5 Windows Command Prompt Tricks You Probably Don’t Know

[John Williamson]

I think I agree with you, though not sure about the percentage. But I
_do_ use keyboard shortcuts a lot, in nominally GUI softwares; is that
GUI or not?

Most of the Windows ones I use were put there in Windows 2 or 3,
replacing F key commands in DOS. Some of the F key commands still work
as they did in DOS, too. Tricky...

You normally need to select what's to be affected with a mouse or other
pointing device, though, so that may make it all GUI.

I think some of the Windows shortcuts were "borrowed" from the PARC
work, and were in turn influenced by or influenced the *nix X window
server commands.

Ctrl-c, ctrl-x, ctrl-z and ctrl-v seem to work the same way across all
the GUI platforms I've used, as do F5 and F3.

 

[Roger Mills]

Actually you are wrong. The command line in Windows 7 is NOT "dos".
Windows 7 has NO DOS underlying it at all.

That is, of course correct. ISTR that, for early versions of Windows,
you booted into DOS first and then loaded Windows from DOS. But that
hasn't been the case for a long time now.

Having said that, most DOS commands work at the command prompt in W7,
even though you're not using true DOS.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: []

I think I agree with you, though not sure about the percentage. But I
_do_ use keyboard shortcuts a lot, in nominally GUI softwares; is that
GUI or not?

Most of the Windows ones I use were put there in Windows 2 or 3,
replacing F key commands in DOS. Some of the F key commands still work
as they did in DOS, too. Tricky...

You normally need to select what's to be affected with a mouse or other
pointing device, though, so that may make it all GUI.

You're right, of course - I was thinking of IrfanView, which being a
graphics prog. does indeed use the mouse to select (and I don't _think_
there's a keyboard way in it to do that, though once you've selected an
area, you _can_ move it around from the keyboard).

I think some of the Windows shortcuts were "borrowed" from the PARC
work, and were in turn influenced by or influenced the *nix X window
server commands.

Ctrl-c, ctrl-x, ctrl-z and ctrl-v seem to work the same way across all
the GUI platforms I've used, as do F5 and F3.

Z (undo) slightly less than the others. (I've always thought X for cut
was thinking of the letter X as vaguely looking like a pair of scissors
- C for copy, of course, and V just because it's next to the other two.)
F5 for relog directory or similar - F3?

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

That is, of course correct. ISTR that, for early versions of Windows,
you booted into DOS first and then loaded Windows from DOS. But that
hasn't been the case for a long time now.

Windows 3.x was indeed a DOS prog.. As for the '9x series, you get
heated arguments! I think it was an OS in its own right, but had to be
_loaded_ from a rudimentary DOS environment - but it then replaced some
of the OS. NT, 2000, and XP loaded from scratch (though in character
mode to start with).

Having said that, most DOS commands work at the command prompt in W7,
even though you're not using true DOS.

And there are even some new commands! (Like "clip" I learnt about a few
days ago.)

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Mon, 6 Aug 2012 23:48:18 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"

[snip]

Z (undo) slightly less than the others. (I've always thought X for cut
was thinking of the letter X as vaguely looking like a pair of scissors
- C for copy, of course, and V just because it's next to the other two.)

Or V resembles an arrow for inserting.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[John Williamson]

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: []

I think I agree with you, though not sure about the percentage. But I
_do_ use keyboard shortcuts a lot, in nominally GUI softwares; is that
GUI or not?

Most of the Windows ones I use were put there in Windows 2 or 3,
replacing F key commands in DOS. Some of the F key commands still work
as they did in DOS, too. Tricky...

You normally need to select what's to be affected with a mouse or other
pointing device, though, so that may make it all GUI.

You're right, of course - I was thinking of IrfanView, which being a
graphics prog. does indeed use the mouse to select (and I don't _think_
there's a keyboard way in it to do that, though once you've selected an
area, you _can_ move it around from the keyboard).

I think some of the Windows shortcuts were "borrowed" from the PARC
work, and were in turn influenced by or influenced the *nix X window
server commands.

Ctrl-c, ctrl-x, ctrl-z and ctrl-v seem to work the same way across all
the GUI platforms I've used, as do F5 and F3.

Z (undo) slightly less than the others. (I've always thought X for cut
was thinking of the letter X as vaguely looking like a pair of scissors
- C for copy, of course, and V just because it's next to the other two.)
F5 for relog directory or similar - F3?

F5 for refreshing the screen/ view, F3 for "Do it again"

 

[Tim Slattery]

That is, of course correct. ISTR that, for early versions of Windows,
you booted into DOS first and then loaded Windows from DOS. But that
hasn't been the case for a long time now.

Absolutely. That was true through the Win9x series. Windows booted
from DOS, and passed many functions (I/O in particular) back to DOS.
WinXP and later descend from the NT line which was always 100% 32-bit
and *never* booted from or included DOS.

Having said that, most DOS commands work at the command prompt in W7,
even though you're not using true DOS.

It's a command console. Yes, the console looks like DOS, but it's a
32-bit environment (64-bit in applicable systems), and programs
running there can do everything that a graphical program can,
including opening a window. Those programs are definitely *not*
restricted to 640KB of RAM!