Microsoft Weekly

Use Tab AutoComplete in a Command Prompt window

By Ed Bott

Sometimes you can't avoid the Windows Command Prompt. For jobs like setting granular permissions and taking ownership of files, for example, the Icacls and Takeown commands are unmatched. Even a prosaic task like changing the extension on a group of files is easy with the help of wildcards.

But here's a secret that even many command-line ninjas don't know: Tab AutoComplete.

This feature allows you to press Tab to enter the complete list of files and folders in the current location, one at a time, in alphabetical order. You can narrow the list of items by typing the first few letters of the file or folder name first. Thus, if you know the current directory contains a file called Battery-report.html, you can type start bat and then press Tab to automatically complete the partial word bat with the first matching filename. Press Tab again to go to the next matching file or folder and keep going until you find the right one. When you do, just press Enter to open it immediately.

You can also use Tab AutoComplete with a program name to open a file using a different program from the default. Type Notepad, for example, followed by a space, and then use Tab AutoComplete to find a file with the .html extension and view its source instead of opening it in a browser window.

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