You can create and delete folders within the command prompt by using the make directory 'MKDIR' and remove directory 'RMDIR' commands. Making a directory is as simple as typing: MKDIR (directory name)

And to remove an empty directory type: RMDIR (directory name)

Note that like all command prompt commands, these depend on your current location in the command prompt. So if you were at C:\> and typed 'MKDIR myfolder', you would have created 'C:\myfolder'. If you were at 'D:\mydata>' and typed the same command, you would create 'D:\mydata\myfolder'. You can speed things up by adding paths to the command, as we did with 'CD' above.

type: MKDIR windows\system32\drivers\creative

From the C:\> prompt will create the 'creative' directory in 'windows\system32\drivers'. Note that when you use the MKDIR command in this way, any folders in your command that do not exist will be created. For example, if you typed: MKDIR windows\mike\mikedrivers the 'mike' and 'mikedrivers' directories would both be created.

The DEL command can be used to delete files within the directories you create. Typing 'del (directory name)' will delete all files in that directory, while typing 'del (filename)' will delete that file. You can add directories to the path of the DEL command, for example:

type: DEL windows\mikedir\mikedrivers\mike1.exe

This would delete the 'mike1.exe' file within the directory 'windows\mikedir\mikedrivers\'.

Running Programs Within the Command Prompt

The second part of PCstats Guide to the Windows XP Command Prompt will deal with several command prompt utilities that can make dealing with Windows much easier, especially when networking. To run a utility in the command prompt, you need only type its name. For example; MKDIR, DEL and CD are all little programs that you have already run from the command prompt. Generally you need to be in the same directory or folder as the command file (.EXE, .COM or .BAT) for an application you want to run when you type its name, but the command prompt uses a system taken from previous versions of DOS (and older OS) to ensure that this is not always necessary.

A 'path' statement is automatically loaded with the command prompt, telling it to always look in certain locations on the disk when the user types in a command. For example, without this path statement, when you type: DEL windows\system32\mikefile.txt the command would only work if you were currently in the folder containing the DEL command file.

With the path statement, the system knows to check certain directories for command files each time the user types something. As long as it finds the DEL command somewhere within these directories, the entry above will work.