Utilizing the command prompt is a lost skillset with each generation of computing users. Certainly, if you know what you are doing it can often be faster to accomplish a particular task by venturing into the black background window instead of the interface driven world of Windows Explorer. Other times, it’s actually not even possible to complete a goal using a mouse and Explorer – as is the case today.

It’s not often that you need to capture or print a directory listing with all it’s files but it has come across my scenario desk from time to time. When archiving data or media it’s handy to have an index of sorts so two years down the road you know that y video is on x disk – because you filed that away earlier. But what is the quickest method to do this?

Jumping to the command prompt is obviously where this tip is headed.

Open a Command Window and navigate to the necessary directory. An easy way to do this is actually locate the folder within Explorer, hold Shift and right-click, then select Open command window here.

In the Command Window execute dir > textfile.txt. This will perform a directory listing and redirect the output into the file textfile.txt.

The output is easily readable in Notepad with the data all situated in columns. You can either then print out a hard copy or keep the text file on the computer for easier searching later.