Shown here is Iain Hamilton's suggestion for processing all items in a list. It only uses a single batch file. It uses an input file called userlist.txt and processes the last line first. :repeat set usersname= for /f "eol=; tokens=1*" %%i in (userlist.txt) do set usersname=%%i if "%usersname%"=="" goto ender type userlist.txt| find /v "%usersname%"> userlist1.TXT copy userlist1.txt userlist.txt goto repeat :ender This method eliminates the need for fragments (or calling other batch files.) and doesn't need any 3rd party utilities. Since this is an NT batch file, it won't work on Win9x.