Is there is a way to open very long name file from command Prompt in easy way ? rather than
start fileName.type
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityIf you are a Windows power user who frequently needs to use the command prompt regularly, then you find it useful to turn on auto-complete in command prompt. If you want to make the change permanent, you will have to edit the Windows Registry.
File name completion and folder name completion are quick-search features of the Windows command processor or cmd.exe. Auto-complete for CMD.exe is not enabled by default in Windows – you have to enable it.
If auto-complete in Windows command prompt with the Tab key is not already enabled by default in the version of Windows that you are using, you can activate auto-complete permanently or for the current session only by following these instructions.
Activate auto-complete in CMD temporarily
To activate auto-complete in CMD for the current user for the current command session, open Run box, type
cmd /f
and press Enter. The/f
switch, enables or disables file and directory name completion characters.Now press Ctrl+D to complete the folder name or Ctrl+F to complete a file name. Keep pressing this key combination and see the file names change.
To deactivate automatic complete, type
cmd /f:off
.Turn on auto-complete in CMD permanently
To enable auto-complete permanently in command prompt, run
regedit
to open the Registry Editor, and navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor
You will have to edit the
CompletionChar
value. The default is 40 in Hexadecimal. Set the value ofREG_DWORD
to9
. This will enable folder name completion.Next, double-click on
PathCompletionChar
and change its value to9
.This will set the Tab key as the control character.
If you want to use the same control characters that you use for a single command session as mentioned in the first part of this post, then set the values as follows:
- 4 for Ctrl+D
- 6 for Ctrl+F
The file name auto-completion feature will work on folders too, because Windows will search for the complete path and match against both file and folder names.
start
the space and thenfil
and then press tab, it'll generate the next closest file or folder name perhaps. I thought you were talking Linux terminal ans not Windows command prompt.