How to display the first N lines of a command output in Windows? (the equivalent of Unix command "head")

Powershell.

PS C:\> netstat | Select -First 20

Edit: I have a feeling that you're going to insist that you're only able to use cmd.exe circa 1989, but that's not true. Powershell is baked into every OS version Vista+, and is installable on XP/2003. It is the future of Windows.

Edit: Alright, have it your way.

C:\> netstat -an > temp.txt && for /l %l in (1,1,10) do @for /f "tokens=1,2* delims=:" %a in ('findstr /n /r "^" temp.txt ^| findstr /r "^%l:"') do @echo %b

Will display the first 10 lines of the output of netstat.

If you are a Unix type person, perhaps installing CygWin gives you a more familiar environment.