*nix users are notoriously pragmatic. They love their terminals. They don’t want frills - forget the GUI! They want control and these things handcuff them. If you’re a seasoned *nix user and find yourself shackled by Windows, here are some executables you can trigger from the command line. Yeah, I know, it’s not the same, but at least it gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling:
arp
Displays and modifies the IP-to-Ethernet or token ring physical address translation tables used by the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).
at (windows XP/2000)
Lists scheduled commands or schedules commands and programs to run on a computer at a specified time and date.
attrib
Helpful command that allows you to see a file’s attributes. I have used this on occasion to find hidden files that spyware/viruses use. They like hiding things on your computer!
bootcfg (XP only)
Displays boot options - basically boot.ini listing. Here you can alter booting behavior to include multiple OS boot options on different partitions.
cacls (XP, 2000, & NT4.0)
Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files.
chkdsk
Creates and displays a status report for a disk, based on the file system used. Chkdsk also lists and corrects errors on the disk. If chkdsk cannot lock the drive it will offer to check it the next time the computer restarts. Really helpful if you are having hard drive errors.
comp (XP & 2000)
Compares the contents of two files or sets of files byte by byte.
defrag (XP only - NT4.0 and Win2k use contig)
command line disk defragmenter.
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diskpart (XP only)
command line option to manage all things partition - logical &/or physical.
driverquery (XP only)
a really nice output listing of all loaded driver modules.
edit
Opens up the MS-Dos editor. Comes in handy every once in while when you’re stuck in no-man’s land and need to edit a config file.
find
Searches for a specific string of text in a file or files. After searching the specified files, find displays any lines of text that contain the specified string.
fsutil (XP only)
fsutil is a command-line utility that you can use to perform many FAT and NTFS file system related tasks, such as managing reparse points, managing sparse files, dismounting a volume, or extending a volume.
getmac (XP & 2000)
This command gets the Media Access Control (MAC) address of your network cards.
gpresult (XP & 2000)
This command-line tool displays information about the result Group Policy has had on the current computer and logged-on user.
ipconfig (XP, 2000 & NT4.0)
This command line tool is great for diagnosing all things ip related. Can’t get a connection? Use ipconfig to see if you are even getting an ip address doled out by your dhcp server or router. Similar to ifconfig.
mem
Displays information about allocated memory areas, free memory areas, and programs that are currently loaded into memory in the MS-DOS subsystem. Wow, this one brings back memories! I can picture my 386 when i see that word.
MMC (XP, 2000 & NT4.0) - Microsoft Management Console
This is windows snappable console where you can customize administrative views. This is great if you want a bird’s eye view on specific things on your computer.
msconfig (XP only)
Has spyware taken control of your computer? How do you know what is loading at startup? Type this command and find all that and more. Wondrous and helpful.
msinfo32 (XP & 2000)
Unfortunately, when you run this straight out on the command line, it errors out. It’s doesn’t know the path. But you can move to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSinfo and run it. A glorious repository of information about your computer hardware and software.
nbtstat
This diagnostic command displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP). Helpful and quick way to get name to IP resolution.
netsh (XP & 2000)
Netsh is a command-line scripting utility that allows you to, either locally or remotely, display or modify the network configuration of a computer that is currently running.Netsh also provides a scripting feature that allows you to run a group of commands in batch mode against a specified computer. Netsh can also save a configuration script in a text file for archival purposes or to help you configure other servers. I have used this tool to reset IP on machines that have been decimated by spyware. The command is netsh ip int reset. That is useful to know.
netstat
Quickly get TCP connection information. Have a feeling you have been hacked? This is a quick-n-dirty way to see if it’s true. Look for strange TCP connections.
nslookup
This diagnostic tool displays information from Domain Name System (DNS) name servers. Before using this tool, you should be familiar with how DNS works. A wondrous tool that allows you to see things like mx records, a pointers, etc.
Pathping (XP & 2000)
A route tracing tool that combines features of the ping and tracert command sends packets to each router on the way to a final destination over a period of time, and then computes results based on the packets returned from each hop. Since commands with additional information that neither of those commands provides. The pathpingpathping shows the degree of packet loss at any given router or link, you can determine which routers or links might be causing network problems. Smooth!
recover (XP & 2000)
Recovers readable information from a bad or defective disk. The recover command reads a file sector by sector and recovers data from the good sectors. Data in bad sectors is lost. Very helpful in a pinch.
reg (XP & 2000)
Read, Set or Delete registry keys and values. This little diddy can really help.
route
Manipulates network routing tables. Have an issue with your routing? In the very least, you can view the routing table by issuing the route print command.
runas
Allows a user to run specific tools and programs with different permissions than the user’s current logon provides. Ever have the experience where you are logged on a PC as a user and have to be an administrator to do something? Similar to the “su” command, this will allow you to utilize the permissions of a different user temporarily to perform a function.
sc (XP & 2000)
The Service Control utility (SC.exe) is useful for testing and debugging your service program. SC implements calls to all of the service control functions. You can specify any function parameters through the command line. You can create batch files that call SC with various command lines to see how your service behaves with repeated starting and stopping. Stop and start that daemon.
schtasks (XP only)
Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time. Adds and removes tasks from the schedule, starts and stops tasks on demand, and displays and changes scheduled tasks. Want to start winamp with music for an alarm? This will help!
secedit (XP & 2000)
Configures and analyzes system security by comparing your current configuration to at least one template. Very helpful security tool.
sfc (XP & 2000)
The System File Checker. Utilize the command “sfc /scannow” to start looking over default system files. This is extremely helpful to run if internet explorer has been mangled by hijackers and so forth.
shutdown (XP & 2000)
Shut down your pc from the command line. Woohoo.
sigverif (XP only)
After Sigverif.exe is finished running its check, a list of all unsigned drivers installed on your computer is displayed. Yeah, that’s it.
systeminfo (XP only)
System information - pretty basic, but also shows hotfixes installed. Hmmm, could come in handy.
tasklist (XP pro only)
OH great googalie! Basically like ps on *nix. Shows running processes and their pid - or process identification. This is yummy when you’re trying to stomp out things that aren’t supposed to be running on your machine.
taskkill (XP only)
Yes - something that can kill the malicious process running in the background. Be careful how you use it though - unless you kill something your PC really need.
tree (XP only)
Display all your files and folders in tree format. I guess it’s helpful if you’re really visual.
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Thank you for this Paul! Bookmarked.
cheers! always glad to bring some goodness.