Argument

In computer-speak, an argument (also called a parameter) is a bit of extra information that tells a program what to do. When launching a program via a command line, the arguments are typed after the name of the program itself.

The argument(s) might consist of the name of a file to open, or a special sequence of characters (often preceded by a slash ("/") or dash ("-") character) that specify a particular action.

For example, the Windows program Notepad.exe accepts one argument, the name of the file it should open:

    Notepad.exe MyFile.txt

The Windows program ChkDsk.exe accepts several parameters, including the letter of the drive to be checked, and "/F", ordering the program to fix disk errors it finds:

    ChkDsk.exe C: /F

Note: When creating a shortcut to a program, you can specify the arguments separately, instead of typing them after the program's name.

Note: Many programs will display all possible arguments, if run with the single argument "/?" or "/help" (without the quotation marks).  For example:  ChkDsk.exe /?