Attrib lets you change attributes of System files and even hidden files. This is great for troubleshooting Windows XP. Say your XP doesn't boot ever since you edited that startup boot.ini file (Hidden), use attrib to remove the Hidden attibute and edit the file using EDIT dos command.
The assoc DOS command can be used to either isplay or even modify the file name extension associations. The command assoc .htm will quickly tell you the name of your default web browser (see picture)
move - more flexible than copy-paste
Suppose you have a lot of XLS and DOC files in your My Documents folder and would only move the XLS files with names ending in 2011. In XP Explorer, you must manually select each file and then copy and paste it into another folder. However, the DOS command sets things much easier. Simply type the following at the command prompt:
* Move 2011.xls c: \ 2011Reports \
find - advanced file search with filter
To the most powerful DOS command and even more useful than the Windows Desktop Search tool or the Windows Search Assistant. The command searches to find specific text in a file or files. After searching the specified file or files, find displays any lines of text that contain the specified string.
Found for the search of your hard disk and the file name on the C: drive that contains the string "Google" with the pipe (|) to the results of a dir command follows immediately available as:
dir c: \ / s / b | find "Google"
Quick tip - Drag to avoid typing : When your command is working on a file or folder, enter the path to this folder after the command. Tap time by selecting the file or folder from Windows Explorer into the command window.
To use the command line at the command prompt, type the following:
CommandName /?