The command line you want is c:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe.
If you're running Windows XP, it's in c:\Windows\system32
(Windows 2000 used the directory name Winnt that reflected
its development out of Windows NT).
You can type that in the box or click the Browse button and
navigate to the file Cmd.exe that is in C:\Winnt\System32.
Then click Next. Name the shortcut something like Command Prompt.
Click Finish. The shortcut appears on the desktop as an icon.
Now you can use the shortcut as it is, but you might find it convenient to modify its properties slightly. With the pointer over the shortcut's icon, press the right mouse button. Choose Properties from the context menu that appears. The property sheet appears next. Note the tabs along the top.
Click the Shortcut tab. Don't change the Target field, but do
change the field labeled Start In. This will be the default
directory for any commands entered at this command-prompt window.
Enter the full path to a directory that contains your metadata,
or to some higher-level directory like C:\. When you're typing
commands to the prompt, you can change the working directory
by using the cd command just like you used to in the old days
of MS-DOS; it's just that now Windows NT is the operating system.
I find it convenient to enlarge the size of the window itself. Click the Layout tab of the property sheet, and find the section marked Window Size. Change the height to 50. To make things even more convenient, find the Screen Buffer section and change the height parameter there to some large number like 500. This makes it so you can use the scroll bar to look at things that have scrolled off the screen.
To change the colors, select the Colors tab. I like my background dark blue rather than black. It doesn't affect any of the programs, but it's an aesthetic choice available to you.
When you've made all of the changes you'd like to make, click Apply and OK (I think if you click OK you don't need to click Apply).
To run programs like cns, mp and dbfmeta, you'll need to start this command-prompt window. Just double-click the icon. It is most convenient to begin by setting your PATH to include the directory that contains the metadata tools. Type this:
C:> PATH %PATH%;c:\USGS\tools\bin
That appends c:\USGS\tools\bin to your existing PATH, so that
Windows will look in that folder when you type the name
of a program like mp. If you don't do this step, you would have
to run mp by typing
C:> c:\USGS\tools\bin\mp (...plus whatever options you need)
with the PATH set to include c:\USGS\tools\bin, you only have to type
C:> mp (... plus options)
To test it all out, run mp by itself. It should print out a usage message with version number. If instead the system says
The name specified is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.then check the PATH and make sure it includes the directory where mp.exe is stored. By default the tools install in C:\USGS.
All of this works essentially the same way under Windows 95, 98, and 2000. Under Windows XP it works the same except the windows directory is called "Windows" rather than "WinNT".