Command Prompt is one of the most powerful tools in Windows. We can use it to perform any task. However, professional users or IT experts know the actual power of Command Prompt and can fully utilize its potential. Following are some of the common commands that are mostly used by the IT experts during their career.
1.ping
ping command is used to know the IP address of a website. IP address is like a house number. It is unique for every computer network.
For example, if we type ping www.google.com then we will get the IP address of google.
2. nslookup
nslookup command is used to resolve DNS into IP. Basically, if we do not know the IP address of a specific website then we can use NSLOOKUP to get the IP address.
For example, if we type nslookup www.google.com then we will get the IP address of the google website.
3. tracert
tracert command is used to trace the path that is taken by the packet from the source to reach its destination. It also tells the amount of time each hop has taken to reach its destination.
For example, if we type tracert www.google.com then it will exactly show us the number of hops and the time each hope has taken to reach the destination.
4. arp-a
arp-a command is used to view or modify the local Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache. It helps in identifying whether someone has done any ARP poisoning in their LAN or not. Running ARP without any parameters will list all the parameters that can be used with it.
5. route print
In computing, route is a command used to view and manipulate the IP routing table. This command displays routing table, metric and interface.
6. ipconfig
ipconfig is a very useful command. It shows a lot of things such as IPv6 address, temporary IPv6 address, IPv4 address, subnet mask, default gateway and much more. Typing ipconfig /all will provide us a lot of extra information.
7. netstat -an
netstat -an gives the connection status. It shows the active connections and listening ports.
8. pathping
pathping is similar to tracert but it provides some additional information. It calculates the time taken to reach the website and the number of packets lost.
Type: pathping www.google.com
9. net user
net user is a very powerful command. It shows the information about the users. It can also be used to change password of a specific user. For example, if we have a user Ali in our device we can reset his password without knowing the previous password. To change password of Ali type net user Ali*. It will then ask to enter the new password.
10. tasklist
This command opens the task manager in Windows. After running this command, all running processes will be listed on the screen. It can also be used to terminate any task. For example, if we want to terminate a task with process id 8742 then type taskkill /pid 8742 /t. It will close the task.
