Update (2/25/2004): Thanks to a tip from the feedback section, I'm now addicted to using 'doskey' for creating command-line aliases. For instance, I have the following lines in my command shell startup script:doskey d=dir $*doskey n=notepad $*doskey home=cd /d d:\homedoskey ..=cd ..\..doskey ...=cd ..\..\..For my home PC, I'm also looking at autohotkey, a shortcut key remapper for people who hate using the mouse. I think I'll like this utility.----One of my pet peeves is having to type unnecessarily long directory names on the command line. For instance, when I want to browse the contents of the winsock header file I have to type this:
cd \Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Includenotepad winsock2.h
I hate it, especially the use of "Program Files' as the directory where your programs are stored. "ProgramFiles" (without the space) or "prog" or "bin" would have been enough.
Thankfully, I can use the linkd.exe utility, included in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, to use directory aliases. I can set up links to refer to hard-to-type directory names. For instance:
linkd \usr\include "c:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\include"linkd \usr\lib "c:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib"
Much easier, now I can type 'dir \usr\lib' and it gives me a directory listing of all my lib files from SDK directory. I can even use the same directory aliases in my make files and batch scripts. Neat huh?
Now that I'm addicted to links and aliases, I'm looking for the windows equivalent of the unix ln utility. I hate typing 'notepad' in full all the time, I'd prefer to put a link 'note.ln' or even just 'n' so I can open a file by typing 'n winsock2.h'. Anyone know a way to do this?
My current workaround is making a copy of notepad.exe to n.exe, but I would prefer to do it the right way by using a link. Creating a batch file n.bat that calls notepad.exe is no good because the command env would block while waiting for notepad to close.