Windows XP Professional's new shell commands
Barrie Sosinsky
Windows XP Professional comes with many new command-line tools that will give you instant access to system utilities. When the command supports the GUI, you can use the Run command from the Start command to launch that utility using the command. When the command requires a DOS Prompt compatibility box, then you should open a DOS window by entering CMD into the Run dialog box, and pressing the enter key. Check a command's syntax by entering the command line: <commandname> /? and pressing the Enter key.
Among the new commands in XP are the following: bootcfg, driverquery, eventcreate, eventtriggers, fsutil, getmac, helpctr, ipseccmd, logman, openfiles, pagefileconfig, perfmon, prncnfg, prndrvr, prnjobs, prnmngr, prnport, prngctl, relog, sc, schtasks, systeminfo, taskkill, tasklist, traceprt, typeperf, and WMIC. These commands are explained in more detail in the Help topic "New command-line commands."
As an administrator it is well worth learning these commands, as they can save you lots of time.
Barrie Sosinsky (barries@killerapps.com)is president of consulting company Sosinsky and Associates (Medfield MA). He has written extensively on a variety of computer topics. His company specializes in custom software (database and Web related), training and technical documentation.
This was first published in January 2002
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