The most complete and easy way to use CMD (Command Prompt)

Command Prompt or we often call it with the familiar name CMD, this is a command line tool available on the Windows operating system, and it is also one of the most effective support tools on Windows.

The CMD tool appeared very early on the Windows operating system, it dates back to the days of MS-DOS and it is integrated on most versions of Windows operating systems today.

Therefore, understanding and knowing how to flexibly use the command lines in CMD will be very useful for you in the process of using a computer, especially for those of you computer technicians, or those who want to create new applications. batch file to run automatically…

1. How to Open the CMD Tool (Command Prompt)

There are many ways to start the Command Prompt window. You can quickly search on the Windows Search bar (located on the Taskbar).

If you do not see this search box, you can press the Windows + S key combination => then search with the keyword cmd.

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Ok then, you select Command Prompt in the returned results box to start the CMD command line tool.

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Or you can open the CMD window by pressing the Windows + R key combination to open the Run dialog box => then enter the cmd => command and press Enter to execute.

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After starting the Command Prompt, the default interface of the CMD window will be as shown below, so you have successfully started the command dialog.

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2. Run Command Prompt with Administrator rights

Admin has a separate article to summarize a lot of ways to run CMD with Admin rights, full instructions on Windows operating systems (Windows 7, Windows 8.).

You can refer to this article for more ways: How to open CMD with Administrator rights (administrator rights) on Windows

There are commands that you must run CMD with Admin privileges to use. Therefore, opening a CMD command line window with Admin rights is something you must know.

If you are using Windows 10 operating system, you can quickly see the way below: You also search with the keyword cmd => then click Run as administrator to finish.

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Here is the cmd dialog with Admin rights:

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Do you know how to distinguish between running Command Prompt with Admin rights and without Admin rights? Well, simply compare the features as follows:

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(No Admin rights)

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(And here is with Admin rights)

3. Copy and Paste operations in CMD

For Windows 10, if you want to copy a certain paragraph, you just need to highlight that paragraph => and press Ctrl + C to copy as usual.

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Next, if you want to Paste (paste) the command, just press Ctrl + V or right-click.

Note: In older versions of Windows, using the Ctrl + C or Ctrl + V key combination does not work.

Therefore, the way to copy in Command Prompt for older versions of Windows is, right-click the command window => then click Mark to be able to highlight the content. (cannot Cut the text in this).

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Then you press Enter to copy.

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If you want to paste the text, right-click the command dialog => then click Paste and you're done.

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4. How to change background color, text color and font in CMD

If you are bored with the default background color and font, you can change it quickly by right-clicking in the corner of the command window => and selecting Properties.

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Next, in the Properties dialog box, select the Font tab, now you can choose the font size and font.

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If you want to change the background color or text color for CMD, then switch to the Colors tab. You click:

1. Screen text to change the color of the text.
2. Screen Background to change the background color of the command window.
3. Opacity to change the transparency of the Command Prompt window.
4. To see your edits, look in the Selected Screen Color box.

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4. Share some commonly used commands in CMD

4.1. How to view computer information with the systeminfo . command

The systeminfo command gives us quite a bit of information about the operating system and the computer.

It not only provides us with basic information about the OS, but also provides other information such as installed updates, BIOS version of the computer, OS installation time, etc.

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The listed information is:

1. Host Name: The computer name.
2. OS Name: The OS name.
3. OS Version: The OS version.
4. OS Configuration: Configure the OS.
5. OS Build Type: OS Build Type.
6. Register Owner: The first account name created by the user after installing Win.
7. Original Install Date: Time when Windows installs successfully.
8. System Boot Time: The last time Windows was booted successfully.
9. System Manufacturer: The manufacturer of the computer or laptop.
10. System Model: Computer or Laptop model code.
11. System Type: The 32 or 64bit version you are using.
12. Processor(s): Information and number of CPUs attached to the computer or laptop.
13. BIOS Version: The BIOS version of your computer or laptop.
14. Windows Directory: The path to the WINDOWS directory on your OS, usually C:WINDOWS.
15. System Directory: The path to the System32 folder on your OS, usually C:WINDOWSSystem32.
16. Boot Device: Boot partition path.
17. System Locale: System locale.
18. Input Locale: Input language (written).
19. Time Zone: The time zone of your computer or laptop.
20. Total Physical Memory: Total amount of RAM of the computer.
21. Available Physical Memory: The amount of RAM remaining (Only counted when running this command).
22. Virtual Memory: Max Size: Total capacity of virtual RAM.
23. Virtual Memory: Available: The amount of virtual RAM remaining.
24. Virtual Memory: In Use: The amount of virtual RAM in use.
25. Page File Location: The path to the Page file.
26. Domain: The domain name of the computer.
27. Logon Server: The name of the computer in use.
28. Hotfix(s): Name and number of installed Win updates.
29. Network Card(s): Installed network adapters.
30. Hyper-V Requirements: Conditions for running Hyper-V (virtualization).

4.2. Commands to navigate location in Command Prompt

The cd command helps us point the Command Prompt to any directory on the hard drive to execute or list the files and folders in it.

By default, when running cmd with normal User rights, the default path will be: C:Users'Username'. For example, my account name is Admin, the path will be: C: UsersAdmin.

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If running as Administrator, the path will be: C: WINDOWSSystem32.

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How to use the cd command in CMD is as follows:

cd 'path-to-directory-in-drive'

For example, now I want to point CMD to the New Folder folder on the Desktop, I will use the following command:

cd C:Users~~~~~~DesktopNew Folder

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The important thing is that you get the path to the location you want to point to, it's very simple, you can do as shown below.

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Bonus: You can point to a folder in a subfolder without writing the entire path if you already point to the parent folder.

For example: I am in the Desktop folder, then I can point to the New Folder folder on the Desktop by using the command cd New Folder.

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Note: Using the cd command to point to a directory only applies within the same hard drive partition. For example, if you are in drive C and you want to point to the directory of drive D, you cannot use the cd command to point directly.

But to point to another hard drive partition, you must switch CMD to that partition location first, for example, I will enter the command D: => and press Enter. So okay.

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5. Conclusion

OK, so I have finished showing you how to use the CMD command line window in a very basic way. These are the basic knowledge that you need to master if you want to learn more advanced things. 

Isabella Humphrey

Update 25 July 2021