I can't believe that I've been using Windows XP since Beta 1 and did not know this feature existed.
You see, I do a lot of work from the command line - sometimes it's just more comfortable for me as that's how EVERYTHING was done when I started doing this stuff 15+ years ago. And although I'm an excellent typist (if I do say so myself!), it's a major pain to have to deal with long filenames - copy, delete and rename commands are a chore when you're working with "myveryimportantdocumentthatIcreatedwitharealllylongname.doc".
Various flavors of Unix/Linux for quite some time have given command line junkies the ability to use "auto complete" functionality from the command prompt. Well, guess what!? Windows XP introduced the same functionality when it was released.
From a command prompt, you can start typing the name of a file and then press TAB. If what you have typed uniquely identifies a file/folder in the location you're at, the shell will auto complete the rest of the file/folder name. If it doesn't, continuing to his TAB will cycle through the possible matches. Go ahead, try it now:
- Open a command prompt.
- Change to the root directory of your C:\ drive. (cd\)
- type "cd docum" - and then hit TAB. Windows will go ahead and finish typing "Documents and Settings" - complete with the enclosing quotes.
It'll work anywhere in the command shell. I apologize in advance for covering what most may find old news. I just couldn't contain my excitement. I know...that makes me a really big geek. So be it.