Command Prompt Codes
Loyce Calk
It's important to know that the commands in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP are called CMD commands or Command Prompt commands, and the commands in Windows 98/95 and MS-DOS are called DOS commands. We've included all of them in this list to help show changes in commands from operating system to operating system.
The command prompt is slowly disappearing from the Windows interface and for good reasons: CMD commands are an antiquated and mostly unnecessary tool from an era of text-based input. But many commands remain useful, and Windows 8 and 10 even added new features.
Most files on Windows are associated with a specific program that is assigned to open the file by default. At times, remembering these associations can become confusing. You can remind yourself by entering the command assoc to display a full list of filename extensions and program associations.
You can also extend the command to change file associations. For example, assoc .txt= will change the file association for text files to whatever program you enter after the equal sign. The assoc command itself will reveal both the extension names and program names, which will help you properly use this command.
The cipher command, however, lets you wipe a directory on an NTFS-formatted volume by writing random data to it. To wipe your C drive, for example, you'd use the cipher /w:d command, which will wipe free space on the drive. The command does not overwrite undeleted data, so you will not wipe out the files you need by running this command.
When you run the cipher command by itself, it returns the encryption state of the current directory and the files it contains. Use cipher /e: to encrypt a file, cipher /c: to retrieve information about encrypted files, and cipher /d: to decrypt the selected file. Most of these commands are redundant with the Windows encryption tool BitLocker.
You can use this command to identify differences in text between two files. It's particularly useful for writers and programmers trying to find small changes between two versions of a file. Simply type fc and then the directory path and file name of the two files you want to compare.
You can also extend the command in several ways. Typing /b compares only binary output, /c disregards the case of text in the comparison, and /l only compares ASCII text.
This command relays the IP address that your computer is currently using. However, if you're behind a router (like most computers today), you'll instead receive the local network address of the router.
Still, ipconfig is useful because of its extensions. ipconfig /release followed by ipconfig /renew can force your Windows PC into asking for a new IP address, which is useful if your computer claims one isn't available. You can also use ipconfig /flushdns to refresh your DNS address. These commands are great if the Windows network troubleshooter chokes, which does happen on occasion.
Entering the command netstat -an will provide you with a list of currently open ports and related IP addresses. This command will also tell you what state the port is in; listening, established, or closed.
This is a more advanced version of ping that's useful if there are multiple routers between your PC and the device you're testing. Like ping, you use this command by typing pathping followed by the IP address, but unlike ping, pathping also relays some information about the route the test packets take.
The tracert command is similar to pathping. Once again, type tracert followed by the IP address or domain you'd like to trace. You'll receive information about each step in the route between your PC and the target. Unlike pathping, however, tracert also tracks how much time (in milliseconds) each hop between servers or devices takes.
Powercfg is a very powerful command for managing and tracking how your computer uses energy. You can use the command powercfg hibernate on and powercfg hibernate off to manage hibernation, and you can also use the command powercfg /a to view the power-saving states currently available on your PC.
Another useful command is powercfg /devicequery s1_supported, which displays a list of devices on your computer that support connected standby. When enabled, you can use these devices to bring your computer out of standby, even remotely.
This is, of course, redundant with the already easily accessed shutdown button, but what's not redundant is the shutdown /r /o command, which restarts your PC and launches the Advanced Start Options menu, which is where you can access Safe Mode and Windows recovery utilities. This is useful if you want to restart your computer for troubleshooting purposes.
You will need to run the command prompt with administrator privileges and enter the command sfc /scannow. If SFC finds any corrupt or missing files, it will automatically replace them using cached copies kept by Windows for this purpose alone. The command can require a half-hour to run on older notebooks.
You can use the tasklist command to provide a current list of all tasks running on your PC. Though somewhat redundant with Task Manager, the command may sometimes find tasks hidden from view in that utility.
There's also a wide range of modifiers. Tasklist -svc shows services related to each task, use tasklist -v to obtain more detail on each task, and tasklist -m will locate DLL files associated with active tasks. These commands are useful for advanced troubleshooting.
Our reader Eric noted that you can "get the name of the executable associated with the particular process ID you're interested in." The command for that operation is tasklist find [process id].
Tasks that appear in the tasklist command will have an executable and process ID (a four- or five-digit number) associated with them. You can force stop a program using taskkill -im followed by the executable's name, or taskkill -pid followed by the process ID. Again, this is a bit redundant with Task Manager, but you can use it to kill otherwise unresponsive or hidden programs.
If you suspect your hard drive is failing, you can manually initiate a scan. The most basic command is chkdsk c:, which will immediately scan the C: drive, without a need to restart the computer. If you add parameters like /f, /r, /x, or /b, such as in chkdsk /f /r /x /b c:, chkdsk will also fix errors, recover data, dismount the drive, or clear the list of bad sectors, respectively. These actions require a reboot, as they can only run with Windows powered down.
Schtasks is your command prompt access to the Task Scheduler, one of many underrated Windows administrative tools. While you can use the GUI to manage your scheduled tasks, the command prompt lets you copy&paste complex commands to set up multiple similar tasks without having to click through various options. Ultimately, it's much easier to use, once you've committed key parameters to memory.
When you need to format a drive, you can either use the Windows File Explorer GUI or you can turn to the command prompt. You'll need Administrator rights to use this command. Be sure you specify the volume you want to format, followed by the desired parameters.
This command will give you a detailed configuration overview of your computer. The list covers your operating system and hardware. For example, you can look up the original Windows installation date, the last boot time, your BIOS version, total and available memory, installed hotfixes, network card configurations, and more.
That's exactly what the driverquery command does. You can extend it to driverquery -v to obtain more information, including the directory in which the driver is installed. Unfortunately, this command isn't relevant post Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012.
Virtually all Windows 8/8.1 computers ship from the factory with a recovery image, but the image may include bloatware you'd rather not have re-installed. Once you've uninstalled the software you can create a new image using the recimg command. Entering this command presents a very detailed explanation of how to use it.
This article can only give you a taste of what's hidden within the Windows command line. When including all variables, there are literally hundreds of commands. Which ones will turn you into a command prompt master?
The Windows operating system features over 280 commands for CMD (Command Prompt). Some commands are specific to Windows servers, while others are available for desktop versions. In both cases, CMD commands communicate directly with the OS and allow to perform various IT automation tasks.
The arp (address resolution protocol) command shows and modifies entries in the ARP cache. The cache contains one or multiple tables that map IP addresses to resolved physical addresses.
The plus sign (+) sets an attribute, while the minus sign (-) removes an attribute from a file. Without any options, the command shows the file attributes in the current directory.
The bcdboot (boot configuration data boot) command sets up a system partition by copying BCD files into an empty partition.
The command attempts to fix errors on the disk. If the disk is in use, run the check on the next system restart. Stopping the command does not affect the system, but ensure to run the scan later to fix any potential data corruption.
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