Windows command output to file

Use a redirection operator to redirect the output of a command to a file. All the information displayed in Command Prompt after running a command can be saved to a file, which you can reference later or manipulate however you like.

How to Use Redirection Operators

While there are several redirection operators, two, in particular, are used to output the results of a command to a file: the greater-than sign (>) and the double greater-than sign (>>).

The easiest way to learn how to use these redirection operators is to see some examples:

Export Network Settings to a File

 ipconfig /all > networksettings.txt

In this example, all the information normally seen on screen after running ipconfig /all, is saved to a file by the name of networksettings.txt. It’s stored in the folder to the left of the command, the root of the D: drive in this case.

The > redirection operator goes between the command and the filename. If the file already exists, it’ll be overwritten. If it doesn’t already exist, it will be created.

Export Ping Results to a File

 ping 192.168.86.1 > "C:\Users\jonfi\Desktop\Ping Results.txt"

Here, when the ping command is executed, Command Prompt outputs the results to a file by the name of Ping Results.txt located on the jonfi user’s desktop, at C:\Users\jonfi\Desktop. The entire file path in wrapped in quotes because a space involved.

Remember, when using the > redirection operator, the file specified is created if it doesn’t already exist and is overwritten if it does exist.

The Append Redirection Operator

The double-arrow operator appends, rather than replaces, a file:

 ipconfig /all >> \\server\files\officenetsettings.log

This example uses the >> redirection operator which functions in much the same way as the > operator, only instead of overwriting the output file if it exists, it appends the command output to the end of the file.

Here’s an example of what this LOG file might look like after a command has been exported to it:

The >> redirection operator is useful when you’re collecting similar information from different computers or commands, and you’d like all that data in a single file.

The above redirection operator examples are within the context of Command Prompt, but you can also use them in a BAT file. When you use a BAT file to pipe a command’s output to a text file, the exact same commands described above are used, but instead of pressing Enter to run them, you just have to open the BAT file.

Use Redirection Operators in Batch Files

Redirection operators work in batch files by including the command just as you would from the Command Prompt:

 tracert yahoo.com > C:\yahootracert.txt

The above is an example of how to make a batch file that uses a redirection operator with the tracert command.

The yahootracert.txt file (shown above) will be created on the C: drive several seconds after executing the sample.bat file. Like the other examples above, the file shows everything Command Prompt would have revealed if the redirection operator wasn’t used.

Export Text Results in Terminal

Terminal provides an easy way to create a text file containing the contents of whatever you see in Command Prompt. Although the same redirection operator described above works in Terminal, too, this method is useful for when you didn’t use it.

To save the results from a Terminal window, right-click the tab you’re working in and select Export Text. You can then choose where to save the TXT file.

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• To send command line output to a text file on Windows, open Command Prompt (admin) and run “Command-syntax > C:\Output.txt” or “Command-syntax | tee C:\Output.txt” in PowerShell (admin).

On Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, or even older versions, it’s possible to save a command’s output, and in this guide, I will explain how to complete this process. Usually, you open the Command Prompt or PowerShell, run one or a series of commands, then select and copy the output, create a text file, paste the results, and save the file. Although this is a common approach, it takes a lot of steps. You can also take a screenshot or picture with your phone, but these are not the best ways to accomplish this task.

The correct approach is to append the command syntax you want to run with the correct command that Command Prompt and PowerShell offer to save the output to a text file.

In this guide, I will explain the different methods to save the command output to a text file on virtually any version of Windows.

Save command output to a text file on Windows

On Windows, you can export the command output with different commands depending on whether you use Command Prompt or PowerShell.

From Command Prompt

To save the output of a command from Command Prompt, use these steps:

1. Open Start.

2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and choose the Run as administrator option.

3. (Option 1) Type the following command to export the command output to a text file and press Enter:

   Command-syntax > C:\Path\to\Export-results.txt

   In the command, replace “Command-syntax” with the command syntax and specify the path and the name of the text file to save the contents. For example, ipconfig > C:\Export-results.txt

   

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4. (Option 2) Type the following command to export the command and append the result to an existing text file, and press Enter: 

   Command-syntax >> C:\Path\to\Export-results.txt

5. (Option 3) Type the following command to capture and view the output in the console and press Enter:

   Command-syntax > C:\Path\to\Export-results.txt | type C:\Path\to\Export-results.txt

The greater-than > redirect operator makes it possible to redirect whatever the outcome of the command is into a text. You’re not limited to text files. You can also export to “.doc,” “.xls,” and other formats.

If you need to create a list of all the files and folders from a specific location, instead of typing one by one, use this command:

• Dir /b > C:\Output-file.csv

If you need to create a list of specific types of files, use this command:

• Dir *.doc/b > C:\Output-file.csv

The asterisk (*) represents any name, the kind of file that you want a list from, and (/b) uses bare format (no heading information or summary).

From PowerShell

To save the command output to a text file from PowerShell, use these steps:

1. Open Start.

2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and choose the Run as administrator option.

3. (Option 1) Type the following command to export the command output to a text file and press Enter:

   Command-syntax | tee C:\Path\to\Export-results.txt

   In the command, replace “Command-syntax” with the command syntax and specify the path and the name of the text file to save the contents. For example, ipconfig | tee C:\Export-results.txt

   

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4. (Option 2) Type the following command to capture and append the result to the end of a file and press Enter:

   Command-syntax | tee -append C:\Path\to\Export-results.txt

The pipeline operator | and tee commands (short for “Tee-Object”) send the capture of the output to the file while showing the result on the console screen. Also, the -append option prevents overriding an existing file by appending the next output to the end of the file.

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One of the most useful ways to log and troubleshoot the behavior of commands or batch jobs that you run on Windows is to redirect output to a file.

However, there are a few different ways you can redirect command line writes to a file. The option you choose depends on how you want to view your command output.

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How Windows Command Prompt Output Works

When you type a command in the Windows console (command prompt), the output from that command goes to two separate streams.

• STDOUT: Standard Out is where any standard responses from commands go. For example the standard response for the DIR command is a list of files inside a directory.
• STDERR: Standard Error is where any error messages go if there’s a problem with the command. For example if there aren’t any files in the directory, the DIR command will output “File Not Found” to the Standard Error stream.

You can redirect output to a file in Windows for both of these output streams.

Redirect Standard Output Write to New File

There are two ways you can redirect standard output of a command to a file. The first is to send the command output write to a new file every time you run the command.

To do this, open the command prompt and type:

dir test.exe > myoutput.txt

The > character tells the console to output STDOUT to the file with the name you’ve provided.

When you run this command, you’ll notice that there isn’t any response in the command window except the error that the file doesn’t exist.

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This is because the standard output for the command was redirected to a file called myoutput.txt. The file now exists in the same directory where you ran the command. The standard error output still displays as it normally does.

Note: Be careful to change the active directory for the command prompt before running the command. This way you’ll know where the output files are stored.

You can view the standard output that went to the file by typing “myoutput.txt” in the command window. This will open the text file in your default text file viewer. For most people, this is usually Notepad.exe.

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The next time you run the same command, the previous output file will be deleted. A new output file will be recreated with the latest command’s output.

Redirect Standard Output Writes to the Same File

What if you don’t want to overwrite the same file? Another option is to use >> rather than > to redirect to an output file. In the case of this example, you would type:

dir test.exe >> myoutput.txt

You’ll see the same output (the error only).

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But in this case, instead of overwriting the output file, this command appends the new output to the existing output file.

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Every time you run a command and append the output to a file, it’ll write the new standard output to the end of the existing file.

Redirect Standard Error To a File

The same way you can redirect standard output writes to a file, you can also output the standard error stream to a file.

To do this, you’ll need to add 2> to the end of the command, followed by the output error file you want to create.

In this example, you’ll type the command: 

dir test.exe > myoutput.txt 2> output.err

This sends the standard output stream to myoutput.txt, and the standard error stream to output.err. The result is that no output stream at all gets displayed in the console window.

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However, you can see the error messages by typing output.err. This will open the file in your default text file viewer.

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As you can see, any error messages from the command are output to the error file. Just as with the standard output, you can use >> instead to append the error to errors from previously run commands.

Redirect All Output Writes to a Same File

All of the approaches above result in multiple files. One file is for the standard output stream and the other is for the standard error stream.

If you want to include both of these outputs to the same file, you can do that too. To do this, you just need to redirect all output to the same file using the following command.

dir test.exe 1> myoutput.txt 2>&1

Here’s how this command works:

• The standard output is directed to the output file identified by output number 1.
• The standard error output identified by the number 2 is redirected to the output file identified by number 1.

This will append the error output to the end of the standard output.

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This is a useful way to see all output for any command in one file. 

Silencing Standard or Error Output Streams

You can also turn off either Standard Output or Standard Error by redirecting the output to a NUL instead of a file.

Using the example above, if you only want Standard Output and no Standard Error at all, you can use the following command:

dir test.exe 1> myoutput.txt 2>nul

This will result in the same output file as the first example above where you only redirected the Standard Output, but with this command the error won’t echo inside the console. It won’t create an error log file either.

This is useful if you don’t care about any errors and don’t want them to become a nuisance.

You can perform any of the same output commands above from inside a BAT file and the output from that line will go to the output file you specify. This is a useful way to see whether any commands within a BAT file had any errors when they tried to run.