How To Make A Batch File

I have seen this question asked many times on the forums here at PCMech. Sometimes, what one takes for granted, makes others scratch their head so I figured this is worth a tip posting.

Suppose you wanted a batch file to simply print the name of your computer. The command you would run would be the following:

echo %computername%

Here is how to make the above command a batch file:

1. Open Notepad (you can use any text editor, but I am going to assume Notepad).
2. Type/paste the commands you want to be in your batch file.
3.  Select File > Save As.
4. In the dialog, browse to the location where you want to save the batch file.
5. Change the “Save as type” option to “All Files (*.*)” and then enter the file name ending with “.bat”, for example: MyComputerName.bat
6. Alternate to step 5, you can enter the file name “MyComputerName.bat” (including the quotes) and this will ignore the Save as type setting.
7. Click Save.

There you have it. You should now have a batch file in all its glory.