Essential Windows CMD Commands for Beginners

The Windows Command Prompt (CMD) is a powerful tool that allows users to perform a wide range of tasks using text-based commands. Here’s a list of basic CMD commands along with their descriptions:

Navigating Directories

• cd: Change Directory. Use this command to navigate to different folders in your system.

cd path_to_directory

• dir: Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.

dir 

File Management

• copy: Copies one or more files to another location.

copy source_file destination_file

• del: Deletes one or more files.

del filename

• ren: Renames a file or files.

ren old_filename new_filename

• mkdir: Creates a new directory.

mkdir new_directory

Viewing File Contents

• type: Similar to the Linux cat command, type displays the contents of a text file.

type filename

This command is used to display the contents of specified files and is analogous to the Unix cat command1.

Finding Files

• dir /s: Similar to the Linux locate command, dir /s searches for files and directories in the specified path and all subdirectories.

dir filename /s

This command is useful when you need to find a file but only know part of the name or the file type2.

System Operations

• ping: Checks the network connection and latency.

ping ip_address_or_hostname

• ipconfig: Displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values.

ipconfig /all

Getting Help

• help: Provides a list of commands and their usage.

help

• whoami: Similar to the Linux whoami command, this command in Windows displays the user name associated with the current user logged into the system.

whoami

This command will output the domain and username of the currently logged-in user in the format ‘domain\username’. It’s a straightforward and efficient way to verify the user account that is running commands in the CMD environment