Better yet, get Open Command Window Here, which is a small utility offered by Microsoft that allows you to right click on any directory in Windows Explorer and open a command window at that directory.
If you’re using Windows XP, there’s another option. Instead of using moldy old command.com, use the NT command interpreter, cmd.exe. Just type cmd into a run window instead of command.com. This lets you enter long directory names as normal, i.e:
Also - turn on filename completion. Instructions are here. Usual disclaimers about editing the Registry may cause you to turn purple and explode etc. etc. Then, when in the command prompt, start typing the name of the folder and hit <TAB>.
cd c:\pr<TAB>
will probably be enough.
I love command line completion - yes, I know Linux has it too
Now I just got to get ls and all my other Linux commands working and I won’t have to take twice as long on the rare occasions I fire up the command prompt.
Have you tried Cygwin? It’s a unix environment that works under Windows. It looks like you can use it as a “Bash for Windows” with all the usual GNU tools. (I haven’t played around with it much yet.)
XPav - I have my Windows system set up with pretty much all the common Linux/Unix commands. I happily switch back and forth between the warm and fuzzy Windows GUI, and the cold but efficient command line utilities like ‘grep’, ‘rm’, ‘cut’ et al.
You can also drag-and-drop files and folders from Windows Explorer into a command window and it will fill in the complete path. This can save a lot of typing if the items in question are several directories deep.