Top Windows Command Line Cheat Sheet (2024)

What Is the Windows Command Line?

The Windows command line (Windows command prompt) is the command-line interface (CLI) on Microsoft
Windows machines, analogous to the Terminal in Unix/Linux. It emulates many command-line abilities in
Microsoft’s deprecated text-only operating system MS-DOS (but it’s not MS-DOS).
Methods to open the Windows CLI:
 On Windows 10 or above, click Start on the bottom left corner, type cmd, and select Command
Prompt.
 On Windows 8.x or earlier, press Ctrl+R to open the Run dialog box, type cmd into it, and press Enter.
Hence, another name for Windows CLI is “cmd.”
Scripts containing Windows commands (batch scripts) have “.bat” as the file extension. All cmd commands are
case-insensitive, so arp and ARP are the same. If you need help using any command, add /? to it,
e.g., ARP /? will show the manual for ARP:
Directory Navigation
These commands help you view directories and move directories around.
COMMAND EXPLANATION
c: Change the current drive to the C:\ drive
d: Change the current drive to the D:\ drive
CD c:\path\to\my_folder Change directory to c:\path\to\my_folder
CD .. Navigate to the parent directory of the current working directory
CD .\new_folder Navigate to the folder new_folder located in the current working directory
CD /D d:\videos\ Change the current drive to D:\ and access the folder videos on it.
DIR Display files and folders in the current directory
DIR /A c:\apps\ Display files and folders in the directory c:\apps\
DIR /A:D Display only folders (D: directories)
DIR /A:-D Display only files (D: directories; -: not)
DIR /A:H Display hidden files and folders
DIR /O Display files and folders sorted alphabetically
DIR /O:S Display files and folders sorted by file size from smallest to largest
DIR /O:-S Display files and folders sorted by file size from largest to smallest
DIR /B Display only the names of files and folders in the current working
directory
SORT Take input from a source file/pipeline, sort its contents alphabetically
(default: A to Z; in reverse: Z to A), and display the output
SORT "C:\music\playlist.m3u" Sort the contents of C:\music\playlist.m3u line by line
DIR /B | SORT /R /O ZtoA.txt List all file and folder names in the current working directory, sort them in
reverse alphabetical order, and save the sorted output to a file ZtoA.txt:

MOVE Move a file or files

MOVE c:\f1\text.txt c:\f2 Move a file text.txt from one folder c:\f1 to another folder c:\f2
MD new_folderMAKEDIR Create a new folder called new_folder in the current directory
new_folder
RD new_folderRMDIR new_folder Delete the folder called new_folder in the current directory
TREE Show the directory structure of a disk/folder
TREE "C:\Program Files" Show the directory structure of the folder “Program Files” on the disk C:\
TREE C:\ /F Display the names of the files in each folder in the directory structure of
the C:\ drive
ATTRIB Display/set the attributes of the files in the current directory
ATTRIB +H +S +R myItem Hide a file/folder myItem
ATTRIB -H -S -R myItem Unhide a file/folder myItem
TREE
File Management
The following commands are for managing and manipulating files.
Like Unix, cmd supports pipelines: you may pass the output of a command to the next one by sandwiching the
pipe character “|” between both.
COMMAND EXPLANATION
COPY text.txt C:\schoolwork Copy the file text.txt to a folder with the path C:\schoolwork
DEL text.txt Delete the file text.txt
ERASE text.txt
REN text.txt script.bat Rename a file text.txt to script.bat
RENAME text.txt script.bat
REPLACE .\src\hey.txt .\dest Overwrite; replace a file named hey.txt in a local folder src with
another hey.txt in a local folder dest, both files sharing the same
name.
Warning: Don’t specify .\dest\hey.txt anywhere here.
XCOPY Copy files and directory trees to another folder.
XCOPY is similar to COPY but with additional switches to specify
the source and destination paths in detail.
XCOPY /S folder1 folder2 Copy folders and subfolders of folder1 to folder2
ROBOCOPY Robust copying of files and directories: by default, such copying
only occurs if the source and destination differ in time stamps or file
sizes.
EXPAND gameData.cab Decompresses the compressed .CAB cabinet file gameData.cab
FC file1.ext file2.ext Compare the contents of two files (file1.ext, file2.ext) and display
non-matching lines
COMP file1.ext file2.ext Compare the contents of two files (file1.ext, file2.ext) and display
non-matching items
FIND "python" in run.bat Output every line that contains a text string (which you must enclose
in quotation marks) "python" in the file run.bat
FIND /C "python" in run.bat Count every line that contains a text string (which you must enclose
in quotation marks) "python" in the file run.bat
PRINT resume.txt Print contents of a file resume.txt
OPENFILES /QUERY Query/display open files
OPENFILES /DISCONNECT Disconnect files opened by network users.
TYPE test.txt Displays the contents of the file test.txt
TYPE playlist.m3u | SORT /unique /o Sort a file playlist.m3u and output only the unique values to a file C:\
C:\work\unique_play.m3u work\unique_play.m3u
MORE Display contents of one or more files, one screen at a time.
ASSOC Display or change the association between a file extension and a
file type
NOTEPAD Open the Notepad application from cmd
NOTEPAD filename.ext Open a file filename.ext in Notepad

Disk Management
It’s easy to handle and automate the following tasks on cmd.
COMMAND EXPLANATION
CHKDSK Check and repair disk problems (local disks only)
CHKDSK /F A: Fix errors on A: drive
CHKDSK /R A: Recover data on A: drive
CHKDSK /X A: Dismount drive A:
CIPHER /E classified Encrypt the folder classified
CIPHER /D secret_recipe.txt Decrypt the file secret_recipe.txt
DEFRAG Disk Defragmentation
CHKNTFS Display/modify disk-checking on startup
COMPACT Display/change the compression of files in NTFS partitions
CONVERT Convert FAT disk volume to NTFS
 DISKPART Display and adjust disk partition properties
FORMAT Format the disk
FSUTIL File system management
LABEL d:x Rename disk D:\ to X:\
SUBST p: c:\taxes Assign drive P:\ to the local folder c:\taxes
SUBST p: /D Remove the path represented by P:\
RECOVER d:\data.dat Recover a file data.dat from a bad or defective disk D:\
VOL Display current disk volume label and serial number
POWERCFG Control power settings and configure Hibernate/Standby modes
SFC /SCANNOW Scan and update protected system files

System Information and Networking

The following commands are helpful in troubleshooting computers and computer networks.

COMMAND EXPLANATION
VER Display the current operating system version
SYSTEMINFO List system configuration
HOSTNAME Show the computer’s hostname on the network
DRIVERQUERY Show all installed device drivers
DATE Display/set system date
TIME Display/set system time
GPRESULT Display Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) information for a remote
user and computer.
GPUPDATE Update group policies
IPCONFIG Display Windows IP network configurations
IPCONFIG /release Release your current local IP address
IPCONFIG /renew Request a new local IP address
IPCONFIG /flushdns Reset the contents of the DNS client resolver cache
PING google.com Send ICMP requests to the target google.com and check host
availability
PATHPING Trace route and provide network latency and packet loss for
each router and link in the path
NET Provide various network services
NET use M: \\gameServ Assign as disk M:\ the path \\gameServ, logging in as
/user:"ReadyPlayerOne" player1 “ReadyPlayerOne” and password “player1”
TRACERT Find the IP address of any remote host
NSLOOKUP Find IP addresses on a nameserver
ROUTE Manipulate network routing tables
ROUTE PRINT Displays network route details
ARP -A List IP addresses and corresponding physical addresses
(Address Resolution Protocol)
NETSH Configure network interfaces, Windows firewall, routing, and
remote access
NETSTAT Display current TCP/IP network connections and protocol
statistics
GETMAC Shows all MAC addresses of the network adapters

Process Management
The commands below are Task Manager-like functions. Note that you call variables in arithmetic or logical
expressions by enclosing each with two “%” signs (e.g., “%a%”).
COMMAND EXPLANATION
SCHTASKS Create/edit a job on Task Scheduler. Use this to create scheduled tasks in Disk
Management.
SET List environment variables
PATH Display/change the list of folders stored in the %PATH% environment variable
 SHUTDOWN Restart the computer
/R
SHUTDOWN Shut down the computer 60 seconds from now
/S /T 60
TASKLIST List running tasks
TASKLIST Show services related to each task
/SVC
TASKLIST /V Display detailed task information
TASKLIST | Get the name of the executable associated with the process ID (PID) of 1234
FIND "1234"
TASKKILL End one or more tasks
TASKKILL Terminate all Microsoft Edge instances:
/IM
"msedge.exe
"

TASKKILL Terminate process with PID of 10736

/PID 10736
REGREGEDI Registry Editor
T
RUNAS Execute a program program1 as another user user2
/USER:user2
program1
POWERSHE Open a Powershell instance
LL
Batch Scripting
These commands are for constructing and debugging batch scripts (.bat). To suppress the output of a certain
command, add @ in front of it, e.g., @echo off.

Demonstration of CHOICE, PAUSE, and TIMEOUT

COMMAND EXPLANATION
REM comment. . . Prefix for the single-line comment “comment. . .”
:comment. . .
GOTO end Format of multi-line comments represented by <comment_block> enclosed by
<comment_block> delimiters end and :end
:end
SET /A c = %a% + %b Assign the arithmetic expression a+b to the variable c
%
^ Escape character
some_command > Redirect output of some_command to a file output.txt
output.txt
? Wildcard representing one character
* Wildcard representing multiple characters
& Introduce a new command on the same line
TIMEOUT 3600 Tell the command prompt to sleep for 3600 seconds (= 1 hour)
PAUSE Prompt the user to continue
CHOICE Prompt the user to pick an on-screen option
CHOICE /T 15 /C You have 15 seconds to press Y, N, or C keys without capitalization, defaulting to
ync /CS /D y /M "Press “y” if time runs out without a decision
y=Yes, n=No,
c=cancel:"
CLS Clear screen
CMD Restarts Windows command prompt window:

COLOR Set text and background color of cmd:

 ECHO ON Display each command executed
ECHO OFF Only display command output
ECHO a string of Display a string of characters
characters
HELP Display help
PROMPT topSecret^> Changes the command line prompt to topSecret>$ for the current session
$$
PROMPT Reset the command line prompt to default
START X Start/open a program/document X in a new window
TITLE top Secret Set the title of the current session of Windows command prompt to top Secret
/? Add this to the end of any command word (shown in ALL CAPS in this cheat
sheet) to get help on the command, e.g., CD/? = manual for CD (change directory)
command
| CLIP Append this to the end of a command to copy the command output to the
clipboard
EXIT Exits the command line

Flow Control
Note the condition is a Boolean expression e.g., %a%==5.
CONDITIONA SYNTAX
L
If IF (condition) do_something
If-else If (condition) (do_something)
ELSE (do_something_else)
Nested if IF (condition1) IF (condition2) do_something
Infinite loop :marker
do_something
GOTO marker
While loop :marker
IF (condition) (
do_something
GOTO :marker
)
Shortcut keys
Any Windows CLI cheat sheet must include methods to speed up your work, such as the following.
KEY EFFECT
Tab Autocomplete
Ctrl+F Find text in console (opens dialog box)
F1, F3, F5, F8 Retype command
F2 Copy the current command leftward of the cursor
F4 Delete the current command rightward of the cursor
F6 Insert end-of-file character
F7 List previous commands from which you choose
F9 Retype a command by typing its line number in the command history