How to Open Command Prompt

To open a Microsoft DOS command prompt shell window, first click the Start menu at the lower-left of your computer's desktop and select "Run...".

Then if you are using Windows XP or Vista, type "cmd" (without the quotation marks) into the Run box and click "OK".

Otherwise, type "command" (without the quotation marks) into the Run box and click "OK".





After you click "OK", a DOS command prompt window will appear. Depending upon which version of Windows you are using, the DOS command window will look similar to these images:





See other postings here for a description of the commands that you can type into the DOS command prompt window.

To close the window, either type "exit" (without quotations marks) and press Enter, or click the X button in the top-right of the window frame.