RUNNING PROGRAMS WITHIN THE COMMAND PROMPT

The second part of PCstats Guide to the Windows XP Command Prompt will deal with several command prompt utilities that can make dealing with Windows much easier, especially when networking. To run a utility in the command prompt, you need only type its name. For example; MKDIR, DEL and CD are all little programs that you have already run from the command prompt. Generally you need to be in the same directory or folder as the command file (.EXE, .COM or .BAT) for an application you want to run when you type its name, but the command prompt uses a system taken from previous versions of DOS (and older OS) to ensure that this is not always necessary.

A 'path' statement is automatically loaded with the command prompt, telling it to always look in certain locations on the disk when the user types in a command. For example, without this path statement, when you type: DEL windows\system32\mikefile.txt the command would only work if you were currently in the folder containing the DEL command file.

With the path statement, the system knows to check certain directories for command files each time the user types something. As long as it finds the DEL command somewhere within these directories, the entry above will work.


Source:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1723&page=5