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

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 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

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 5

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

Answer 6

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 7

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 8

You can try searching for the command using the following:

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