Command line commands
netstat
A command-line program used to view network statistics and view inbound and outbound connections.
mstsc
A command-line program, short for Microsoft Terminal Services Connection. It is used to open Remote Desktop Connection.
nbtstat
A command-line tool related to NetBIOS over TCP/IP Statistics. It works with NetBIOS names instead of host names.
diskpart
A command-line tool that can do many of the same tasks as the Disk Management GUI.
chkdsk
A command-line tool used to check the integrity of disks. It can also fix errors and recover files.
convert
A command-line tool used to convert a FAT- based file system to NTFS without losing any data.
defrag
A command-line tool used to defragment a hard drive. It works like Disk Defragmenter.
bootrec
A command available in the Windows RE on Windows Vista and Windows 7 to repair the BCD and hard disk problems.
bootcfg
A command available in the Windows XP Recovery Console that can be used to rebuild the Boot. ini file.
fixboot
A command available in the Windows XP Recovery Console to fix a boot sector.
fixmbr
A command available in the Windows XP Recovery Console to fix the master boot record.
net
A command-line command. It's used for many purposes, including mapping drives with the net use command.
ping
A command-line program that can check network connectivity with other systems and their response times.
arp
A command-line program that shows MAC-to-IP address mapping. ARP is also an acronym for Address Resolution Protocol, used to resolve IP addresses to MAC addresses. The arp command shows the result of ARP activity for a system.
tracert
A command-line program used to trace the route between two systems, listing all of the routers in the path.
nslookup
A command-line program used to verify the existence of records on a DNS server. It can also verify whether a DNS server can resolve a name to an IP address.
fdisk
An old program used to partition a disk from the command prompt prior to installing an operating system.
msinfo32
Command to start the System Information tool. Can be used to identify BIOS version, amount of RAM installed, processor type and speed, and much more.
cd
Command used to change a directory.
copy
Command used to copy files. An extended version is xcopy, which has many more capabilities.
del
Command used to delete files in a directory.
tlist
Command used to list running tasks or processes on a system. It has been renamed to tasklist.
tasklist
Command used to list running tasks or processes on a system. It was previously called tlist.
md
Command used to make a directory.
cmd
Command used to open the command prompt.
rd
Command used to remove or delete a directory.
shutdown
Command used to shut down, restart, or log off from a system.
dir
Command used to view a listing of files in the current directory.
attrib
Command used to view and manipulate file attributes including hidden, system, and read-only attributes.
regedit/regedt32
Commands used to start the registry editor.
loadstate
One of the two commands included with the User State Migration Tool (USMT). Loadstate loads files and settings onto a new installation. Scanstate must be run first to capture the information from the original installation.
scanstate
One of the two commands included with the User State Migration Tool (USMT). Scanstate is run on a computer to capture files and settings. Loadstate is later run on the new installation to load the information captured from scanstate.
sfc
The System File Checker command is used to verify and repair system files.
dxdiag
The command that starts the DirectX Diagnostic Tool. It can diagnose problems with video and sound devices.
msconfig (Microsoft configuration)
The command used to open the System Configuration tool. This can be used to view and manipulate what services and applications start automatically.
xcopy
The extended copy command is used to copy files and folders. It can do everything copy can do, but it has many more capabilities.
kill
Unix-based command used to terminate a process.