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Command Line Usefull Tools

Reason
IP configuration
Change the static IPv4 address from command line
Local users
Network shares
Shutdown or Restart from command line
Windows firewall
Running processes
Automatic updates - the client
History
Copyright and License
Disclaimer

Reason

Not quite often, I have only command prompt access to Windows hosts. It is time consumming to search again and again after command line tools and their usage, so this document may fill some gaps.

IP configuration

Here are some the ipconfig's paramaters:

/all shows detailed informations about the network adapters;
/renew renew the IPv4 address;
/renew6 renew the IPv6 address;
/release release the IPv4 address;
/release6 release the IPv6 address;
/registerdns refreshes all DHCP leases and re-registers DNS names;
/displaydns display the contents of the DNS Resolver Cache;
/flushdns purges the DNS Resolver cache.

Change the static IPv4 address from command line

The netsh tools is very powerfull in Windows world. Changing a static IPv4 address is trivial.

netsh local static <the-new-IPv4-address> <the-new-mask> <the-new-gateway> <the-metric>

Example:

netsh local static 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 0

Local users

Show local users

By issuing the command net user you will get the list of local users

Adding a local user

To add the "johndoe" user with the password "DoeJohn" and the full name "John Doe":

net user johndoe DoeJohn /add /passwordreq:yes /fullname:"John Doe"

and making it a member of the "SomeUsers" group:

net localgroup SomeUsers johndoe /add

The net user and net localgroup have many other options.
For domain based groups there is the net group command.

Network shares

To map the "Public" share from the "192.168.1.1" server as the local disk "N":

net use N: \\192.168.1.1\Public

If you want to use a different user, let's say "johndoe":

net use N: \\192.168.1.1\Public /user:johndoe

Shutdown or Restart from command line

The C:\Windows\System32\tsshutdn.exe utility can be used to shutdown or restart a Windows (2000, XP, 2003) computer from command line.
According to Microsoft's KB320188, the usage is:

tsshutdn wait_time [/server:server_name] /reboot /powerdown /delay:log_off_delay /v

where:

wait_time, defaults to 60 seconds and is the time period after which users are logged off (after they are notified);
/server:server_name is the host to be shut down. Defaults to localhost;
/reboot means restart not shutdown;
/powerdown is used to turn off the host;
/delay:log_off_delay is the time period to wait for all processes after the users are logged off. Defaults to 30 seconds;
/v is used for verbose mode.

Windows firewall

Operational mode
To see the firewall's state, configuration and working mode issue the following commands:

netsh firewall show opmode to see the current operational mode
netsh firewall set opmode enable to enable the firewall
netsh firewall set opmode disable to disable the firewall

Allowing a port
To allow a port through firewall execute:

netsh firewall add portopening <protocol> <port> <descriptiveName> [mode] [scope [addresses]] [profile]

where:

protocol is TCP, UDP or ALL;
port is a port in the 1-65535 range;
descriptiveName is a descriptive name, surrounded in quotes if it contains spaces;
mode is ENABLE or DISABLE;
scope is ALL, SUBNET or CUSTOM. If you use CUSTOM then you must specify the addresses;
addresses if the scope field is set to CUSTOM, this field is a comma-separated list of allowed addresses;
profile is CURRENT, DOMAIN, STANDARD or ALL.

In reverse, to delete a firewall exception execute:

netsh firewall delete portopening <protocol> <port>

where the <protocol> and <port> have the same meaning as in the previous command.

Example 1:

netsh firewall add portopening TCP 99 "99 tcp port" enable

will open the TCP port 99, enable this exception and set it's friendly name to "99 tcp port". The scope is ALL and the profile is CURRENT.

Example 2:

netsh firewall add portopening TCP 99 "99 tcp port" disable

will disable the "99 tcp port" exception.

Example 3:

netsh firewall delete portopening TCP 99

will delete the exception defined in the first example.

Running processes

tasklist shows the list of running processes;
tasklist /SVC shows the list of running processes and related services;
taskkill /PID <pidNumber> /T /F will force the termination of the process identified by the <pidNumber> and any child processes which were started by it.

Automatic updates - the client

The automatic update client application have the following command line options:

/detectnow to force the detection of updates;
/resetauthorization /detectnow to reset the authorization cookie and force the detection of updates. The options must be supplied in the presented order.

History

25 June 2007, Added informations about processes, Windows firewall and the wuauclt application.
02 April 2007, First version.

Copyright and License

Disclaimer

No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and information at your own risk. There may be errors and inaccuracies that could be damaging to your system. Proceed with caution, the author do not take any responsibility.

All copyrights are held by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.

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Last page modification is 25 June 2007

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