Scratch the floor of Home windows (and macOS), and also you’ll discover a command line console beneath, a lingering remnant of how these working methods began out: as user-friendly graphical wrappers constructed on high of text-based, monochrome interfaces.
If you happen to’re as previous as I’m, you may bear in mind having to launch apps and video games on a pc by typing out textual content instructions, somewhat than pointing and clicking. The trendy-day strategies are a lot simpler, in fact, however the previous methods are nonetheless out there — and so they’re really nonetheless helpful for a number of duties, because the checklist under exhibits.
To start with, Home windows stored the Command Immediate utility as a reminder of its MS-DOS roots. That was later joined by PowerShell (Command Immediate with extras), and within the newest variations of Home windows 11, Command Immediate and PowerShell are actually each wrapped up in a instrument referred to as Home windows Terminal.
Home windows Terminal helps all the unique Command Immediate directions, and you may launch it from the Begin menu. It’s easy:
- Seek for Terminal.
- Proper-click on this system icon and select Run as administrator to ensure the entire options can be found to you.
Now that you just’ve obtained the Home windows Terminal open, listed here are a few of the instructions that may make it value your whereas. To utilize them, kind the textual content proven after which hit Enter.
1. Shut down your laptop after a sure time
Shutting down your laptop through the Begin menu isn’t tough, in fact, however Terminal provides you a number of extra choices, like timed shutdowns. The command above orders a shutdown (“/s”) somewhat than a restart, after a time (“/t”) of 600 seconds. Merely regulate the timing as wanted.
One other useful possibility is “shutdown -r -o” (with out the quotes), which restarts (“-r”) your laptop and launches the Superior Begin Possibility menu — very helpful for troubleshooting. Simply kind “shutdown” by itself to see different flags you need to use.
2. See a visualization of your folders
Kind “tree” and hit Enter to see a visible illustration of the folders and subfolders in your system — very helpful for seeing how your Home windows drive is organized. You possibly can embody a drive and folder path (akin to. “C:Applications”) to focus the itemizing on a particular space of the drive and use the “/f” flag to see information listed in addition to folders.
3. Troubleshoot community issues
The “ipconfig” command is commonly used to troubleshoot networking issues. Apply it to its personal, and also you’ll see your router’s present IP tackle, however add the “/flushdns” flag, and connections between your laptop and the web sites you go to get reset (through the DNS server), which may help if web sites aren’t loading up as they need to.
It’s also possible to use “ipconfig /launch” after which “ipconfig /renew” to get a contemporary IP tackle on your laptop — probably fixing connection issues between your Home windows system and your router or your system and the web.
4. Get extra details about your system
The basic “systeminfo” command will let you know nearly all the pieces you may presumably need to find out about your system after which some: it returns your Home windows 11 model and CPU mannequin, the quantity of RAM and storage put in, all of the energetic community connections presently detected, and even how lengthy your PC took as well up final time round.
5. Test your Home windows 11 drive for errors
The “chkdsk” command has lengthy been a favourite of IT technicians, and also you’ll see it seem in lots of a troubleshooting information. It basically checks your system disk for errors and might repair a few of the most basic ones. For instance, should you’re having bother accessing information and folders, or booting up your PC, chkdsk may have the ability to assist.
There are many flags you need to use with it, too. The command by itself simply seems for errors, however add an area and “/r” on the finish, and the utility will try to repair these errors whereas recovering all the information it will possibly. Use “chkdsk /?” to see different choices.
The “tasklist” command provides you roughly the identical info because the Activity Supervisor, displaying you which of them functions are placing essentially the most pressure in your system. Utilizing the method ID numbers (or PIDS) that it exhibits, you’ll be able to then forcefully kill apps utilizing “taskkill /pid <PID quantity> /f” — which will be useful for troublesome software program.
7. Analyze the vitality states of your laptop
That is one other basic command line immediate, which, with the “/a” flag, will return all of the sleep states your laptop helps (akin to hibernate and quick startup). It’s also possible to get an in depth battery report through “powercfg /batteryreport” — which is saved within the default folder for the present person account.
Dig deeper and there’s extra: “powercfg /devicequery s1_supported” lists all of the units linked to your system that may wake it out of standby, for instance. Change that “s1” if you have to analyze a unique standby state — the codes will likely be listed once you run the unique “powercfg /a” command.
8. Test Home windows 11 system integrity
Like many different command line prompts, this one is de facto helpful in terms of troubleshooting. It checks the integrity of key working system information and applies fixes the place crucial. If you happen to’re noticing bugs and crashes all throughout Home windows 11, this is without doubt one of the first steps that a variety of troubleshooting guides will suggest.
9. Get superior networking info
One other easy phrase that conceals a bunch of helpful diagnostic utilities: Use “netstat” by itself and it’ll let you know about all of the units your laptop is linked to, from printers to good audio system (use Ctrl+C once you need it to cease).
Like many different instructions, you’ll be able to tweak the command in a myriad of how (use “netstat /?” for a full checklist). You possibly can, for instance, use “netstat -b” to see which apps are presently speaking with the net, which may help spot applications which are being extra energetic on-line than maybe they need to be.