Very Basic Batch Tutorial

Very Basic Batch Tutorial

If you already know the essentials of Batch the you DO NOT need to read this instructable continue to Not So Basic Batch Tutorial.

NOTE!: Whenever something is in quotation marks ("example"), do not include the quotation marks (if you see that you must just type: example)

Step 1: So, what is Batch

For those who don't know, a Batch file is a text file containing a series of commands to be executed by Command Prompt (CMD). When a batch file is run, CMD reads the file and executes its commands.

To open your CMD, click START > RUN > type "CMD" > OK
(some of you may need to type "CMD.EXE")
(or you can click START > ALL PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > COMMAND PROMPT).

Step 2: Now what?

These are some VERY basic commands you need to know:
(please try out some of these commands in your CMD).

@echo off - This gets rid of that "c:\documents...etc"

echo - This displays a message, (e.g "echo hello" = "hello") because if you type "hello" into CMD it will interpret "hello" as the command

cls - Clears the CMD of all text.

color - Changes the color (type "help color" for a list of colors).

goto - Goes to a particular word in your text (you will learn more later)

pause - Pauses the command prompt and displays the message: "Press any key to continue..."

and there are a few more we will learn about later.

Step 3: But what if I want to run a lot of commands.

That is where BATCH comes in.

Try copying this into your notepad (NOT Microsoft Word) and save as BatchFile.bat
Notepad is in accessories
NB: You must save it as .BAT or it won't work.
P.S (copy BETWEEN the stars, don't include them)
***********************************************************
echo If you type echo before a sentence it displays it as a message!.
echo Wow, thats pretty cool!
***********************************************************
copy that into notepad and save as .bat
Double-click on the .bat file...cool hey!
NOPE. It went too fast...try adding a pause at the end, like this:
***********************************************************
echo If you type echo before a sentence it displays it as a message!.
echo Wow, thats pretty cool!
PAUSE
**************************************************************
There it worked, but its quite hard to read with all those file paths in the way...
thats why we add an "@echo off" to the top;
like this:
***************************************************************
@echo off
echo If you type echo before a sentence it displays it as a message!.
echo Wow, thats pretty cool!
PAUSE
*******************************************************
There! that worked perfectly, you have now written your first batch file!

Step 4: The GOTO command

Now we will learn how to use the GOTO command.

The GOTO command jumps to a certain part of your text.
Example:
if you type "goto fish"
then it will goto the place that you have typed in ":fish"
NB: you must always have a colon (:), before a word that is going to be GOTO'ed

Example:
you know the drill, copy into notepad and save as a .bat file.
(do not copy the stars)
**************************************************
@echo off
:fish
echo This is only one message being repeated over and over; Press Ctrl+C to stop
goto fish
**************************************************
*Note: Ctrl+C is the universal way of stopping a batch file

What happened was that every time it typed "Press Ctrl...etc"
the GOTO command made it go to the top.
Pretty nifty eh?

Step 5: The START command

The START command starts something.
Not much to explain here.

For example:
open your CMD and type:
"start www.instructables.com"
This opens your default explorer and goes to the Instructables site.
OR
"start itunes"
OR
You can also open files or folders:
"start desktop\foldername

**NOTE: To access a file\folder which has spaces in the name, put quotation marks (" ") around it.
e.g start "C:\desktop\folder name"

More Tricks

• The Fastest Way to Close All Running Programs in Windows
• 100+ Run Commands Lists
• How To Open Number Of Sites With A Single Click ?
• How to Lock a Folder in Windows 7/8/8.1

Step 6: Done

Thanks folks, please continue to the Not So Basic Batch Tutorial.