All About Computer Tips

You would be surprised to know what you can do from command line of Windows XP Pro. Windows XP Pro comes equipped with a powerful set of command line utilities. If you want to know what they are and how to run them and a good decription of each of them...go no futher.. Its available right in your computer. This is again not a tip or trick or tweak of any kind but information that is as powerful as any of the tips/tricks.

Open START-RUN window and type C:\WINDOWS\Help\ntcmds.chm
Also you may not know that .chm is the windows help file extension. I find the Windows Help to be a very good starting point to learn all the power and resources of Windows environment. I like section of NETSH and Windows scripting host among other things. You can read most of it in the reference but here I am doing a cut/paste of the new command line tools.

The following table lists the new Windows XP Professional command-line tools.

Command Features

bootcfg Configures, queries, or changes Boot.ini file settings.
defrag Locates and consolidates fragmented boot files, data files, and folders on local volumes.
diskpart Manages disks, partitions, or volumes.
driverquery Queries for a list of drivers and driver properties.
eventcreate Enables an administrator to create a custom event in a specified event log.
eventquery Lists the events and event properties from one or more event logs.
eventtriggers Displays and configures event triggers on local or remote machines.
fsutil Manages reparse points, managing sparse files, dismounting a volume, or extending a volume.
getmac Obtains the media access control (MAC) address and list of network protocols
helpctr Starts Help and Support Center.
ipseccmd Configures Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) policies in the directory service, or in a local or remote registry. Ipseccmd is a command-line version of the IP Security Policies Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.
logman Manages and schedules performance counter and event trace log collections on local and remote systems.
openfiles Queries, displays, or disconnects open files.
pagefileconfig Displays and configures the paging file Virtual Memory settings of a system.
perfmon Enables you to open a Performance console configured with settings files from Windows NT 4.0 version of Performance Monitor.
prncnfg Configures or displays configuration information about a printer.
prndrvr Adds, deletes, and lists printer drivers from local or remote print servers.
prnjobs Pauses, resumes, cancels, and lists print jobs.
prnmngr Adds, deletes, and lists printers or printer connections, in addition to setting and displaying the default printer.
prnport Creates, deletes, and lists standard TCP/IP printer ports, in addition to displaying and changing port configuration.
prnqctl Prints a test page, pauses or resumes a printer, and clears a printer queue.
relog Extracts performance counters from performance counter logs into other formats, such as text-TSV (for tab-delimited text), text-CSV (for comma-delimited text), binary-BIN, or SQL.
sc Retrieves and sets information about services. Tests and debugs service programs.
schtasks Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time. Adds and removes tasks from the schedule, starts and stops tasks on demand, and displays and changes scheduled tasks.
shutdown Shuts down or restarts a local or remote computer.
systeminfo Queries the system for basic system configuration information.
taskkill Ends one or more tasks or processes.
tasklist Displays a list of applications, services, and the Process ID (PID) currently running on either a local or a remote computer.
tracerpt Processes event trace logs or real-time data from instrumented event trace providers and allows you to generate trace analysis reports and CSV (comma-delimited) files for the events generated.
typeperf Writes performance counter data to the command window or to a supported log file format.
WMIC Eases the use of Windows Management Insturmentation (WMI) and systems managed through WMI.