When I go to command prompt what exactly am I supposed to see?

Question

I get C:\Documents and Settings\ and the name for my xp account. Am I not supposed to just see ( C:\ ) ?

Answer 1

What you see is correct. It always starts at the root of your profile. you can get to the root oh your C: drive by simply typing in

CD \

Answer 2

Windows is based on the old "Disk Operating System" (DOS).

In the "old" days (maybe ten years ago?!), ;)
people used to (and still do!) move between "directories"
(that's "folders" for you Windows folks!)
by issuing a "change directory"
- - "cd" (nothing to do with CD's!) - - command in DOS,
sort of like clicking the up-arrows or folder icons in Windows.

When they moved between disks, say "C:" and "D:",
it would have caused a lot of wasted time
if they had to re-enter the "cd" command each time
they returned to the previous disk.

For example, let's say I started on the "C:" drive at
"\really \long \list \of \sub \folders \that \could \drive \you \crazy \if \you \had \to \type \this \every \single \time"! (I had to use blanks before each back slash (\) because this website doesn't like long words!).

Then, I "moved" to the "D:" drive, by typing "D:",
and then "changing directory" to, oh, say, "\skaizuns \subdirectory".

My intent is to copy a file from the "C:" drive to "D:",
but I really didn't want to type out a "copy" command
using that really, really, really, long directory name
(would you???).

Instead, DOS intelligently "saved" the last changed directory
that was accessed in all drives.
It makes it MUCH easier to type a command like this:

D:\skaizuns\subdirectory> copy C:myfile.doc *.*

DOS remembered that the "C:" drive was pointing to the aforementioned, really, really, really, long directory,
and knew to extract "myfile.doc" from there
and put it on the D: drive
(To the DOS/Windows mavens out there,
yes, I could have done it a much simpler way,
but I am simply giving an example! Deal with it!). ;)

In your case, you probably did something in your "account"
(i.e., C:\Documents and Settings\yourname)
such as created a Word document
or downloaded a picture from the 'net into that folder,
such that when you viewed the "command prompt"
(actually a DOS window), it showed you that directory.

There used to be ways to make the "command prompt"
go to a specific directory each time, but I have noticed that
MicroSquish has removed that capability.
They are trying very hard to eliminate the old DOS!
Now, is that any way for them to treat one's grandparent? ;)

Answer 3

What you're seeing is okay.

Windows actually has some special "variables" that it uses to configure itself. (In a command prompt, type "set" -- without the quotes -- and press ENTER.) One of these variables (probably HOMEPATH) determines the initial path of the command prompt. No need to change it at this point.

Once you're at the command prompt, simply type "cd \" to go to the top of the disk (C:\ in this case).

Answer 4

yes until you enter a command

Answer 5

no u r seeing what u r supposed to see.