Preventing a MS-DOS window from automatically closing in Windows.

Question:

Preventing a MS-DOS window from automatically closing in Windows.

Additional information:

By default, new versions of Windows, with any type of MS-DOS program, batch file, or other file, will automatically close the window. Unfortunately, if that MS-DOS command or program outputs or displays any information that the user needs to read, they will be unable to read it because it closes too fast.

  • If you're running into the problem of not being able to get a MS-DOS window to close after running a command or batch file, see document CH000320.

Answer:

This issue can be resolved by doing any of the below recommendations.

Open a MS-DOS window

If you're running a MS-DOS command or program from within Windows, try opening a MS-DOS prompt and executing the command or program from within MS-DOS.

Change the path of the command in the shortcut

Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP users can execute the command or file through CMD.EXE using the /K option. This will open a command window and then execute the command or program; after the command or program has completed, the computer will remain at the command prompt. To do this, follow the below steps.

  1. Create a shortcut to your MS-DOS program or command. Additional information about creating a Windows shortcut can be found on document CH000739.
  2. Once a shortcut has been created, right-click the shortcut and click Properties.
  3. In the Properties window, change the Target location to contain the CMD.EXE command with the /K switch as shown in the below example.

Before

"C:\My programs\test.bat"

After

C:\WINNT\system32\CMD.EXE /K "C:\My programs\test.bat"

Additional information about the CMD command can be found on our CMD command page.

Add a pause statement to a batch file

Finally, it is important to realize that the window will not close if Microsoft Windows believes the program is still running. If you're creating your own batch file and wish for the batch file to remain open, one trick is to add PAUSE to the end of your batch file, which will prompt the user to press any key; until the user presses any key, the window will not close automatically.