Nov 07 2006
CLI workaround for Windows XP : Doing a pause in a batch script
DOS - Windows Batch Files, Tips Add commentsIn our list of “CLI workaround for Windows XP“, a missing command is SLEEP or WAIT. For fixing this I suggest you two solution, first is simply a batch workaround using PING command, the second solution use the Windows Server 2003 Ressource Kit tools.
With PING you can produce a fixed delay by testing the loopback address. This can be really usefull if you don’t want (or if you can’t) install extra software.
# Doing an approximative pause of 60 seconds
PING -n 61 127.0.0.1>nul
Second way is to install the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit tools from microsoft.com. You will get a SLEEP.exe that will do all the requested stuff.
# Doing a pause of 60 seconds
SLEEP 60
Enjoy. ;-)
October 29th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Another way is to use ‘timeout’ command.
Just type ‘timeout’ at the command line and it will display the help.
I don’t know since when is it available, but at least is available on Vista.
January 11th, 2009 at 1:30 am
As a heads up:
Timeout doesn’t seem to exist on my normal copy of Windows XP SP3.