A decent list of useful CLI commands for Windows Terminal & console.

cmds4mswin.html

Useful Command-line Commands on Windows
<a target="_new" href="https://serverfault.com/questions/3780/useful-command-line-commands-on-windows?rq=1">Reference from StackOverflow site</a>

&& - Command Chaining
%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\rcimlby.exe -LaunchRA - Remote Assistance (Windows XP)
appwiz.cpl - Programs and Features (Formerly Known as "Add or Remove Programs")
appwiz.cpl @,2 - Turn Windows Features On and Off (Add/Remove Windows Components pane)
arp - Displays and modifies the IP-to-Physical address translation tables used by address resolution protocol (ARP)
at - Schedule tasks either locally or remotely without using Scheduled Tasks
bootsect.exe - Updates the master boot code for hard disk partitions to switch between BOOTMGR and NTLDR
cacls - Change Access Control List (ACL) permissions on a directory, its subcontents, or files
calc - Calculator
chkdsk - Check/Fix the disk surface for physical errors or bad sectors
cipher - Displays or alters the encryption of directories [files] on NTFS partitions
cleanmgr.exe - Disk Cleanup
clip - Redirects output of command line tools to the Windows clipboard
cls - clear the command line screen
cmd /k - Run command with command extensions enabled
color - Sets the default console foreground and background colors in console
command.com - Default Operating System Shell
compmgmt.msc - Computer Management
control.exe /name Microsoft.NetworkAndSharingCenter - Network and Sharing Center
control keyboard - Keyboard Properties
control mouse(or main.cpl) - Mouse Properties
control sysdm.cpl,@0,3 - Advanced Tab of the System Properties dialog
control userpasswords2 - Opens the classic User Accounts dialog
desk.cpl - opens the display properties
devmgmt.msc - Device Manager
diskmgmt.msc - Disk Management
diskpart - Disk management from the command line
dsa.msc - Opens active directory users and computers
dsquery - Finds any objects in the directory according to criteria
dxdiag - DirectX Diagnostic Tool
eventvwr - Windows Event Log (Event Viewer)
explorer . - Open explorer with the current folder selected.
explorer /e, . - Open explorer, with folder tree, with current folder selected.
F7 - View command history
find - Searches for a text string in a file or files
findstr - Find a string in a file
firewall.cpl - Opens the Windows Firewall settings
fsmgmt.msc - Shared Folders
fsutil - Perform tasks related to FAT and NTFS file systems
ftp - Transfers files to and from a computer running an FTP server service
getmac - Shows the mac address(es) of your network adapter(s)
gpedit.msc - Group Policy Editor
gpresult - Displays the Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) information for a target user and computer
httpcfg.exe - HTTP Configuration Utility
iisreset - To restart IIS
InetMgr.exe - Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager 7
InetMgr6.exe - Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager 6
intl.cpl - Regional and Language Options
ipconfig - Internet protocol configuration
lusrmgr.msc - Local Users and Groups Administrator
msconfig - System Configuration
notepad - Notepad? ;)
mmsys.cpl - Sound/Recording/Playback properties
mode - Configure system devices
more - Displays one screen of output at a time
mrt - Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
mstsc.exe - Remote Desktop Connection
nbstat - displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT
ncpa.cpl - Network Connections
netsh - Display or modify the network configuration of a computer that is currently running
netstat - Network Statistics
net statistics - Check computer up time
net stop - Stops a running service.
net use - Connects a computer to or disconnects a computer from a shared resource, displays information about computer connections, or mounts a local share with different privileges (documentation)
odbcad32.exe - ODBC Data Source Administrator
pathping - A traceroute that collects detailed packet loss stats
perfmon - Opens Reliability and Performance Monitor
ping - Determine whether a remote computer is accessible over the network
powercfg.cpl - Power management control panel applet
qfecheck - Shows installed Hotfixes applied to the server/workstation.
quser - Display information about user sessions on a terminal server
qwinsta - See disconnected remote desktop sessions
reg.exe - Console Registry Tool for Windows
regedit - Registry Editor
rasdial - Connects to a VPN or a dialup network
robocopy - Backup/Restore/Copy large amounts of files reliably
rsop.msc - Resultant Set of Policy (shows the combined effect of all group policies active on the current system/login)
runas - Run specific tools and programs with different permissions than the user's current logon provides
sc - Manage anything you want to do with services.
schtasks - Enables an administrator to create, delete, query, change, run and end scheduled tasks on a local or remote system.
secpol.msc - Local Security Settings
services.msc - Services control panel
set - Displays, sets, or removes cmd.exe environment variables.
set DIRCMD - Preset dir parameter in cmd.exe
start - Starts a separate window to run a specified program or command
start. - opens the current directory in the Windows Explorer.
shutdown.exe - Shutdown or Reboot a local/remote machine
subst.exe - Associates a path with a drive letter, including local drives
systeminfo -Displays a comprehensive information about the system
taskkill - terminate tasks by process id (PID) or image name
tasklist.exe - List Processes on local or a remote machine
taskmgr.exe - Task Manager
telephon.cpl - Telephone and Modem properties
timedate.cpl - Date and Time
title - Change the title of the CMD window you have open
tracert - Trace route
whoami /all - Display Current User/Group/Privilege Information
wmic - Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line
winver.exe - Find Windows Version
wscui.cpl - Windows Security Center
wuauclt.exe - Windows Update AutoUpdate Client
windowscommand-line-interfacewindows-command-prompt

 ============ USER COMMENTS: ===========

getmac
It shows the MAC address(es) of your network adapter(s).

Screenshot of running getmac from a Windows commandline window.

Share
edited Mar 8, 2017 at 17:45
community wiki
3 revs, 2 users 78%
splattne
Very nice. When I run this on my laptop I get "ERROR: Not found.", however I can run getmac /? and it prints out the description / usage... ideas? – 
Zack Mulgrew
 CommentedMay 6, 2009 at 16:39
5
ipconfig /all gives you this information in a less direct way too. – 
LeopardSkinPillBoxHat
 CommentedMay 11, 2009 at 6:56
Ha, now I've got your MAC address, prepare to be hackzored! – 
Peter Turner
 CommentedMay 15, 2009 at 22:02
2
THANK YOU! No more ipconfig /all and scrolling around! "Happy dance!" – 
Gomibushi
 CommentedMar 24, 2010 at 20:41
Add a comment

Report this ad
65
votes

In the command prompt type:

C:\> start .
It opens the current directory in the Windows Explorer.

Share
edited Nov 3, 2011 at 9:05
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 73%
Toro
2
How neat. it works just like "ii ." in powershell. – 
dance2die
 CommentedMay 4, 2009 at 15:34
start . & exit is also good - I've got those set as s.cmd and sx.cmd respectively. Also x.cmd for exit, because yes I'm that lazy. – 
Mark Allen
 CommentedMay 5, 2009 at 21:01
5
You could also do "explorer ." – 
Manuel Ferreria
 CommentedMay 9, 2009 at 17:14
2
start actually works for any file type you can double-click on (word documents, xls files, etc) as well as drive mappings (not just the current working directory). – 
Kyle Burton
 CommentedMay 27, 2009 at 16:40
5
Note that start can be a bit funny if you have files with spaces in their names. If start's first argument is quoted, it interprets it as a request to change the window title. So instead of running: start "My File.txt" you have to enter: start "" "My File.txt" This drove me nuts until someone explained it to me! – 
Ken Keenan
 CommentedJun 28, 2009 at 20:39
Show 2 more comments
50
votes

Remote Desktop Connection
mstsc.exe
Opens:

Some image demonstrationg the use of mstsc.exe.

Share
edited Jun 11, 2020 at 10:02
community wiki
3 revs, 2 users 74%
Sung
16
Even better with the /v: switch. Just Win+R, then "mstsc /v:computer.fabrikam.com" – 
Portman
 CommentedMay 4, 2009 at 3:31
9
renamed to /admin switch these days, and behaves quite differently in 2008+ – 
Oskar Duveborn
 CommentedMay 4, 2009 at 10:04
17
don't forget the /span option for creating really big sessions across two monitors. – 
SqlACID
 CommentedMay 4, 2009 at 14:35
6
Renamed back to /console in Vista SP1 and later, because they shouldn't have changed it in the first place. :) – 
Mark Allen
 CommentedMay 5, 2009 at 21:00
7
While we're at it, I also often use /w: and /h: to manually set width and height. I'm particularly fond of running IIS Manager in 800x800 for some reason. – 
Portman
 CommentedMay 6, 2009 at 0:08
Show 7 more comments

Report this ad
45
votes

A list I use a lot:

nbtstat - List NetBIOS stats and information
netstat - List TCP/IP stats and information
ipconfig - List TCP/IP configuration for a system
netsh - Network configuration for a system
sc - manage services
net - whole slew of commands to manage users and groups, shares, connections, etc.
ping - makes sure a system is up on the network
tracert - trace the hops between two hosts. useful to see if there's a break in between and where it is.
nslookup - Query DNS for information
dcdiag - check health of the domain controller
setspn - check SPNs for Kerberos configuration
Share
answered May 4, 2009 at 7:42
community wiki
K. Brian Kelley
sorry, what is the use of "sc"? – 
Alex. S.
 CommentedMay 9, 2009 at 5:26
1
sc allows you to control services, and it allows you to do so remotely. This is different from net start/net stop, which run locally (albeit you can use psexec or something like that to get to a console on a remote system). sc will also query the service, etc. Basically everything you can do from services.msc you can now do from the command-line. technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754599.aspx – 
K. Brian Kelley
 CommentedMay 9, 2009 at 11:23
1
netsh seems like a really powerful command, but I have not really been able to work with it. What do people really use it for? – 
railmeat
 CommentedAug 11, 2009 at 2:33
Add a comment
42
votes

Services control panel:

services.msc
Share
answered May 4, 2009 at 2:38
community wiki
user640
find myself using this alot – 
Adyt
 CommentedMay 20, 2009 at 8:58
You can also type this (and the names of other MMC snap-ins) into the Run dialog. services.msc and compmgmt.msc are my most commonly used entries. – 
Coxy
 CommentedAug 11, 2009 at 6:57
You can use SC to manager services from the command prompt. Of course the venerable net command can start and stop services. – 
railmeat
 CommentedMay 2, 2010 at 2:09
Add a comment
40
votes

shutdown.exe
allow you to shutdown or reboot a machine. You can even reboot a remote machine with

shutdown -m \\server -t 0 -r
It even comes with a graphical user interface

shutdown -i
and you can abort a shutdown with

shutdown -a
Share
answered May 5, 2009 at 20:30
community wiki
Frode Lillerud
Ouch, I don't think I will be trying this out often unless I do it on a VM ;) – 
dance2die
 CommentedMay 5, 2009 at 20:56
I use this at the end of my end-of-week script. – 
mmyers
 CommentedMay 15, 2009 at 21:09
This one's essential for us. We're an app group and our IT's centrally located out-of-state. We have local admin access to all of our servers and can reboot at will. It's not unusual for TS to choke when trying to shutdown and this is the only thing that we can use to kick things back into shape without calling an operator. – 
squillman
 CommentedMay 31, 2009 at 4:08
give it a -f as well to force all open apps to close – 
beakersoft
 CommentedDec 17, 2010 at 14:30
Add a comment
37
votes

Robocopy is really useful. It mirrors directories.

It is great for backups, restoring, and transferring large amounts of files. It only transfers files which have changed and can resume from where it left off.

It comes standard in Windows Vista and later, but Windows XP users can get it as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit (free) or later.

Share
edited Nov 3, 2011 at 9:17
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 75%
thomasrutter
Robocopy does so much more than mirror directories. It's freeking amazing! Any command-line tool that requires a word document to explain it rocks in my book. – 
WaldenL
 CommentedMay 5, 2009 at 19:25
1
hehe. Well I guess it's a swiss-army-knife of command line copying, but with no GUI nonsense. – 
thomasrutter
 CommentedMay 6, 2009 at 1:33
+1; Robocopy, tar, split and gzip form basically all of our backup strategy. – 
RainyRat
 CommentedJun 21, 2009 at 0:21
@RainyRat: What, no 'at' command? – 
Dan Esparza
 CommentedSep 13, 2009 at 4:21
Is this the rsync of Windows? – 
Joey Adams
 CommentedJul 30, 2011 at 6:11 
Show 1 more comment
34
votes

(Not really a command per-se, but a way to get there.)

For those of you that find yourself going to Start > Run > "cmd" a lot, you can cut down some steps.

Say you want to get your IP address. You would normally go Start > Run > "cmd" [enter] then...

ipconfig [enter]
Now instead, go...

Start > Run > "cmd /k ipconfig"

This will run cmd and the command 'ipconfig', and it will keep the window open. So if I want to quickly get my MAC address (physical address), I'd do:

 cmd /k ipconfig /all
...all from the run menu in one line.

All courtesy of BostonMark

Share
edited Nov 3, 2011 at 9:18
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 84%
Nick Devereaux
Very cool, I am constantly doing Start>Run>Cmd to run various common commands and didn't know this shortcut. – 
Element
 CommentedMay 9, 2009 at 6:09
3
Yes, the /k flag is definitely one of the best tips here. – 
Abraham Vegh
 CommentedMay 17, 2009 at 2:26
10
Here's a better way: Go to START > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt, and right-click. Select Properties. Click the 'Short-cut' tab. Put the cursor in the 'Shortcut Key' field. Press [ctrl]-[alt]-t, it should say "Ctrl+Alt+T". Click OK. Now you can launch cmd.exe from anywhere anytime by hitting ctrl-alt-t. – 
Ryan Fisher
 CommentedJun 2, 2009 at 21:25
5
Also, using windowskey+r gets you directly to the "Run..." window. – 
Andor
 CommentedMar 16, 2010 at 18:32
1
How is this quicker or fewer keystrokes than opening cmd and typing the command? Seems to me two more keystrokes than the way you're proposing to replace. – 
harpo
 CommentedOct 3, 2010 at 5:27
Add a comment
28
votes

The forgotten art: DOS String Manipulation!

set mydate=%date:~10,4%_%date:~4,2%_%date:~7,2%
echo %mydate%
Output will be YYYY_MM_DD.

Copy and paste this into a .bat file and be amazed! This is especially useful for creating backups, or any time/date series of directories and files.

An example:

@echo off
:: Yes, this looks bad, but it works, it sets the file veriable mydate to YYYY_MM_DD.
set mydate=%date:~10,4%_%date:~4,2%_%date:~7,2%

echo Backing up DC1:
:: start a new backup session, the /M switch is for the type of bakcup being performed, type ntbackup /? for more info
start /wait ntbackup backup \\DC1\c$ /j "DC1 Backup" /f "C:\BAK\DC1\DC1_%mydate%.bkf" /M incremental
echo DC1 is Done

echo Backing up EXCH:
start /wait ntbackup backup \\EXCH\c$ /j "EXCH Backup" /f "C:\BAK\EXCH\EXCH_%mydate%.bkf" /M incremental
echo EXCH is Done

echo Backing up FS1:
start /wait ntbackup backup \\FS1\c$ /j "FS1 Backup" /f "C:\BAK\FS1\FS1_%mydate%.bkf" /M incremental
echo FS1 is Done

echo Backup was completed %date% %time%
pause
Share
edited Nov 3, 2011 at 9:21
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 86%
Joseph Kern
5
This is dangerous as hell as the system locale display format changes the string that date returns and hence will thrash any script based on character position into an unpredictable mess if it ever changes. Which at least in Europe can easily happen by mistake or on purpose - I've had scheduled batch scripts do horrible things (or nothing) because of exactly this ^^ – 
Oskar Duveborn
 CommentedJun 13, 2010 at 11:23
Well ... I would hope that people wouldn't copy/paste/pray on production systems ... :-) Good point though. – 
Joseph Kern
 CommentedJan 25, 2011 at 0:42
Add a comment
26
votes

tasklist.exe
will list processes on local or a remote machine.

tasklist.exe /S server
It can display which Services the scvhost.exe processes are hosting with

tasklist /SVC
You can also do some filtering. This will display the processes on a remote machine that have used more than 15 minutes of CPU time

tasklist /S server /FI "CPUTIME gt 00:15:00"
Share
answered May 5, 2009 at 20:49
community wiki
Frode Lillerud
1
Don't forget it's counterpart taskkill – 
Chris S
 CommentedJul 8, 2010 at 3:39
Add a comment
25
votes

control userpasswords2

Opens the classic User Accounts dialog:

enter image description here

Share
edited Feb 20, 2012 at 8:49
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 88%
hmemcpy
Add a comment
24
votes

I find that I use findstr a lot to find stuff in logs, error files, etc.

A simple example: in the log file ex0905.log we find all lines that have 2009-05-05 in them:

findstr "2009-05-05" ex0905.log
Share
edited Dec 11, 2011 at 11:10
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 76%
Andrew Cox
1
findstr /s find recursively – 
Alex. S.
 CommentedMay 9, 2009 at 5:30
Put @findstr %* into a file named fs.bat in the PATH. – 
Lumi
 CommentedDec 2, 2011 at 19:57
Add a comment
22
votes

Programs and Features (Formerly known as "Add or Remove Programs")
appwiz.cpl
Opens

alt text

Share
edited Jun 11, 2020 at 10:02
community wiki
4 revs, 2 users 75%
Sung
Windows, then "fea" also isolates it well.. (But +1) – 
Ruben Bartelink
 CommentedMay 28, 2009 at 13:41
@Farseeker: I ran out of my 80G space as I was taking screenshot. Coudln't even spare a couple of megs at the time ;) – 
dance2die
 CommentedOct 13, 2009 at 0:19
You often need to do control appwiz.cpl - especially if you're doing it under runas (as you probably should be!) – 
Richard Gadsden
 CommentedAug 27, 2010 at 15:56
Add a comment
21
votes

Sometimes I have to worry about too few free sessions for a Terminal Server connection to a server.

quser displays information about user sessions on a terminal server.

quser /SERVER:myserver
Output

C:\Documents and Settings\sysmanager01>quser /SERVER:serverx
USERNAME                    SESSIONNAME        ID  STATE   IDLE TIME  LOGON TIME
usr_hot1                                        1  Disc        none   30.04.2009 17:59
usr_hot                                         2  Disc        none   30.04.2009 18:01
appsuperuser                rdp-tcp#6           3  Conn            .  01.01.1601 02:00
Sometimes it's even possible to find pure workaholics like appsuperuser :-)

It's easier when pasting the quser executable from any 32-bit Server to my local System32 folder.

Share
edited Nov 3, 2011 at 9:27
community wiki
3 revs, 2 users 84%
Ivo Looser
What version of Windows is "quser" available? – 
dance2die
 CommentedMay 4, 2009 at 18:33
6
Try using qwinsta instead, it's included by default in clients like XP as well... rwinsta can nuke the sessions – 
Oskar Duveborn
 CommentedMay 7, 2009 at 13:43
Add a comment
17
votes

I use

qwinsta
to see disconnected remote desktop sessions and

logoff
to end them.

It works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and probably Windows Server 2008 (never tried).

Share
edited Dec 11, 2011 at 11:57
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 72%
Jim Harte
you can use rwinsta to boot the remote session by id too! – 
Nick Kavadias
 CommentedMay 27, 2009 at 14:06
thats incredible. im impressed. – 
djangofan
 CommentedJul 6, 2010 at 21:05
Add a comment
16
votes

systeminfo
Displays a ton of information about the system at hand. The following are what it outputs on Vista:

Host Name
OS Name
OS Version
OS Manufacturer
OS Configuration
OS Build Type
Registered Owner
Registered Organization
Product ID
Original Install Date
System Boot Time
System Manufacturer
System Model
System Type
Processor(s)
BIOS Version
Windows Directory
System Directory
Boot Device
System Locale
Input Locale
Time Zone
Total Physical Memory
Available Physical Memory
Page File
Max Size
Page File
Available
Page File
In Use
Page File Location(s)
Domain
Logon Server
Hotfix(s)
Network Card(s)
Share
edited Nov 3, 2011 at 9:29
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 82%
Peter Mortensen
this is really useful. did not know this one – 
MikeJ
 CommentedAug 10, 2009 at 20:46
Add a comment
16
votes

Computer Management
compmgmt.msc
Opens
enter image description here

Share
edited Jun 11, 2020 at 10:02
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 78%
Sung
Add a comment
15
votes

Very useful one I only found out about recently:

winver.exe
Gives you a dialog box with the version of Windows the machine is running, complete with Service Pack level and build number.

Share
answered May 5, 2009 at 17:02
community wiki
17 of 26
9
Note that I use the hotkey Win+Pause to see most of this information quickly on a box. – 
Matthew
 CommentedMay 27, 2009 at 20:29
Add a comment
14
votes

There is still no mention of WMIC.exe :)

Find whatever you want from remote machine, local machine... multiple machines.

Nicely filled out HTML page with all data related to OS

WMIC OS get /all /format:htable
Look at all the options available

ALIAS                    - Access to the aliases available on the local system
BASEBOARD                - Base board (also known as a motherboard or system board) management.
BIOS                     - Basic input/output services (BIOS) management.
BOOTCONFIG               - Boot configuration management.
CDROM                    - CD-ROM management.
COMPUTERSYSTEM           - Computer system management.
CPU                      - CPU management.
CSPRODUCT                - Computer system product information from SMBIOS.
DATAFILE                 - DataFile Management.
DCOMAPP                  - DCOM Application management.
DESKTOP                  - User's Desktop management.
DESKTOPMONITOR           - Desktop Monitor management.
DEVICEMEMORYADDRESS      - Device memory addresses management.
DISKDRIVE                - Physical disk drive management.
DISKQUOTA                - Disk space usage for NTFS volumes.
DMACHANNEL               - Direct memory access (DMA) channel management.
ENVIRONMENT              - System environment settings management.
FSDIR                    - Filesystem directory entry management.
GROUP                    - Group account management.
IDECONTROLLER            - IDE Controller management.
IRQ                      - Interrupt request line (IRQ) management.
JOB                      - Provides  access to the jobs scheduled using the schedule service.
LOADORDER                - Management of system services that define execution dependencies.
LOGICALDISK              - Local storage device management.
LOGON                    - LOGON Sessions.
MEMCACHE                 - Cache memory management.
MEMLOGICAL               - System memory management (configuration layout and availability of memory).
MEMPHYSICAL              - Computer system's physical memory management.
NETCLIENT                - Network Client management.
NETLOGIN                 - Network login information (of a particular user) management.
NETPROTOCOL              - Protocols (and their network characteristics) management.
NETUSE                   - Active network connection management.
NIC                      - Network Interface Controller (NIC) management.
NICCONFIG                - Network adapter management.
NTDOMAIN                 - NT Domain management.
NTEVENT                  - Entries in the NT Event Log.
NTEVENTLOG               - NT eventlog file management.
ONBOARDDEVICE            - Management of common adapter devices built into the motherboard (system board).
OS                       - Installed Operating System/s management.
PAGEFILE                 - Virtual memory file swapping management.
PAGEFILESET              - Page file settings management.
PARTITION                - Management of partitioned areas of a physical disk.
PORT                     - I/O port management.
PORTCONNECTOR            - Physical connection ports management.
PRINTER                  - Printer device management.
PRINTERCONFIG            - Printer device configuration management.
PRINTJOB                 - Print job management.
PROCESS                  - Process management.
PRODUCT                  - Installation package task management.
QFE                      - Quick Fix Engineering.
QUOTASETTING             - Setting information for disk quotas on a volume.
RECOVEROS                - Information that will be gathered from memory when the operating system fails.
REGISTRY                 - Computer system registry management.
SCSICONTROLLER           - SCSI Controller management.
SERVER                   - Server information management.
SERVICE                  - Service application management.
SHARE                    - Shared resource management.
SOFTWAREELEMENT          - Management of the  elements of a software product installed on a system.
SOFTWAREFEATURE          - Management of software product subsets of SoftwareElement.
SOUNDDEV                 - Sound Device management.
STARTUP                  - Management of commands that run automatically when users log onto the computer system.
SYSACCOUNT               - System account management.
SYSDRIVER                - Management of the system driver for a base service.
SYSTEMENCLOSURE          - Physical system enclosure management.
SYSTEMSLOT               - Management of physical connection points including ports,  slots and peripherals, and
TAPEDRIVE                - Tape drive management.
TEMPERATURE              - Data management of a temperature sensor (electronic thermometer).
TIMEZONE                 - Time zone data management.
UPS                      - Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) management.
USERACCOUNT              - User account management.
VOLTAGE                  - Voltage sensor (electronic voltmeter) data management.
VOLUMEQUOTASETTING       - Associates the disk quota setting with a specific disk volume.
WMISET                   - WMI service operational parameters management.
and many, many more.

Share
edited Feb 19, 2010 at 21:28
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 98%
KAPes
@KAPes: "/format:htable" is awesome... – 
dance2die
 CommentedJun 27, 2009 at 13:09
Add a comment
13
votes

color 02
This, my friends, is the only command you'll ever need. The rest is nonessential.

Share
answered May 11, 2009 at 7:50
community wiki
dss_so
2
Oops, I accidentally entered color 23... – 
Andomar
 CommentedMay 16, 2009 at 19:26
entering 'color' by itself takes you back to default – 
RobW
 CommentedJun 16, 2010 at 20:16
Too bad it doesn't stick across CMD sessions... – 
Nate
 CommentedJul 29, 2010 at 20:56
Add a comment
13
votes

Chaining commands, in particular net stop and start to restart any service:

net stop w3svc && net start w3svc
(It is a silly example as iisreset will do that, but anyway ;)

Share
edited Nov 3, 2011 at 9:29
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 73%
Oskar Duveborn
5
Just pointing out this is actually conditional execution, unlike a single '&'. ss64.com/nt/syntax-conditional.html – 
Christopher Galpin
 CommentedMay 22, 2009 at 19:25
True, it will only start if it the stop succeeded... or I guess that's the spirit anyway - not sure the net stop would actually return a non-success if it timed out.. testing – 
Oskar Duveborn
 CommentedMay 22, 2009 at 22:28
Well as it does both even if one tries to stop a non-existing service, in this case it doesn't seem to matter - but the difference is of course great. They should add that "promote comment to answer" feature and I'd promote yours ^^ – 
Oskar Duveborn
 CommentedMay 22, 2009 at 22:47
3
This will ensure a metabase configuration change is saved, however. IISRESET does not. – 
K. Brian Kelley
 CommentedJun 10, 2009 at 16:03
Add a comment
12
votes

explorer .
Open explorer with the current folder selected.

explorer /e, .
Open explorer, with folder tree, with current folder selected.

Share
answered May 4, 2009 at 9:37
community wiki
Richard
This is also the way to make a shortcut that opens explorer for a specific directory, like "explorer /e,c:\myhomeisinrootthxu – 
Andomar
 CommentedMay 16, 2009 at 19:37
Already integrated higher up the vote count... – 
Ruben Bartelink
 CommentedMay 28, 2009 at 13:43
Add a comment
12
votes

To change the title of the CMD window you have open, simply use:

title [your new title]

I've got a lot of CMD windows and other programs open at work. This command, combined with Taskbar Shuffle (allows you to drag taskbar items into new orders) has saved me from insanity.

Share
answered May 8, 2009 at 20:38
community wiki
Steve Armstrong
Add a comment
11
votes

Windows 7 Run Commands

I find it better to know where to find them until I have used them often enough to actually remember them.

Share
edited Jul 23, 2009 at 2:11
community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 75%
p.campbell
Thanks Jake. I was looking for a list like those. My initial goal was to be able to browse through answers and find whatever a user might think will need by skimming through screenshots. But I guess I could do that myself ;) – 
dance2die
 CommentedMay 4, 2009 at 14:25
Add a comment
10
votes

To restart IIS

iisreset
Share
answered May 4, 2009 at 14:26
community wiki
Gulzar
3
This can also be used to restart IIS on a remote server: iisreset remoteservername – 
Saul Dolgin
 CommentedMay 27, 2009 at 17:58
3
I don't use iisreset any longer. It may not save metabase config issue. I use net stop iisadmin /y && net start w3svc instead. Here's why: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/286196 – 
K. Brian Kelley
 CommentedJun 10, 2009 at 16:02
@K. Brian Kelley, pretty sure the /noforce command will prevent the forcing and therefore keep you safe. IIS 7 is probably immune to it anyway since it no longer 'technically' uses the metabase. – 
Ashley
 CommentedAug 3, 2011 at 21:07
Add a comment
10
votes

I didn't see taskkill on the list yet.

TASKKILL [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] { [/FI filter] [/PID processid | /IM imagename] } [/F] [/T]

Parameter List: /S system Specifies the remote system to connect to.

/U    [domain\]user    Specifies the user context under which
                       the command should execute.

/P    [password]       Specifies the password for the given
                       user context. Prompts for input if omitted.

/F                     Specifies to forcefully terminate
                       process(es).

/FI   filter           Displays a set of tasks that match a
                       given criteria specified by the filter.

/PID  process id       Specifies the PID of the process that
                       has to be terminated.

/IM   image name       Specifies the image name of the process
                       that has to be terminated. Wildcard '*'
                       can be used to specify all image names.

/T                     Tree kill: terminates the specified process
                       and any child processes which were started by
it.

Works great in conjunction with tasklist

Share
answered May 8, 2009 at 15:30
community wiki
atom255
Add a comment
10
votes

You can hit F7 in The Windows Command Line for a history of commands that you can choose with your keyboard.

Also...I love this one - you can copy a file path by just dragging a file into the command line.

Share
edited Jun 24, 2009 at 19:17
community wiki
2 revs
cop1152
Add a comment
10
votes

On Windows XP at least (I haven't tried on Windows Vista and Windows 7):

appwiz.cpl @,2
It takes you straight to the Add/Remove Windows Components pane.

Another way to add or remove components in an automated fashion is to use

sysocmgr.exe
in unattended mode with a .inf file that lists the components you'd like to install. For example,

[NetOptionalComponents] 
SNMP = 1 

[SNMP] 
Contact_Name = IT Dept. 
Location = Office
Service = Physical, Applications, End-to-End 
Community_Name = Mormon 
Traps = server1, server2 
Send_Authentication = Yes 
Accept_CommunityName = Public:Read_Only 
Any_Host = No 
Limit_Host = server1, server2
(Credit due to thesystemadministrator.com for .inf file.)

It's a clunky tool (hey, it's MS), but it's invaluable for getting your components sorted out post-install.

Share
edited Nov 3, 2011 at 9:33
community wiki
3 revs, 2 users 89%
user1804
1
"appwiz.cpl @,2" works but renamed to "Turn Windows Features On and Off" – 
dance2die
 CommentedMay 4, 2009 at 23:39