List of CMD commands for everyone, beginner to advanced!

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Command Prompt, commonly called CMD, is a command-line interpreter for Windows. It allows us to carry out almost all kinds of tasks like networking, file handling, machine configuration, etc., from the terminal. This article will go through some popular CMD commands that will cover networking, file handling, and machine configuration.

What is CMD

CMD stands for command, which is sometimes known as "Command Prompt" or "Window Command Processor" informally. It is a command-line interpreter application for the Windows operating system that Microsoft develops.

It is used to carry out complex administrative duties such as managing system attributes, files, and users by executing commands input in the terminal. In other words, you can use CMD to control your operating system.

Networking Commands

ftp

This command is used to transfer files on the remote servers via File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

ipconfig

Used to display all the IP settings and configuration

ping

This is a very popular network troubleshooting command. This is used to send packets to a remote machine to verify the activity of the remote. The remote, in return, sends packets back to the sender, confirming its activity.

telnet

This is used to establish a telnet connection. Telnet is a client-server based networking protocol through which users can issue the commands over the remote through the use of the keyboard.

PS, you can check here to find the difference between telnet and SSH!

tftp

It is used to send files using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP). TFTP is different from FTP as it uses UDP based transfer of data; the complexity of TFTP is also lesser than FTP.

tracert

This is a typical networking diagnostic command. It shows a list of all the routers a packet must pass through on its way from the client to the server.

getmac

This command is used to get the MAC address of the machine.

netsh

This command allows you to view or change the machine's network configuration.

nslookup

It stands for Name Server Lookup. This command is used to get the DNS server's domain name, IP address mapping, or any other specified DNS record. It's also used to diagnose DNS-related issues.

pathping

This is a combination of the tracert + ping command, which sends an echo message and gets the information about the intermediate hops over the routers.

File Commands

comp

This command is used to compare the content of two files.

compact

This command is used to compress or uncompress files and directories in Windows and also set compression attributes for the compression.

copy

This command is used to copy the content of one file into another. The syntax of the command is:

$ copy source destination

mkdir

This command is used to create a new directory in Windows.

rename

This command is used to rename a file in Windows.

rmdir

This command is used to delete a directory in Windows.

tree

This command is used to display the folder structure graphically.

expand

This command is used to extract single or multiple files or folders from a single compressed file.

fc

This command is used to compare two files and return the result. Lines that differ between the two files are returned once the command is completed. If there are no lines that differ, you will be notified.

erase

This command is used to remove one or more files from the storage.

Misc Commands

call

This command is used to call or execute another batch file from one batch file. After calling, the control returns back to the original file.

cd

We use this command to switch between the directories in Windows. For this, we need to provide the absolute or relative path of the desired directory. We can also move backwards in the directory using the 'cd ..' command.

dir

This command is used to list the files and directories in the current folder.

echo

Used to print a text in the terminal

shutdown

It is used to shut down the machine. Be cautious while using this command!

title

This command is used to set the title for the prompt.

timeout

This command pauses the execution of the instructions for a specified time and then automatically resumes the execution.

ver

This command is used to display the Operating System version in use.

sort

This command is used to display the input on the terminal in a sorted manner. We can also specify a file name after the command to sort the lines of the file.

taskkill

This command is used to kill a running process or an application in the machine.

Conclusion

In this article, we went through popular CMD commands. These commands helped us carry out tasks like file creation, copying, deletion, machine configuration and management, etc.

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