How do I pass multiple commands to START in Windows Command Line?

Question

How do I pass multiple commands to start?

I tried

start "window title" echo 1 && echo 2

But, predictably, start only gets "echo 1" and thus "1" is echoed in the new window, and "2" is echoed in the first window.

Is there some way to "escape" the && operator, or another way to pass multiple commands into start so they run successively in the new window?

Answer 1

How do I pass multiple commands to start?

You need to use the cmd /k option and also quote the command you are running.

The following command will work:

start "window title" cmd /k "echo 1 && echo 2"

where:

Options   
   /C     Run Command and then terminate

   /K     Run Command and then return to the CMD prompt.
          This is useful for testing, to examine variables

   Command : The command, program or batch script to be run.
             This can even be several commands separated with '&' 
             (the whole should also be surrounded by "quotes")

Source: CMD.exe (Command Shell) - Windows CMD - SS64.com

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Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line | SS64.com
• Windows CMD Commands (categorized) - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• CMD.exe (Command Shell) - Windows CMD - SS64.com - Start a new CMD shell and (optionally) run a command/executable program.

Answer 2

Another method is to escape the & with ^.

start "window title" echo 1 ^&^& echo 2

Answer 3

Just in case this might help someone with a similar issue (wanting to launch a cmd window with a title, echoing a string of commands, then executing those commands - useful for cmd prompt debug):

start "net stop w32time && net start w32time" cmd /k echo net stop w32time ^^^&^^^& net start w32time ^&^& net stop w32time ^&^& net start w32time