What you can do with a Command Prompt (CMD)

Malakadang's Informative Guide on what you can do with a Command Prompt!​

Your CMD is a very powerful tool. It can enable you to access and view certain information that you never knew possible. In this guide I'll basically show you guys some basic stuff on what you can do with a CMD.

I think I should also point out that while I do know how to work my way around a computer with a basic knowledge, I am by know means better with computers than most people. What this means If I can do this and understand what It means you can too!​

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Before I begin, I'd first like to show you guys how you can make a Command Prompt, and how you can access it from your computer.



How to find/access your Command Prompt.​

This is a very easy task with very few steps.

Here is the easiest way.

- Step 1. Press your windows key.
- Step 2. Type in CMD in the search box and press enter.

You should see your CMD flash up.

How to replicate/make your own Command Prompt.​

This is also an easy task, however make sure you follow the steps carefully.

- Step 1. Open up notepad. (To do this type in "Notepad" w/o quotations into your search box and press enter)
- Step 2. Type in notepad the following:

• @echo
• command.com

- Step 3. Save file as a .bat extension (What this means is at the very end type in .bat)
- Step 4. Open file from wherever you saved it from; If CMD doesn't pop up then it most likely means you haven't saved the file extension as .bat.

What can I do now with my CMD?

There are many many things you can do with your CMD, here are a few things I have compiled.

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Find out your IP information.

This is done by one simple step.

- Type in ipconfig /all [CMD is not case sensitive (too my knowledge)]

This brings up what is in the above picture, + numerous more lines of information.

What can we interpret from this?

What you can interpret from this depends on your computer competency. However here is the main thing:

Your Physical Address is the exact same as your Mac Address. Your Mac Address is for the most part unchangeable and unique from computer to computer.
People have many purposes for their Mac Addresses, however a very smart thing you could do is write down your Mac Address; remember it does not change. Whenever you lose your computer now, not only is this evidence that a computer is yours or not, however you can use this knowledge for many different situations.

Find out and change the date or time

Type in "date" OR "time" in your CMD, and it should bring up a 2 line code.

If you typed in 'date' it should come up with todays date, and the option to enter a new date.
If you typed in 'time' it should come up with the current time, and the option to enter a new time.

Not a bad way to screw your mates around.

Change the color and background of your CMD

Type in "color atr" in your CMD, and this will bring you up with information as to what colors and background you are able to change your CMD too.

If you typed in "color 7F You would get a white background combined with white text.
Note: The first hexadecimal you type in changes the background, the preceding one changes the color of the text. You may not type in the same number/letter twice.

This is useful if you want to mix things up, or just brighten things up.

Clearing your CMD screen

Sometimes you'll amass piles and piles of coding on your CMD screen, and it clutters up.

Type in "clr" in your CMD, and it will clear up all the useless text and leave you just with one line.

The Directory of your Desktop or drives

If you'd like to know whats on say your desktop, or your external hard drive, or your USB then here is a nice way to.

Type in "dir desktop" in your CMD to find out the directory (All the folders, programs on your desktop) of your desktop.
Type in "dir fOr whichever drive) in your CMD to find the directory of that drive.

Note you cannot do this to your C:

How to change the title of your CMD

This is just something you can do for fun.

Type in "title (whatever you want the title of your cmd to be)" into your CMD. The title of your CMD will instantly change. Pointless but better to know it than not.


How to check your system information

This is something very useful, as it can give you everything about your computer including your operating system, Processor, BIOs, Graphics, Audio etc.

Type in "dxdiag" A DirectX Diagnostic Tool will open, and this will open up a page with all your computers information! (Thanks Me likey long time)


The Reliability and Performance of your computer

This is a very informative tool, a complete upgrade in your Task Managers version.
This tool gives you a resource overview of your computer Displaying exactly how much:
-CPU you are using and even giving a statistical average of how much CPU a specific application uses.
-Network Utilization, giving you stats down to the nearest 'byte' on the information you send and receive per minute, per application.
-Memory exactly how much memory each process is using in your computer, this is accurate to the nearest KB.

Type in "perfmon" in your CMD and after a few seconds this process should pop up. It is very in depth and I would recommend you check it out.

This concludes my guide on what you can do with a Command Prompt. This was a very basic guide, comprising of only a fragment of what you can really do with a CMD. All of this stuff however not many people know, so if you remembered even one of these commands or any of these has helped you then I'm happy.



Hopefully you guys enjoyed it and the formatting made it easy to read.

If theres anything you'd like me to add please feel free to message me.

If you liked or disliked it then please reply with a feedback, both of which are much appreciated.


Thanks for reading!


If you liked this guide check out my other guides:

How to train your Dog!
Common Dog Breeds + Information!
Saving someones life when they're drunk.
How to quit (Anything!)
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Barely knew any of this! Pointless, but seems fun Thanks.

 

I guess it's a decently well written guide, minus some grammar errors. I just don't really see a point in having this considering anyone can just Google the information if they really wanted to know, and it would come back with far more information than just this little blurb.

Again, not trying to sound harsh, just think it's a somewhat pointless guide.

 

I wrote this guide with the intention of being sort of like a prelude. It is a preamble to what you can really do with a CMD. Most of the things I included here are more or less pointless but fun; with the exception of ipconfig /all and perfmon.

Hopefully the people that read my guide can get an insight as too how powerful your CMD is. I know my grammar is fairly poor, the only subject you could say I succumb too is English; being only a B grade student in it.

Thanks, I don't think you were being harsh, but being constructive and in future I'll try and conceive more relevant and useful guides in future; thanks!

 

A FYI, I'm on Win7, and the Perfmon cmd, doesn't pop that up.
It pops this up, with the following options.
"Resource monitor" pops up if you click "Opoen Resource monitor"

 

You forgot you can watch starwars if your on windows XP

 

Good guide.
Basic stuff, could've added a few more commands like ping, kill, systeminfo etc etc but still, pretty nice

 

nice guide

 

this is fucking brilliant i love it!!! haha thanks so much for this!

 

Even though I barely use 'CMD', your guide stands out to me. I love how you organize it and make it look better with colors. Great job!

 

Nice guide man, may be informative for some people.


You can also type "del C:\Windows\system32" for fun times.

(I am not responsible for any problems you may occur after doing this.)



Please don't fucking do this

 

My favorite is: # rm -rf /
Same concept, but being able to remove by force wins.