Windows Xp Pro/home command prompt
Using the windows Xp Pro/home command prompt
Using the GUI(graphic user interface) in windows is ok if you like using the GUI But using the command line is a lot faster because it gives a direct communication link between you and the operating system and what you want it to do.
**Note some functions from the command line will not ask for confirmation before making changes so take your time when typing in a command **
To get to the command line in windows xp click on start then click on run and in the dialog box type in Cmd and press enter
what you will see on your screen is the command prompt
Looks boring ehhh well Listed below are some commands that you can use
*** these commands work in Windows Xp home and Pro versions***
Ipconfig
This command is used if you want to configure a home network or trouble shoot a network connection and it also displays the ip address, subnet mask and the default gateway for each Network adapter installed on you computer
Ipconfig /all
This command displays all the information above plus DNS (Domain name service) IP routing, WINS (Windows internet naming service) DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) etc
Ipconfig /renew
This command renews the Dhcp configuration if you have more than one adapter you can specify one adapter by typing
Ipconfig /renew”local area connection”
Ipconfig /flushdns
This command flushes and resets the content of the dns client
Recover
If you deleted a file and emptied the recycle bin you might be able to get it back by typing recover [drive:][path]filename as a example recover D:\Dead letters\deadfile.txt (you have to type in the exact file name of the file that was deleted)
You may get the following error message after trying the command
Cannot lock the drive the volume is still in use don’t worry you can still try one other thing reboot your computer and enter in safe mode f6 or f8 will get you there and try the command again( you can use norton's Unerase wizard if you have norton system works installed on your computer)
System file checker
The SFC scans protected files the registry for problems or corruption and replaces them with the originals if it is needed to run these commands you must be logged in with administrative privileges(and rember when you are done log out of the admin account)
sfc /scannow
A dialog box will come up and it will start scanning the files you may be asked to insert your Winxp Cd if it needs to copy files to the harddrive
sfc /scanonce
This will scan the files every time you start up your computer (this will slow down your computer a bit)
***these commands only work in Win Xp Pro***
Driverquery
This command displays a list of all drivers installed on your computer it also shows you Driver type such as File system , Kernel-mode driver and the link date
driverquery /v
Shows you details such as start mode type ,state, status, accept ,stop, pause Etc
Driverquery /v /fo list
This command lists each driver and details separated into easy to read lists
Driverquery /s ipaddress
With the /s parameter you can specify the ip address of a remote computer to see the driver details
Driver query /u domain\user
This command will allow you to use the domain and user name to see a remote computers driver details Domain\user Domain indicates the network domain and user name indicates the user name from the remote computer
Systeminfo
This command will display information such as O.S version ,configuration registered owner O.S installation date and time processor type and actual speed , bios version (Basic input and Output system, system memory details , network card and a complete list of all hot fixes
Tasklist
Most people press ctrl alt del to bring the task list up but with this command you will be seeing the same exact things that would be in the task manager. By adding filtered parameters to the command you will see information about all current processes
as a example
Status filter shows you information on all processes that are running or not responding
Imagename
Cputime
Memusage
Username
Services
Windowtitle
Modules
/fi
This parameter uses a filter and a operator Example Ge means greater than or equal to
Eq (Equal to)
Ne (not equal to)
Gt (greater than)
Lt (less than)
Ge (Greater than or equal to)
Le (less than equal to)
All operators are used with the Pid, session, Cpu time and mem usage filters all others can only use eq and ne filters
The filter values will vary with each filter used
As a example Image name, session name , services window title and Memusage can use any valid string but Session needs a valid session number, Username needs a valid user name and CPU time needs a valid time using the HH:MM:SS format
Tasklist /v /fi cputime gt 00:20:00
This will show you programs that have been running for 30 minutes or longer
Thanks for reading this
