Sometime in a batch file you need to wait to ensure that enough time is given for some operations to complete (installation, configuration, etc.) There are some ways and tricks to put a pause, if you have a specific time a good solution is use the Sleep.exe utility. This utility is available with the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools . Useful in batch files, Sleep.exe waits for a specified amount of time. Usage: sleep time-to-sleep-in-seconds sleep [-m] time-to-sleep-in-milliseconds sleep [-c] commited-memory ratio (1%-100%) Example : sleep 5 ( waits for 5 seconds ) Link : Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools