What does ComSpec mean?
10,352
In regards to the etymology, it's self-referential. %COMSPEC%
does stand for Command Specifier, and it "specifies" the command interpreter, which by default is cmd.exe
in NT systems, and COMMAND.COM
in DOS systems.
You can modify the variable to point to any secondary interpreter you want (this is a DOS example):
SET COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM
COMSPEC
specifies the secondary command interpreter.
This need not beCOMMAND.COM
.
One example of a different command interpreter is JP Software's 4DOS.COM.
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Updated on November 25, 2022Comments
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Admin 12 months
Merely curious about the etymology of the Windows environment variable %COMSPEC%. I understand it (usually) points to cmd.exe.
The best I could find online is Command Specifier, which sounds reasonable.