When you're working at a Windows 2000 command prompt on a local drive, you can easily see the drive and directory you're accessing. The default prompt shows the drive letter and full path, followed by the greater-than character (e.g., C:\winnt>). However, when you're working on a network drive with a mapped drive letter, you might forget which server and share you're accessing. Making a simple change to the prompt adds this useful information.
On the Start menu, select Run. Type
cmd
and press Enter. At the command prompt, enter
prompt $m$_$p$g
The prompt will then show the server and share; a second line shows the usual drive letter, path, and greater-than character, as in the following example.
\\dataserver\ctaylor
F:\>
To make the change permanent, right-click My Computer and select Properties. Select the Advanced tab and click Environment Variables. If you want the change to apply only to the currently logged on user, click New in the User variables section. If you want the change to apply to all users, click New in the System variables section. Name the variable prompt, set the value to $m$_$p$g, and click OK. Any new Cmd windows that you open will have the new prompt. For other command prompt options, open a Cmd window and enter
prompt /? | more
—Chris Taylor
ctaylor@nrcan.gc.ca