DOSKey

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DOSKey is a utility for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows that adds command history, macro functionality, and improved editing features to the command line interpreters COMMAND.COM and cmd.exe. It was included as a TSR program with MS-DOS and PC-DOS versions 5 and later, and with Microsoft's Windows 95/98/Me.

In current Windows NT-based operating systems DOSKey's functionality is built into cmd.exe, although the DOSKey command is still used to change its operation.

Usage

DOSKey allows the use of several command switches:

DOSKEY [/switch ...] [macroname=[text]]

During a DOSKey session, the following keyboard shortcuts can be used:

DOSKey implements support for command macros, a simple text-substitution facility which is used somewhat like command line aliases in other environments. DOSKey macro definitions can use the following special codes:

Alternatives

The absence of a command history in COMMAND.COM was a serious inconvenience from the earliest versions of MS-DOS. Numerous third-party programs have been written to address the issue; many were available long before Microsoft supplied DOSKey. Some of these also provide additional editing capabilities lacking in DOSKey, such as filename completion. Some of the better-known DOSKey alternatives are Chris Dunford's ced, Sverre Huseby's dosed, Ashok Nadkarni's cmdedit, Steven Calwas's Anarkey, Eric Tauck's Toddy, and Paul Houle's enhanced DOSKey.

See also

• List of DOS commands
• MS-DOS

External links

• Doskey.exe on Windows NT
• Microsoft TechNet Doskey article
• DOSKey Examples
• Paul Houle's enhanced DOSKey