Useful Windows Commands
Some less well known Windows 7, 8.1, 10 Terminal (Command prompt) commands
| Command | Description |
| powercfg /batteryreport | Detailed battery diagnostics > html |
| netsh wlan show wlanreport | WLAN data last 3 days > html |
| Alt+Enter | Full screen mode |
| F7 | List previous commands |
| doskey /history > c:\cmd.txt | Save command history to \cmd.txt to view last saved history session |
| msinfo32 | System Summary > BIOS version amongst others |
| findstr /s searchstring *.txt
findstr /i “searchstring” filepathname | more |
Search inside your files with findstr add /s to search subfolders |
| sfc /scannow |
Fixes corrupted system files by replacing them with fresh ones from the local Windows recovery image |
| dism /online/cleanup-image /checkhealth |
Check the health of the recovery image. If you see a message saying corruption has occurred run command below |
| dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth |
Fix recovery image. Only run if you have Checkhealth errors |
| powershell |
Switch to Powershell in same window |
| start powershell | Start Powershell in a new window |
| Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”} | Powershell command to reinstall Microsoft Store core Windows 10 apps |
| cipher /e c:\Vault |
Replace “c:Vault” with the Folder or file to encrypt. To unencrypt right-click folder or file, select Properties; Advanced and untick “Encrypt contents to secure data” option. |
| shutdown /r /o |
Boot to Windows 10 advanced options |
| netsh wlan show profile netsh wlan show profile WiFi-name key=clear |
Recover forgotten WiFi password. Replace WiFi-name with the one shown in list of network names (1st command). Scroll through results to see password shown against WiFi-name |
| robocopy c:\users\username\Documents d:\backup\Documents /mir /copyall /dcopy:T /r:0 /w:0 /log:c:\users\username\log.txt /tee |
Copy folders fast – mirror the source to the destination copying all files and folders, including empty ones + all file attributes including NTFS permissions and copy timestamps and retry 0 times and wait 0 secs between retries and logfile and log output to console and logfile |
| %windir%\system32\sdclt.exe | Backup and Restore Shortcut |