What are some useful things to do with the command prompt?

[Arcadio]

I miss using the command prompt.. what are some good uses/applications of the command prompt under Windows 7, other than the typical diagnostic programs (ipconfig, chkdsk, et al.)?

 

[BChico]

robocopy

 

[JulesMaximus]

Substitute it for the letter h?

 

[corkyg]

Occasionally, I find this useful: fsutil usn deletejournal /d c:

It works in 7, Vista, and XP as do other fsutil commands. They must be done, however, in elevated mode, and with caution. File System Utilities are a powerful tool.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753059(v=ws.10).aspx

 

[chucky2]

Renaming mass amounts of files or changing their extension is nice, but that's pretty rare to have to do (at least for me) nowadays not sure if that's a massive perk.

There is something old timey satisfying in doing things by the command line instead of with a GUI though. Not something I want to do all the time but sometimes it's nice...

Chuck

 

[gevorg]

list all files in a specified folder, output to a text file

 

[ZeroRift]

Check this out if you're interested in some cmd entertainment:

http://blog.commandlinekungfu.com/

I think they actually stopped supporting cmd recently, but their older "episodes" have some pretty neat stuff.

 

[Nothinman]

If you really want a powerful shell you should take a look at PowerShell, no pun intended. However, while it may be powerful and the focus of MS' development in the command-line area, it's probably the worst shell available from a usability standpoint. I find it downright painful to use compared to bash or any other traditional unix shell.

 

[her209]

devmgmt.msc - brings up Device Manager
diskmgmt.msc - brings up Disk Management
lusrmgr.msc - brings up Local Users and Groups
services.msc - brings up Services
appwiz.cpl - brings up Add/Remove Programs (Programs and Features in Vista/7)
powercfg.cpl - brings up Power Options
firewall.cpl - brings up Windows Firewall

 

[ViRGE]

If you really want a powerful shell you should take a look at PowerShell, no pun intended. However, while it may be powerful and the focus of MS' development in the command-line area, it's probably the worst shell available from a usability standpoint. I find it downright painful to use compared to bash or any other traditional unix shell.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks that. I like the concept, but I simply cannot learn it well enough to use it on a day-to-day basis.

 

[Charlie98]

I've always been scared to death of the command prompt but used it recently to pull my acorns out of the fire...

diskpart

 

[Nothinman]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks that. I like the concept, but I simply cannot learn it well enough to use it on a day-to-day basis.

It seems to be a decent scripting language, but is pure hell from a user interface/shell standpoint.

 

[elkinm]

deltree, rmdir, or equivalent. The only way to clear a folder were files or subfolders may be in use. Explorer errors out and stops.

Attrib. Cannot change many attributes with a GUI.

With Microsoft limiting GUI options with later versions, I mind myself going to the command prompt or registry much more than ever before.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I've always been scared to death of the command prompt but used it recently to pull my acorns out of the fire...

diskpart

Gotta use diskpart if you want to create extended partitions in Win7 (and maybe Vista).

 

[imagoon]

It seems to be a decent scripting language, but is pure hell from a user interface/shell standpoint.

I really recommend you pickup a book about it. Once you get the concepts down it is amazing for certain tasks.

 

[Nothinman]

I really recommend you pickup a book about it. Once you get the concepts down it is amazing for certain tasks.

I'm sure it is and I'll most likely be using it more in the future since I'm supposed to be doing some Exchange and AD projects soon. But I'm leery about jumping in too far since I don't want it undoing all of the logical shell stuff I've learned from Linux. =)

 

[6string]

There are some good built in commands for network troubleshooting such as ping, traceroute and pathping. Netstat is another really cool command that shows you what is connected to your computer.