C:\WINDOWS>HELP CMD
Starts a new instance of the Windows XP command interpreter

CMD [/A | /U] [/Q] [/D] [/E:ON | /E:OFF] [/F:ON | /F:OFF] [/V:ON | /V:OFF]
   [[/S] [/C | /K] string]

/C      Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
/K      Carries out the command specified by string but remains
/S      Modifies the treatment of string after /C or /K (see below)
/Q      Turns echo off
/D      Disable execution of AutoRun commands from registry (see below)
/A      Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be ANSI
/U      Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be
       Unicode
/T:fg   Sets the foreground/background colors (see COLOR /? for more info)
/E:ON   Enable command extensions (see below)
/E:OFF  Disable command extensions (see below)
/F:ON   Enable file and directory name completion characters (see below)
/F:OFF  Disable file and directory name completion characters (see below)
/V:ON   Enable delayed environment variable expansion using ! as the
       delimiter. For example, /V:ON would allow !var! to expand the
       variable var at execution time.  The var syntax expands variables
       at input time, which is quite a different thing when inside of a FOR
       loop.
/V:OFF  Disable delayed environment expansion.

Note that multiple commands separated by the command separator '&&'
are accepted for string if surrounded by quotes.  Also, for compatibility
reasons, /X is the same as /E:ON, /Y is the same as /E:OFF and /R is the
same as /C.  Any other switches are ignored.

If /C or /K is specified, then the remainder of the command line after
the switch is processed as a command line, where the following logic is
used to process quote (") characters:

   1.  If all of the following conditions are met, then quote characters
       on the command line are preserved:

       - no /S switch
       - exactly two quote characters
       - no special characters between the two quote characters,
         where special is one of: &<>()@^|
       - there are one or more whitespace characters between the
         the two quote characters
       - the string between the two quote characters is the name
         of an executable file.

   2.  Otherwise, old behavior is to see if the first character is
       a quote character and if so, strip the leading character and
       remove the last quote character on the command line, preserving
       any text after the last quote character.

If /D was NOT specified on the command line, then when CMD.EXE starts, it
looks for the following REG_SZ/REG_EXPAND_SZ registry variables, and if
either or both are present, they are executed first.

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

       and/or

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

Command Extensions are enabled by default.  You may also disable
extensions for a particular invocation by using the /E:OFF switch.  You
can enable or disable extensions for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a
machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the
following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDT32.EXE:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions

       and/or

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions

to either 0x1 or 0x0.  The user specific setting takes precedence over
the machine setting.  The command line switches take precedence over the
registry settings.

The command extensions involve changes and/or additions to the following
commands:

   DEL or ERASE
   COLOR
   CD or CHDIR
   MD or MKDIR
   PROMPT
   PUSHD
   POPD
   SET
   SETLOCAL
   ENDLOCAL
   IF
   FOR
   CALL
   SHIFT
   GOTO
   START (also includes changes to external command invocation)
   ASSOC
   FTYPE

To get specific details, type commandname /? to view the specifics.

Delayed environment variable expansion is NOT enabled by default.  You
can enable or disable delayed environment variable expansion for a
particular invocation of CMD.EXE with the /V:ON or /V:OFF switch.  You
can enable or disable completion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a
machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the
following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDT32.EXE:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\DelayedExpansion

       and/or

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\DelayedExpansion

to either 0x1 or 0x0.  The user specific setting takes precedence over
the machine setting.  The command line switches take precedence over the
registry settings.

If delayed environment variable expansion is enabled, then the exclamation
character can be used to substitute the value of an environment variable
at execution time.

File and Directory name completion is NOT enabled by default.  You can
enable or disable file name completion for a particular invocation of
CMD.EXE with the /F:ON or /F:OFF switch.  You can enable or disable
completion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a machine and/or user logon
session by setting either or both of the following REG_DWORD values in
the registry using REGEDT32.EXE:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar

       and/or

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar

with the hex value of a control character to use for a particular
function (e.g.  0x4 is Ctrl-D and 0x6 is Ctrl-F).  The user specific
settings take precedence over the machine settings.  The command line
switches take precedence over the registry settings.

If completion is enabled with the /F:ON switch, the two control
characters used are Ctrl-D for directory name completion and Ctrl-F for
file name completion.  To disable a particular completion character in
the registry, use the value for space (0x20) as it is not a valid
control character.

Completion is invoked when you type either of the two control
characters.  The completion function takes the path string to the left
of the cursor appends a wild card character to it if none is already
present and builds up a list of paths that match.  It then displays the
first matching path.  If no paths match, it just beeps and leaves the
display alone.  Thereafter, repeated pressing of the same control
character will cycle through the list of matching paths.  Pressing the
Shift key with the control character will move through the list
backwards.  If you edit the line in any way and press the control
character again, the saved list of matching paths is discarded and a new
one generated.  The same occurs if you switch between file and directory
name completion.  The only difference between the two control characters
is the file completion character matches both file and directory names,
while the directory completion character only matches directory names.
If file completion is used on any of the built in directory commands
(CD, MD or RD) then directory completion is assumed.

The completion code deals correctly with file names that contain spaces
or other special characters by placing quotes around the matching path.
Also, if you back up, then invoke completion from within a line, the
text to the right of the cursor at the point completion was invoked is
discarded.

The special characters that require quotes are:
    <space>
    &()[]


C:\WINDOWS>HELP COLOR
Sets the default console foreground and background colors.

COLOR [attr]

 attr        Specifies color attribute of console output

Color attributes are specified by TWO hex digits -- the first
corresponds to the background; the second the foreground.  Each digit
can be any of the following values:

   0 = Black       8 = Gray
   1 = Blue        9 = Light Blue
   2 = Green       A = Light Green
   3 = Aqua        B = Light Aqua
   4 = Red         C = Light Red
   5 = Purple      D = Light Purple
   6 = Yellow      E = Light Yellow
   7 = White       F = Bright White

If no argument is given, this command restores the color to what it was
when CMD.EXE started.  This value either comes from the current console
window, the /T command line switch or from the DefaultColor registry
value.

The COLOR command sets ERRORLEVEL to 1 if an attempt is made to execute
the COLOR command with a foreground and background color that are the
same.

Example: "COLOR fc" produces light red on bright white



C:\WINDOWS>HELP COMP
Compares the contents of two files or sets of files.

COMP [data1] [data2] [/D] [/A] [/L] [/N=number] [/C] [/OFF[LINE]]

 data1      Specifies location and name(s) of first file(s) to compare.
 data2      Specifies location and name(s) of second files to compare.
 /D         Displays differences in decimal format.
 /A         Displays differences in ASCII characters.
 /L         Displays line numbers for differences.
 /N=number  Compares only the first specified number of lines in each file.
 /C         Disregards case of ASCII letters when comparing files.
 /OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.

To compare sets of files, use wildcards in data1 and data2 parameters.