Hi I need to insert a 2 second delay between commands in a *.bat file. Can anyone help me and also where can I get a list of all the commands and syntax? Thanks Ken

try adding REM statments inbetween commands

Forget REM. In the Resource Kit of windows NT, there is a small tool, TIMEOUT.exe. Copy it in the same folder as your batch file. In your BAT file, add: TIMEOUT 2

Another option from the Res kit it sleep. If you do not have the res kit go to this link http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/http2.html#batch grab the faq file tsbat67.zip # 44 lists how to make a sleep command. For those interested here is a list of what he covers in the FAQ: 1) How can I make "@echo off" MS-DOS version independent? 2) Deleting all files without being prompted "Are you sure (Y/N)?" 3) Is it possible to nest for loops in batch files? 4) How can I check in a batch whether a directory exists? 5) Checking that a program is available at the current directory or at path 6) Is it possible to use subroutines and recursion in batches? 7) How can I convert a lowercase parameter to uppercase? 8) Is there an easy way to append a new directory to the path? 9) How can I compare if two files are identical? 10) Writing an empty line to the screen. How is that done? 11) A tip: Customizing the pause message 12) A tip: Complicated renaming of files with for 13) How can I check if the file name given included wildcards? 14) Is it possible to prevent the user from breaking the batch? 15) Can I prevent a break from bypassing the autoexec.bat? 16) How can I extract the extension of a file name? 17) Information on the quote character % 18) Eliminating auxiliary batches (making do with the main batch) 19) Utilizing the subst command in paths 20) How can I run a batch once a week (testing for the weekday) 21) How can I test if a given file name includes the path? 22) How can I display the time without having to press enter? 23) Alternatives for testing for the errorlevel value 24) About redirecting a batch file's output 25) How can I test if my batch has sufficient environment space? 26) Is there a simple trick to "disable" or hide a drive? 27) How can I send an escape sequence to the printer? 28) Is it possible to create a random string in a batch? 29) Is it possible in a batch to find out the length of a string? 30) How to obtain the MS-DOS version into an environment variable? 31) How can I find out the number of regular files on a drive? 32) How can I use a batch to augment line numbers to my text file? 33) Storing and returning to the original directory (push and pop) 34) Enticing the current date into an environment variable 35) A tip for power users. Identifying the individual PC. 36) For loop and redirection quirks 37) Is it possible to traverse a directory tree with a batch? 38) Is it possible to echo the redirection symbol in a batch? 39) How can I extract the file basename? 40) A batch to put user input into an environment variable 41) How can I get the last replaceable parameter given to a batch? 42) Creating an empty file if the file does not already exist 43) How can I change or remove the disk volume serial number? 44) How to pause in a batch for a preset number of seconds? 45) Where can I find a program to compile batches into COMs or EXEs? 46) How can I test whether a disk is empty or not? 47) How can I run a different batch depending on the weekday? 48) Can one put line numbers into a file with just batch commands? 49) How can I backup from the current directory files made today? 50) How can I traverse all files of a directory in a batch? 51) How can I step through a batch a command at a time to debug it? 52) How to display all files made or updated on a day or today? 53) How can I make a list of all my files and locate a certain file? 54) How can I tell if a batch is running in a Windows dosbox? 55) How can I test if there is a disk in a floppy disk drive? 56) Could you please solve this problem for me with a batch? 57) How can I make a loop that is repeated a preset number of times? 58) How can I display the contents of the memory? 59) How get today's date into a six-character environment variable? 60) How can I find and copy the files updated today in a directory? 61) How can I test in a batch whether a TSR program has been loaded? 62) Putting the current drive letter into an environment variable. 63) How can I extract the drive letter from a full file path? 64) How can I write a "SLEEP" command to pause for a certain time? 65) How can put comments into a batch file? 66) How can I echo just the word "off" in a batch file? 67) How can I extract the first two characters of a file name? 68) How can I compare two numbers with batch commands? 69) All these solutions are for wimps. Why not rather use 4DOS? 70) How can I give more than the nine parameters to a batch? 71) How can I update copy files from one directory to another? 72) How can I best clear all the files from my TEMP directory? 73) How can I check the number of parameters given to a batch? 74) How can I locate and e.g. delete all *.TMP files on a drive? 75) How can I rename all files sequentially in a directory? 76) How to search all the *.txt files on a drive for a word? 77) How can I give multiple commands on one line? 78) Is there a batch to individually zip each file in a directory? 79) A batch to substitute a string through a set of text files? 80) Where do I find a good book or WWW page on batch programming? 81) How to read a file's date and time into environment variables? 82) How would I get a beep in a batch file? 83) Y2K: My old BIOS gives a wrong year at boot. How can I fix it? 84) Is there a batch to drop the first letter of a file name? 85) How do I close the command window once my batch file has run? 86) Is MS-DOS batch programming going to die along with W2K? 87) How can I test for the existence of a substring in a string? 88) How can I put MS-DOS FIND results into an environment variable? 89) How to get months as letters and years in four digits in DIR? 90) Isn't MS-DOS dead with W2K? So why bother with MS-DOS batches? 91) How can I exit the called batch without returning to the first? 92) How do I create a sequence of directories from 1 to MaxValue? 93) How do I add +1 to a variable in a batch? 94) How to copy the errorlevel into a variable in a batch? 95) How can I test for a zero byte file? 96) How to show the last N lines of a file using DOS batch files? 97) How do I get the path of a file located somewhere on my disk? 98) How to read a file's attributes into environment variables? 99) Is it possible to echo without linefeed like the Unix echo -n? 100) How can I detect the F1-F10 function keys in a batch? 101) How can I get the free size and total size of a drive? 102) How can I search for a string through a directory of files? 103) How do I find the largest numeric extension and add +1 to it? 104) How do I run the latest executable from the default directory? 105) How can I determine if ANSI.SYS is loaded? 106) How do I get the last drive into an environment variable? 107) How can I calculate the number of lines in a file? 108) Is it possible to save and later restore the command history?

Another useful way to pause/sleep/wait in NT is to ping the loop back address. This example will give you a wonderful 10 seconds break. Ping -l 1 -n 10 127.1.1.1 >nul