11.4.1.5 Lab – Work in the Windows Command Shell (Answers)

11.4.1.5 Lab – Work in the Windows Command Shell

Instructor Note: Red font color or gray highlights indicate text that appears in the Instructor copy only.

Introduction

In this lab, you will use CLI commands to manage files and folders in Windows.

Recommended Equipment

• A computer running Windows

Instructor Note: The students can complete this lab from any of the four Windows operating systems. Also, students may need to change the example directory letter C if a different letter is used on the lab computers.

Instructions

Step 1: Access the Windows command prompt.

a. Log on to a computer as a user with administrative privileges. The account ITEUser is used as the example user account throughout this lab.

b. To access the Windows command prompt, click Start and type cmd. Select Command Prompt or cmd.exe to continue.

Step 2: Display command help from the command prompt.

You can display command line help using the help command. For more information on a specific command, type the command followed by /?.

a. At the command prompt, type help and press Enter. A list of commands is displayed.

b. The results from the help command are too long to display on one page so you can only readily see the last portion. To allow you to see it one page at a time, enter the command help | more at the prompt. The more command can paginate the results of another command when combining with | (pipe) and more.

C:\Users\ITEUser> help | more
For more information on a specific command, type HELP command-name
ASSOC          Displays or modifies file extension associations.
ATTRIB         Displays or changes file attributes.
BREAK          Sets or clears extended CTRL+C checking.
BCDEDIT        Sets properties in boot database to control boot loading.
CACLS          Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files.
CALL           Calls one batch program from another.
CD             Displays the name of or changes the current directory.
CHCP           Displays or sets the active code page number.
-- More --

c. To see the next page, press the spacebar. What happens when you press enter?

It only advances one line at a time.

d. Press q or Ctrl-C to exit after filling out the functions of the following commands:

e. Type md /? at the prompt to display additional information and switches that can be used with this command.

C:\Users\ITEUser> md /?
Creates a directory.

MKDIR [drive:]path

MD [drive:]path

If Command Extensions are enabled MKDIR changes as follows:

MKDIR creates any intermediate directories in the path, if needed.
<some output omitted>

Use the information provided by help command about md.

Question:

How would you create these folders C:\Users\ITEUser\a\b\c if your current directory is C:\Users\ITEUser?

Either of the following command would accomplish the task:
C:\Users\ITEUser> md a\b\c
C:\Users\ITEUser> mkdir a\b\c

What command would you use to verify the creation of the nested directories?
The commands are dir to list the directory and chdir or cd to change directory.

f. Clear the screen using the command line.

Question:

What command did you use?
C:\Users\ITEUser> cls

g. Press F7 on the keyboard for the command history.

Question:

What is the last command that you have used? Press Esc on the keyboard to exit the dialog box.
It is probably the command cls to clear the screen.

h. Press up arrow to display the last command used.

Question:

What is the last command?
It is probably the command cls to clear the screen.

i. To exit the command prompt, enter exit at the prompt.