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Customization Files  Tab completion

Visual Studio Command Prompt

Here is another useful tip from Mark Comeau, this guy needs his own Blog. Then again I'm glad he hasn't got one. What would I write about. :)

Do you find yourself in the Visual Studio Command Prompt from time to time? Of course you do. Do you get to it via:

Start->Programs->Visual Studio .Net 2003->Visual Studio .Net Tools->Visual Studio .NET 2003 Command Prompt

Hopefully you have a shortcut that is closer to your desktop or start menu.

When you open it what directory are you in? Do you have to then use your vast knowledge of command line directory traversal to get to your source code or whatever it is your looking for?

Would you like to right click on a directory in windows explorer and open a Visual Studio Command Prompt already set to that directory?

Just add these entries to your registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmd_vs]
@="Open VS Command Prompt Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmd_vs\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\\Common7\\Tools\\vsvars32.bat\""

If you would like the same functionality from a Drive also add this to your registry.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive\shell\cmd_vs]
@="Open VS Command Prompt Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive\shell\cmd_vs\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\\Common7\\Tools\\vsvars32.bat\""


Thanks Mark thats a good one.

Customize Command Prompt in Windows XP-2000-2003

How can I customize the Command Prompt in Windows XP/2000/2003?

To configure the command prompt in Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003:  

  1. Open Command Prompt.

  2. Click the upper-left corner of the Command Prompt window, and then click Properties.

  1. Click the Options tab.

  2. In Command History, type or select 999 in Buffer Size, and then type or select 5 in Number of Buffers.

  3. In Edit Options, select the Quick Edit Mode and Insert Mode check boxes.

  1. Click the Layout tab.

  2. In Screen Buffer Size, type or select 9999 in Height.

  1. Do any of the following optional tasks:

    • In Screen Buffer Size, increase Width.

    • In Window Size, increase Height.

    • In Window Size, increase Width.

    • Clear the Let system position window check box, and then, in Window Position, change the values in Left and Top.

  2. In the Apply Properties dialog box, click Save properties for future windows with same title.

Note:

I also add a CMD shortcut to my Desktop and the Quick Launch toolbar (you have to enable it in XP) with the following parameters:

In the Target box I add a "/f:1" (without the quotes) to enable auto completion. I also give it a shortcut key (I use F4 but you can choose your own key).

Related articles

You might also want to read the following related articles:
 

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[Customize the command prompt window] - Technology Discussion Forums

 

Posted by: Warez Monster

Customize the command prompt window

The command prompt window is by default pretty small and ugly looking. You can change that by right-clicking the title bar of the command prompt window and selecting Properties. Here you can customize the text and background color, window size and position, and a few other options. When you're done and click OK, you will be prompted whether to apply the changes only to the current window, or to all future command prompt windows. Select the option Save properties for future windows with the same title to have the same look and feel on any command prompt windows you open in the future, even after reboot.

Undocumented Command Prompt Tips

The Windows NT command prompt has many useful function keys and other features. Administrators who migrate to NT from UNIX or OS/2 will like these features because they emulate UNIX and OS/2's command prompts, and they streamline daily tasks. Many of the features I discuss are not documented elsewhere.

Customizing the Prompt
You might not realize that you can customize many NT command prompt options. You can change the command prompt window's default color and title; options such as the Command History, QuickEdit Mode, and Insert Mode; and layout and buffer options.

Colors and titles. Users commonly change the prompt window's default color. Start a command prompt, select the Control menu (click the MS-DOS icon in the top left corner, as Screen 1, page 168, shows), and select Properties. You can select the color of the text, background, and dialog boxes. After you mix your palette, click OK to apply the changes. The dialog box asks whether you want to apply the changes only to the current window or to the shortcut that started the window. If you want to apply your custom settings as the default when you start a command prompt, modify the shortcut.

You can also change the default colors directly from a command prompt. Go to a command prompt and type

color <attr>

The attr option is the foreground and background color attributes, written as two hex digits. The first hex digit specifies the background color, and the second digit specifies the text color. For a list of color attributes, go to a command prompt and type

color /?

To revert to the default colors, execute the color command without entering options.

You can use the title command to change the title of a command prompt window. The command prompt window's default title is the same as the label of the icon you used to start the prompt (i.e., Command Prompt). Sometimes you have multiple command prompts open. You launch multiple command prompts with one icon, so the command prompt windows have identical titles. Changing the titles lets you differentiate among the prompts. To change the title permanently, edit the icon's label. Right-click the icon, select Rename, and enter the title you want. For short-term changes, use the title command. Go to a command prompt and type

title <string>

General options. Screen 2 shows the settings on the Options tab of the Command Prompt Properties dialog box. The following items are the most useful: Command History, QuickEdit Mode, and Insert Mode.

In the Command History section, set the Buffer Size to the number of old commands that you want in the history. You can use the up and down arrows and the F7, F8, and F9 keys to recall commands in the history buffer. You must close and reopen the command prompt for a change in the buffer size to take effect. To eliminate duplicates, select the Discard Old Duplicates option. The command history is valid only while the command prompt is open. If you close the command prompt, the command history disappears.

The QuickEdit Mode lets you copy and paste text from the command prompt without using the control menu. Dragging your mouse over the text you want to copy highlights a rectangular shape. In most Windows applications, when you highlight part of a line and pull the mouse down, the highlighting automatically stretches to the end of the line. In the QuickEdit Mode, the highlighting extends only to the corners of the drag rectangle. You can then copy the text to other Windows applications.

The command prompt's default setting is overtype mode. If you want to set the default for inserting text at the prompt rather than typing over the text that is already there, select the Insert Mode option. To temporarily use the overtype mode from the command prompt, press the Insert key once. Press Insert again to revert to insert mode. This feature works regardless of your default setting.

Layout and buffers. Users often overlook NT's screen buffer, because it is not readily apparent. To set screen buffers, go to the Command Prompt Properties dialog box and select the Layout tab. By default, the screen buffer height and window height are 25, so you cannot scroll. To enable a longer buffer, set the screen buffer height to a larger number, as Screen 3 shows. You can also set the screen buffer width, window width, and window position.

 

Windows Command Prompt (Terminal Window)

`

The Code Project - .NET Command Prompt Here - Macros and Add-ins

Mike Lin's Home Page

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Startup Control Panel
StartupMonitor
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MCL
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AutoIt Downloads Page

AutoIt2 will continue to be available for download and supported to enable legacy scripts to be used. However, new development will now be focused on version 3. 

Both AutoIt2 and AutoIt3 can be installed on the same machine and will not conflict with each other.

  •  AutoIt v3 released. (29th Feb, 2004)
  •  Website look updated (no frames, no java) (28th Mar, 2003)
  •  Added French help file for AutoIt v2.64 (28th Dec, 2002)
  •  Added German help file for AutoIt v2.64 (28th Dec, 2002)
  •  AutoIt v2.64 released (18th Dec, 2002) (History)
  •  AutoItDLL v1.11 released (18th Dec, 2002)
  •  AutoItX v1.51 released (18th Dec, 2002)

People with concerns over a Diablo II hack click here.

EmptyDrive 4.0

EmptyDrive

This little program does its job when you shut down Windows; it'll notify you should there be a floppy disk, CD-ROM, or any another piece of removable media in its respective drive. You can also change the message text that is displayed at windows shutdown, as well as choose which drives are checked for content. By default, all drives are checked.

Message.exe
Message.exe is a small commandline-tool which can be run from batch-scripts to create varios Win32 message-boxes by simply setting some commandline-parameters. the program is small (only 18,5 KB) and very useful for system-administrators who would like to send a warning message, an info window, a question-message or a stop-message to their users via the loginscript. there was no tool i could find which could do this, so i programmed it. the read-from-file function and the read from standard-input is not yet implemented, but it already works quite well. FileScan Tool
A file-triggered event utility; scan directories for incoming files and pre-program what to do with them. Choose from a powerful set of internal commands (copy, move, delete, purge, create dir, remove dir etc.) or call your own external program(s). Version-4 has lots of new features and enhancements; dynamically create your own variables to manipulate strings etc., improved command-script interface, improved logging, scan directories at pre-defined intervals or preset time-of-day. Under NT, FST can run as a service. Download your copy today!

System Scheduler, Windows 9x, NT, 2000, XP and 2003 Task Scheduling Software for free

Download Free and Professional Versions
Take the Tour
Purchase Professional Version
System Scheduler FAQ
 
Current Version:3.34   Last Updated:September 25th 2004

System Scheduler Free Version

System Scheduler (previously known as "Windows Scheduler") is an excellent tool to schedule unattended running of applications, batch files, scripts and much more. For anyone used to using MSTask, AT or WinAT, System Scheduler is an ideal and easy to use replacement, with more flexibility and features. Also, you can schedule popup reminders so you'll never forget those important appointments and things to do. Reminders, tasks and other events can be set to run once or every minute, hour, day, week, month or year and several variations on these.

System Scheduler not only allows you to launch programs at scheduled times but also to send keypresses to those programs. This allows you to not only schedule programs to run overnight or at the weekend but also get those programs to do useful things.

System Scheduler also has a "window watcher" feature. The program will check for the existence of a particular window and send keypresses or send the window a 'close signal' to terminate running applications. Useful for triggering actions when 'error messages' appear while you are away.


System Scheduler Professional

The Professional version contains all the great features of the free version plus more:
Bullet Runs as a system Service (run jobs while logged off)
Bullet Shutdown/Reboot local and REMOTE computers
Bullet Auto-Logon/Logoff Computer
Bullet Auto-Lock/Unlock Console
Bullet File Watcher
Bullet Run Programs/Tasks on Logon and Logoff/Shutdown
Bullet Schedule Missed Events to run on Startup/Logon
Bullet Extra Scheduling Options such as 'On Idle', 'On Cease Idle'
Bullet Priority Email Support from Splinterware
Bullet Upgrades for a year
Bullet All for just $30 (US)

Splinterware Product Information - Launchkey

Launchkey can be used to run an application and then send it keypresses.

It is a simple command line utility that can be run from a command prompt or from other applications.

The command line takes this format:

Launchkey {KEYS TO SEND} {APPLICATION TO RUN} {APPLICATION PARAMETERS}
e.g. Lanchkey "Here is some text." "Notepad.EXE" "C:\MyFile.TXT"

You can send all the normal key character keys as well as special keys like ALT, CTRL, F1-F12 etc. Details on how to send key presses is contained in the accompanying Helpfile.
 

 

Disk Analysis

  • CatFish
    Save snapshots of the dir/file structure of your disks, and instantly browse through them at any time. These catalogs are very compact, and can easily deal with huge directory trees on large disks or on CD-ROM software collections.
  • Dir Size View
    Display a graphical view of disk space used.
  • Disk Analyzer
    A useful FREEWARE Windows 95/98/NT utility that allows computer owners to analyze disk space usage. It's easy to use and fast. With just a few clicks of your mouse you can make analysis of the selected drive or directory. Program provides flexible summary and sort functions so that the disk space usage information is readily accessible in a variety of ways. Find and delete quickly old, large files to recover disk space! New in v1.1: finds duplicate files; new status window; right mouse click on any individual item in the summary window opens MS Explorer with the selected directory.
  • Disk Usage 99
    The all new Disk Usage 99 allows you to monitor free and used drive space on you local or network drives. Display up to 5 drives with Windows 95 like pie chart and one total chart.
  • diskSpace Explorer 2000
    diskSpace Explorer 2000 is a powerful, yet intuitive and easy to use space manager for Windows 95/98/NT that can help you manage disk space and make intelligent allocation decisions for its limited capacity. It features an intuitive pie chart that graphically displays the contents of your folders. You can easily navigate through your files and folders just by clicking anywhere on the pie chart. diskSpace Explorer 2000 reports detailed information about the amount of space used and wasted by your files and folders. You can also experiment and see how your drive would look by another cluster size or file system, feature that can help you make intelligent allocation decisions. diskSpace Explorer 2000 can gain free space by compressing folders, by reducing the wasted space or by deleting the folders you no longer need.
  • Media Checker
    This utility program will help you check all your media (fixed or removable like diskettes, zip, magneto-optical disks, or CD-R,...) and ensure that all your precious data that you store on them are safe and can be accessed successfully.
  • Scanner
    A hard disk usage visualization tool. An extended pie chart displays all major files and folders. The directory levels are represented by concentric rings. Information on a particular item of the chart is available by moving the cursor over.
  • WinFree
    A utility to monitor all used, unused or free space of any or all drives (except floppies) connected to your computer.

Partition Manager

Ranish Partition Manager is a powerful hard disk partitioning tool.
It gives users high level of control for running multiple operating systems,
such as Linux, Windows 98/XP, FreeDOS, and FreeBSD on a single disk.

Partition Manager can create, copy, and resize primary and extended partitions.
It includes command line interface and simulation mode that works with large files
so you can safely experiment before working on the real hard drive partition tables.

 

XOSL Screenshot 
Partition Manager 
SCREENSHOTS 		Download XOSL 1.1.5 (450k), XOSL Source (GPL) (Geurt Vos)
Partition Manager  2.37 (166k) September 15, 1998. {Runs on 8086}
Partition Manager  2.40 (60k)   February 8, 2001. (Mikhail Ranish) Stable
Partition Manager  2.43 (172k) April 10, 2002. Beta by Muthu.
Partition Manager  2.44 (138k) June 09, 2002. Beta-Beta-Beta.

Partitioning Primer (French, German)  Version 2.37 FAQ (French)

 
Help: Partition Manager User Group, Version 2.43 FAQ, Readme, Dual-Booting Linux
XOSL Boot Manager User Group, Important XOSL documentation (FAQ, HOWTO)
Multi-boot: Archer's HD Page, Multi-boot by Mariusz Zynel, Trombettworks Multi-boot HowTo
Hard disks: Boot Sequence, How-It-Works, Terms, Hidden Secrets, Recovering Secret HD Space!
Other apps: Bootpart, Diskman, GAG, OS Loader, SavePart, SBM, Volkov, Zeleps Partition Resizer

 

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Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

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The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

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Last modified: March 12, 2019