There are some things you can only
do from the command line, even on Windows. Some of these tools don’t have
graphical equivalents, while others are just plain faster to use than their
graphical interfaces.
We can’t possibly cover all the
useful commands you can use in the Command Prompt or PowerShell here. We’ll be
focusing on commands that should be useful even if you’re not a command-line
person.
ipconfig – Quickly Find Your IP
Address:
You can find your IP address from
the Control Panel, but this takes quite a few clicks. The ipconfig command is a
fast way of determining your computer’s IP address and other information, such
as the address of its default gateway — useful if you want to know the IP
address of your router’s web interface.
To use the command, just type ipconfig into a Command Prompt window. You’ll
see a list of all the network connections your computer is using. Look under
Wireless LAN adapter if you’re connected to Wi-Fi or Ethernet adapter Local
Area Connection if you’re connected to a wired network.
ipconfig /flushdns – Flush Your
DNS Resolver Cache:
If you change your
DNS server, the effects won’t necessarily take place immediately.
Windows uses a cache that remembers DNS responses it’s received, saving time
when you access the same addresses again in the future.
To ensure Windows is getting
addresses from the new DNS servers instead of using old, cached entries, run
the ipconfig /flushdns command after changing your DNS
server.
ping, tracert – Troubleshoot
Network Connection Issues:
If you’re experiencing issues
connecting to a website or other network connection issues, Windows and other
operating systems have some standard tools you can use to identify problems.
First, there’s the ping command.
Type ping google.com and Windows will send packets to
Google.com. Google will respond and let you know it’s received them. You’ll be
able to see if any packets didn’t make it to Google.com — perhaps you’re experiencing
packet loss — and how long it took you to hear back — perhaps the network is
saturated and packets are taking a while to reach their destinations.
There’s also the tracert command,
which traces the route it takes for a packet to reach a destination. For
example, run tracert google.com and you’ll
see the path your packet takes to reach Google. If you’re having issues
connecting to a website, tracert can show you where the problem is occurring.
For more information about using
these commands, read our
introduction to troubleshooting Internet connection problems.
shutdown – Create Shutdown Shortcuts on Windows 8
The shutdown command is
particularly useful on Windows 8. You can use it to create your
own shortcuts and place them on your Start screen or desktop,
allowing you to more easily shut down Windows without digging through the
charms bar or logging out first.
This command can also be used to
restart your computer. On Windows 8, you can even use a special switch to
restart your computer into the advanced
startup options menu.
·
Shut Down: shutdown /s /t 0
·
Restart: shutdown /r /t 0
·
Restart Into Startup Options: shutdown /r /o
recimg – Create Custom Recovery
Images:
The Refresh Your
PC feature on Windows 8 allows
you to restore your computer’s system state to its original state — either from
a clean Windows install or as the computer came from its manufacturer. You can
create your own custom recovery images, but this feature is hidden — you have
to do it with the recimg command from a command line. This
allows you to removemanufacturer-installed
bloatware or add your
favorite desktop programs to your recovery image.
For more information about using
recimg, read our overview of everything
you need to know about creating and using custom recovery images on Windows 8.
wbadmin start backup – Create
System Recovery Images:
Windows 8.1 removes the Windows 7
backup interface, which allowed you to create system backup images.
These system images contain a complete snapshot of every single file on the
system, so they’re different from Windows 8’s recovery images.
While the graphical interface has
been removed, system administrators and geeks can still create system image
backups by running the
wbadmin start backup cmdlet in a PowerShell window. Unlike all the
other commands here, this command-line tool must be run from within PowerShell,
not the Command Prompt.
sfc /scannow – Scan System Files
for Problems:
Windows includes a system file
checker tool that scans its system files and looks for problems. If system
files are missing or corrupted, the system file checker will repair them. This
may fix problems with some Windows systems.
To use this tool, open a Command
Prompt window as Administrator and run the sfc /scannowcommand.
telnet – Connect to Telnet
Servers:
The telnet client isn’t installed
by default. You’ll have to install it from the Control Panel. Once installed,
you can use the telnet command to connect to telnet servers
without installing any third-party software.
You should avoid using telnet if
you can help it, but if you’re connected directly to a device and it requires
that you use telnet to set something up — well, that’s what you have to do.
cipher – Permanently Delete and
Overwrite a Directory:
The cipher command is mostly used
for managing encryption, but it also has an option that will write garbage data
to a drive, clearing its free space and ensuring no deleted file can be
recovered. Deleted files
normally stick around on disk unless
you’re using a solid state drive. The cipher command effectively allows you to
“wipe” a drive without installing any third-party tools.
To use the command, specify the
drive you want to wipe like so:
ciper /w:C:\
netstat -an – List Network
Connections and Ports:
The netstat command is
particularly useful, displaying all sorts of network statistics when used with
its various options. One of the most interesting variants of netstat is netstat -an,
which will display a list of all open network connections on their computer,
along with the port they’re using and the foreign IP address they’re connected
to.
This isn’t a
comprehensive list of all the commands you might find useful, but we hope it’s
given you some idea of the many powerful tools lurking under the surface. Linux
isn’t the only operating system where users can benefit from learning some commands…
