Neil's C++ Stuff: Windows

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Content created by Neil C. Obremski. Please make a link to this page if you copy any portion of these works.

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Opening a Console

Please follow the instructions for your particular flavor of Microsoft Windows.

Windows 95 / Windows 98 / Windows ME

A console window on this system is commonly known as a DOS Box because it is allows you to actually use MS-DOS from within a window. To open one, follow these instructions:

Open up the Start menu
Select the "Run" option.
A window entitled "Run" will pop up. In the input box type "command" and press enter.
The console will commonly look like the one below.

I won't cover the buttons, you'll have to figure them out on your own :).

Windows NT / Windows 2000

You'll want to follow the instructions given above with one exception. Rather than typing "command" for Step 3, you should type "cmd". Otherwise you'll get a slowly emulated DOS box rather than a native console window.

Short-Cut Tip

Here's a tip for speeding things up. Instead of going through the start menu and clicking "Run", you can simply hold down the Windows key on your keyboard (the one with a little flying window on it) and press the letter "R". That will pop up the "Run" window.

Using a Console

The commands you'll need to know for consoles in Windows are identical between flavors and DOS as well. If you know DOS, then you don't need to be reading this section at all. However, if all you've ever done is clicked here and there to do everything on your computer, it is an absolute necessity for you to read this section, or you'll be in a world of hurt for the software and programming instructions I give.

Prompt

When you first open up a console in Windows you'll see a fully path followed by a greater than sign. Like this:

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>

Just after that will be the text cursor. This whole gizmo is called the prompt. It represents the computer's request for command input. It says, "Hey, I'm ready to do your bidding, oh great and wonderful master of the computer and bedroom". At least, you hope that's what it and your girlfriend is asking (no the naked ladies on the internet don't count as girlfriends :).

Directory Listing

You can list the files in any directory by typing:

dir [enter]

If you're in a directory with lots of stuff, then it will just whiz by and you won't see it. If that happens you can have it pause at the end of every page listed:

dir /p [enter]

Or if there's not too much stuff, you can have it list it in multiple columns:

dir /w [enter]

Better yet, you can do a combination:

dir /w/p [enter]

I bet you're feeling good now ... doing all this advanced stuff :).

Changing Directories

You can change the directory you're "in" using the command "cd" which means "change directory" (dur). This of course changes what the current working directory is. When you first open up the console, it usually starts in "C:\WINDOWS\Desktop". Let's change that to just "C:\WINDOWS":

cd \WINDOWS [enter]

You'll note that I didn't include the drive letter "C:". That's because you can't change the drive you're using with the "cd" command. To change to a different drive, simply type it's letter followed by a colon. So, if we wanted to change to drive "D:":

D: [enter]

Getting back to directories. You should still be in "C:\WINDOWS". Let's go back into the "Desktop" directory:

cd Desktop [enter]

Since it is inside our current directory (C:\WINDOWS), we don't have to type out the full path. The following would have been just as effective, but it's more typing (and oh, our poor wrists!):

cd \WINDOWS\Desktop [enter]

There's a couple cool short-cuts. To change the current directory to the parent of the one we're in (the parent of "Desktop" is "WINDOWS"), you can just use two dots. So if we're in "C:\WINDOWS\Desktop" and we want to be in "C:\WINDOWS", we can simply type:

cd .. [enter]

Wow! It's amazing! Tell me more! The ".." simply means "parent directory". You can use it more than once too, when seperated by backslashes. So we could go all the way up to "C:\" from "C:\WINDOWS\Desktop" by typing:

cd ..\..\ [enter]

When you're at the topmost directory of any drive, you'll see a backslash at the end of the path on your prompt:

C:\>

Don't ask me why, that's just the way it is. The top-most directory is known as the root directory. You can get to it any time by simply typing:

cd \

Again, you can add to that with child directories like "WINDOWS" and then "Desktop" to start from the root and work your way down:

cd \WINDOWS\Desktop

It all comes together :).

Closing

I hope you've gathered enough to know how to "kind" of use a console in Windows. The compilers will each have their own instructions for commands to enter and such. Good luck!

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