35 Windows Commands you NEED to know with examples and explanation

Here are 35 Windows Commands you NEED to know with example and explanation

1. dir - Display a list of files and folders in a directory.

   • Example: dir C:\Users\
   • Explanation: This command will display a list of files and folders in the C:\Users\ directory.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/dir

2. cd - Change the current directory.

   • Example: cd C:\Windows\
   • Explanation: This command will change the current directory to C:\Windows.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cd

3. copy - Copy one or more files to another location.

   • Example: copy C:\file.txt D:\backup\
   • Explanation: This command will copy the file.txt from the C:\ directory to the D:\backup\ directory.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/copy

4. del - Delete one or more files.

   • Example: del C:\file.txt
   • Explanation: This command will delete the file.txt file from the C:\ directory.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/del

5. type - Display the contents of a text file.

   • Example: type C:\file.txt
   • Explanation: This command will display the contents of the file.txt file in the C:\ directory.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/type

6. ren - Rename a file or directory.

   • Example: ren C:\oldname.txt newname.txt
   • Explanation: This command will rename the oldname.txt file in the C:\ directory to newname.txt.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/ren

7. rmdir - Remove an empty directory.

   • Example: rmdir C:\emptyfolder
   • Explanation: This command will remove the emptyfolder directory from the C:\ directory.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/rmdir

8. md - Create a new directory.

   • Example: md C:\newfolder
   • Explanation: This command will create a new folder called "newfolder" in the C:\ directory.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/md

9. pushd - Change the current directory and push the current directory onto a stack.

   • Example: pushd C:\Windows\
   • Explanation: This command will change the current directory to C:\Windows\ and push the current directory onto a stack.
   • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/pushd

10. popd - Change the current directory to the topmost directory on the stack.

    • Example: popd
    • Explanation: This command will change the current directory to the topmost directory on the stack.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/popd

11. netstat - Display active TCP connections and ports on which the computer is listening.

    • Example: netstat -a
    • Explanation: This command will display all active TCP connections and the ports on which the computer is listening.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/netstat

12. ipconfig - Display the current TCP/IP configuration.

    • Example: ipconfig
    • Explanation: This command will display the current TCP/IP configuration for the computer.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/ipconfig

13. ping - Test the connection to a remote host.

    • Example: ping www.google.com
    • Explanation: This command will test the connection to www.google.com by sending a series of packets and displaying the response time.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/ping

14. tracert - Trace the route to a remote host.

    • Example: tracert www.google.com
    • Explanation: This command will trace the route to www.google.com and display the hops taken to reach the destination.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/tracert

15. telnet - Connect to a remote host using the Telnet protocol.

    • Example: telnet www.google.com
    • Explanation: This command will connect to www.google.com using the Telnet protocol.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/telnet

16. nslookup - Query DNS to resolve a hostname to an IP address or vice versa.

    • Example: nslookup www.google.com
    • Explanation: This command will query DNS to resolve the hostname www.google.com to an IP address.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/nslookup

17. tasklist - Display a list of currently running processes.

    • Example: tasklist
    • Explanation: This command will display a list of currently running processes on the computer.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/tasklist

18. taskkill - Terminate a running process.

    • Example: taskkill /pid 1234
    • Explanation: This command will terminate the process with the process ID 1234.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/taskkill

19. systeminfo - Display system information.

    • Example: systeminfo
    • Explanation: This command will display information about the system, such as the operating system version and the installed hotfixes.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/systeminfo

20. driverquery - Display a list of installed device drivers.

    • Example: driverquery
    • Explanation: This command will display a list of installed device drivers on the computer.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/driverquery

21. net - Manage network resources.

    • Example: net share
    • Explanation: This command will display a list of shared network resources.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/networking/net-commands-on-operating-systems

22. netdom - Manage Active Directory domains and trusts.

    • Example: netdom join contoso /domain:contoso.com /userd:contoso\admin /passwordd:password
    • Explanation: This command will join the computer to the contoso domain using the contoso\admin user and password.

23. sfc - Scan and repair system files.

    • Example: sfc /scannow
    • Explanation: This command will scan all protected system files and replace any corrupted files with a cached copy.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/sfc

24. chkdsk - Check a disk for errors and repair them.

    • Example: chkdsk C: /f
    • Explanation: This command will check the C: drive for errors and repair them if possible.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk

25. diskpart - Manage disks, partitions, and volumes.

    • Example: diskpart
    • Explanation: This command will open the DiskPart utility, which allows you to manage disks, partitions, and volumes from the command line.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/diskpart

26. bcdedit - Manage the boot configuration data store.

    • Example: bcdedit /set {default} bootstatuspolicy ignoreallfailures
    • Explanation: This command will set the boot status policy to ignore all failures.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/bcdedit

27. bootrec - Repair the boot configuration data store.

    • Example: bootrec /fixboot
    • Explanation: This command will repair the boot configuration data store and write a new boot sector to the system partition.

28. shutdown - Shut down the computer.

    • Example: shutdown /s
    • Explanation: This command will shut down the computer.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/shutdown

29. logoff - Log off the current user.

    • Example: logoff
    • Explanation: This command will log off the current user.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/logoff

30. powercfg - Configure power options.

    • Example: powercfg /hibernate on
    • Explanation: This command will enable the hibernate feature.

31. wmic - Execute Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) commands.

    • Example: wmic path win32_process get name
    • Explanation: This command will display the names of all processes running on the computer.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/wmic

32. reg - Manage the registry.

    • Example: reg add HKLM\Software\Example /v ValueName /t REG_SZ /d "Hello World"
    • Explanation: This command will add a new value to the registry at HKLM\Software\Example.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/reg

33. cmdkey - Manage stored user names and passwords.

    • Example: cmdkey /add:server01 /user:john /pass:password
    • Explanation: This command will add a new stored user name and password for the server01 server.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmdkey

34. certutil - Manage certificates.

    • Example: certutil -addstore -enterprise root ca.crt
    • Explanation: This command will add the ca.crt certificate to the enterprise root certificate store.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/certutil

35. schtasks - Schedule tasks to run at a specific time.

    • Example: schtasks /create /tn "Backup Task" /tr "robocopy C:\data D:\backup /mir" /sc daily /st 01:00
    • Explanation: This command will create a new task called "Backup Task" that runs the robocopy command to copy data from C:\data to D:\backup every day at 1:00 AM.
    • For More Details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/schtasks

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Comments

[Bernd Wechner]

What's with the hyped headlines and lacking intros lately on dev.to?

1. I don't NEED to know these at all, sorry. Nice to skim a reminder I'd grant you, and the article I like, it's a nice neat summary of a lot of useful commands.

2. What is a Windows Command? Put it into context. There's cmd.exe, powershell and increasingly WSL bash all available on windows (admittedly all these look like they'll work on cmd.exe or powershell). Still.