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How to Turn On Auto-Complete in the Command Prompt

Do you use the command prompt on a daily basis? If so, I recently found a way to turn on auto-complete for the command prompt via a simple registry edit. When typing in long path names, simply type in the first few letters and then press TAB to autocomplete either folder or file names.

For example, if I am typing in C:\Documents and Settings\, I would just need to type in C:\Doc and then press the TAB key.

enable auto complete command prompt
enable auto complete command prompt
dos prompt auto complete
dos prompt auto complete

As you can see, there is only one folder that starts with “doc“, so it automatically gets completed with quotes added. Now that’s pretty neat. If you want to continue further, just add another \ to the end and then press TAB. Note that you can add the forward slash after the quote and it will still work just fine.

You can continue through the different folders and files in a directory by simply pressing the TAB key. So if you type in C:\ and then keep pressing the tab key, you will be able to cycle through all the folders and files in that path in alphabetical order, i.e. C:\Documents and Settings, C:\Program Files\, etc.

Note that this really only applies to Windows XP. In Windows 7 and higher, autocomplete will work automatically when you press the TAB key.

Enable Autocomplete for Command Prompt

Step 1: Click on Start, then Run and type in regedit in Windows XP. In Windows 7 and higher, just clicking on Start and then type regedit.