These commands can be run on your machine to find information and perform troubleshooting.

Note: Further help for these commands is available by typing ‘commandname /?’ to display help at the command prompt. To get to the command prompt, click ‘Start’, ‘Run’, then type ‘cmd’ and hit ‘Enter’. Similarly, for each of the commands listed below, type the command and hit ‘Enter’.

Machine frozen? Don’t waste your time clicking the mouse! It takes up more resources to interact with the graphical interface. Instead, do this! shutdown -r -f -r : Reboots after shutdown. -f : Forces running applications to close.

Microsoft Outlook giving you trouble? Most problems can be solved by simply launching Outlook in safe mode, closing it, and starting it regularly. outlook /safe

Want to find very specific information about your computer without digging around? Everything about memory on your PC: systeminfo |findstr /i “memory”
Sample result: Total Physical Memory: 511 MB Available Physical Memory: 142 MB Virtual Memory: Max Size: 2,048 MB Virtual Memory: Available: 2,008 MB Virtual Memory: In Use: 40 MB Operating

System-related info.: systeminfo |findstr /i “os” Sample result: Host Name: garagePC OS Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional OS Version: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600 OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation OS Configuration: Member Workstation OS Build Type: Uniprocessor Free BIOS Version: DELL – 8

What kind of PC? systeminfo /s computername|findstr /i “system”
Sample result: System Up Time: 11 Days, 23 Hours, 16 Minutes, 53 Seconds System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation System Model: OptiPlex GX240 System type: X86-based PC System Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32 System Locale: en-us;English (United States)

Want to register your system to connect to a wireless network? Need to find the PC’s ‘MAC address/Physical address’? getmac
Sample result: Physical Address Transport Name ===== 00-11-43-0B-1B-93 \Device\Tcpip_{9EE91240-BC9D-44AB-B5F5-2317E335CD43}