What is the command line

On most modern computers have operating systems with GUI that allows you to control your computer through a convenient and intuitive interface. However, even in the newest versions of such systems is provided and the control method using text commands – command prompt.

The meaning of the command line

At the dawn of the digital development command prompt or the console was the only way of interaction between user and computer. Text command line interface did not require large number of resources used, and a single standard input commands facilitate their interpretation.

The command prompt otherwise known as a command interpreter, and is a field for input of certain text commands, providing the user with the operating system. Of course, in modern operating systems most of the operations performed by using a better GUI, but, nevertheless, there are some situations where using the command line is justified.

The fact is that if you know certain commands, get the result using the console would be faster than using the graphical interface. In addition, some commands do not provide any graphical counterpart, because they are used infrequently or are service, that is designed to administer the computer.

Another extensive field of application console – computer games. In some of them due to restrictions on used resources just aren't there another way to configure other command line allows more fine-tuning, to enter special codes or enable debug mode.

Call the console

In the most popular operating systems of the Windows family there are several ways to display a command prompt. First, you can click the "start" button, find the Run option and enter in the box that appears cmd. In some versions of Windows, the Run option is hidden but it can be invoked by the key combination Win+R.

Second, in Windows 7 command prompt shortcut can be found in the menu button "start" under "Programs", subsection "Standard". If you intend to frequently use the command line, a shortcut can be put on the desktop.

The third method also works only in Windows 7 operating system. It is that when you click right click on any folder while holding the Shift button will open the extended context menu, one of which ("Open command window") will open a command prompt.

Finally, you can simply find the executable file command line in the Windows folder. The file is called cmd.exe and is located in the system32 directory. You can either launch the command prompt directly from here, or you can create a shortcut and place it on the desktop.