Batch file Wikipedia. A batch file is a kind of script file in DOS, OS2 and Microsoft Windows. It consists of a series of commands to be executed by the command line interpreter, stored in a plain text file. A batch file may contain any command the interpreter accepts interactively and use constructs that enable conditional branching and looping within the batch file, such as IF, FOR, and GOTOlabels. The term batch is from batch processing, meaning non interactive execution, though a batch file may not process a batch of multiple data. Similar to Job Control Language JCL and other systems on mainframe and minicomputer systems, batch files were added to ease the work required for certain regular tasks by allowing the user to set up a script to automate them. When a batch file is run, the shell program usually COMMAND. COM or cmd. exe reads the file and executes its commands, normally line by line. Unix likeoperating systems, such as Linux, have a similar, but more flexible, type of file called a shell scriptcitation needed. The filename extension. DOS and Windows. Windows NT and OS2 also added. Batch files for other environments may have different extensions, e. DOS, 4. OS2 and 4. NT related shells. The detailed handling of batch files has changed. Administrator X Window System32 Cmd Exe' title='Administrator X Window System32 Cmd Exe' />An elevated Command Prompt means running CMD as an administrator, something some commands require. Some of the detail in this article applies to all batch files, while other details apply only to certain versions. VariantseditIn DOS, a batch file can be started from the command line interface by typing its name, followed by any required parameters and pressing the Enter key. When DOS loads, the file AUTOEXEC. BAT, when present, is automatically executed, so any commands that need to be run to set up the DOS environment may be placed in this file. Computer users would have the AUTOEXEC. BAT file set up the system date and time, initialize the DOS environment, load any resident programs or device drivers, or initialize network connections and assignments. A. bat file name extension identifies a file containing commands that are executed by the command interpreter COMMAND. Issues Fixed in This Release Citrix Receiver for Windows 4. Product Citrix Receiver for Windows Current Product Version Receiver for Windows 4. If you opened the elevated command prompt from a shortcut ex in Start Menu and it opens to another location other than CWindowsSystem32, then right click on the. COM line by line, as if it were a list of commands entered manually, with some extra batch file specific commands for basic programming functionality, including a GOTO command for changing flow of line execution. Early WindowseditMicrosoft Windows was introduced in 1. GUI overlay on text based operating systems and was designed to run on DOS. In order to start it, the WIN command was used, which could be added to the end of the AUTOEXEC. BAT file to allow automatic loading of Windows. In the earlier versions, one could run a. Windows in the MS DOS Prompt. Windows 3. 1x and earlier, as well as Windows 9x invoked COMMAND. COM to run batch files. The IBMOS2 operating system supported DOS style batch files. It also included a version of REXX, a more advanced batch file scripting language. IBM and Microsoft started developing this system, but during the construction of it broke up after a dispute as a result of this, IBM referred to their DOS like console shell without mention of Microsoft, naming it just DOS, although this seemingly made no difference with regard to the way batch files worked from COMMAND. COM. OS2s batch file interpreter also supports an EXTPROC command. This passes the batch file to the program named on the EXTPROC file as a data file. The named program can be a script file this is similar to the Windows NTeditUnlike Windows 9. Windows NT family of operating systems does not depend on MS DOS. Windows NT introduced an enhanced 3. CMD or. BAT extension. Cmd. exe added additional commands, and implemented existing ones in a slightly different way, so that the same batch file with different extension might work differently with cmd. COMMAND. COM. In most cases, operation is identical if the few unsupported commands are not used. Cmd. exes extensions to COMMAND. COM can be disabled for compatibility. Microsoft released a version of cmd. Windows 9x and ME called WIN9. Administrator X Window System32 Cmd Exe' title='Administrator X Window System32 Cmd Exe' />CMD to allow users of older versions of Windows to use certain cmd. As of Windows 8update, cmd. Pink Family Program Utorak on this page. COMMAND. COM can be run as well in 3. Windows able to run 1. Filename extensionsedit. The first filename extension used by Microsoft for batch files. This extension runs with DOS and all versions of Windows, under COMMAND. COM or cmd. exe, despite the different ways the two command interpreters execute batch files. Used for batch files in Windows ME family and sent to cmd. COMMAND. COM does not recognize this file name extension, so cmd. Windows environment by mistake. In addition, set, path, assoc and prompt commands, when executed from a. It is also used by IBMs OS2 for batch files. The extension used by 4. DOS, 4. OS2, 4. NT and Take Command. These scripts are faster, especially with longer ones, as the script is loaded entirely ready for execution, rather than line by line. Batch file parameterseditCOMMAND. COM and cmd. exe support that a number of special variables 0, 1 through 9 in order to refer to the path and name of the batch job and the first nine calling parameters from within the batch job, see also SHIFT. Non existent parameters are replaced by a zero length string. They can be used similar to environment variables, but are not stored in the environment. Microsoft and IBM refer to these variables as replacement parameters or replaceable parameters, whereas Digital Research, Novell and Caldera established the term replacement variables5 for them. JP Software calls them batch file parameters. ExampleseditThis example batch file displays Hello World, prompts and waits for the user to press a key, and then terminates. Blue Label Serial Number. Note It does not matter if commands are lowercase or uppercase unless working with variablesECHO OFF. ECHO Hello World PAUSETo execute the file, it must be saved with the extension. Windows NT type operating systems in plain text format, typically created by using a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad or a word processor in text mode. When executed, the following is displayed. Press any key to continue. ExplanationeditThe interpreter executes each line in turn, starting with the first. The symbol at the start of any line prevents the prompt from displaying that command as it is executed. The command ECHO OFF turns off the prompt permanently, or until it is turned on again. The combined ECHO OFF is often as here the first line of a batch file, preventing any commands from displaying, itself included. Then the next line is executed and the ECHO Hello World Hello World The next line is executed and the PAUSE command displays Press any key to continue. After a key is pressed, the script terminates, as there are no more commands. In Windows, if the script is executed from an already running command prompt window, the window remains open at the prompt as in MS DOS otherwise, the window closes on termination. Limitations and exceptionseditNull values in variableseditVariable expansions are substituted textually into the command, and thus variables which contain nothing simply disappear from the syntax, and variables which contain spaces turn into multiple tokens. This can lead to syntax errors or bugs. For example, if foo is empty, this statement parses as the erroneous construct Similarly, if foo contains abc def, then a different syntax error results IF abc defbar ECHO Equal.