Technology Notebook

WINDOWS 2000::CMD.EXE::Tips

Autocomplete at command line

Why do I care?

Autocomplete for CMD.exe is not enabled by default in Windows 2000 and later.
When you type a path and then press the TAB key, the command processor searches for all files whose path (but not necessarily the file name) matches your entry. The command processor displays one of the matching file names each time you press TAB. To go backward through the list of file names, press SHIFT+TAB.

How do I get it?

To enable automatic complete for Cmd.exe, use Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) to view the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Command Processor

Edit the CompletionChar value, and set the value of REG_DWORD to 9.

Thanks Kevin and Microsoft