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GetCD.exe was a small Windows command-line utility that printed the drive letter of the first CD-ROM drive it found, including the trailing colon (for example, D:). Its purpose was to let unattended Windows 2000/XP installation scripts discover the optical-drive letter instead of assuming every computer used D: or E:.
What GetCD.exe does
When Windows assigns drive letters, the optical drive is not guaranteed to receive the same letter on every machine. GetCD.exe searches the system’s logical drives, identifies the first one Windows reports as a CD-ROM drive, and writes that drive root to standard output. The returned value includes the colon:
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D:Because the result is sent to standard output, a batch file can capture it in an environment variable and use that variable when referring to installation files on the CD.
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Using GetCD.exe in a batch file
Place getcd.exe somewhere Windows can execute it, such as the current working directory or a directory on PATH. The documented batch-file pattern is:
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for /f "Tokens=*" %%a in ('getcd.exe') do set cdrom=%%aAfter the loop completes, %cdrom% contains the detected drive root. An unattended installer can then build paths from that variable:
for /f "Tokens=*" %%a in ('getcd.exe') do set cdrom=%%a
start "" "%cdrom%setup.exe"
The doubled percent sign in %%a is required inside a batch file. If you type the command directly at an interactive Command Prompt, use a single percent sign instead:
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for /f "Tokens=*" %a in ('getcd.exe') do set cdrom=%afor /f runs the program, reads its text output, and assigns that output to the loop variable. Tokens=* tells the loop to keep the complete line rather than splitting it into separate words.
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Why unattended installations used it
CD-based Windows installation media and companion tools often ran from a machine whose drive letters differed from the author’s test system. A script hard-coded to D: could therefore fail when another device occupied D: or when Windows assigned the optical drive a different letter. Capturing GetCD.exe’s output allowed the same batch file to locate files on the installation CD across those machines.
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| Script approach | What it assumes | Result when letters vary |
|---|---|---|
Hard-coded path such as D:i386 |
The CD-ROM always receives D: |
Can point to the wrong drive or fail |
GetCD.exe plus for /f |
The utility can identify a CD-ROM drive | Stores the discovered root in %cdrom% |
How the program finds the drive
The Pascal source published in an MSFN discussion shows a Windows API-based implementation:
GetLogicalDriveStringsenumerates the logical drive roots currently known to Windows.- Each root is passed to
GetDriveType. - The first root whose type is
DRIVE_CDROMis selected. - The program writes its letter followed by
:, as illustrated bywriteln(getcd(getdisks)+':');.
This is drive-type detection, not disc-content detection. The utility does not select a disc by its volume label, inspect files, or identify which optical drive contains a particular installation CD.
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Important limitations
It returns the first detected optical drive
If a computer has more than one CD/DVD drive, GetCD.exe returns the first matching drive in the enumeration order. The historical documentation does not describe a selector for choosing a second optical drive.
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It requires an optical drive recognized by Windows
The implementation depends on Windows reporting a logical drive whose type is DRIVE_CDROM. A drive that is absent, disconnected, unavailable during boot, or exposed under a different device type will not be selected.
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The evidence is historical
MSFN’s “Unattended Programs” listing, posted November 23, 2004, attributes GetCD.exe to Willow Hayes. An MSFN discussion begun August 5, 2003 also credits Willow Hayes’s website and includes the Pascal source. Those records document the utility’s original purpose, but they do not establish a current official download, active maintenance, or compatibility with current Windows releases.
Quick Recap
What GetCD.exe was—and was not
- It was: a freeware command-line helper for returning the first CD-ROM drive letter.
- It was: suitable for capturing output in Windows batch files used by unattended installations.
- It was not: a general search for a disc by volume label.
- It was not: a documented multi-drive selection tool.
- It is not verified here: as a supported utility for present-day Windows versions.
Practical checklist for an old installation script
- Keep
getcd.exeaccessible from the script’s working directory orPATH. - Use doubled percent signs for the loop variable in a
.batfile. - Use
%cdrom%only after thefor /fcommand has assigned it. - Remember that the captured value already includes the colon, so write paths as
%cdrom%folderfile, not%cdrom%:folder. - Do not assume the result identifies a particular disc when multiple optical drives are present.
- Test any use on current Windows separately; the surviving documentation is from the Windows 2000/XP era and does not promise modern compatibility.
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