meant to alter the behavior of the command line processor. The caret character forces the command line processor to interpret them literally. Supports delayed variable expansion with , allowing values of variables to be calculated at runtime instead of during parsing of script before execution (Windows 2000 and later), fixing DOS idioms that made using control structures hard and complex. The extensions can be disabled, providing a stricter compatibility mode. Internal commands have also been improved: The command was merged into the command, as part of its switch. and commands limit the scope of changes to the environment. Changes made to the command line environment after commands are local to the batch file. command restores the previous settings. The command allows subroutines within batch file. The command in only supports calling external batch files. File name parser extensions to the command are comparable with C shell. The command can perform expression evaluation. An expansion of the command supports parsing files and arbitrary sets in addition to file names. The new and commands provide access past navigated paths similar to "forward" and "back" buttons in a web browser or File Explorer. The conditional command can perform case-insensitive comparisons and numeric equality and inequality comparisons in addition to case-sensitive string comparisons. (This was available in DR-DOS, but not in PC DOS or MS-DOS.) See also Comparison of command shells List of DOS commands COMMAND.COM PowerShell Windows Terminal References Further reading External links Command shells OS/2 command shells Windows command shells OS/2 commands OS/2 files Windows commands Windows files Windows components