GeekTech
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Windows: Access Command Prompt Easily
Sometimes when doing large batch conversions between file types, the old ones are left over. You want to delete them but they are interlaced with their counter parts and you don't want to individually select them all. What do you do?
I use command prompt to do this. Go to the directory containing the files that you want deleted and use the command DEL *.[old file extension]. So say I converted a bunch of WAV files to MP3. I would just type DEL *.wav and leave the MP3's alone.
Ok, that's not that hard to do right? Of course any geek knows how to delete files of a certain type in command prompt. But say your music folder is 5,000 folders deep on your harddrive and using the CD command to change to the directory is a huge pain in the butt. Well here's an easy way to make command prompt go straight to the directory you want.
How it works
Go to any folder (in explorer) that you would want to work with in command prompt. Right click on a subfolder and then you select "Command Prompt from Here". This will open Command prompt pointing to the directory you want.
OK, that's the desired effect and it is a feature that comes built into XP but it is rarely ever enabled. So if you want this ease of access to prompt, follow these steps
How to activate the feature
Again, in explorer, go to any folder (it really does not matter where) and click Tools menu>Folder Options.
Click the File Types tab
In the giant list, find "Folder" and select it (Make sure it isn't "File Folder")
Click the Advanced button on the bottom of the window
***FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING!! - do NOT set anything as default or else you will end up launching VLC media LAN every time you double click a folder. It just happened to me and I couldn't fix it (had to use system restore)
Click on New...
Under the Action box, type "Command Prompt from Here"
Under the "Application used to perform the action" type cmd.exe "%1" (with quotes and everything)
Click ok a few times and there you have it.
In case you screw anything up, visit the link below to get a free context menu editor.
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/Fast_Explorer_47727_p/free.htm
I use command prompt to do this. Go to the directory containing the files that you want deleted and use the command DEL *.[old file extension]. So say I converted a bunch of WAV files to MP3. I would just type DEL *.wav and leave the MP3's alone.
Ok, that's not that hard to do right? Of course any geek knows how to delete files of a certain type in command prompt. But say your music folder is 5,000 folders deep on your harddrive and using the CD command to change to the directory is a huge pain in the butt. Well here's an easy way to make command prompt go straight to the directory you want.
How it works
Go to any folder (in explorer) that you would want to work with in command prompt. Right click on a subfolder and then you select "Command Prompt from Here". This will open Command prompt pointing to the directory you want.
OK, that's the desired effect and it is a feature that comes built into XP but it is rarely ever enabled. So if you want this ease of access to prompt, follow these steps
How to activate the feature
Again, in explorer, go to any folder (it really does not matter where) and click Tools menu>Folder Options.
Click the File Types tab
In the giant list, find "Folder" and select it (Make sure it isn't "File Folder")
Click the Advanced button on the bottom of the window
***FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING!! - do NOT set anything as default or else you will end up launching VLC media LAN every time you double click a folder. It just happened to me and I couldn't fix it (had to use system restore)
Click on New...
Under the Action box, type "Command Prompt from Here"
Under the "Application used to perform the action" type cmd.exe "%1" (with quotes and everything)
Click ok a few times and there you have it.
In case you screw anything up, visit the link below to get a free context menu editor.
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/Fast_Explorer_47727_p/free.htm
Labels: Modifications, OS, secrets, tips
1 Comments:
That really is useful. I imagine it'd be more useful to me in Linux, but I haven't checked to see if there is a feature like that in Linux.
I'll worry more about that once I get my notification area, clock, network-status, and IME applets back...
-Benrr101
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