How do I measure execution time of a command on the Windows command line?

Question

Is there a built-in way to measure execution time of a command on the Windows command line?

Answer 1

PowerShell has a cmdlet for this called Measure-Command. You'll have to ensure that PowerShell is available on the machine that runs it.

PS> Measure-Command { echo hi }  Days              : 0 Hours             : 0 Minutes           : 0 Seconds           : 0 Milliseconds      : 0 Ticks             : 1318 TotalDays         : 1.52546296296296E-09 TotalHours        : 3.66111111111111E-08 TotalMinutes      : 2.19666666666667E-06 TotalSeconds      : 0.0001318 TotalMilliseconds : 0.1318 

Measure-Command captures the command's output. You can redirect the output back to your console using Out-Default:

PS> Measure-Command { echo hi | Out-Default } hi  Days              : 0 ... 

As Makotoe commented, Measure-Command returns a TimeSpan object, so the measured time is printed as a bunch of fields. You can format the object into a timestamp string using ToString():

PS> (Measure-Command { echo hi | Out-Default }).ToString() hi 00:00:00.0001318 

If the command inside Measure-Command changes your console text color, use [Console]::ResetColor() to reset it back to normal.