Windows Dir Command Tutorial With Examples To List Files and File Information

Dir command is one of the most used Windows commands. Dir is used mainly to list files and directories in Windows operating systems. In this tutorial, we will look at different usage examples of the dir command.

List Files and Folders

Without providing any option and parameter we will list all files and folders in the current working path. The current working path is the path where the shell currently locates. While printing files and folders there is also information like Volume name and Volume Serial Number.

$ dir

List Files and Folders Bare Format

The bare format will only provide files and folders. There will be no other information like creation date-time file type etc. We will provide the /b option.

$ dir /b

List Files Recursively

The default behavior is listing only the current working directory. Listing subdirectories is a need some times. This can be done with /s option like below.

$ dir /s

List Files According To Extension

Another useful feature is listing files and directories with regular expressions or similar glob presentations. One of the most used wanted situations is listing files and folders according to their extension. In this example, we will list txt extension by using wildcard.

$ dir *.txt

List JPEG Files

We can list jpeg files with the following command.

$ dir *.jpeg

List Excel (xls) Files

We can list Excel files with the following command.

$ dir *.xls

List Word (doc) Files

We can list Word files with the following command.

$ dir *.doc

File and Folder Attributes

Files and folder have attributes to provide information and store metadata about them. These attributes can be listed with dir command by providing related options. Some attributes file and folder may have are listed below;

Read
Write
Hidden
Directory
…

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List Only Directories

We may need to print only directories and do not include files. This can be done with the display only directory attribute like below.

$ dir /A:D

List Only Files

We will use directory attribute but we will negate the attribute and this will only display the non directory files. We will use /A:-D option .

$ dir /A:-D

List Read Only Files

In windows systems, files can be read, write, append, etc. To protect files for changes some files are made read-only. These files can be listed by using read-only attributes with /A:R.

$ dir /A:R

List Hidden Files

Hidden files can be listed with the /A:H option.

$dir /A:H

Exclude Read Only Files

Read only files can be excluded by negating the normal usage like below.

$ dir /A:-R

Excludes System Files

Windows have system files that have tagged as system files as an attribute. We can exclude system files while listing with /A:-S.

$ dir /A:-S

Print Detailed Metadata For Files

Meta data about files and folder can be printed with /Q option. This will also list file ownership.

$ dir /Q

List Create Time of Files and Folders

The file creation time can be listed with the /TC option.

$ dir /TC

List Last Accessed Time

Files are accessed during time these access time can be printed with the /TA option like below.

$ dir /TA

Find Last Modified Time

Last modified time of the file can be listed with the /TW option.

$ dir /TW