The Windows command prompt is a characteristic that'southward been a core part of the Windows operating organisation for a long time. At that place are some CMD commands that are and so useful and easy to use that even regular users meet the Windows command prompt as a cardinal part of the operating system.

There are ever rumors that information technology will be phased out at some signal, but that's unlikely to happen whatsoever fourth dimension soon.

The following are 21 of the best CMD commands you should know if you want to have more command over your Windows PC.

Also, be sure to cheque out our YouTube video where we go over the commands listed in this article:

1. ASSOC: Ready File Associations

One of the nearly powerful tools in the CMD command library is the ASSOC command.

Your estimator associates certain file extensions with sure programs. This is how your computer knows to open up Adobe when you double click a PDF file, or Microsoft Word when you double click a Doc file.

You can view all the file associations your computer knows well-nigh by typing ASSOC in the command window. You lot'll see the file extension and the program it's associated with.

You lot can fix the association by typing something like assoc .doctor=Word.Document.8.

2. FC: File Compare

Sometimes when files are changed over time, it's hard to remember what the differences were betwixt versions. You may not know that a CMD command offers the power to compare files and see all differences, but it's true.

The FC control performs either an ascii or a binary file comparing and will list all of the differences that it finds.

Fc /a File1.txt File2.txt will compare two ascii files.

Fc /b Picture1.jpg Picture2.jpg will do a binary compare on two images.

3. IPCONFIG: IP Configuration

Network troubleshooting is never simple, but one command that makes information technology much easier is IPCONFIG.

Using this command in the CMD command prompt returns detailed information about your current network adapter connection including:

  • Current IP Address
  • Subnet Mask
  • Default Gateway IP
  • Current domain

This information can help yous troubleshoot router problems and other connectedness issues you could be having with your network adapter.

4. NETSTAT: Network Statistics

Concerned that you could have malware running on your computer that's connecting to internet locations without you knowing nearly it?

If you run a NETSTAT command in the control prompt, you can get a listing of all agile TCP connections from your computer.

5. PING: Ship Test Packets

An It Analyst'due south best friend is the PING control.  Running this command sends test packets over the network to the target system.

You lot can use the PING command to test whether your computer tin can access another reckoner, a server, or even a website. It can help with revealing network disconnections. It likewise provides transit time for the packets in milliseconds, so information technology besides reveals a bad network connection as well.

half-dozen. TRACERT: Trace Road

TRACERT is a fascinating Windows Command to use. If you're always curious to see the path your internet traffic takes to get from your browser to a remote system like Google servers, y'all can use TRACERT to see it.

The command stands for "Trace Route", which sends packets out to a remote destination (server or website), and provides you with all of the following information:

  • Number of hops (intermediate servers) earlier getting to the destination
  • Time it takes to get to each hop
  • The IP and sometimes the name of each hop

TRACERT can reveal how the routes of your internet requests change depending where you're accessing the web. Information technology besides helps with troubleshooting a router or switch on a local network that may be problematic.

7. POWERCFG: Power Configuration

Are you frustrated with how speedily your laptop seems to run out of power? It could be that your power settings are configured equally efficiently as possible. There's a windows CMD command called POWERCFG (power configuration) that can help. Run the command prompt as an administrator and type powercfg – energy to get a full power efficiency report.

The procedure tin take upwards to near a minute, simply when it's done, you'll see whether in that location are any warnings or errors that might help you amend the ability efficiency of your organisation.

View the energy-report.html file to see the details of those errors and warnings.

viii. SHUTDOWN: Turn Off Reckoner

The SHUTDOWN control is a pretty versatile command that lets you shutdown the computer but control the behavior of that shutdown. Information technology's usually used as a scheduled job or office of an It batch task after patches take been practical to a computer organization.

Typing shutdown /i from the control prompt will initiate a shutdown, but it'll upon a GUI to give the user an option on whether to restart or exercise a full shutdown. If you don't want to accept any GUI pop up, you can merely upshot a shutdown /s control.

In that location is a long listing of other parameters yous can use to do a log off, hibernate, restart, and more. Just type shutdown without whatever arguments to see them all.

9. SYSTEMINFO: System Information

If you need to know what make of network card you have, processor details, or the exact version of your Windows Bone, the SYSTEMINFO command tin can aid.

This control polls your organisation and pulls the most important information about your organisation. It lists the information in a make clean format that'southward easy to read.

10. SFC: System File Checker

If you lot're ever concerned that a virus or another software might have corrupted your core system files, there's a Windows command that tin scan those files and ensure their integrity.

You need to launch CMD equally ambassador (right click and cull Run as Administrator). Typing SFC /SCANNOW volition bank check the integrity of all protected system files. If a problem is found, the files will be repaired with backed-up system files.

The SFC command also lets yous:

  • /VERIFYONLY: Check the integrity only don't repair the files.
  • /SCANFILE: Scan the integrity of specific files and fix if corrupted.
  • /VERIFYFILE: Verify the integrity of specific files only don't repair them.
  • /OFFBOOTDIR: Use this to do repairs on an offline boot directory.
  • /OFFWINDIR: Utilize this to do repairs on an offline Windows directory.
  • /OFFLOGFILE: Specify a path to save a log file with scan results.

The scan can take up to 10 or 15 minutes, so give it time.

11. Cyberspace USE: Map drives

If y'all desire to map a new drive, you could always open up File Explorer, right click on This PC, and go through the Map Network Drive wizard. However, using the Internet Utilize command, you can do the same thing with one command string.

For example, if you take a share folder on a computer on your network called \\OTHER-Estimator\SHARE\, yous tin map this equally your own Z: bulldoze past typing the command:

Net use Z: "\\OTHER-Figurer\SHARE" /persistent:yes

The persistent switch tells your computer that you lot want this drive remapped every fourth dimension you log back into your calculator.

12. CHKDSK: Check Disk

While the SFC command only checks the integrity of core arrangement files, you lot can use the CHKDSK control to scan an entire drive.

The command to check the C: drive and repair whatsoever problems, launch the command window as an administrator and type CHKDSK /f C:.

This command checks for things like:

  • File fragmentation
  • Disk errors
  • Bad sectors

The control can fix any disk errors (if possible). When the control is finished, yous'll see a status of the scan and what deportment were taken.

thirteen. SCHTASKS: Schedule Tasks

Windows comes with a wizard for creating scheduled tasks. For example, maybe you have a BAT file stored on C:\temp that y'all want to run every mean solar day at noon.

You'd accept to click through the Scheduled Job sorcerer to configure this. Or you tin type a unmarried SCHTASKS control to ready it up.

SCHTASKS /Create /SC HOURLY /MO 12 /TR Instance /TN c:\temp\File1.bat

The scheduled switch accepts arguments like minute, hourly, daily, and monthly. Then you specify the frequency with the /MO command.

If you typed the command correctly, you'll see the response, SUCCESS: The scheduled chore "Case" has successfully been created.

14. ATTRIB: Modify File Attributes

In Windows, y'all can modify file attributes past right clicking on a file and finding the right property to change. Notwithstanding, instead of hunting effectually for the file attribute, you can utilise the ATTRIB command to ready the file attributes.

For example, if y'all type: ATTRIB +R +H C:\temp\File1.bat, it'll set File1.bat every bit a hidden, read-just file.

There is no response when information technology'due south successful, then unless you meet an fault bulletin, the control worked.

Other Windows CMD Commands

Every bit you lot can run across, at that place are some powerful and useful things you lot tin exercise with the Windows command prompt, if y'all know the right commands.

Believe it or not, there are fifty-fifty more commands that will give you lot the power to exercise some things you probably never realized but by typing a elementary command.

  • BITSADMIN: Initiate upload or download jobs over the network or internet and monitor the current state of those file transfers.
  • Color: Change the groundwork colour of the command prompt window.
  • COMP: Compare the contents of whatsoever two files to see the differences.
  • Detect/FINDSTR: Search for strings within of any ASCII files.
  • PROMPT: Modify the control prompt from C:\> to something else.
  • TITLE: Modify the title of the control prompt window.
  • REGEDIT: Edit keys in the Windows registry (apply with caution).
  • ROBOCOPY: A powerful file copy utility built right into Windows.

If you lot're interested in learning more, Microsoft offers a total listing of all of the Windows CMD commands included in the latest version of the Windows Os.