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Rumors of Cmd's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated (microsoft.com)
Senior Program Manager at Microsoft has responded to speculations that Command Prompt is going away. He writes: The Cmd shell remains an essential part of Windows, and is used daily by millions of businesses, developers, and IT Pro's around the world. In fact:
1. Much of the automated system that builds and tests Windows itself is a collection of many Cmd scripts that have been created over many years, without which we couldn't build Windows itself!
2. Cmd is one of the most frequently run executables on Windows with a similar number of daily launches as File Explorer, Edge and Internet Explorer!
3. Many of our customers and partners are totally dependent on Cmd, and all its quirks, for their companies" existence!
In short: Cmd is an absolutely vital feature of Windows and, until there's almost nobody running Cmd scripts or tools, Cmd will remain within Windows.
1. Much of the automated system that builds and tests Windows itself is a collection of many Cmd scripts that have been created over many years, without which we couldn't build Windows itself!
2. Cmd is one of the most frequently run executables on Windows with a similar number of daily launches as File Explorer, Edge and Internet Explorer!
3. Many of our customers and partners are totally dependent on Cmd, and all its quirks, for their companies" existence!
In short: Cmd is an absolutely vital feature of Windows and, until there's almost nobody running Cmd scripts or tools, Cmd will remain within Windows.
I already wondered when the rumored spread how that should work out in practice, ...
Where's the fucking article?
I'm glad! CMD is critical in our company, too.
MS actually does a really good job supporting things for a long time. Some other responses, I'd imagine...
Apple: We're brave enough to stop supporting any version of CMD that came out before this year.
Google: We killed it. Too bad.If you don't buy our ads, then we don't really care about how you use our software.
I don't respond to AC's.
1) Who suggested that it dead?
2) Oh wait, there's no link to an article to state who it said it.
I mean really.....
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
GUIs can kiss my fat white ass.
It could help a little if cmd would start to recognise utf-8 as valid chars instead of being ascii only.
Full array support would be a usewful addition as well for me.
Shoving edge into everything hu?
I bet they count the advertisements edge pops up as "starting edge".
C'mon guys, have COURAGE!
2. Cmd is one of the most frequently run executables on Windows with a similar number of daily launches as File Explorer, Edge and Internet Explorer!
The only way they could know that is if they're spying on everyone who uses Windows.
Am I wrong? Is there some other, totally consensual and benign way that they could know this?
So if they have this telemetry data that tells them CMD is used often, they should be able to see how often PowerShell is used too. A shell which I find virtually unusable due to lack of compatibility with CMD commands, and the very long and arcane replacements for those same basic commands, and the added difficultly in getting it open with admin rights (which would be the whole point of using PowerShell in the first place).
MS has an execution count for apps in Windows?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Sure. the typical luser has no idea what a commandline is about and how to use it. But there are a few people that know better and without them everything comes crashing down.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Cmd is one of the most frequently run executables on Windows
Possibilities: :-)
1. Microsoft is citing false numbers
2. Microsoft is pulling the info via telemetry
3. Microsoft is using numbers based on Anti-Virus vendors' stats on malware infections
2. Cmd is one of the most frequently run executables on Windows with a similar number of daily launches as File Explorer, Edge and Internet Explorer!
Thanks telemetry!
I haven't used CMD in years at my government IT job. Probably because everyone has PowerShell scripts to run.
Did anyone else read that as CmdrTaco has died, or at least as a hoax of his death?
In other news books will be replaced with movies
Cmd is one of the most frequently run executables on Windows with a similar number of daily launches as File Explorer, Edge and Internet Explorer!
I wonder why they included Edge. I have never seen anyone use it. Is it that popular? I don't think so and the numbers show.
I run daily off-site backups using nothing more than a batch script, task scheduler, and ftp program personally and professionally. I run servers with nothing more than console commands and batch scripts. It would be an absolutely retarded move for Microsoft to remove them. It's practically the core to the business world. Even suggesting such a thing is utter lunacy. Who writes these articles anyway?
"The Cmd shell remains an essential part of Windows, and is used daily by millions of businesses, developers, and IT Pro's around the world."
Yeah, whatever. Seriously, since when has dependence on a spec or tool ever stopped Microsoft from abandoning it? I'm not saying they will, but just because people use it means nothing, absolutely nothing to Microsoft. Or to Apple, for that matter. Headphone jack, anyone?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
PUSHD serverpath /arguments-galore
installer.exe
POPD
I use the above for installing numerous packages since our server admin is incompetent about things like group policy and SMS. I use CMD every single day for everything from software installs to modify system configurations without needing to logoff the current user. Software vendors like IBM have not provided documentation for automating much of AS/400 configuration with Powershell, it's all CMD scripts.
The company that has made backward compatibility a core business principle jettisoning its highly mature command line interface? Only in the fevered dreams of people who still call them stuff like M$...
1. Much of the automated system that builds and tests Windows itself is a collection of many Cmd scripts that have been created over many years, without which we couldn't build Windows itself!
I knew it; their official build script starts with MS-DOS and a batch file kicks off layers of self compilation to cloud-heights and Windows 10!
http://shirtoid.com/164835/aut...
If a mindless talking head from Microsoft is publicly denying it, then it must be true.
So, doesn't the CMD shell run by default when you execute CMD.EXE? Was someone planning on changing that?
I'm just glad that Microsoft didn't have the courage to make CMD.EXE work only over a proprietary wireless interface.
It is a pretty insignificant part of Windows in terms of the size of the executable. We're already up to distributing Windows on DVD as it is too large for a CD, dropping Cmd isn't going to magically change that. Even for the customers who never use it in their lives, having it around doesn't hurt them.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Oh he's not dead, what a relief.
I only just recently discovered that Windows 10 has a bunch of improvements to the command line.
Most notably (at least for me) is the addition of CTRL-backspace as well as well as CTRL-C/V for copy paste. I do a lot of stuff on the command line and the added functionality looks really great.
It's just a shame I'm too scared to upgrade to Windows 10 because of all the additional telemetry that seems like a real pain in the ass to disable! (I did see this open source tool that looks like it might be worth keeping an eye on: https://modzero.github.io/fix-... ).
Following Microsoft's law of perverse behavior (i.e. If it's obvious, useful and well understood, get rid of it), it should be gone in a year, replaced with a version of the syntactic abomination that is powershell that doesn't support command line behavior and arguments.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
i raged so hard the other day when my w10 insider build updated and the shift+rightclick changed to "open powershell here" :( the w10 cmd.exe is actually nice.
and I still write crappy batch files to automate some tasks.
undoing bad mod - disregard
Windows NT was designed by Dave Cutler, who chose C as the language for the NT kernel. It was the most significant impact of UNIX on NT.
Cutler also designed VMS, and likely had deep familiarity with "Digitial Command Language" (DCL) that is a well-built and powerful command processor itself (if you like writing your scripts in FORTRAN).
Cutler wanted to "get UNIX." Why he allowed a product as shockingly poor as cmd.exe to be written for the NT command shell simply baffles me.
The cmd.exe shell is described as a serial killer by Microsoft employees.
I also disagree with elevating BASH. Steven Borne disliked C, and retrofitted ALGOL on it, not only for the parsing syntax that became BASH, but also on top of the C compiler itself.
Cutler had a chance to see source code for multiple OS implementations and their parsers: RSX11, UNIX sh/csh, DEC DCL, and likely many more. How cmd.exe could have emerged from his group is quite simply beyond me.
Port bash to windows and ditch that cmd.exe (aka command.com).
You are already missing an opportunity with 4dos since 1989...
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
There was a period of a decade or two where you could do everything a Macintosh has to offer without any command line tools. So it's more than just a theory that most people don't need a command line interface. Maybe Windows needs a better GUI before it drops Cmd, but it's not even doing that, it's switching to a slightly different command line interface, PowerShell. It's hard to take hyperbolic statements like "Cmd is an absolutely vital feature" very seriously when other platforms operate with different command line interfaces or no command line interface at all.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
CTRL-Backspace is like Ctrl-W on unix terminals (and teletypes) some 30-40 years ago.
$ stty -a
speed 38400 baud; rows 54; columns 157; line = 0;
intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = ; eol2 = ; swtch = ; start = ^Q; stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; rprnt = ^R;
werase = ^W; lnext = ^V; flush = ^O; min = 1; time = 0;
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I almost feel sorry for Microsoft developers, having to keep maintaining this garbage piece of software from the Windows NT days designed to emulate MS-DOS. Almost. I'm so glad I choose not to work in that awful ecosystem.
Parent poster summarizes things well.
Debian's PopCon is similar ( http://www.linuxjournal.com/co... )
o/~ Join us now and share the software
People were still using the start menu and they still took that away in windows 8.
The top reasons why I personally still use the cmd shell in windows
1) ipconfig (verify if DHCP pulled an address, and if so, is it correct with proper default route and DNS servers)
2) ping 4.2.2.2 (verify connectivity to a known public server that will always respond to PING requests, that doesn't need to resolve a DNS name)
Once basic network connectivity issues are address though, in this day in age, most other things have decent 3rd party tools to diagnose and fix issues. I personally keep a shitton of said tools in a folder on my cell phone, so all I need to do is plug in the USB cable and BAM, most everything I need will be at my fingertips.
More courage than taking away the head phone jack.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I don't agree with you that Microsoft hated "all things UNIX." If you take the ftp.exe and nslookup.exe files from C:\Windows\System32 and run UNIX strings on them, you will see:
$ strings ftp.exe | grep Cali
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
$ strings nslookup.exe | grep Cali
@(#) Copyright (c) 1985,1989 Regents of the University of California.
Microsoft has certainly swallowed and ingested BSD UNIX code. It would not surprise me if the FTP source code contains fragments from Bill Joy himself.
So why not both get rid of it (as a separate executable) and keep it at the same time by implementing aliases against the equivalent powershell syntax. I don't see why they shouldn't just have powershell recognize a cmd-script or statement for what it is and run the appropriate cmdlet with sensible pre-set defaults that emulate the cmd behavior. Powershell already has aliases, so this wouldn't be very hard to fully implement. It is sort of similar to the way that GNU BASH can be run in posix mode when invoked as 'sh' and recognize a slightly different syntax from the usual gnu-extended version. IIRC, most gnu utilities can be invoked in posix mode and take different argument syntax than what it normally expects in gnu-mode.
What this shows in the least is that Microsoft knows intimately every program that is run on windows, and how frequently its used. So now you know why windows 10 phones home thousands of times a day. Wouldn't surprise me if they're keystroke logging too.
"Similar number of daily launches as Edge and Internet Explorer." Well, if that is so, then cmd really is dying...
Too bad that running cmd as an administrator will give you "command requires escalation" errors from built-in processes like netstat.
The shortcut to avoid is (Win+X, a), but those of us who are used to running Win+R cmd still have to deal with this annoyance each and every time.
Mod parent to +10. !!
Microsoft:
We are the most socially limited and socially backward technology company. Our CEO was Monkey Boy!. Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made.
When a woman doesn't like men, but just wants someone to support her in having too many babies, she marries a Microsoft man. He'd never guess the truth.
But our lack of ability in life didn't stop us from making a wacky new computer language!
PowerShell is badly designed and badly documented. But that's okay, because people in the U.S. government don't have technical knowledge and the help-the-rich-get-richer U.S. government no longer cares about regulating virtual monopolies.
Kill it already, and bring back command.com
I like powershell but it has some serious flaws that prevent it from being my shell of choice. First of all the way it handles parameters makes it a complete PITA use utilities like bcdedit. It's tab completion functionality and help system are so slow that aren't worth using. Because of that I only ever use powershell as a scripting environment.
Powershell has been pushing cmd aside for years on servers, now it is built in to desktops if you did not already know.
cmdlets are way better imo.
PS also supports many (noteably not all) cmd commands as well. And what you can't do in command, ps does anyways in many other ways.
i can only imagine how many batch files and cmd scripts have 'billgates' hardcoded into them as the password.
"2. Cmd is one of the most frequently run executables on Windows with a similar number of daily launches as File Explorer, Edge and Internet Explorer!"
Hrm, yet using the command line is an argument against using Linux... which is even more curious considering as an end user there is no real reason to use the command line on Linux these days. Only reason I ever do now on desktops/laptops is initial setup where it's just quicker for me to run a script that apt-gets everything I want vs clicking on it in Synaptic.
Twinstiq, game news
"The Cmd shell remains an essential part of Windows, and is used daily by millions of businesses, developers, and IT Pro's around the world."
Is it just me or are there a few apostrophes missing for the other 5 plurals here?
Is this guy looking for a job at Yahoo!?
Because... that's a lot of exclamation marks.
1. Much of the automated system that builds and tests Windows itself is a collection of many Cmd scripts that have been created over many years, without which we couldn't build Windows itself!
This is without a doubt the best reason to dump it
Pro's what?
Actually I'm not 100% on this - is this valid because of "Pros" being a contraction of "Professionals"? It hurts my eyes to look at in any case.