Quickly Add File Names to Windows Command Line

If your work requires extensive use of the Windows command line, this is a useful trick to improve your efficiency. When you drag and drop files to the command line window, it automatically fills in the complete path of the file.

cmddrag

Note that the existing text also remains intact, so if you drag and drop after typing “cd ”, the file or folder name is appended to it - “cd C:\test.txt” for example.

This trick works on all versions of Windows - from 95 to XP, but not on Windows Vista. For Vista, you could try out this simple program to enable this behavior.

See some more Command Line Tricks.

Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

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Microsoft MVP Alumni

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