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When I press TAB key in command window, the tab character (spacing) is inserted instead of iterating trough items in current directory. How can I make it work this other way (autocompletion)?

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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It looks like completion may be disabled in the Registry.

There's an explanation below, from the output of cmd /?:

File and Directory name completion is NOT enabled by default. You can enable or disable file name completion for a particular invocation of CMD.EXE with the /F:ON or /F:OFF switch.
You can enable or disable completion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDT32.EXE (actually, just regedit.exe would be fine):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar

    and/or

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar

with the hex value of a control character to use for a particular function (e.g. 0x4 is Ctrl-D, 0x6 is Ctrl-F, 0x9 is Tab). The user specific settings take precedence over the machine settings. The command line switches take precedence over the registry settings.

If completion is enabled with the /F:ON switch, the two control characters used are Ctrl-D for directory name completion and Ctrl-F for file name completion.
To disable a particular completion character in the registry, use the value for space (0x20) as it is not a valid control character.

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  • 1
    You can also set both of these options using TweakUI: microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
    – Stephen Jennings
    Commented Mar 18, 2010 at 12:55
  • @njd, Why do you say that it's not enabled by default? It seems to be enabled by default for me (Win 8.1).
    – Pacerier
    Commented Jan 23, 2015 at 15:29
  • @Pacerier It's not enabled by default in Windows XP, which is the version the OP was asking about. Also I wrote that in 2010 and Windows 8 didn't get released until 2012.
    – njd
    Commented Jan 23, 2015 at 17:28
  • @njd, Anyway, another oddity: Ctrl-F and Ctrl-D both cycles through files and folders. Basically they do the same thing, is that the behavior you have on win8.1 too?
    – Pacerier
    Commented Aug 25, 2015 at 13:45
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    Likewise, to set Tab as the completion character, set the values of both CompletionChar and PathCompletionChar to '9' (ASCII code for Tab in both decimal and hex).
    – Myles
    Commented Feb 27, 2018 at 13:58
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To make TAB default for auto complete follow below

  1. open REGEDIT
  2. look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
  3. change the value to 9
  4. restart the cmd
  5. That's it.
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  • Worked for me! The value was 40 before, then I changed it to 9. I hope I didn't disable anything important thereby.
    – Lisa B.
    Commented Oct 11, 2021 at 8:35
0

For me I had to :

  • right-click on the title bar
  • select Properties
  • check QuickEdit Mode under Edit Options
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On my system, adding the /F option to the command-prompt link disabled tab completion, regardless of what value was given. If I don't give /F at all, I have tab completion; but /F:ON and /F:OFF both disable it.

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