In this post I will be answering such question as: What is the ‘cat’ equivalent in Windows? What is the ‘grep’ equivalent in Windows? Yes that’s right, we are visiting the Windows CLI today. The old DOS shell.
These commands all work in Windows 7 and Server 2008; most of them also work in Windows XP.
Using the Type+Find+Sort combo
The windows command type is similar to the cat command in linux. Then you can pipe it to find which is like grep. Then you can sort it to your liking. This command combination can be a very powerful tool for productivity.
To display all of the lines in hosts.txt file that contain the text “dmz” in any combination of upper or lower case (/i is to “ignore case”):
S:\network> type hosts.txt | find /i "dmz"
Look at all of the lines in hosts.txt file that have “mex” in them, sorted on the 20th character
S:\network> type hosts.txt | find /i "mex" | sort /+20
Get all of the lines that have the term “mex” in it and ignore the case.
S:\network> type hosts.txt | find /i "mex"
25.25.25.251 MEXSR01 # Exchange server
192.168.1.21 MEXPS01 # Power Supply
192.168.1.22 MEXSW02 # Network Switch
25.25.25.250 MEXRT02 # Router on second floor
Gets all of the lines with “mex” in it, but eliminate the lines mentioning “PS”:
S:\network> type hosts.txt | find /i "mex" | find /i /v "ps"
25.25.25.251 MEXSR01 # Exchange server
192.168.1.22 MEXSW02 # Network Switch
25.25.25.250 MEXRT02 # Router on second floor
Gets all lines with “192.168” and “mex”.
S:\network> type hosts.txt | find /i "192.168" | find /i "mex"
192.168.1.21 MEXPS01 # Power Supply
192.168.1.22 MEXSW02 # Network Switch
Run through all of the text files in the current directory, and gets lines containing notconnect.
T:\configs> type *.txt | find /i "notconnect"
tokyo.txt
Gi1/9 unused-july18 notconnect 1 auto auto 10/100/1000BaseT
moskow.txt
Gi1/9 unused-july18 notconnect 1 auto auto 10/100/1000BaseT
Starting Programs
Using the start command
Open Windows Explorer in the current directory
T:\configs> start .
Open Firefox to Google search page with Google Instant disabled:
d:\> start firefox http://google.com/webhp?complete=0
To open a specific .doc file, you can just use “start” this way, from a command line (Window will use the default program associated with .doc files):
C:\> start t:\configs\daily-update.doc
Useful shortcuts for frequently used programs
Open the Remote Desktop console connection to server 192.168.1.1
d:\> mstsc /console /v:192.168.1.1
Create a Windows Firewall rule that allows a server to reply to ping requests
D:\> netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="allow-ping-replies" protocol=icmpv4:8,any dir=in action=allow
Ok.
Open directly to Device Manager
d:\> devmgmt.msc
Open directly to the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security console
d:\> wf.msc
Open directly to Disk Management
d:\> diskmgmt.msc
Open directly to the System Properties applet
d:\> sysdm.cpl
Open the services
c:\> services.msc
Open the boot and system config
c:\> msconfig
Networking commands
Display the IP addresses of each NIC
d:\> ipconfig
Show the MAC addresses of each NIC
d:\> getmac
Show the routing table
d:\> route print
List TCP/IP stats and information
d:\> netstat
Open the Network Connections configurator (network control panel applet)
d:\> ncpa.cpl
Other useful commands
Initiates an immediate, forced reboot (-r is “restart”, -f is force, -t 0 is in 0 seconds) with a comment (-c) to be recorded in the Event Viewer
d:\> shutdown -r -f -t 0 c Services are hung; rebooting system
To map the letter T: to a Windows share on a file server:
d:\> net use t: \\example.com\common\is\euc
Run the systeminfo command, and displays only the line referring to system boot time:
d:\> systeminfo | find /i "boot time"
System Boot Time: 6/4/2013, 12:53:27 PM
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