Everyone loves a quick and smart way to get things done in Windows. Yes, that is right – the Windows 10 run command can genuinely be a powerful tool. This article shows you the top 10 Run commands for Windows 10 to make your life easier.
Folks, take note: the most practical way to call up the Ru n command dialog box is using the keyboard shortcut combination: Windows key + R. You can also access the Run command by simply clicking the Start Menu button and then picking the run command from the menu — but that takes too much time, right?
- Open the command prompt – cmd
The Command Prompt has been around since forever and is one of the most useful tools. So. one of the quickest ways to open Command Prompt in Windows is through the Run window. Press the Win + R keys on your keyboard, type cmd, and press Enter on your keyboard.
- Open the Registry Editor – regedit
The Registry Editor is the application you can use to view, edit, or even create different database values. To open it, you should type ‘regedit’ in the Windows search box on the taskbar and then press Enter.
- Open Local Users and Groups Manager – lusrmgr.msc
Have you wondered if there is a console that allows you to manage all the local users and groups in windows? Local user and group management (lusrmgr.msc) is the right one. It is a standard console, and you can use it in all versions of Windows. This tool can be convenient for IT admins, keeping user passwords, etc.
- Access Windows Services – services.msc
We all know that you can run plenty of applications at the same time in Microsoft Windows. Thus, one of the best ways to find out what services are running simultaneously and define whether those services are needed is through the Windows Services configuration screen
- The Computer Management app – compmgmt.msc
Computer Management is considered a handy console because it allows you to access specific administrative tools in a convenient one-stop-shop. Depending on your administrator rights, you can view or change organizational attributes and perform general computer management tasks in the Computer Management console.
To open it, you can press the Win + R keys on your keyboard to open Run, and then enter the command compmgmt. msc.
- The PowerShell console – powershell
This console is incorporated in Windows scripting language, and if you can program it correctly, it can be very compelling. In other words, PowerShell can replace the command prompt (“cmd”) that we have mentioned earlier, but two of the commands still have their place.
- Open the Group Policy Editor – gpedit.msc
This configuration can make it easier to configure Windows settings. Rather than going through Windows Registry, the user can configure different aspects of the Windows operating system through the Group Policy Editor.
- Accessing network adapters configuration screen – ncpa.cpl
For those relying on wireless technology for connecting to enterprise networks and the internet, it is sometimes necessary to make adjustments to the wireless network adapters. By using the standard Run command (ncpa.cpl), you can get there instantly, making you save several mouse clicks.
- Opening the Windows 10 Device Manager – devmgmt.msc
Devmgmt. msc is a Device Manager built-in for Windows that provides you with a graphical view of the hardware installed on your computer.
The mentioned run command will display the problems and give you the quickest access to settings to solve the situation.
- Open the Malicious Software Removal tool – mrt
The Malicious Software Removal tool under normal processes always works automatically in the background as part of the Windows 10 Update. Still, if you want, you can manage it manually by using the “mrt” run command.
- Did you know that you can search with a web browser using the Run command (“browser name “? search term””)
If you try to open the run command and then type the name of a web browser installed on your computer (Chrome, Microsoft-Edge, Mozilla Firefox), you will load that browser’s default tab configuration. Nevertheless, if you use a proper search query to that browser, you will see search results from the default search engine. For example:
chrome “? nationalgeography”
Will automatically reveal results relating to the National Geography website. Using the quotes are mandatory.
- Searching YouTube (“browser name “youtube.com/results?search_query=SEARCH””)
13. System File Checker
If you’re ever concerned that a virus or some other software might have corrupted your core system files, there’s a Windows command that can scan those files and ensure their integrity.
You need to launch CMD as administrator (right click and choose Run as Administrator). Typing SFC /SCANNOW will check the integrity of all protected system files. If a problem is found, the files will be repaired with backed-up system files.
The SFC command also lets you:
- /VERIFYONLY: Check the integrity but don’t repair the files.
- /SCANFILE: Scan the integrity of specific files and fix if corrupted.
- /VERIFYFILE: Verify the integrity of specific files but don’t repair them.
- /OFFBOOTDIR: Use this to do repairs on an offline boot directory.
- /OFFWINDIR: Use this to do repairs on an offline Windows directory.
- /OFFLOGFILE: Specify a path to save a log file with scan results.
The scan can take up to 10 or 15 minutes, so give it time.
- System File Checker SCHTASKS: Schedule Tasks
Windows comes with a wizard for creating scheduled tasks. For example, maybe you have a BAT file stored on C:\temp that you want to run every day at noon.
You’d have to click through the Scheduled Task wizard to configure this. Or you can type a single SCHTASKS command to set it up.
SCHTASKS /Create /SC HOURLY /MO 12 /TR Example /TN c:\temp\File1.bat
The scheduled switch accepts arguments like minute, hourly, daily, and monthly. Then you specify the frequency with the /MO command.
If you typed the command correctly, you’ll see the response, SUCCESS: The scheduled task “Example” has successfully been created.
15. System File Checker SCHTASKS: Schedule Tasks NET USE: Map Drives:
If you want to map a new drive, you could always open File Explorer, right click on This PC, and go through the Map Network Drive wizard. However, using the NET USE command, you can do the same thing with one command string.
For example, if you have a share folder on a computer on your network called \\OTHER-COMPUTER\SHARE\, you can map this as your own Z: drive by typing the command:
Net use Z: “\\OTHER-COMPUTER\SHARE” /persistent:yes
The persistent switch tells your computer that you want this drive remapped every time you log back into your computer.
- Turn Off Computer
The SHUTDOWN command is a pretty versatile command that lets you shutdown the computer but control the behavior of that shutdown. It’s commonly used as a scheduled task or part of an IT batch job after patches have been applied to a computer system.
Typing shutdown /i from the command prompt will initiate a shutdown, but it’ll upon a GUI to give the user an option on whether to restart or do a full shutdown. If you don’t want to have any GUI pop up, you can just issue a shutdown /s command.
There is a long list of other parameters you can use to do a log off, hibernate, restart, and more. Just type shutdown without any arguments to see them all.
Other Windows CMD Commands
As you can see, there are some powerful and useful things you can do with the Windows command prompt, if you know the right commands.
Believe it or not, there are even more commands that will give you the ability to do some things you probably never realized just by typing a simple command.
- BITSADMIN: Initiate upload or download jobs over the network or internet and monitor the current state of those file transfers.
- COLOR: Change the background color of the command prompt window.
- COMP: Compare the contents of any two files to see the differences.
- FIND/FINDSTR: Search for strings inside of any ASCII files.
- PROMPT: Change the command prompt from C:\> to something else.
- TITLE: Change the title of the command prompt window.
- REGEDIT: Edit keys in the Windows registry (use with caution).
- ROBOCOPY: A powerful file copy utility built right into Windows.
Likewise, to the previous command explained earlier, you may do other website-specific searches—you just have to know how to correctly form the query. For example, YouTube searches look like this: chrome “youtube.com/results?search_query=national+geographic”
This inquiry will display results from the National Geographic YouTube channel. Again, the quotes are required. This sort of query will work with any website if you know the correct syntax.
Note: Using these configuration applications and settings screens require a certain amount of notice. If you make configuration changes, and you are really not sure what they mean – that could negatively impact your Windows PC. In the Run command, you can access those configurations – but that does not mean you have to make changes randomly. As Stan Lee once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.
