Introduction to Command Prompt Commands in Windows 11

Wednesday, July 10, 2024 at 2:37 AM | 3 min read

Last modified on Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 11:37 PM

#command line, #command prompt, #windows terminal, #windows 11

At the command

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Table of Contents

The Windows Command Prompt

I finally got a new Windows laptop. A Dell Inspiron, and I love it. It is feeling more Linux-like than Windows-like (they are trying to emulate Linux or Unix systems as much as much as possible within their limits). It still is somewhat of a pain to work with, but I am also setting up VirtualBox and a Linux Distribution (either Kali Linux or Ubuntu) so that I can have access to a Linux environment. I have already set up VS Code, installed Git, and added Git Bash to VS Code as the integrated Terminal. But of course I can't use Unix-like or Linux-like commands. It still only receives Windows Command Prompt commands.

The only aspect that resembles Linux or Unix are the Git commands themselves. As for communication with Github, I generated SSH keys, just as I have on my macOS laptop. It too was easy peasy. An important note about that, however. Generate your SSH keys in the Command Prompt and not in VS Code. VS Code complained that my SSH file permissions were too open and would not save the key pair to my computer. But when I tried to generate the key pair in Command Prompt, I had no issues.

cd command

The cd command, aka changing directories, is the same in Windows as in Linux and Unix (macOS). Let's say I was in the home directory (C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\development), and I wanted to change into a folder called development located on the desktop. I would run the following command in Command Prompt:

cd desktop/development

And this would take me to:

C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\development

Notice how I created the cd command followed by the path I wanted to get to? I used / instead of \, and it worked. That was not possible in Windows 10. Windows is really trying to become more like Linux and Unix when it comes to the Terminal. They even call the Command Prompt app the Terminal app. At least that's the way it is on my Dell Inspiron!

If I want to go up one directory, I would run the following cd command:

cd ..

Or I could do the following if I were in a folder called development located in the desktop directory (\Users\Owner\Destkop\development):

cd Users\Owner\Desktop

And it would take me to the Desktop.

dir command

If I want to list the contents of a directory, I would run the dir command. Let's say I am on the desktop (C:\Users\Owner\Desktop), and I run the dir command:

dir

This is equivalent to the ls command in Unix, and the following would be returned in Terminal:

07/09/2024  08:12 PM   <DIR>        .
07/09/10:32 10:32 PM   <DIR>        ..
07/09/2024  10:34 PM   <DIR>        development
07/09/2024  04:25 PM   <DIR>        kali-linux-install
03/02/2024  05:01 PM          2,350 Microsoft Edge.lnk
03/03/2024  07:45 PM          2,521 Nordpass.lnk
03/03/2024  08:22 PM          1,274 Norton Installation Files.lnk
03/02/2024  08:26 PM          1,933 Zoom.lnk
                4 File(s)     8,178 bytes
                4 Dir(s)  890,759,966,720 bytes free

type nul command

Now let's say I wanted to create a file. This command differs greatly from Linux or Unix. There, I would run the following:

touch file1.txt

The touch command followed by a filename creates a new file called file1.txt in the current directory. In Windows, I run the following command:

type nul > file1.txt

This command creates a file called file1.txt. There are other ways of creating a file in Windows, but I will cover that in a later post.

del command

Now let's say I wanted to delete a file I had created called file2.txt. I would run the following command in Command Prompt inside the directory where the file is located:

# C:\Users\Owner\Desktop
del file2.txt

Then, to make sure that I did successfully delete the file file2.txt, I run the dir command, and it's gone.

rmdir command

Now let's say I want to delete an empty folder. I would run the following command in Command Prompt from within the directory where the folder is located:

# C:\Users\Owner\Desktop
rmdir MyNewFolder

And when I run the dir command, MyNewFolder no longer exists.

rmdir /s command

Now let's say I want to delete a folder that is not empty, and I run the following command:

# C:\Users\Owner\Desktop
rmdir MyNewFolder

The folliowing is returned in Command Prompt (Terminal):

The directory is not empty.

And MyNewFolder is not deleted. However, if I run:

rmdir /s MyNewFolder

The following is returned in Command Prompt:

NewFolder, Are you sure (Y/N)?

Since I am the owner of this folder, I am able to delete it and its contents. Since I do want to delete the folder, I type Y. Now when I run the dir command, the folder is gone. /s deletes a directory tree (the specified directory, in this case MyNewFolder, and all its subdirectories, including all files).