ipconfig – Quickly Find
Your IP Address
You can find your IP
address from the Control
Panel, but this takes quite a
few clicks. The ipconfig
command is a fast way of
determining your computer’s
IP address and other
information, such as the
address of its default
gateway — useful if you want
to know the IP address of
your router’s web interface.
To use the command, just
type ipconfig into a
Command Prompt window.
You’ll see a list of all the
network connections your
computer is using. Look
under Wireless LAN adapter
if you’re connected to Wi-Fi
or Ethernet adapter Local
Area Connection if you’re
connected to a wired
network.
ipconfig /flushdns –
Flush Your DNS
Resolver Cache
If you change your DNS
server, the effects won’t
necessarily take place
immediately. Windows uses a
cache that remembers DNS
responses it’s received,
saving time when you access
the same addresses again in
the future.
To ensure Windows is
getting addresses from the
new DNS servers instead of
using old, cached entries,
run the ipconfig /flushdns
command after changing your
DNS server.
ping, tracert –
Troubleshoot Network
Connection Issues
If you’re experiencing
issues connecting to a
website or other network
connection issues, Windows
and other operating systems
have some standard tools
you can use to identify
problems.
First, there’s the ping
command. Type ping
google.com and Windows
will send packets to
Google.com. Google will
respond and let you know
it’s received them. You’ll be
able to see if any packets
didn’t make it to Google.com
— perhaps you’re
experiencing packet loss —
and how long it took you to
hear back — perhaps the
network is saturated and
packets are taking a while to
reach their destinations.
There’s also the tracert
command, which traces the
route it takes for a packet to
reach a destination. For
example, run tracert
google.com and you’ll see
the path your packet takes
to reach Google. If you’re
having issues connecting to
a website, tracert can show
you where the problem is
occurring.
For more information about
using these commands, read
our introduction to
troubleshooting Internet
connection problems
.
shutdown – Create
Shutdown Shortcuts on
Windows 8
The shutdown command is
particularly useful on
Windows 8. You can use it to
create your own shortcuts
and place them on your Start
screen
or desktop, allowing you to
more easily shut down
Windows without digging
through the charms bar or
logging out first.
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This command can also be
used to restart your
computer. On Windows 8, you
can even use a special
switch to restart your
computer into the advanced
startup options menu
.
Shut Down: shutdown /
s /t 0
Restart: shutdown /r /t
0
Restart Into Startup
Options: shutdown /r /o
recimg – Create Custom
Recovery Images
The Refresh Your PC feature
on Windows 8
allows you to restore your
computer’s system state to
its original state — either
from a clean Windows install
or as the computer came
from its manufacturer. You
can create your own custom
recovery images, but this
feature is hidden — you
have to do it with the
recimg command from a
command line. This allows
you to remove
manufacturer-installed
bloatware
or add your favorite desktop
programs to your recovery
image.
For more information about
using recimg, read our
overview of everything you
need to know about creating
and using custom recovery
images on Windows 8
.
wbadmin start backup –
Create System
Recovery Images
Windows 8.1 removes the
Windows 7 backup interface,
which allowed you to create
system backup images.
These system images contain
a complete snapshot of
every single file on the
system, so they’re different
from Windows 8’s recovery
images.
While the graphical interface
has been removed, system
administrators and geeks
can still create system image
backups by running the
wbadmin start backup cmdlet
in a PowerShell window
. Unlike all the other
commands here, this
command-line tool must be
run from within PowerShell,
not the Command Prompt.
sfc /scannow – Scan
System Files for
Problems
Windows includes a system
file checker tool that scans
its system files and looks for
problems. If system files are
missing or corrupted, the
system file checker will
repair them. This may fix
problems with some Windows
systems.
To use this tool, open a
Command Prompt window as
Administrator and run the
sfc /scannow command.
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