a drive. For example, let's say you want
your C:\Windows\Fonts folder to appear as the Q: drive. Just execute subst q: c:
\windows\fonts and you're set!
This Command Prompt trick makes accessing a particular location from the Command
Prompt much easier.
17 . Access Previously Used Command with the Arrow Keys
Another great Command Prompt trick has to be the use of the keyboard arrow keys to
cycle through previously executed commands. The up and down arrow keys cycle
through the commands you've entered and the right arrow automatically enters,
character by character, the last command you executed.
This might not sound that interesting, but there are several situations where the arrow
keys become huge time savers.
Consider this example: You've typed out 75 characters of a command and then try to
execute it, only to find that you forgot to add an option at the very end. No problem, just
hit the up arrow and the entire command is automatically entered in the Command
Prompt window, ready for you to edit to make it work.
18 . Automatically Complete Commands with Tab Completion
Tab completion is another Command Prompt trick that can save you lots of time,
especially if your command has a file or folder name in it that you're not completely
sure of.
To use tab completion in the Command Prompt, just enter the command and then the
portion of the path that you do know, if at all. Then press the tab key over and over to
cycle through all of the available possibilities.
For example, let's say you want to change directories to some folder in the Windows
directory but you're not sure what it's named. Type cd c:\windows\ and then press tab
until you see the folder you're looking for. The results cycle or you can use Shift+Tab to
step through the results in reverse.
19 . Find a Website's IP Address
Like to know the IP address of a website? There are a few different commands you can
use to find it.
Let's use the nslookup command to find the IP address of About.com. Just execute
nslookup about.com and view the result. Make sure you don't confuse any private IP
addresses that also show up in the nslookup results alongside About.com's public IP
address.
Another way to find a site's IP address is to use the ping command. Execute ping
about.com and then look at the IP address between the brackets in the results shown.
Using either Command Prompt trick, the result is 207.241.148.80.
20 . Copy & Paste Easier with QuickEditMode
How about an even easier way to copy from the Command Prompt? And a secret way
to easily paste?
Just right-click on the Command Prompt title bar and select Properties. On the Options
tab, in the Edit Options section, check the QuickEdit Mode box and then click OK.
Enabling QuickEdit Mode is like having Mark enabled all the time so selecting text to
copy is really easy.
But it also enables an easy way to paste into the Command Prompt: just right click
once and whatever is in the clipboard is pasted in the Command Prompt window.
Normally, pasting involves right-clicking and selecting Paste.
21 . Watch Star Wars Episode IV
Yes, you read that correctly, you can watch an ASCII version of the full Star Wars
Episode IV movie right in the Command Prompt window!
Just open Command Prompt and execute telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl. The movie will
start immediately. This isn't a terribly productive use of the Command Prompt, nor is it
really a trick of the Command Prompt or any command, but it sure is fun!
Note: The telnet command is not enabled by default in Windows 7 or Windows Vista
but can be turned on by enabling Telnet Client from Windows Features in the Programs
and Features applet in Control Panel. If you'd rather not enable Telnet but would like to
see the movie, you can also watch it in your browser here.
in WindoWs 8, 7, Vista, and XP
The Windows Command Prompt tool, and many of its commands, might seem boring
or even relatively useless at first glance, but as anyone who has ever used the
Command Prompt very often can tell you, there's much to love!
Below are several Command Prompt tricks and other Command Prompt hacks that I
guarantee will get you excited about many of the mundane sounding Command Prompt
commands like telnet, tree, or robocopy... okay, robocopy sounds pretty cool.
Some of these Command Prompt tricks and hacks are special features or uses of the
Command Prompt itself, while others are just neat or relatively unknown things you can
do with certain commands. Enjoy!
1 . Use Ctrl-C to Abort a Command
Just about any command can be stopped in its tracks with the abort command: Ctrl-C.
If you haven't actually executed a command, you can just backspace and erase whatyou've typed, but if you've already executed it then you can do a Ctrl-C to stop it.
Warning: Ctrl-C isn't a magic wand and it can't undo things that aren't undoable, like a
partially complete format command. However, for things like the dir command that
seem to go on forever or questions you're asked at the prompt that you don't know the
answer to, the abort command is an excellent Command Prompt trick to know.
2 . View a Command's Results One Page (or Line) at a Time
Ever run a command, like the dir command, that produces so much information on the
screen that it's almost useless? You're not alone.
One way around this is to execute the command in a special way so whatever
information is generated is shown to you one page, or one line, at a time.
To do this, just type the command, the dir command for example, and then follow it with
the pipe redirection operator and then the more command.
For example, executing dir /s | more will generate the thousands of lines of results that
you expect from the dir command, but the more command will pause each page of
results with -- More -- at the bottom of the page, indicating that the command is not
done running.
Just press the space bar to advance by page or press the Enter key to advance one
line at a time.
line at a time.
See Command Prompt Trick #7 below for a different solution to this problem.
3 . Run Command Prompt as an Administrator Automatically
Many commands require that you execute them from an elevated Command Prompt in
Windows - in other words, execute them from a Command Prompt that's run as an
administrator.
You can always right-click on any Command Prompt shortcut and choose Run as
administrator but creating a shortcut to do the same thing can be a huge time saver if
you're a frequent Command Prompt power user.
To complete this Command Prompt trick, just create a Command Prompt shortcut on
the desktop, enter the shortcut's properties and then select the Run as administrator
box located in the Advanced button on the Shortcut tab.
4 . Become a Command Prompt Power User with Function Keys
The fact that the function keys actually do something in the Command Prompt is maybe
one of the best kept secrets about the tool:
F1: Pastes the last executed command (character by character)
F2: Pastes the last executed command (up to the entered character)
F3: Pastes the last executed command
F4: Deletes current prompt text up to the entered character
F5: Pastes recently executed commands (does not cycle)
F6: Pastes ^Z to the prompt
F7: Displays a selectable list of previously executed commands
F8: Pastes recently executed commands (cycles)
F9: Asks for the number of the command from the F7 list to paste
5 . Hack the Prompt Text
Did you know that the prompt itself in the Command Prompt is completely customizable
thanks to the prompt command? It is, and when I say customizable, I mean really
customizable.
Instead of C:\>, you can set the prompt to any text you want, have it include the time,
the current drive, the Windows version number, you name it.
One useful example is prompt $m$p$g which will show the full path of a mapped drive
in the prompt, alongside the drive letter.
You can always execute prompt alone, without options, to return it to its sometimes
boring default.
Command Prompt Trick #17 is full of arrow key shortcuts, a few of which are similar to
these function key tricks.
6 . Get Help for Any Command
Believe it or not, the help command does not provide help for every Command Prompt
command. However, any command can be suffixed with the /? option, usually called
the help switch, to display detailed information about the command's syntax and often
times even some examples.
I doubt that the help switch is the coolest Command Prompt trick you've ever heard of,
but it's hard to disagree that it's one of the more useful.
Unfortunately, neither the help command nor the help switch offer much in the way of
explaining how to interpret the syntax. See How To Read Command Syntax if you need
help with that.
7 . Save a Command's Output to a File
An incredibly useful Command Prompt trick is the use of redirection operators,
specifically the > and >> operators.
These little characters let you redirect the output of a command to a file, giving you a
saved version of whatever data the command produced in the Command Prompt
window.
For example, let's say you're about to post a computer problem to an online forum and
you want to provide really accurate information about your computer. An easy way to
do that would be to use the systeminfo command with a redirection operator.
For example, you might execute systeminfo > c:\mycomputerinfo.txt to save the
information provided by the systeminfo command to a file. You could then attach the
file to your forum post.
See How To Redirect Command Output to a File for more examples and a better
explanation of how to use redirection operators.
8 . View a Drive's Entire Directory Structure
I think one of the neatest little commands is the tree command. With tree, you can
create a kind of map of the directories on any of your computer's drives.
Execute tree from any directory to see the folder structure under that directory.
Tip: With so much information, it's probably a good idea to export the results of the tree
command to a file. For example, tree /a > c:\treeresults.txt, just as explained in
Command Prompt Trick #7.
9 . Customize the Command Prompt Title Bar Text
Tired of that Command Prompt title bar text? No problem, just use the title command to
hack it say whatever you like.
For example, let's say your name is Maria Smith, and you want to express your
ownership of the Command Prompt: execute title Property of Maria Smith and the
Command Prompt's title bar will change immediately.
The change won't stick, so the next time you open Command Prompt the title bar will
be back to normal.
The title command is usually used to help give a custom appearance in script files and
batch files... not that I'm saying titling it with your name isn't a good idea!
10 . Copy From the Command Prompt
As you may or may not know, copying from the Command Prompt is not as easy as
copying from other programs, which is part of the reason why saving a command's
output to a file, Command Prompt Trick #7, is so handy.
As you may or may not know, copying from the Command Prompt is not as easy as
copying from other programs, which is part of the reason why saving a command's
output to a file, Command Prompt Trick #7, is so handy.
But what if you do just want to copy a short section of text to the clipboard? It's not too
hard but it's not very intuitive either.
Right-click anywhere in the Command Prompt window and choose Mark. Now, highlight
with your left mouse button whatever you'd like to copy. Once your selection is made,
press Enter.
Now you can paste that information into whatever program you'd like.
11 . Open the Command Prompt From Any Location
If you've ever worked in the Command Prompt for very long, you know that it can be
really frustrating executing the cd/chdir command over and over again to get to the right
directory you want to work from.
Luckily, there's a super easy Command Prompt trick that will let you open a Command
Prompt window from whatever folder you're viewing in Windows.
All you have to do is navigate, in Windows, to the folder you want to start working from
in the Command Prompt. Once there, hold down your Shift key while you right-click
anywhere in the folder. Once the menu pops up, you'll notice an entry that's not usually
there: Open command window here.
Click it and you'll start a new instance of the Command Prompt, ready and waiting at
the right location!
If you're a Command Prompt power user, you'll immediately recognize the value in this
little trick.
12 . Drag and Drop For Easy Path Name Entry
Most Command Prompt commands require you, or have options, to specify full paths to
files or folders but typing out a long path can be frustrating, especially when you miss a
character and have to start over.
For example, in Windows 7, the path to the Accessories group in my Start Menu is C:
\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
\Accessories. Who wants to type that all in manually? Not me.
Luckily there's a Command Prompt trick that makes this much easier: drag and drop.
Just navigate to the folder you want the path for in Windows Explorer. Once there, drag
the folder or file to the Command Prompt window and let go. Like magic, the full path is
inserted, saving you a considerable amount of typing depending on the length and
complexity of the path name.
Note: Unfortunately, the drag and drop feature does not work in an elevated Command
Prompt.
13 . Shut Down or Restart Another Computer
System administrators in a business environment do this all the time for lots of reasons,
but you can also shut down or restart another computer on your network, all from your
computer's Command Prompt.
The easiest way to shut down a computer remotely is to execute shutdown /i from the
Command Prompt which will open the Remote Shutdown Dialog, shown here. Just
enter the name of the remote computer (which you can get by running the hostname
command on the other PC), choose what you want to do (restart or shutdown), select
some other options and then click OK.
So whether you're brushing up on your command skills or just scaring a family member,
this Command Prompt trick is a fun one.
You can also shut down or restart another computer strictly from the Command Prompt
with the shutdown command, without using the Remote Shutdown Dialog.
14 . Use Robocopy as a Backup Solution
Thanks to the robocopy command, you don't need to use Window's backup software or
install a third party program to manage your backups.
Just execute robocopy c:\users\tim\documents f:\backup\documents /copyall /e /r:0
/dcopy:t /mir, obviously replacing the source and destination folders with whatever
you'd like to backup and where. The robocopy command with these options functions
identically to an incremental backup software tool, keeping both locations in sync.
You don't have the robocopy command if you're using Windows XP or earlier. However,
you do have the xcopy command, which can be used to do something very similar:
xcopy c:\users\tim\documents f:\backup\documents /c /d /e /h /i /k /q /r /s /x /y.
No matter which command you choose to use, just create a script file containing the
command and schedule it to run in Task Scheduler and you'll have your own custom
made backup solution.
I've chosen to use the robocopy command on my personal computers as my only local
backup solution because I like the level of control it gives me. Hopefully you take that
as a vote of confidence in this incredibly useful Command Prompt trick.
15 . View Your Computer's Important Network Information
Maybe just for your own information, but certainly when you're troubleshooting a
network or Internet problem, you'll probably at some point need to know details about
your computer's network connection.
Everything you'd want to know about your network connection is available somewhere
in the Control Panel in Windows, but it's much easier to find, and much better
organized, in the results from the ipconfig command.
Open Command Prompt and execute ipconfig /all. What displays on screen next is
everything important about your network connection: your IP address, hostname,
DHCP server, DNS information, and much, much more.
Combine this hack with Command Prompt Trick #7 and you've got a very easy way to
get information about your connection to someone helping you with a problem.
16 . Map a Local Folder Just Like a Network Drive
The net use command is used to assign shared drives on a network to your own
computer as a drive letter, but did you know there's another command that can be used
to do the same thing to any folder on any of your local hard drives?
There is and it's called the subst command. Just execute the subst command, followed
by the path of the folder you wish to appear as a drive. For example, let's say you want
your C:\Windows\Fonts folder to appear as the Q: drive. Just execute subst q: c:
\windows\fonts and you're set!
This Command Prompt trick makes accessing a particular location from the Command
Prompt much easier.
17 . Access Previously Used Command with the Arrow Keys
Another great Command Prompt trick has to be the use of the keyboard arrow keys to
cycle through previously executed commands. The up and down arrow keys cycle
through the commands you've entered and the right arrow automatically enters,
character by character, the last command you executed.
This might not sound that interesting, but there are several situations where the arrow
keys become huge time savers.
Consider this example: You've typed out 75 characters of a command and then try to
execute it, only to find that you forgot to add an option at the very end. No problem, just
hit the up arrow and the entire command is automatically entered in the Command
Prompt window, ready for you to edit to make it work.
Tab completion is another Command Prompt trick that can save you lots of time,
especially if your command has a file or folder name in it that you're not completely
sure of.
To use tab completion in the Command Prompt, just enter the command and then the
portion of the path that you do know, if at all. Then press the tab key over and over to
cycle through all of the available possibilities.
For example, let's say you want to change directories to some folder in the Windows
directory but you're not sure what it's named. Type cd c:\windows\ and then press tab
until you see the folder you're looking for. The results cycle or you can use Shift+Tab to
step through the results in reverse.
19 . Find a Website's IP Address
Like to know the IP address of a website? There are a few different commands you can
use to find it.
Let's use the nslookup command to find the IP address of About.com. Just execute
nslookup about.com and view the result. Make sure you don't confuse any private IP
addresses that also show up in the nslookup results alongside About.com's public IP
address.
Another way to find a site's IP address is to use the ping command. Execute ping
about.com and then look at the IP address between the brackets in the results shown.
Using either Command Prompt trick, the result is 207.241.148.80.
20 . Copy & Paste Easier with QuickEditMode
How about an even easier way to copy from the Command Prompt? And a secret way
to easily paste?
Just right-click on the Command Prompt title bar and select Properties. On the Options
tab, in the Edit Options section, check the QuickEdit Mode box and then click OK.
Enabling QuickEdit Mode is like having Mark enabled all the time so selecting text to
copy is really easy.
But it also enables an easy way to paste into the Command Prompt: just right click
once and whatever is in the clipboard is pasted in the Command Prompt window.
Normally, pasting involves right-clicking and selecting Paste.
21 . Watch Star Wars Episode IV
Yes, you read that correctly, you can watch an ASCII version of the full Star Wars
Episode IV movie right in the Command Prompt window!
Just open Command Prompt and execute telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl. The movie will
start immediately. This isn't a terribly productive use of the Command Prompt, nor is it
really a trick of the Command Prompt or any command, but it sure is fun!
Note: The telnet command is not enabled by default in Windows 7 or Windows Vista
but can be turned on by enabling Telnet Client from Windows Features in the Programs
and Features applet in Control Panel. If you'd rather not enable Telnet but would like to
see the movie, you can also watch it in your browser here.
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