Native MS-DOS Commands and the Space Character

The Windows operating system uses various command interpreters to process commands at a command prompt, such as Command.com. This can cause confusion when you are using native, or internal, commands (such as CHDIR, MKDIR, RMDIR, and so on) at a command prompt, particularly in conjunction with the space character.

Various Windows operating systems may generate different results for the same command when typed at a command prompt. For example, the following command generates different results: In Windows 95, this command generates the following error message: In Windows NT-based computers and later, this command generates four separate folders: In this example, the internal MD command treats the use of the space character differently depending on the command interpreter used. Command.com in Windows 95 does not allow the spaces, while Cmd.exe in Windows NT (and later) treats the spaces as delimiters and processes the command by treating each word after the command as a separate parameter.

Note that in each case, the interpreter does not create a long file name or long folder name that includes spaces without the use of quotation marks. To create a long folder name with spaces at a command prompt, use quotation marks as in the following example: In this case, both operating systems create one folder with the long file name "This is a Directory."

Microsoft Windows NT System Guide, version 3.5.