Sounds like your path needs to be set correctly. On Windows 98 etc go into the autoexec.bat file. On Windows 2000, right click "My Computer", then click "Properties", then choose the "Advanced" tab, finally click "Environment Variables". "Path" is one of the variables under "System Variables". Edit it to include the path to your jds. For example: c:\winnt\system32;c:\j2sdk1.4.2_04\bin; (make sure to included \bin, not just the j2sdk root directory). Once the path is set correctly you should be able to type c:\javac and have the option/help listing come up automatically. You should also set the "classpath" variable to include the current directory ("."). The classpath is included in the "System Variables" where "Path" is.
I suggest you go through sun's tutorial at
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/. Check out the "first cup of java" for Microsoft Windows.
Hope that helps.
Brent Smith