Windows CMD Cheat Sheet

CMD is the default command-line interface on Windows systems.

Basic Commands

Here are some basic CMD commands:

Navigation

• cd <directory>: Change the current working directory to directory
• cd ..: Move up one directory level
• cd\: Move to the root directory
• dir: List the files and directories in the current directory
• dir <directory>: List the files and directories in directory
• md <directory>: Create a new directory directory
• rd <directory>: Remove directory (if it is empty)

File and directory management

• copy <source> <destination>: Copy source to destination
• xcopy <source> <destination>: Copy source and subdirectories to destination
• move <source> <destination>: Move source to destination
• del <file>: Delete file

Text manipulation

• type <file>: Print the contents of file to the terminal
• find "<string>" <file>: Search for string in file
• findstr "<string>" <file>: Search for string in file (case-insensitive)
• sort <file>: Sort the lines of file

Process management

• taskkill /pid <pid>: Terminate the process with the process ID pid
• taskkill /im <process>: Terminate all processes with the name process

System information

• ver: Print the current system version
• systeminfo: Print system information
• ipconfig: Print the network configuration

Networking

• ping <host>: Send a ping request to host
• tracert <host>: Print the route to host
• nslookup <hostname>: Look up the DNS information for hostname

Users and groups

• whoami: Print the current user
• net users: List the users on the system
• net user <user> <password>: Create a new user user with the password password
• net group <group>: Display the members of group
• net localgroup <group>: Display the local groups on the system

Advanced Commands

Here are some advanced CMD commands:

Batch scripts

• @echo off: Turn off command echoing (commands will not be printed to the terminal)
• %0: The name of the script
• %1-%9: The first 9 arguments passed to the script
• %*: All arguments passed to the script
• %~dp0: The current directory of the script
• goto <label>: Jump to the specified label in the script
• :<label>: Define a label in the script
• if <condition> <command>: Execute command if condition is true
• if <condition> (command) else (other command): Execute command if condition is true, otherwise execute other command
• for <variable> in (<list>) do <command>: Iterate through list, setting variable to the current item and executing command each time
• for /f "tokens=<n>" %<variable> in (<file>) do <command>: Read file line by line, setting variable to the nth token on each line and executing command each time

Environment variables

• set <variable>=<value>: Set an environment variable variable to value
• echo %<variable>%: Print the value of the environment variable variable

Redirection

• <command> > <file>: Redirect the output of command to file (overwrite)
• <command> >> <file>: Redirect the output of command to file (append)
• <command> 2> <file>: Redirect the error output of command to file (overwrite)
• <command> 2>> <file>: Redirect the error output of command to file (append)

Pipes

• <command1> | <command2>: Pipe the output of command1 as the input of command2

Aliases

• doskey <name>=<command>: Set an alias name for the command command
• doskey /macros: List all aliases

History

• doskey /history: List the command history
• doskey <name> /history: Display the command history for the alias name
• doskey /reinstall: Clear the command history