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I distinctly remember, on the computer I had in the 90's, being able to type cdd D:\bla\bla in the MS-DOS command prompt, to change both the current directory and drive (avoiding having to type D: then cd \bla\bla).

I regularly still type it in the Windows command prompt, which complains that no such command exists. Then I remember I must do it with cd /d D:\bla\bla.

So it likely means this specific command wasn't actually part of MS-DOS. Did it come from some set of third-party utilities? I remember I might have something like Norton Utilities installed, but I couldn't find information about this specific tool in its Wikipedia page.

Or is my memory weak and I just made this up?

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  • 2
    I wouldn't das you made it up, but maybe you made a batch to do so for you? As for myself I never ever heared of such a command.
    – Raffzahn
    Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 12:13
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    By the way, generally I use pushd instead of cd /d - it is typed more easily (it's all letters, well distributed between the two hands, without need to shift to the symbols row) and you also get the bonus of popd to get back to where you were.
    – Matteo Italia
    Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 22:48
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    @Raffzahn it was actually very common and popular, back in the day
    – eis
    Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 6:11
  • How badly do you want it to work on modern Windows?
    – Joshua
    Commented Mar 22, 2020 at 16:36
  • 1
    Probably not what the asker was looking for, but FreeCOM offers cdd, pushd and popd as built-ins.
    – user3840170
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 9:29

3 Answers 3

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I remember CDD as a 4DOS command, which would have been available in the Norton Utilities as NDOS. JP Software’s other shells also implement CDD, so 4OS2 and 4NT users would probably recognise it too.

There are several external implementations of CDD too, both as batch files and binary executables. One was developed by Gary Mays in 1996, and provided as part of his “M” batch file enhancer (which I can’t find on the Internet right now). Several were published in PC Magazine, starting in 1994, with revisions in January 1995 and December 1995. Another was written by D. G. Sureau and released as freeware in 1993; it’s available as part of Icon Shell.

Under Windows you could use Take Command or TCC, the descendants of 4DOS, which still include CDD, or write a command file to implement it.

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  • Depending from what one was running in the 1990s, it could alternatively have been 4NT or 4OS2. Also, present tense: Under Windows one can use TCC.
    – JdeBP
    Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 9:49
  • @JdeBP I intended that as the conditional tense, not the past tense. (Note the present “still include CDD”.) The OP explicitly mentioned using DOS.
    – Stephen Kitt
    Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 9:51
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    In Windows 7 and later, you can also create a CDD.BAT file that contains the single line CD /D %1. The only caveat is that you must CALL CDD D:\FOO if you want to use it within another batch file. TCC would be a better solution.
    – Jeff Zeitlin
    Commented Nov 14, 2018 at 20:59
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cdd and cdd! were quite common DOS utilities. eg search for cddbang or dos cdd

cd /d does not work under straight MS/PC-DOS.

Another frightfully useful utility is mcd, make and change directory.

c:>mcd c:\windows\system
c:\windows\system>

Would make the directory and change to it in a single line.

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    This may be true, but the question asks where did it come from.
    – Chenmunka ♦
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 17:25
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    cdd in its day was fairly popular even outside 4dos. A lot of the features in 4dos exist in other command processors and in other programs. cdd for example, was a pcmag utility, I have five different dos versions, three of 'cdd.com' and two of 'cdd.exe'.
    – wendy.krieger
    Commented Sep 26, 2020 at 7:52
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Disclaimer: I'm aware that this does not answer the question about a tool of that name. But chances are that no such tool was used...

EDIT: I overlooked the comment that confirmed the tool, sorry. Anyway, this might help when no tool is available.

I am using "doskey" for this since at least since cd knows the option /d, and its macro:

cd=cd /d $*

This way there is no need to type cdd, just cd. You can change the name of the macro to your liking, of course.

Final note: You could add an automatically run batch if you put its name in the registry at \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\Autorun. Thats nice for some general stuff, like a better prompt.

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  • “But chances are that no such tool was used...” The OP confirmed that they used NDOS, so yes, such a tool was used.
    – Stephen Kitt
    Commented Sep 23, 2020 at 18:26
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    What’s more, CD /D doesn’t work under plain DOS, so this couldn’t have worked. Or are you answering the part about doing this under Windows?
    – Stephen Kitt
    Commented Sep 23, 2020 at 18:38

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