The Windows command line may not be the best choice for working with annoying user interfaces, but it has some useful features that don’t come with a UI and can only be accessed via the command line. In this article, share with you a few command-line tools that you can use to troubleshoot your Windows computer.
1. System File Checker
Windows File Checker feature in Windows is used to check the integrity of system files and registry. When you have a corrupted or registry system, you can use the System File Checker feature to scan and restore system files (or registry keys) from a temporary archived version of Windows files.
To run this tool, open a Windows command prompt window as administrator and execute the below command.
Sfc / scannow
2. Driverquery
Finding out all the device drivers installed in your Windows computer is essential to solving any problems arising from driver updates and/or driver related issues. Most people will use third-party tools to find out about their device drivers. However, unknown to many people, Windows has a built-in command-line tool that can list all drivers’ details. To run Driverquery, open your Windows command prompt as administrator and execute the below command.
driverquery
By default, the details are listed in a tabular format. If you want to change the display format (list and csv), you can use the /fo parameter. For example,
driverquery / fo csv
Furthermore, you can also export display details to a file. To save information to a file, use the command below:
driverquery / fo CSV> filename.csv
3. Examine the disc
When it comes to hard drive related problems, you can use a built-in tool called Check Disk (chkdsk) to help you recover information from bad sectors and damaged file system. To run Check Disk, open the command prompt as administrator and execute the below command.
chkdsk C: / F / R
Note: The /R the parameter tells them to explore deeply love, and forces Check Disk to find any bad sectors, which is a comprehensive search and takes much longer. If you don’t want a deep scan, you can remove the parameter.
4. IPConfig
IPConfig is one of the common commands used in Windows (and Linux) and is used to get information regarding all TCP / IP connections, information about network adapters, and the machine’s IP address. count. Furthermore, you can use the IPConfig command to purge DNS cache and issue or renew IP addresses. To run the IPConfig command, open a Windows command prompt window and execute the following command.
Ipconfig
You can also use various parameters like /all , /flushdns, and /release to get information on all network adapters, clear the DNS cache, and free a corresponding IP address.
To show the full TCP / IP configuration for all adapters:
ipconfig / all
To flush and reset the contents of the DNS client resolver cache:
ipconfig / flushdns
To release current DHCP configuration and remove IP address configuration for all adapters:
ipconfig / release
That’s all for this session and hopefully helps you in your daily activities. Please share your favorite Windows command-line tools using the comment form below.
