COMMAND.COM vs. CMD.EXE

Not to be confused with OS/2 Warp CMD.EXE, the file CMD.EXE is the Microsoft Windows NT command line shell and is more compatible and portable between different hardware platforms when compared to the original COMMAND.COM, which has been used as the command interpreter with DOS for several years. COMMAND.COM is included for backwards compatibility and is recommended that it be used when old MS-DOS programs may not be able to be run in Windows NT, 2000, XP and later releases of Windows.

What versions of Windows have support for the CMD command?

Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and above all have support for the CMD command.

What are some advantages of using CMD instead of COMMAND?

Apart from what was listed in the opening paragraph, one of the most noticeable things a user is going to notice when using CMD to access MS-DOS is the ability to use long file names. When a user is using COMMAND they will need to use the short 8.3 name. For example, if a user wanted to access "My Documents" in COMMAND they would need to type cd mydocu~1. However, a user who wanted access the same directory through CMD could type cd "my documents".