How to Create a Batch File in Windows 10?

This blog post will educate you on how to create a batch file in windows 10, how to run the batch file in CMD, about batch file, basic commands and a few more related things. Continue reading!

“Batch File” Does it sound foreign to you?

If No is your answer, you probably know about it. But, if the answer is Yes, you probably have no idea what it is and what it does?

Don’t worry, in this blog post, I am going to talk Batch File, and you going to learn a lot of things about it. Let’s begin then!

What is a Batch File?

A Batch File is the list of commands that are executed in sequence until all commands are executed. All the commands written in a Batch File are executed by Windows inbuilt utility CLI short for Command Line Interpreter.

You can write the commands in Notepad or Notepad++, and then save the file with the .bat file extension. Saving the file with this extension makes it a batch file which you can double click to execute the commands written in it. It does open in the DOS, and the result is shown.

Generally, people use Batch File to automate the execution of commands that are needed. For example, if you need to execute the DOS command, ipconfig /flushdns to flush DNS which at times improves the internet connection speed to a bit, then what you do is, open Command Prompt, and type the command and hit Enter. And, the command is executed.

But, what if you need to do this a lot of time every day? Won’t you feel lazy to type every time?

Here, a batch file can help you.

How to Create a Batch File in Windows 10?

Open a Notepad, type there ipconfig /flushdns, and save it as anyname.bat. Now, every time you need to flush the DNS, just double click that .bat file, and the command will execute. No more typing all the time. The code should look like this:

After the command, I wrote another command “Pause” because when you write it, the screen stays when you double click the batch file. Without Pause command, the screen just opens and gets closed, and you cannot see anything.

This is the result of that commands when executed.

Further, you can do a lot of things such as removing the path shown in the cmd.  I add @echo off at the beginning; then the path will not show in the CMD. The new code should look like this:

@echo off

ipconfig /flushdns

pause

See the result now, only the result is showing, and nothing else.

What does “@echo off” means?

Echo Off is added so that when you execute a batch file, it won’t show everything written in the .bat file but only the results.

For example, Here is my code for a .bat file:

title this is my first batch script

echo welcome to the first one

pause

The result will be:

But, If I add Echo Off to the code:

Echo off

title this is my first batch script

echo welcome to the first one

pause

Then the result will be:

You can see the difference that when we add Echo off, it shows only the prompt and the executed result. It hides other things from the file.

Now, if you add @ before echo off

@Echo off

title this is my first batch script

echo welcome to the first one

pause

then the result will be:

It hides the prompt as well.

These explain how echo off and @echo off work. Also, what happens when you don’t add echo off.

Also, you have learned how you can write a batch file in Windows 10. These examples are the basic ones; you can write even more complex batch files as per the requirements.

Now, let’s talk about different ways you can run batch files.

How to run Batch File in Windows 10?

As I described earlier in this post that when you write commands in a text file, and then save that with extension .bat anywhere on your computer, you will see the batch file is created which you can double click to run. When you double-click a batch file, it opens DOS in which you see the commands that are written in the file are executed. Moreover, you can right click on the file icon and select Open as well to run .bat file in Windows.

How to run Batch File in CMD?

Though the easiest option is to double click the .bat file to run it, you may have been working within Command Prompt, and want to run a batch file there, then you can run from there as well.

You need, go to the directory in which the batch file is saved. To change the directory in DOS, you can use CD command. Once you are into that directory or location, just type the batch file name, and hit enter to run that. For example, I have atish.bat file on my desktop, so first I opened Command Prompt, moved to the location which is desktop using CD command, and then typed the file name atish {you don’t need to type it with extension here}.

This is how you can run bat file from CMD.

I am sure you have some ideas about batch files now. However, the examples are very basic; you can write complex batch files as well.

Some of the basic commands for Batch Files:

ECHO: To display text.

ECHO OFF: It hides the texts. And, only shows prompt and the executed result

@ECHO OFF: It hides both texts and prompts, and only shows the executed result.

XCOPY: To copy files with extra options

START: To run a file with its default application

FOR/IN/DO: To specify files

MKDIR: To create directories

REM: To enter a comment line in the program

RMDIR: To remove directories

DEL: To delete files

COPY: To copy a file or files

TITLE: To edit the title of the window

Further, in this post, I am going to share some cool batch files that you can try out.

Few cool Batch Files that you can try and enjoy

You can find a lot of cool, useful and funny Batch file codes on the internet.

Final Thoughts

Batch files are very useful at times. All you need to know are the commands that you have to add in the file, and use it when required. Moreover, you can find readymade batch file codes on the internet for various purposes.

I have been using a lot of batch files to carry out specific tasks on my Windows 10 PC. I am sure; this blog post has given you a better idea of how to create a batch file in Windows 10, how to run the batch file in CMD and a few other related things.

Let me know your views in the comments.