Windows equivalent of whereis?

Question

Is there an equivalent of the Unix whereis command in Windows?

So that I could figure out where commands I can run actually is.

Answer 1

The where command does what you want and goes back at least to the resource kit for Windows 98, and is included by default in Server 2003, Vista, and newer:

C:\>where csc
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\csc.exe
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\csc.exe

If executed with no arguments (on Vista), it results in one of my favorite messages:

C:\>where
ERROR: The operation completed successfully.

If executing in PowerShell, be sure to include '.exe' to distinguish from any 'where' aliases or scripts along the path. ('where' is a typical alias for Where-Object.ps1)

C:\> where.exe where.exe
C:\Windows\System32\where.exe

Answer 2

You can run the following PowerShell command:

gcm <command>

Get-Command

The Get-Command cmdlet gets all commands that are installed on the computer, including cmdlets, aliases, functions, filters, scripts, and applications. Get-Command gets the commands from PowerShell modules and commands that were imported from other sessions. To get only commands that have been imported into the current session, use the ListImported parameter.

Answer 3

Please, use where command:

> where app.exe

It is the best way to achieve your goal.

You can also use PowerShell command:

> $env:path.Split(';') | gci -Filter app.exe

and expanded version looks like this:

 > $env:path.Split(';') | select -Unique | ? {$_ -and (test-path $_)} | gci -Filter app.exe

Answer 4

hackerish which.cmd:

@echo off
@set PATH=.;%PATH%

@rem 
@rem about:  something similar like the unix-alike-which, but with
@rem         within pure cmd
@rem 

if "%1" == "" (
    @echo Usage: 
    @echo.
    @echo   which 'cmd'
    @echo.
    @echo.if 'cmd' is not found, ERRORLEVEL is set to 1
    @echo.  
) else (
    ( @for %%f in (%1 %1.exe %1.cmd %1.bat %1.pif) do if not "%%~$PATH:f" == "" ( @echo %%~$PATH:f ) else @set ERRORLEVEL=1) 
)

Answer 5

Using the where command on windows 10, in cmd, I used the following command to recursively search c drive for copies of the c# compiler, csc.exe.

c:\> where /r c:\ csc.exe

Sample:

Answer 6

Somewhere "out there" I found this batch file whereis.bat:

@for %%e in (%PATHEXT%) do @for %%i in (%1%%e) do @if NOT "%%~$PATH:i"=="" echo %%~$PATH:i

Update: maybe I found it here.

Answer 7

function find ($string) { 
   Get-ChildItem -Path 'c:\' -Recurse -Filter $string; 
}

function whereis ($string) { 
   $superpath = "$env:Path;C:\Program Files;C:\Program Files (x86)";
   (echo $superpath).Split(';') | Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter $string; 
}

Example:

PS >find Mozilla.admx

    Directory: C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions                                                                                     

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name                                                                           
----                -------------         ------ ----                                                                           
-a----        1/27/2016  12:22 PM          37146 Mozilla.admx                                                                   

PS >whereis firefox.exe

    Directory: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox                                                                                 

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name                                                                           
----                -------------         ------ ----                                                                           
-a----        9/21/2017   5:30 PM         477136 firefox.exe        

Answer 8

which.cmd

@echo off
if "%~1" equ "" (
    echo usage: %~n0 [command] & exit /b 0
) else where $Path:%1 2>nul || (
    echo | set /p x=%~n0: no '%1' in & path
)

doskey.exe

doskey which=where $1 2$Gnul

Usage:

> which.cmd git
C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe
> which.cmd foo
which: no 'foo' in PATH=C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Win
dows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
;C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH;C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7;

Answer 9

There is at least a Windows port for the which utility.

Answer 10

I was searching for this today and since I'm on XP without the resource kit, I turned to powershell with the following command:

dir -path c:\ -filter ffmpeg.* -r

Answer 11

You can try searching for the command using the following:

dir /s type-whatever-you-are-searching