What does the command "timeout" do in Windows?

While looking for the screen timeout settings, I typed "timeout" in the search menu and a
timeout run command option appeared.
I clicked it out of curiosity but nothing seemed to happen and a search was not helpful.

2 Answers

You can execute timeout /? on command prompt to see what this command do along with options available.

This utility accepts a timeout parameter to wait for the specified time period (in seconds) or until any key is pressed. It also accepts a parameter to ignore the key press.

More information with examples can be found here.

0

You can use Timeout command in Windows to stop the execution for some time and then continue. you can specify the number of seconds to wait, it would wait till the time elapses or until user presses any key.

For example:

C:\>Timeout 10

Windows will pause the execution for 10 seconds, you may press a key to continue.

Another similar command is Sleep command.

Windows provides a resource kit tool Sleep which can be used in batch files or command prompt to stop the execution and wait for some time.

C:\>Sleep 50 or C:\>Sleep -m 50

N.B. Timeout can be set through the Batch file also.

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