Displaying All the Files in a Folder using the Command Prompt

by Barry Dysert
(last updated October 27, 2014)

3

You probably already know that you can navigate through folders and view their contents by using the Windows Explorer. Another way to display all the files a folder contains is by using the Command Prompt window. (Accessing the Command Prompt window is covered in this tip for Windows 7 users and this tip for Windows 8 users.)

At the command prompt, you can navigate through the folders and subfolders by using the CD command to change your current directory. Just follow the command by a space and the name of the directory you want to change to. If the directory name contains spaces, simply surround the directory name with quote marks, as shown in these examples:

CD "my files"
CD "c:/my data/word documents/budgeting"

After navigating to the directory using the CD command, you can see what files are contained in the directory by typing the DIR command at the command prompt.

 This tip (12033) applies to Windows 7 and 8.

Author Bio

Barry Dysert

Barry has been a computer professional for over 30 years, working in different positions such as technical team leader, project manager, and software developer.  He is currently a senior software engineer with an emphasis on developing custom applications under Microsoft Windows. ...

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What is three minus 2?

2014-11-12 06:37:25

Maarten Daams

By redirecting your output to a file you can create a file containing the folder contents:

DIR C: > file.txt

Everything from the command before the pointy bracket will go to a text file

2014-10-27 08:24:51

Barry

Thanks for the caveat, Henry.

2014-10-27 08:18:21

Henry Noble

DIR alone will not display all of the files in a directory. To see the hidden and system files, append the switches /A:H and /A:S to the DIR command.

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