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How to enable Unix style command line filename completion with the Tab key in Windows NT 4.0

How-To

How to enable Unix style command line filename completion with the Tab key in Windows NT 4.0

by  jrbarnett  Posted    (Edited  )
Windows NT 4.0 has an in built facility as per Unix for automatic filename completion with the filename by pressing a specified key. This is disabled by default, and can be enabled by using Tweak UI 1.33 on the Cmd tab, or by going into the registry to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\CommandProcessor

and changing the CompletionChar key from 0 to 9.
9 is the ASCII value of the tab key, so you can use this to make it anything you want.

The setting comes into effect immediately, and you can test it by opening the command prompt and typing

DIR C:\p<tab>

which will get changed to the name of the first file or directory that starts with a P, for example.

Note that this setting is stored on a per user basis as part of the profile.
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