Take Advantage of “File and Directory Name Completion” Feature

If you are tired of typing long directory names in Windows, you should take advantage of a feature called “File and Directory Name Completion”. This feature can speed up your navigation when you use the command prompt. The two hot keys that you use to invoke this feature are CTRL+F and CTRL+D. Here’s how it works.

You can enable this feature by starting a command prompt with the /f:on switch. Click Start, Run, and in the Open box type cmd /f:on. Now to use the file completion feature type any executable command and press CTRL+F. For example, if you are in \Windows folder and you want to change directory to “IIS Temporary Compressed Files” folder, simply type cd i and press CTRL+F. You’ll notice that the rest of the characters (IS Temporary Compressed Files) are automatically filled for you.

To make life even easier, try this trick. This is the ultimate time saver because you don’t even need to know the exact name of a folder to use this technique. It will list all the folders for you. If you simply type cd and press spacebar, then hold down the CTRL key and keep on clicking D (or F), you will cycle through all the possible folders. Remember to use the spacebar after typing cd.

The preferred method is to modify the shortcut that starts the command prompt by adding the /f:on switch. Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and select Properties. Click on the Shortcut Tab and type /f:on at the end of the command in the Target box so it looks like this:

%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /f:on

This technique works on Windows 2000/XP/2003.