Filename completion in Windows

I wrote my filec program a very long time ago -- the first version was way back in 1987. At that time it worked in DOS; as time went on, I made slight modifications so that it would also work at a DOS command prompt inside Windows.

My filec program does not work in the newer Windows operating systems -- Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. But the good news is, similar functionality is built into Windows itself now:

  1. Run regedit
  2. Navigate down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor
  3. Make a DWORD value EnableExtensions, equal to 1
  4. Make a DWORD value CompletionChar, equal to 9

After you make those changes and re-run cmd.exe, the Tab key will do filename completion. If there is more than one matching filename, press Tab more than once; it will cycle through all matching filenames.

For more info, run cmd /?