How do you create a new file at the Windows command prompt? One way is to issue the command "ECHO ON" (or "ECHO OFF") and redirect the output to a file. Since the output of either command is null, a zero-byte file is written to disk. The filename can, of course, be of the 8.3 variety or a long filename. So: echo on > X:\myfile.txt echo on > X:\my-long-filename.txt echo on > "X:\my long filename.txt" produces three empty files: 05/29/2024 12:56 AM 0 MYLONG~1.TXT my long filename.txt 05/29/2024 12:56 AM 0 MY-LON~1.TXT my-long-filename.txt 05/29/2024 12:55 AM 0 myfile.txt Great. Can we do the same thing from the XyWrite command line? Sure: dos[/nv/x/z] /c cmd.exe /c echo on > X:\myfile.txt dos[/nv/x/z] /c cmd.exe /c echo on > X:\my-long-filename.txt dos[/nv/x/z] /c cmd.exe /c echo on > "X:\my long filename.txt" You get a briefly-flashing cmd.exe window with each command, but the result is the same: 05/29/2024 01:00 AM 0 MYLONG~1.TXT my long filename.txt 05/29/2024 01:01 AM 0 MY-LON~1.TXT my-long-filename.txt 05/29/2024 01:02 AM 0 myfile.txt Can the XyWrite command be refined to something simpler and more user-friendly? Well, with the Winstart facility that I posted about earlier this month (<http://xywrite.org/mail/msg43699.html>), it can. The commands become (and now there is no flashing cmd.exe window): start echo on > X:\myfile.txt<Helpkey> start echo on > X:\my-long-filename.txt<Helpkey> start echo on > "X:\my long filename.txt"<Helpkey> Again, same result in Windows: 05/29/2024 01:10 AM 0 MYLONG~1.TXT my long filename.txt 05/29/2024 01:10 AM 0 MY-LON~1.TXT my-long-filename.txt 05/29/2024 01:10 AM 0 myfile.txt More to the point, XyWrite will now give you a DIR listing with the resulting 8.3 filenames: MYLONG~1 TXT 0 5-29-2024 1:10am MY-LON~1 TXT 0 5-29-2024 1:10am MYFILE TXT 0 5-29-2024 1:10am And, of course, by CAlling these files as you would any other, they can be edited in XyWrite. The same approach applies to other commands, of course. Want to create a directory with a long name? dos[/nv/x/z] /c cmd.exe /c mkdir "X:\my long directory" - or - start mkdir "X:\my long directory"<Helpkey> Result in Windows: Directory of X:\ 05/29/2024 01:18 AM <DIR> MYLONG~1 my long directory Result in XyWrite: MYLONG~1 ®MDBO¯<DIR>®MDNM¯ 5-29-2024 1:18am And that's about it for now. -- Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxxxx