Personally, I am a big fan of the command line. From it I can get to just about everything I need pretty fast and I have an extensive set of utilities available at my disposal. One of the things, however, that isn’t so quick is navigating to different directories. If they have long names you have to type them exactly or they won’t take.
If this sounds familiar, here is a quick tip: pressing the TAB key will cycle through all the directory names in your current directory. For example, if you go to the command line and type “cd ” and then the tab key repeatedly, you will see the directory names are dropped in.
This shortcut can be an good time and keystroke saver, especially if you are navigating through the Windows or Program Files directory.
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ooo thanks for that, I prefer the command line – I find it quicker than shagging around with a mouse clicking things – especially on laptops – I despise touchpads.
Here’s a little twist to the CD {tab}: if you specify one or more characters before the {tab} then only those directories beginning with those characters will be displayed. Further, the {character(s)} {tab} combination works with many commands: dir /ad d {tab} will allow you to display the contents of directories whose name begins with “d”.
Neato. Thanks for sharing.
It also works with filenames.
And if you want, you can change the completion character in:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor
It’s easier to change using Tweak UI under “Command Prompt” There you can see what the valid characters are because not all will work.