The forfiles command can be coupled with processing options to delete those files, or create a list of all files that match the filters. Lets take a closer look at the forfiles command.

FORFILES [/P pathname] [/M searchmask] [/S]
[/C command] [/D [+ | -] {dd/MM/yyyy | dd}]

Description:
Selects a file (or set of files) and executes a
command on that file. This is helpful for batch jobs.

Parameter List:
/P pathname Indicates the path to start searching.
The default folder is the current working
directory (.).

/M searchmask Searches files according to a searchmask.
The default searchmask is ‘*’ .

/S Instructs forfiles to recurse into
subdirectories. Like “DIR /S”.

/C command Indicates the command to execute for each file.
Command strings should be wrapped in double
quotes.

The default command is “cmd /c echo @file”.

The following variables can be used in the
command string:
@file – returns the name of the file.
@fname – returns the file name without
extension.
@ext – returns only the extension of the
file.
@path – returns the full path of the file.
@relpath – returns the relative path of the
file.
@isdir – returns “TRUE” if a file type is
a directory, and “FALSE” for files.
@fsize – returns the size of the file in
bytes.
@fdate – returns the last modified date of the
file.
@ftime – returns the last modified time of the
file.

To include special characters in the command
line, use the hexadecimal code for the character
in 0xHH format (ex. 0×09 for tab). Internal
CMD.exe commands should be preceded with
“cmd /c”.

/D date Selects files with a last modified date greater
than or equal to (+), or less than or equal to
(-), the specified date using the
“dd/MM/yyyy” format; or selects files with a
last modified date greater than or equal to (+)
the current date plus “dd” days, or less than or
equal to (-) the current date minus “dd” days. A
valid “dd” number of days can be any number in
the range of 0 – 32768.
“+” is taken as default sign if not specified.

/? Displays this help message.

This help file can be opened by entering the command forfiles /? in a command prompt. Press Windows-R, type cmd, and hit enter to launch the command line in Windows.

The command

forfiles /P c:\test\ /M .doc /S /D -10

searches the directory c:\test and all its subdirectories for files with the .doc extension that are older than 10 days.

The parameter /p followed by a directory defines the starting directory, /s includes subdirectories in the search, /m filters the files and folders based on the entered string, and /D defines the date or a time span.

The /C command is used to process the files that are found further. It can for instance be used to

/C "cmd /c echo @fname" > test.txt

echo the names of each file found and save the results in text.txt in the same directory.

The full command then looks like this

forfiles /P c:\test\ /M .doc /S /D -10 /C "cmd /c echo @fname" > test.txt

Another possibility is to delete the files that match the search, this is done with the command

/C "cmd /c del @File

It is however recommended to test the output first, before issuing the delete command to make sure that only the right files are deleted.

Experienced users may create a batch file to execute forfiles regularly.

The website of the developer contains the download link but also samples of the functionality of the command line tool. The basic command for the tool is nircmd command parameters. There are more than 80 commands to chose from very specific ones like changing the system volume to advanced commands that manipulate Registry entries or are execute on remote computer systems.

A practical example that shows the complexity of the command tool would be the command to turn off the computer system which can be done with nircmd.exe exitwin poweroff. An advanced version in the form of multiremote copy “c:\temp\computers.txt” exitwin poweroff force of this exists that can turn off all remote computer systems specified in the text file computers.txt

Some of the more common uses for the nircmd command line tool are writing and deleting values in the Windows Registry, writing values to ini files, connecting to a VPN network or Internet account, changing file attributes, turning off the monitor or working with remote computers.

A selection of useful commands:

• nircmd regedit “~$clipboard$” – Will open the Registry key that has been copied to the Windows Clipboard
• nircmd.exe service restart [servicename] – Will restart the service specified in [servicename]. Works also with start, stop, pause and setting startup types.
• nircmd.exe setprocesspriority [processname] high / nircmd.exe setprocessaffinity [processname] 0 1 – Change the process priority or process affinity of a selected process.
• nircmd.exe killprocess [processname] – Kills the specified process

The help file that is supplied with the download of the command line tool is containing all commands and their possible parameters. This is a great tool especially for users who write batch files but also for those who like to work from the command line.

Console 2 tries to be a better command line in Windows by migrating the command line into the modern age. It introduces tabbed browsing, transparency, layout changes and several other functions that increase productivity. Most of the new features can be configured in the settings of Console 2.

Tabbed browsing on the other hand is available from the main toolbar. The settings are divided into several categories like tabs, appearance and behavior. A new font – including font size, format, color and smoothing – can be defined in the appearance menu together with transparency settings and features like snapping to desktop edges when the window is moved.

The functionality of Console 2 is exactly the same that the default Windows command line offers which means that the changes are mostly cosmetic changes that do increase productivity. The most important additions in my opinion are the selection of additional fonts, the transparency and the tabbed browsing.

A list of commands is accessible by entering ls into the form field. I think an example will illustrate the strength of yubnub; wp ghacks searches wikipedia for the term ghacks, gim ghacks searches google images for ghacks. y or g searches yahoo or google for a selected search term. That is not all of course. AM title searches amazon for the title that you enter, random 1000 returns a random number between 1 and 1000.

A good selection of commands that should be useful for most users are Jeremy’s Picks which displays a list of about 100 commands. It is possible to create your own commands. You do select a command string that is not used yet and select a url that uses variables to perform searches or operations. One example would be http://images.google.com/images?q=%s which is simply the search string for google images.

The search string that is entered is substituted with %s in this example. It is possible to create more advanced searches  with more than one parameters.