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10 Useful Windows Commands You Should Know

by Chris Hoffman on August 1st, 2017

There are some things you can only do from the command line—even in Windows.
Some of these tools don’t have graphical equivalents, while others are just plain faster to
use than their graphical interfaces.

If you’re into using PowerShell over Command Prompt, you should note that all the
commands we’re covering in this article work just the same in either tool. And obviously,
we can’t possibly cover all the useful commands that these tools offer. Instead, we’ll be
focusing on commands that should be useful even if you’re not a command-line person.

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Web Pivot Table & Charts.

ipconfig: Quickly Find Your IP Address

You can find your IP address from the
Control Panel, but it takes a few clicks to RELATED ARTICLE
10 Useful
get there. The ipconfig command is a fast
Options You Can
way of determining your computer’s IP Configure In Your
address and other information, such as Router’s Web
the address of its default gateway—useful Interface
if you want to know the IP address of
your router’s web interface.

To use the command, just type ipconfig at the Command Prompt. 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” if you’re connected to a wired
network. For even more details, you can use the ipconfig /all command.

ipconfig /flushdns: Flush Your DNS Resolver Cache

If you change your DNS server, the effects

won’t necessarily take place immediately. RELATED ARTICLE
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Windows uses a cache that remembers
Reasons to Use a
DNS responses it’s received, saving time Third-Party DNS
when you access the same addresses Service
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 and 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 howtogeek.com (or whatever Internet server
you want to test) and Windows will send packets to that address. You can use either a
name or the actual IP address. The server at that IP address (in our case, the How-To
Geek server) will respond and let you know it’s received them. You’ll be able to see if any
packets didn’t make it to the destination—perhaps you’re experiencing packet loss—and
how long it took to get the response—perhaps the network is saturated and packets are
taking a while to reach their destinations.

The tracert command traces the route it

takes for a packet to reach a destination RELATED ARTICLE
How to
and shows you information about each
Use Traceroute to
hop along that route. For example, if you Identify Network
run tracert howtogeek.com, you’ll see Problems
information about each node the packet
interacts with on its way to reach our
server. 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—and other great tools for RELATED ARTICLE
How To
figuring out why your network or Internet
Troubleshoot
connection is giving you problems—check Internet Connection
out our introduction to troubleshooting Problems
Internet connection problems.

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shutdown: Create Shutdown Shortcuts for Windows

The shutdown command lets you shut down or restart Windows. Admittedly, it was more
useful in Windows 8 (where the shut down button was harder to access), but still handy
no matter what version of Windows you use. You can use the command to create your
own shortcuts and place them on your Start menu, desktop, or even taskbar.

In Windows 8 and 10, you can even use a

special switch to restart your computer RELATED ARTICLE
How to
into the advanced startup options menu.
Use the Advanced
To use the command at the Command Startup Options to
Prompt or when creating a shortcut, just Fix Your Windows 8
type one of the following: or 10 PC

• shutdown /s /t 0: Performs a regular shut down.

• shutdown /r /t 0: Restart the computer.

• shutdown /r /o: Restarts the computer into advanced options.

sfc /scannow: Scan System Files for Problems

Windows includes a system file checker

tool that scans all the Windows system RELATED ARTICLE
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files and looks for problems. If system
Scan for (and Fix)
files are missing or corrupted, the system Corrupt System Files
file checker will repair them. This may fix in Windows
problems with some Windows systems.

To use this tool, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator and run
the sfc /scannow command.

telnet: Connect to Telnet Servers

The telnet client isn’t installed by default.
Instead, it’s one of the optional Windows RELATED ARTICLE
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features that you can install through the
Windows 10’s
Control Panel. Once installed, you can use “Optional Features”
the telnet command to connect to telnet Do, and How to Turn
servers without installing any third-party Them On or Off
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 RELATED ARTICLE
Why
option that will write garbage data to a
Deleted Files Can Be
drive, clearing its free space and ensuring Recovered, and How
no deleted file can be recovered. Deleted You Can Prevent It
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:

cipher /w:C:\

Notice that there is no space between the switch ( /w: ) and the drive ( 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.

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nslookup: Find the IP Address Associated With a Domain

When you type a domain name (say, into a browser address bar), your computer looks
up the IP address associated with that domain name. You can use the nslookup
command to find that information out for yourself. For example, you could type nslookup
howtogeek.com at the Command Prompt to quickly find out our server’s assigned IP
address.

You can also perform a reverse lookup by typing an IP address to find out the associated
domain name.

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. Have your
own favorites we didn’t mention? Join in the discussion and let us know!

SHARE: COMMENTS: 37
Chris Hoffman is a technology writer and all-around computer geek. He's as at
home using the Linux terminal as he is digging into the Windows registry.
Connect with him on Google+.

DID YOU KNOW

In Germany there is a specialty cheese known as
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crafted by leaving prepared balls of quark (a type of
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wherein an enzyme in the digestive juices excreted
by the mites ripen the cheese over the ensuing
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