Run Command on Start Menu Does Not Accept Redirection or Pipes
Article ID: 134521
Article Last Modified on 11/15/2006
APPLIES TO
This article was previously published under Q134521
SYMPTOMS
When you type a command that contains the pipe symbol (|) or the
redirection symbols (< or > or >>) in the Open box of the Run command, the
command is not carried out. For example, if you type the following line
you receive the following error message:
Parse error 4
CAUSE
Pipes and redirections are handled by Command.com and not by the Run
command on the Start menu. If you type a pipe or redirection symbol in the
Open box of the Run command, the symbol is given to the program as a
command-line parameter.
In the example above, the MEM program is given a command line of "| more"
and encounters the parse error because "| more" is not a valid switch.
WORKAROUND
To pass pipes and redirections to a program, invoke Command.com explicitly
by typing a line such as the following:
COMMAND.COM /c MEM | MORE
Keywords: KB134521