4 command line tool, which every user should know Windows
Repulsive interface makes the Windows command prompt not the most pleasant to work with tool, but, nevertheless, there are a number of useful functions, which have no graphical interface and is available only through the command line. In this article I want to share with you a few tools that can be of great help when Troubleshooting a computer.
System File Checker
The function of System File Checker (SFC) is used to check the integrity of system files and registry. This tool scans and restores system files (or registry keys) from the cache version of the original Windows files that can help in situations when the operating system or some of its functions work correctly.
To run this program in Windows 10, 8.x, 7 or Vista, open a command prompt with administrator privileges and run the following command:
sfc /scannow
Driverquery
To solve any problem arising from updating the drivers and/or other issues associated with drivers, it is very important to have information about the installed drivers. Most people for this purpose will resort to using third-party programs, but Windows has a built-in tool that displays the details of all drivers, a very clear way.
To access this utility, open a command prompt and run the following command:
driverquery
By default, the data will be presented in the form of a table. If you want to change the display format (list and csv), use /fo. For example,
driverquery /fo csv
or
driverquery /fo list
Moreover, all the information can be exported to a file that is automatically saved in your user folder. To do this, use the following command:
driverquery /fo CSV > filename.csv
Check disk
When it comes to problems with your hard disk, you can use the built-in tool called «Check disk» (CHKDSK), which is able to recover bad sectors and fix file system errors.
To run the check disk, open a command prompt and run the following command:
chkdsk C: /F /R
where «C» is the drive letter, /F – indicates the need to check the disk for bad sectors, the /R locates bad sectors and file system errors.
IPConfig
IPConfig is one of the most frequently used commands Windows and is used when it is necessary to know the IP address of the computer and get information about all TCP/IP connections, network adapters and network computers. In addition, in combination with different parameters this command can be used to clean the DNS cache, release or renew the IP address for a specific network adapter (if specified) or for all.
To run IPConfig, open a command prompt and type the following:
Ipconfig
To obtain TCP/IP configuration for all adapters, type:
ipconfig /all
To clear and reset the cache, the DNS client, use this command:
ipconfig /flushdns
And in order to release the current DHCP configuration and cancel the IP address configuration for all adapters, use a command such as:
ipconfig /release
All for today. If you want to share your experience with the Windows command prompt, use the comment form.