Q&A for How to Delay a Batch File

Add the >nul qualifier, like this: timeout /t 120 >nul. This causes a 2 minute delay with no output to the screen.

If the sleep command doesn't work, use timeout instead.

You can use the ping command. This command, if used with a non-existent IP address, will try to talk to a non-existent computer and give up after a specified number of milliseconds. Just multiply the number of seconds by 1000, and you're good to go.

Make sure that you are using an invalid IP address. Also, remove '>nul' from the end and see what it outputs -- this might tell you why it skips.

In this case, you can use "Parenthesis": @echo off IF EXIST "C:\Folder" ( echo Folder exists! ) ELSE ( Echo Folder does not exist! ) pause > nul

To get rid of the warning message for a timeout, out >nul at the end of the line, and it will hide the warning.

You should have: ping [a fake ip] Add >nul Now it should look like this: ping [a fake ip] >nul

Yes, example: IF "String" == "String" (timeout 10 echo "String is equal to other string").

You might have pressed a key before or during the timeout part. You should use timeout /t /nobreak.

Adding >nul to the end of the line should work. "timeout /nul" is the command you want from this answer.

Not using the timeout command. You would need to supply your own program with a better granularity, or invoke PowerShell with the Start-Sleep command. "powershell -command "Start-Sleep -m 500".

The timeout command only supports seconds as an input. You can use up to 100000 seconds, which is approximately 1,666 minutes or 27 hours, so it isn't really a problem that it doesn't accept minutes or hours.