They're useful for calling other programs. For example here if perl is not in the PATH on all PCs - if it is, that's the one to use, but if not, try a known location: perl c:\Offline\Computer\GMobileSubsets\scripts\perl\fetch.pl HNG %1 %2 if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto tryagain exit pause :tryagain C:\perl\bin\perl c:\Offline\Computer\GMobileSubsets\scripts\perl\fetch.pl HNG %1 %2 if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto err exit pause :err pause >nul Perl error! Contact IT. Press any key (I always have pause after exit, so I can quickly add REM in front of exit when testing The same applies in a mixed 32/64 bit environment: C:\Program Files (x86)\ or C:\Program Files\ Also, when calling sequences of taskkill, file copy/delete, etc - you can put a shortcut on the desktop to it. Easier than remembering a long list of services to be restarted in a particular order, etc. Useful for colleagues if your not available - "just log in to the server and click on the shortcut" Also, on Windows 7, some users need local administrator rights to run taskkill, etc, but need their own identity when accessing network files. Create an exe file to run a bat file as admin, but use it only on those batfiles requiring it: C:\Offline\Computer\GMobileSubsets\sw\runaLocalAdmin.exe C:\Offline\Computer\GMobileSubsets\scripts\bat\stopall_reqadmin.bat