The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

AUTOEXEC.BAT

    The batch file containing commands,
   loaded by MS-DOS after running CONFIG.SYS.  AUTOEXEC.BAT
   contains normal DOS commands and can be used for additional
   system configuration such as setting paths and variables,
   configuring network connections and running application
   programs.

   (1995-03-18)