Useful Fn key shortcuts in Windows Command Prompt

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If you are a heavy user of the Command prompt (DOS window) in Windows then you would sure agree with me that it is not so very user friendly. But, there are bunch of Fn keys that you can use to make your life easy when working on the Command Prompt.

F7 key – Popup window with a list of previous commands

Brings up a popup window with a list of commands typed in the current session. Numbers the commands from “0″

F9 key – Prompts for command number from recent command list

You saw with F7, it pops up with a list of commands number from “0″. F9 popsup with a message box prompting for the command number. For instance, if I enter 6 here, it will enter the command “whoami”

F8 key – same as the UP arrow function

Brings up previous commands in Descening order from the most recent to the oldest. This is similar to the UP Arrow

F3 & F5 key – Type the last command

This is similar to using the UP arrow to get to the last typed in command

F2 key – Type the previous command upto a specified character

This key prompts to enter the character upto which to copy from the previous command. For instance, if I enter “l”, it will delete anything from the letter “l” (”l” inclusive) in my last command. Can be handy if you have to copy a part of a long command.

F1 – Type last command one letter at a time. So, keep pressing F1 as many times until the letter you want the previous command be typed in.

F6 – Types CTRL+Z