WHERE - Find Executables

Maintained on October 7, 2026

Sometimes you want to know “where is the executable of this command?”

The WHERE command searches for the location of executable files with a given name, based on the directories listed in the PATH environment variable.

Basic Usage

WHERE command_name

Example

where notepad

－ □ ×

Command Prompt

Microsoft Windows [Version xx.x.xxxxx.xxx]

C:\users\user>where notepad

C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

C:\Windows\notepad.exe

C:\users\user>

All paths where an executable named notepad exists are displayed.

チェック

It is especially useful for checking which version a command such as python or node refers to in a development environment.

In PowerShell, type where.exe

In PowerShell, where is an alias of the Where-Object cmdlet, so it does not behave as expected. Run it with the extension, for example where.exe notepad.

Internal commands cannot be found

WHERE finds files such as executables and scripts. Internal commands built into the command prompt, such as cd and dir, have no executable file and are not found.

Where WHERE Searches

WHERE first searches the current directory, then the directories in the PATH environment variable in order. If you omit the extension, those listed in the PATHEXT environment variable (.exe, .cmd, .bat, and so on) are tried.

Main Options

Option	Description
`/R directory`	Search recursively from the specified directory
`/Q`	Show no output; only return an exit code
`/F`	Enclose file names in double quotation marks
`/T`	Show file size and last modified time

Recursive Search (/R)

where /R C:\ notepad.exe

Using Wildcards

where /R C:\Scripts *.cmd

－ □ ×

Command Prompt

Microsoft Windows [Version xx.x.xxxxx.xxx]

C:\users\user>where /R C:\Scripts *.cmd

C:\Scripts\backup.cmd

C:\Scripts\cleanup.cmd

C:\Scripts\deploy\setup.cmd

C:\users\user>

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Showing Size and Date (/T)

where /T notepad

－ □ ×

Command Prompt

Microsoft Windows [Version xx.x.xxxxx.xxx]

C:\users\user>where /T notepad

201216 2024-10-05 14:35:22 C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

201216 2024-10-05 14:35:22 C:\Windows\notepad.exe

C:\users\user>

The size is in bytes. The date format depends on your Windows regional settings.

Existence Check (/Q)

With /Q, nothing is displayed and only an exit code is returned. Use it for conditional branching in batch files.

@echo off
where /Q git
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 (
    echo Git is installed.
) ELSE (
    echo Git was not found. Check your PATH.
)

Practical Example: Checking a Development Environment

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
echo === Development environment check ===
echo.

for %%T in (git node python java) do (
    where /Q %%T
    if !ERRORLEVEL! EQU 0 (
        echo [OK] %%T
    ) else (
        echo [NG] %%T not found
    )
)
endlocal

Because ERRORLEVEL is referenced inside a for loop, delayed expansion (!ERRORLEVEL!) is used.

When nothing is found

If no file is found, WHERE displays an error message and returns exit code 1. For other errors, such as invalid syntax, it returns exit code 2.

Summary

Operation	Command
Find a command’s location	`where command_name`
Search recursively	`where /R directory name`
Show size and date	`where /T command_name`
Existence check (silent)	`where /Q command_name`