Probably the quickest way to get to this menu is to hold down the ALT key, and hit the spacebar. So, for paste, it's ALT+Space, E, P (E for edit menu, P for paste command). If you do it enough, it becomes second nature. :) Especially in a command prompt, the mouse isn't always the quickest method.
Posted by: jefflundberg at March 25, 2005 9:03 PM
I ping for a living & I prefer to set my cmd's Properties to Enable Quick Edit which pastes with a simple right mouse click in the window.
Posted by: Bob at March 25, 2005 10:34 PM
Could you go over that Enable Quick Edit?
I've tried it in a quick edit enabled command prompt, and in a Norton Commander for DOS box, but nothing gets pasted on a right click.
The alt-space-edit-paste routine works as usual.
I must be missing something blindingly obvious!
Posted by: hagsrus at March 29, 2005 8:52 PM
This works fine if you're in a command shell window, but what if you're running the dos program full-screen? Is there then a way to copy and paste between the dos program and XP aps? Maybe like winoldap's int 2F under win 9x?
Posted by: Robert Leeper at December 18, 2005 7:12 PM
I believe if you type ALT+Space you'll get the system menu, which will allow you to select the entire screen and copy it. (It may take you out of the full screen window.)
Posted by: Leo at December 18, 2005 7:23 PM
Just in case it's useful to anyone: I've found a neat program called Tamedos which among other things gives you the option to use ctrl-c and ctrl-v to cut and paste in a Dos window under XP, as well as smoothing out various other aspects. 30 days evaluation. Registration is $20 -- worth it to me. http://tamedos.com
Posted by: hagsrus at February 5, 2006 2:16 PM
Many thanks. I had to paste a 4-line long command into the shell!
Is there a way to use the keyboard instead?
Posted by: Nadir Mrabet at June 17, 2008 8:15 AM
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Just use the keyboard shortcuts for the system menu:
Posted by: ketab bhardwaj at September 12, 2008 7:00 AM
Thanks a Billion! I am very experienced, but self-taught; and I was stuck with a "file"/non-file thing on my XP x64 Desktop for a few months. Finally I thought to search the error message (duh!, but guess I was lazy at first and my desktop was messier then anyway).
Well, I am posting this for thanks and two other reasons - for all reading with
this kind of issue:
1 - for me the file ended with a space; and not a period; and thought I would spread the word this still worked!
2 - Also, I read above some had problems with copy and paste. I too had to
re-learn how to do this, but you should be able to do it simply with the Windows prompts (well, at least mine, see version above). I use the portable one from portableapps.com, and also discovered it to be tricky. It seemed to keep "forgetting" or something, what I had copied into the clipboard (which was the entire command written in a text editor to include everything (of course)). I had to carefully left click the very top left of the prompt window to bring up the context menu which included Edit->Paste. Maybe mine was acting up for some other reason, but I think this may help others; keep trying.
So happy that "file" is gone!
Posted by: Michael Trahan at July 25, 2010 2:39 AM
Comments
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Probably the quickest way to get to this menu is to hold down the ALT key, and hit the spacebar. So, for paste, it's ALT+Space, E, P (E for edit menu, P for paste command). If you do it enough, it becomes second nature. :) Especially in a command prompt, the mouse isn't always the quickest method.
Posted by: jefflundberg at March 25, 2005 9:03 PMI ping for a living & I prefer to set my cmd's Properties to Enable Quick Edit which pastes with a simple right mouse click in the window.
Posted by: Bob at March 25, 2005 10:34 PMCould you go over that Enable Quick Edit?
I've tried it in a quick edit enabled command prompt, and in a Norton Commander for DOS box, but nothing gets pasted on a right click.
The alt-space-edit-paste routine works as usual.
I must be missing something blindingly obvious!
Posted by: hagsrus at March 29, 2005 8:52 PMThis works fine if you're in a command shell window, but what if you're running the dos program full-screen? Is there then a way to copy and paste between the dos program and XP aps? Maybe like winoldap's int 2F under win 9x?
Posted by: Robert Leeper at December 18, 2005 7:12 PMI believe if you type ALT+Space you'll get the system menu, which will allow you to select the entire screen and copy it. (It may take you out of the full screen window.)
Posted by: Leo at December 18, 2005 7:23 PMJust in case it's useful to anyone: I've found a neat program called Tamedos which among other things gives you the option to use ctrl-c and ctrl-v to cut and paste in a Dos window under XP, as well as smoothing out various other aspects. 30 days evaluation. Registration is $20 -- worth it to me. http://tamedos.com
Posted by: hagsrus at February 5, 2006 2:16 PMMany thanks. I had to paste a 4-line long command into the shell!
Posted by: Nadir Mrabet at June 17, 2008 8:15 AMIs there a way to use the keyboard instead?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Just use the keyboard shortcuts for the system menu:
ALT+Space
E
P
Does the paste.
Leo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)
iD8DBQFIWW6JCMEe9B/8oqERAhY0AJ4sMgN3KRwC7wRmOtDFiJ8W8KDVcACeIrg0
Posted by: Leo at June 18, 2008 1:22 PM5chXyU/T/muciRuNWTRSTfc=
=Sdl1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
how can i enable my cut,copy and paste command?
Posted by: ketab bhardwaj at September 12, 2008 7:00 AMThanks a Billion! I am very experienced, but self-taught; and I was stuck with a "file"/non-file thing on my XP x64 Desktop for a few months. Finally I thought to search the error message (duh!, but guess I was lazy at first and my desktop was messier then anyway).
Posted by: Michael Trahan at July 25, 2010 2:39 AMWell, I am posting this for thanks and two other reasons - for all reading with
this kind of issue:
1 - for me the file ended with a space; and not a period; and thought I would spread the word this still worked!
2 - Also, I read above some had problems with copy and paste. I too had to
re-learn how to do this, but you should be able to do it simply with the Windows prompts (well, at least mine, see version above). I use the portable one from portableapps.com, and also discovered it to be tricky. It seemed to keep "forgetting" or something, what I had copied into the clipboard (which was the entire command written in a text editor to include everything (of course)). I had to carefully left click the very top left of the prompt window to bring up the context menu which included Edit->Paste. Maybe mine was acting up for some other reason, but I think this may help others; keep trying.
So happy that "file" is gone!
To post a comment on "How do I Paste into a Windows XP Command Shell?", please return to that article's main page.