Programmer's Survival Guide for Windows CMD Shell, File System & Source-code Editors Part 1

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1. Command Prompt - CMD

Programmers use a Command-Line Shell to issue commands, instead of clicking on Graphical User Interface (GUI). This is because command-line is much more flexible and powerful than graphical interface.

The CMD is a Command Shell (or Command Interpreter, Command Prompt, DOS Prompt) for issuing commands to interact with the Windows Operating System. It provides a set of commands and utilities. It also has its own programming language for writing batch files (shell scripts).
You can launch a CMD shell via:

"Start" button ⇒ "Run..." ⇒ Enter "cmd", or
"Start" button ⇒ All Programs ⇒ Accessories ⇒ Command Prompt.

The CMD shell displays a prompt which ends with ">", in the form of "drive:\current-directory>". You can enter your command after the prompt.
In this article, I shall denote the command prompt simply as ">".