Command aliases in Command Prompt?

It is rather easy to setup permanent aliases in the Windows command prompt using the @DOSKEY command and HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor Autorun option.

Quick step-by-step guide:

1. Create a new batch file, call it Alias.bat. Copy/paste the text below. TIP: I recommend creating a C:\Bin folder for all your command line tools.
2. Open the register HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor.
3. Add an String Value named Autorun and set the value to absolute path of the Alias.bat file.
4. Done.

This batch file will execute every time you open a command prompt.

Contents of Alias.bat

DOSKEY ls=DIR $* 
DOSKEY cp=COPY $* 
DOSKEY xcp=XCOPY $*
DOSKEY mv=MOVE $* 
DOSKEY clear=CLS
DOSKEY h=DOSKEY /HISTORY
DOSKEY alias=if ".$*." == ".." ( DOSKEY /MACROS ) else ( DOSKEY $* )

Now you can type alias (i.e DOSKEY /MACROS) to view the current list of aliases/macros.

To add new aliases for the current session only you can use alias name=command.

Also sort of off-topic -

Use PowerShell instead of the cmd.exe command line. The good news is that PowerShell has the equivalent of .bash_profile, and runs just like the cmd.exe command line. It comes with a built-in alias generation feature. The bad news is that there is a bit of a learning curve if you want to do anything more complicated than simple cmd.exe commands.

By the way, ls is defined as an alias of dir, right out of the box.

There is a registry entry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun which allows you to run a command when you start a cmd prompt. This includes a batch file.