Did you ever want to send a list of all the music in your computer to someone else? How about the names of all the files in a specific directory - like My Documents? This can be easily done with the command prompt which is built into Windows. Although there are many programs out there that are able to create directory lists, using the command prompt is quick, easy, and there is no need to install a new application.
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Running and Navigating in the Command Prompt
To run the command prompt, click on Start->Run and type cmd.
Notice that you are immediately placed in C:\Documents and Settings\[user].
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Navigate to the folder that you want to create a list of all files in by using the ‘cd’ command:
Simply type “cd\folder1\folder2\…”. So if you want to get to the folder c:\MyFiles\Music you would type:
cd\myfiles\music
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Now, just type this command:
dir /on /b /s >list.txt
The file list.txt will be created in the directory (in this case c:\MyFiles\Music\list.txt) and will include all the files and sub-directories that are included in the current folder. If you only want a list of the files and folders in the current folder without its sub-directories, remove the /s, to make it:
dir /on /b >list.txt
The /on orders the lists by alphabetical name, the /b makes it only list the filename, and the /s includes subdirectories files in the list.
Of course, you can change the text file to anything you want by changing list.txt to anything.txt.
This is how the text file will look like:
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You can modify this file in seconds and make it look exactly like you want it (like removing the c:\MyFiles\Music part) with your favorite text editor and the Find and Replace feature. This can be used to make lists of everything on the computer - music, documents, pictures and programs.
This whole process takes less than 30 seconds and is vital at times. Especially before a reformat.
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