Label (command)

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title: "Label (command)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["external-dos-commands", "os/2-commands", "reactos-commands", "windows-commands", "microcomputer-software", "windows-administration"] topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Label_(command)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

Field	Value
name	label
developer	Microsoft, IBM, Digital Research, Novell, Joe Cosentino, ReactOS Contributors
released
operating system	MS-DOS, PC DOS, SISNE plus, OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS, Windows, DR DOS, ROM-DOS, PTS-DOS, FreeDOS, ReactOS
platform	Cross-platform
genre	Command
license	MS-DOS, PC DOS, Windows, OS/2: Proprietary commercial software

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FreeDOS, ReactOS: GNU General Public License | website =

label is a shell command for setting the label of a volume (a.k.a. logical drive).

The command is supported for most variants of the FAT file system and for NTFS. It is available in various operating systems such as DOS,{{Citation | last1 = Jamsa | first1 = Kris A. | title = DOS: The Complete Reference | publisher = Osborne McGraw-Hill | page = | year = 1993 | isbn = 0078819040 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UW9GAAAAYAAJ | postscript= . OS/2, Windows, ReactOS, DR DOS 6.0, and FreeDOS. It is available in MS-DOS versions 3.1 and later and IBM PC DOS releases 3 and later.

In modern versions of Windows, changing the label requires elevated permissions.

The current label is reported by both the [dir](dir-command) and [vol](vol-command) commands.

In Unix-like systems, various commands set a storage label. For instance, the command e2label is for an ext2 partition.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/5.25-floppy-front.jpg" caption="5 1⁄4-inch floppy disk with a hand-written label."] ::

The command was originally designed to label floppy disks as a reminder of which one is in the disk drive. But it can be used for other types of storage media.

Use

With no options, the command accepts a single argument may start with a drive letter (ending with a colon) and may end with label text. Without a drive letter, the command operates on the volume associated with the working directory. Without label text, the command clears the label.

For example, the command line sets the label of to "Backup".

With the option, the command accepts up to two arguments: and . In this case, the argument is treated as a mount point or a volume name. If volume name is specified, the /MP option is unnecessary.

References

"JaTomes Help - OS/2 Commands".
[https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490925.aspx Microsoft TechNet Label article]
https://github.com/reactos/reactos/blob/master/base/shell/cmd/label.c {{Dead link. (February 2022)
"DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips".
(2021-11-19). "FreeDOS 1.2 Updates Package - label (FreeDOS Base)". Ibiblio.org.
(2003). "Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition". [[Microsoft Press]].
[https://www.computerhope.com/labelhlp.htm MS-DOS and Windows command line label command]
[https://ss64.com/nt/label.html Label - Disk label - Windows CMD - SS64.com]

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