Command Interpreter Window

After you start the command interpreter you can type in commands as if you were running an old-time DOS computer. You should see something like the following:

My prompt starts out as:

 C:\WINNT\System32>

This prompt means that the command interpreter is automatically expecting to use files in the directory C:\WINNT\System32. This is called the default directory. (A directory is a section of the disk that has a name. A directory can hold many files.) You should not use the C:\WINNT\System32 directory.

You will probably get a prompt that starts out in some other subdirectory. It doesn't matter where you start out because you can always move to where you want to be using the CD command. For now, let us create a Java program in the C:\Temp directory. To get to this directory type the command:

cd \Temp

Type the command in after the command prompt (as above). The prompt changes to show the current default directory.