Version: 1.17
Released: 24. September 2009
There is no active development of CmdLi anymore (see also FAQ-Artikel).
CmdLi is an acronym for CommandLine Light. With CommandLine Light, commands can be dropped directly from the windows desktop. In this way, programs can be started faster because you do not need your mouse. On your desktop appears a small window, which can be accessed by mouse click or hot keys.
CmdLi tries to react intelligently to requests by recognising the command or document type. This will always start the apropriate application (the example above will start your prefered browser and shows the given website).
Could it be easier? No!
Here are some highlights of CommandLine Light:
Of course, CmdLi stores command input history. The number of commands stored can be changed between 1 and 999. Moreover, the history may be stored permanently so that all commands successfully interpreted may be retrieved. History may also be used as with MS-DOS using the DOSKEY command, type a character and press F8. History can be searched using F7 (a dropdown list appears), and may be deleted using <Alt> + F7.
I distribute this program for private and commercial use as freeware. There are certainly better ways to spend your money.
The program may be distributed freely and may be burned to CDROMs. I give no guarantee, however, for the correct functioning of this program or other eventualities such as lost files.
On first launch, the CmdLi window appears at top left on the screen. The program window may then be repositioned on the screen with the mouse using click and drag in area (1). When satisfied, release the mouse. The window can be horizontally resized to get more space for the input area (2). Moving the mouse over the areas (2) or (3) will display a little popup-window, which shows the current working directory.
You input commands in the white area (2), after pressing <RETURN> the command is executed. During input, the current command may be deleted by pressing <Esc> or <Strg>+C. You may cycle through command history with the arrow keys or by typing a couple of letters and pressing F8. If you want to see commands stored in history, invoke the dropdown list (3) or press F7.
Only one instance of CmdLi may be loaded a a time, attempting to start multiple instances simply results in the running instance receiving mouse focus. Program functions (context menu) can be accessed using the right mouse button, when located over the CmdLi window. These are:
The last four menu items require little explanation. With the item Settings CmdLi can be configured extensively, the window offers the following fields:
rem A comment can be started by a # # Definitions of macros are seperated by equal signs, # blanks or tabs ip=winipcfg e exit #################################### # # It smells like UNIX... # ls dir /w $* ll dir $* cp copy $* mv move $1 $2 make nmake $* #################################### # # Speed up Windows ... # ie c:\progra~1\intern~1\iexplore ns C:\progra~1\netscape\program\netscape.exe -browser av http://www.altavista.digital.com/ y http://www.yahoo.de
In scanning the file, only simple DOSKEY macros are recognized. A macro consists of several commands divided by “\t”, these are not recognized by CmdLi and on inputting such an alias are interpreted as an error. However the substitute symbols $1 to $9 and $* can be used in macros.
Closing the settings window with <ESC> or <CANCEL> results in all changes being lost. Exiting with <OK>, however, results in CmdLi being initialized with the new settings and the DOSKey file scanned for Aliases.
Helmut Welke asked if CmdLi could be invoked from the context menu of Windows Explorer. That is now possible. How is this done?
First open Explorer, select View, Folder Options, File Types. On the left side look for the entry FILE from the list of registered file types. Double-clicking on this entry opens a further window. Click on New in this window, a further window opens. Here you register the value CmdLi. In the field Procedure enter CmdLi and in Application for this procedure type c:\program files\cmdli\cmdli.exe -p “%1”. Now close all windows by pressing <OK>.
If you right-click in Explorer now on a listing name, you see in the context menu the entry CmdLi. If you activate this menu option, the CmdLi window is activated. In addition CmdLi has the working directory already for you changed over to the file concerned …
CmdLi understands typical internal MS-DOS commands. CmdLi opens a DOS box automatically after recognizing such a command and displays the command there. It was however pointed out that there are different command interpreters with an extended quantity of commands (e.g. 4DOS). CmdLi can be informed about an alternate command interpreter. If using such an alternative interpreter, a file with the name “commands.txt” (the name cannot be changed) must exist in the installation directory of CmdLi. This file contains all the commands from the new interpreter, one command is specified per line. After CmdLi starts, it reads the contents of this file and immediately interprets all instructions there as DOS instructions and thus always opens a DOS box.
Here an example of one commands.txt, which illustrates the command sequence of command.com:
BREAK CALL CHDIR CLS COPY CTTY DATE DEL DELETE ERASE DIR ECHO FOR GOTO IF MD MKDIR PATH PAUSE PROMPT RD RMDIR REM REN RENAME SET TYPE VER VERIFY VOL SHIFT TIME
CmdLi can be downloaded in two formats. Both formats contain the same files! For the ZIP-Format you need a third-party product like FilZip (kostet nix) or WinZip.
Alternativly you can download a selfextracting ZIP-Archive. Wenn executing this file, you are prompted for the installation directory. After entering the directory, you only need to press the button “Unzip”, to install CmdLi at the desired location.
If you are experiencing problems with downloading one of the above files, please click on the desired link with the right mouse button. A context menu appears. Here you can select “Save target as” (Internet Explorer, Opera) or “Save link as” (Konqueror, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape). Then you should have no problems with the download …
First of all a big, big THANK YOU to Colin Gymer. who has translated my german website and the CmdLi executable itself!
cd d:\zip cd c:\tools copy less.exe d: d: dir (the file was copied correctly to d:\zip)
If you do not find the right answer on your question below, please let me know and send me an E-Mail…
No, in the last years there was no feedback by the users, that any feature is missing. Now Windows 7 has a very powerful mechanism for starting applications already built in. So development of a new version really makes no sense.