15 Uses of Windows Command Line (CMD) You Should Know

The Windows command line is perhaps one of the biggest unknowns in Microsoft’s operating system. Well, we have 15 things we should know that will be more interesting than you think.

The fact that many people have never used the Command Prompt indicates the low importance placed on this part of Windows in the operating system itself.

It is a true reflection of a bygone era where everything was done with script and worked in a different way than we have today.

In any case, in CMD there are many interesting commands that we should know about, because they are useful for both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

All the tools that we are going to tell you about can be accessed, as we have already told you, from the command line through which you can enter Type CMD in the Windows search bar And Turn it on when you want In the next window to search.

From here you can try the commands that we will show you below.

Assistant

As you well know, all Windows files (or the vast majority) are associated with a program that opens them. Well with Assoc we can see all of this Societies to remember.

We will see a list of file extensions and the program associated with each one. We will even have the possibility to modify some of the links if we write, for example, asoc.txt = And after equality we put the program that you must open.

Trial order

Driverquery what he does is View all pilots It’s at this point in our computer. can be extended with Driver Request -v For more information, including the directory where the driver was installed.

It’s a good way to get information about drivers, even outdated and out of date ones.

ipconfig

With IPconfig we will look at IP that we currently associate with our computer.

You can use extensions like ipconfig /version followed by ipconfig /renew To have Windows give you a different IP address than the one you have. Additionally, with ipcofig / flushdns You will be able to update your DNS address.

ping

With Ping, we know if packets of data are reaching our devices or not.

If we type ping then the IP address or web domain A series of test packets will be sent to the specified address To see if it works or not, because if it returns some information, it will be fine, but if not, then something will cause it to fail.

path

We can say that PathPing is a file Advanced version of ping that we’ve seen before.

It is used by typing pathping followed by the IP address, and it works the same as ping, except that this command transmits information about the path of the test packets.

Tarsert

Tracert is similar to traversal. The way to work is simple, like the previous ones we write tracert followed by the IP address or domain that you want to trace.

The only difference with the above command is that tracert is also Track how long (in milliseconds) Each hop takes between servers or devices.

Close

Turning off this is probably one of the most used CMD commands by many users, as usual Schedule a computer shutdown.

If we want to turn off the computer within a certain period of time, we will write close -s -t followed by seconds which must elapse until the required time is reached.

We can also use files stop / y / oIf we want to restart the computer and display the advanced options menu, where we have Safe Mode.

System File Checker

System File Checker is a tool used to automatically scan and repair Windows files.

For this to work CMD must be run as administrator then put sfc /scannow. If it finds corrupt files, it will replace them with copies of the Windows system cache.

Taskil

Taskkill is used to stop the program. Can be used with files Taskkill -im followed by the name of the executable file or Taskkill -pid followed by the process ID.

It is a good way to get rid of hidden or unresponsive software. It is often used when Windows does not allow such a task to be done.

chkdk

Chkdsk is one of the most used commands by users, especially in another era when DOS was more present, although it was used a lot with Windows.

We have several options.

chkdsk c:, it will scan the C drive immediately, without the need to restart the computer. chkdsk / f, / r, / x and / BC:This command repairs errors, recovers data, unmounts the drive, or clears the list of bad sectors.

the piles

With Schtasks we can access task planner, but from the command prompt.

We can Set up multiple tasks Similar without having to click on different options. For example, we can restart the computer every day at 11 am, which can be very useful.

Compare files

You can use this command to select a file Text differences between two files.

Comparing files is very useful, for example, for programmers who want to determine the difference between very equal files.

ranking club You can expand by writing / NS To compare the binary output, / NS ignore text case and / NS Just compare ASCII text.

netstat

With Netstat you can Get the list of ports Which are open and which IP addresses are connected.

This can be something that helps us if we are looking for possible problems with the devices we have connected to our computer.

PowerKVG

Powercfg is a command for tracking the power consumption of a computer.

You can use the command PowerKVG hibernation And PowerKVG hibernation To manage hibernation, the command powercfg / a Displays power saving states.

cls

The cls command is for cleaning everything that appears on the screen.

That is, if we used many commands before and had a screen full of information, and if we put some keys, we would get this Everything disappears And we have the Command Prompt again as if we had just started it.

With these commands, you will be able to make the most of Command Line (CMD), a somewhat unknown part of Windows.