DOS Commands You Should Know

[@mattscomp]

I just love DOS/command prompt. It just feels like home and always will. Right back where I began with PC’s. I agree it’s important for aspiring technicians to have at least a basic command line knowledge. Glad to see content like this exists in 2023. Nicely done.

[@IgorEngelen1974]

Agree. I'll never forgot the day that I got an expensive engineer to assist me with installing tcp/ip on DOS machine. In some cases some fiddling was needed to get everything loaded in memory. Just 1 minor drawback. That expensive guy didn't know how to use DOS 😮

[@mattscomp]

@@IgorEngelen1974 😂 Referred to as an expert but can't do anything outside of a GUI.. Equivalent would be calling yourself a cyclist but can only ride a bike with training wheels attached. Command line/shell forever right? 👍 It's called PowerShell for a very good reason.

[@X-FAKTOR84]

An abbreviated MD command can also be used to create a directory. And RD to remove directory. 😊😉 Love CMD. This is classic. And i love win 3.11 😊 And if you want to be like Neo from the matrix, just write: color A

[@ulle500]

If you're doing ping -t, you can press ctrl+pause to have it output statistics so far without stopping it. Useful if you're looking for packet loss % or whatever

[@DouglasHeyen]

Also can add the -l and change the size of the packet. You’d be surprised at how high ping gets when adding -l 1400 or so. Can’t remember the highest off hand like 1472 or somthing around there. I remember there having to be a header or something to consider. Couldn’t ping 1500 bytes because that’s max packet size. Useful for higher bandwidth and larger data transfers. Nice to see how it can handle being fully loaded per packet.

[@RichieG]

Correction at 4:46. "CD .." will not always go to the previous directory. It will always go to the parent directory of where ever you entered the command from. Thanks for the tip of using tab to autocomplete a folder name in the command prompt. I learned something!

[@ThamiNdlalane]

If you are on the root directory since it is the top one.

[@steveross8364]

DOS is very powerful. Some would say too powerful for the everyday User. It still remains the only way to solve some issues however. Cool video Rich, a walk down memory lane back to a time I had a full head of hair and it wasn't grey!

[@TKUltra971]

These are always awesome to know. Last time I tried to have a conversation about it someone practically threw a Powershell book at me and was like 'get with the times'.

[@robertoXCX]

My experience with computers started at the tail end of the 9x era, so I never "needed" to figure out anything outside of a GUI. From around 2017-2022 I didn't do much serious computing because my PC was ancient and tired, and I started watching a ton of retro computing videos, mostly on the hardware side and less on the software side (mainly Adrian and The 8-Bit Guy) Now I've got a beast of a computer and my heart is telling me that it's time to go full Linux, but I'm scared to take that plunge until I know how to do command line stuff. So far, all I've confidently used is Diskpart and BCDedit which isn't really that impressive, but this video is kinda exactly what I needed to start figuring more out, so thank you so much for the helpful info!

[@DouglasHeyen]

Remember deltree? Could remove an entire directory loaded with files without first having to cd and del *.* first. I never knew about pathping at first I though it replaced tracert but then directly after you covered it. Great list of commands. I use them all quite often. Coming from using dos 3.3 and onward it’s just hard coded in me. Also there is dir/w for wide view of files and can also add the /p to pause at each full page.

[@pyrielrising4338]

One command in the terminal that I always use is diskpart. In general Windows disk utilities have always been poor but diskpart is a very useful utility. I still use the pipe for page breaks....but I am old.😊

[@TheChipmunk2008]

type [document] | more... i guess i must be old too

[@WilliamHollinger2019]

I am gen z and love diskpart when a usb or drive refuse to work.

[@geraldthorburn1123]

Superb, Rich. One of the best instructional Videos you've ever done. Learned a lot.

[@mattscomp]

I agree. Hugely underrated content.

[@fragalot]

Windows NT was the first version of Windows that didn't run on top of MS-DOS. Most consumers didn't use NT since it wasn't really intended for home/end users. Win2000 was much more user-friendly for end users, but also was geared for admins/IT. So XP was the first consumer version of Windows that used the NT kernel that was marketed to the public.

[@seancondon5572]

2000 WAS available to consumers. But Me was marketed as the "consumer option" ... a MASSIVE mistake on Microsoft's part. The hybrid 16/32-bit system was just NOT the way into the future. And that's statement, story, and discussion ended on that one.

[@fragalot]

@@seancondon5572 Oh I didn't realize Me was a hybrid of 16/32bit. But didn't it also run on top of DOS like 95/98 did? I didn't use it long enough (literally 1 day I used it) to care what it was it was SO bad.

[@seancondon5572]

@@fragalot it basically WAS DOS, but Microsoft went through a LOT of effort to try to hide that fact, and that MIGHT be one of the reasons it was so unstable.

[@fragalot]

@@seancondon5572 I always thought the failure of WinMe was too many bloated apps running in the background (widgets) that hogged RAM and CPU cycles away from the software people wanted to run, like games.

[@seancondon5572]

@@fragalot yeah, pretty sure you're thinking about vista, there. The problem with WinMe is that it relied on a DOS backend, but Microsoft went ABOVE AND BEYOND to try to obscure that fact, and... well... the result was kinda like if you go into your system today and just try deleting random files out of System32. Bluescreens all over the place.

[@EricTheGrey]

As someone who's first computer ran DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11, I still find something new. Namely, the shutdown -ro option.

[@marccaselle8108]

My first computer was a Packard bell legend from the summer of 1994. It came with windows 3.11 and dos 6.22

[@TaSwavo]

When I changed career in 2000 from Paper Engineer to Programmer we worked all the time with CMD batch files to run the programs we wrote in sequence. It made the business. And it is still used a LOT in the days of bigger software. Powershell is used by some but it's a new thing and, though powershell is more powerful it is NEW and some of us are stuck in our ways... I work in a big listed company and we all still use cmd commands for background and monitor tasks at some point. Good idea to learn CMD language skills even for people that come into new tech roles now.

[@fragalot]

21:38 Keep in mind this only affects your local IP address on your local network on the computer you're using. This will not change your public IP that the rest of the internet sees you on. For that you'd have to connect to your router/hotspot and diddle with it, some times power-cycling your modem will do it, but often you have to contact your ISP to get your public IP changed. If you're on a VPN then that's another network layer that can be changed with your VPN software to change what VPN server you're on that will also change your public IP.

[@carlosfandango2204]

CD\ also gets you back to root. Great video by the way. Always look forward to these. Keep up the great work.

[@AlanElChato]

Hope to see in the next video some PowerShell commands!

[@robh5695]

Great vid. I learned some new commands all these years later. Windows Terminal is great. Using it now. Cheers!

[@paulrobertson3326]

I like to stretch the CMD window to full screen height for some commands and I also use the scroll bar or mouse wheel to move up and down through the history. Also the up-arrow can be pressed more than once to go back a few command to avoid some backspacing and typing

[@FARCRYALGERIA]

the greatest infos always with you

[@paulhansberry8168]

It's been a few years....ermm mmmm decades actually, since I had to be familiar with DOS. Dos 6.2, Win 3.1, Win 95 (remember Rolling Stones Start Me Up.....). It was at Win 98 that you actully start forgetting DOS commands per say (and I did). Fun times!

[@Joseph1NJ]

4:47 cd .. specifies that you want to change to the _parent_ directory.

[@arthurschwieger82]

I didn't know about the tab key while changing directories. Cool!

[@rationalbushcraft]

I absolutely love the terminal app. I do a lot of powershell work and have ver 7 installed for Microsoft 365 administration. This is great for when a clients email gets hacked and I need to delete client side rules that the hackers have installed. But anyway it is very cool to be able to have several tabs of powershell and command prompt open.

[@pinoconte]

Hi. Rich hope you are well, I just wanted to say thank you so much for this video. I appreciate the time you took to make it. I think you did an excellent job on it. I really enjoyed your explanations. Easy to understand, I took notes throughout the video. I must have backed it up about 1000 times.😁

[@TheParadisecove]

and here I thought I was alone...:)

[@Devilofdoom]

One tip I have, is if you have a few of these commands which you run all the time. Write them into a notepad and change the file extension to .bat. You will then be able to run the commands like an executable.

[@johnbolt665]

Been using dos since 83 and still use it every day to back up files using a batch file!

[@mauk2861]

same here!

[@jamessheeler5200]

I recently discovered this channel and so far really enjoying all the content. I love the BTTF license plate :)

[@Envisaged0ne]

For the command mkdir, you can also just type md to make a new directory and rd to remove a directory

[@scenicrides5951]

brings me back to the old days.

[@gordon3178]

When typing cd / moves you to the root menu you don’t need the / just type cd then enter Type time to change the time Type date to change the date Type edit to change txt documents and batch files Type sys insert drive letter here to make the computer boot to the hdd or ssd when booting from a usb drive

[@Itaintnutn]

MS DOS and the good ol days, when there weren't any Windows or cool GUIs. I remember when DOS Shell came out, man that was cutting-edge stuff, yep it's been a minute.

[@jc_hunter]

Very helpful video, it is very important as a windows user to know these commands. What I also find funny is how, it feels like you are actively avoiding using PowerShell, however most (if not all) of these commands can be used from PowerShell just the same. There are probably still a few commands that are specific to the ol' command prompt, but a most of the good ones can still be used from the modern terminals (like PowerShell) as well. Not meaning to criticize, just wanted to point out, that cmd is not the only place where these commands can be used, the newer PowerShell, can run these too, and can do additional stuff on top of that.

[@davinp]

a good command to know is powercfg and add /request to see what is causing your PC not to go to sleep. powercfg is the power configuration

[@douglastaylor4562]

I know you said you've already made a video on it, and I've watched it, but there's so much of the DISM command that you never even touched on. It's such a useful tool, and I'd love to learn more about it. There's also other tools like netsh and maybe even the WMIC api(despite it supposedly being depreciated). A powershell tutorial also wouldn't be remiss xd

[@syscruncher]

Ahhh, DOS. The memories. I tried to hold on to DOS as long as I could, but once Win95 came out, it was pretty much done, DOS was dead…I was sad. 😂🤣

[@weckler8992]

Do you recommend a book on Dos Commands to help an individual learning these commands??? Thanks

[@eriksiers]

Right up until I built my Windows 7 workstation, about 10 years ago, every machine I put together included an install of DOS, because there is so much you could do there that just can't happen under Windows. Nowadays, my workstation has multiple versions of DOS under VMware, plus DOSbox-X for when I just need to run a DOS tool real quick.

[@valionofrei7779]

hello, you are very good at what you do, congratulations!!!

[@johnpedersen8387]

The rstrui.exe command and diskpart command with the commands within diskpart would be the ones that i would have shown . But well documented video as allways Rich 🙂

[@gregfaris6959]

Those of us who actually remember using DOS have anadvantage, as the Command Prompt does not appear like a scary jungle, but familiar old territory. One thing to be wary of: The newer "PowerShell" is touted as being a command prompt but better. This is not true for Dos old hands, as Power Shell does not recognize many of the Dos cammands you may be used to using.

[@jc_hunter]

I am not sure about all dos commands, but all commands shown in this video I was able to run in PowerShell. They all worked.

[@steeviebops]

@@jc_hunter PowerShell includes aliases for a lot of the common DOS/CMD.EXE commands as well as some Bash ones. For example, dir and ls both work. But they're really just aliases to Get-ChildItem which is the real PS command.

[@artpanneknwcpp]

I like to use the built-in Administrator account. So, from the Command Prompt, type "net user Administrator /acitve:yes" and the Administrator account can then be found on the log-on menu. :D

[@kjala_nix]

I like to follow unix tradition of not using root/admin account. I use gsudo instead.

[@thelastshadowftaghn]

Suddenly I get flashbacks of tuning my config.sys and autoexec.bat with some strategic loadhighs and devicehighs to get that precious kilobytes of memory some games demanded 😅

[@blakepace]

Thank you for this reminder of cooler days! The era of OOPS programing is sad, even if aptly named.

[@ibizenco]

Having started with MS-DOS 5.0 (I believe?) with my 80286, ages ago, this is like walking down Memory Lane... 🙂

[@RahulSingh-k3n1j]

Valuable video sir Thankyou so much

[@SusanAmberBruce]

What an awesome video, thanks

[@AbdullahYazbahar]

Do you think learning these would help me develop my Win 10/11 skills, or would starting with PowerShell be a better decision?

[@Gryfang451]

Why not learn both as they're both useful, not mutually exclusive, and you can use most DOS commands inside of power shell as well. There are things that, even after all this time, power shell is either harder to get to do, or does not do well, or at all, where a simple DOS command suffices. The reverse is also true.

[@ACOnetwork]

This takes me back in 93-94 when I got my first PC (PC486) running only DOS 😂🤣. For a while DOS was only OS I used hehe.

[@mqblowe]

Pretty sure my first venture into "DOS" was actually CP/M on a 380Z Research Machine. Those were the days - writing assembly for a Z80. ZASM was awesome.

[@mauk2861]

same here for my A level in 82

[@davinp]

yes, Windows XP was the first consumer version of Windows not on top of DOS. This made Windows XP made a true operating system and it was much more stable and reliable since it wasn't on top of DOS. Windows 95 was a just a major redesign of the Windows graphic shell, but still on top of DOS

[@GeeWhizzzz]

miss that windows XP

[@shadowopsairman1583]

98SE was stable for me, XP was riddled with backdoors

[@briant9251]

Any Chance you could show us how to do symbolic links? Loved the DOS command refresh

[@PeterCphotos]

Memories from 80's

[@oneofthegoodonesok]

Before windows ever existed.

[@21_f_aus]

I remember having floppy disks that used MS DOS If I wanted to play my barbie game I had I had to learn it and doom as well, I learnt though I did forget sometimes what I had to put into MS DOS to get whatever game I want to play play, but I did get it eventually regardless...

[@Frituurpan974]

Very helpfull video. I enjoyed watching it. You've got a lot of videos. So i'm not bored anymore. Thanks!

[@alro7779]

Great content, bro! One question... why did you blank out your Connection-specific DNS Suffix? What uses can a person do with that info? Thanks!

[@srvuk]

When using parameters like \ or .. you don't need to use a space, so cd.. is the same as cd .. and cd\ the same as cd \ Nonetheless, it is very useful to know a limited set of command line tools. Way better than Linux, which is too heavy on the use of the command line/terminal that IMO puts many people off.

[@steeviebops]

I used to do this but retrained myself to include the space for two reasons. One was that Linux expects the space so it just made that easier. But the more important one is that the Tab autocomplete doesn't work unless you include it. Fun fact, in Windows 9x you could use three or four dots. Three dots would go two folders back in the tree, while four would go three folders back.

[@KibaSnowpaw]

omfg MS_DOS that wake up memories. i use both Powershell and CMD

[@zoltannagy4776]

Run a program with elevated priviledges from start menu , open start menu type in ex. cmd and press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER 🙂

[@maxmuster7003]

In Windows is the big boss the kernel of the system, but in DOS no protection violation exist and the only one big boss is the user.

[@JapChinLuvr]

My most recent use of the DOS prompt was to rename a LOT of file suffixes (using the "*" wild-card for the file name) from .m4v to .mp4. Some of my video utilities created files with the .m4v suffix, but while the file contents are apparently the same, I actually found an application that would play the .mp4 files, but not .m4v. I'm sure that there are other occasions to use this - but making the suffix change in file-manager one at a time would have taken "forever".

[@SireSquish]

Was it > for %f in (*.m4v) do ...

[@georgeindestructible]

Most media files are just containers of audio and or/ video coded packages. Their file extension is just an indicator for the system as to what program it might attempt to use to open it and for the user to be aware of that.

[@walterfehn8624]

I'm very old at IT and found some functionalities which I didn't know about.

[@ethimself5064]

Ha, I remember about 90 when the 1st DOS Shell I ever saw came out. I jumped on a new computer as I refused to use DOS.

[@Winnetou17]

Correction, some commands shown here are actually CMD commands, NOT (MS-)DOS commands. For example, there was no powercfg in any DOS.

[@iamwhatiam70]

Thank you for your vids... They learn me so many new things. 🙂

[@Neelfy01]

Good stuff as usual Rich. That Terminal app on the taskbar? is that a windows 11 thing? I'm on Windows 10. Scratch that. My brain started working again and I got it on Microsoft Store 😵‍💫😉

[@gotbordercollies]

Digging into the olden days - Awesome! How do I get it open as a new tab and not a new instance?

[@maxmuster7003]

The first DOS command that i used was Debug to learn how to use an intel 80286 CPU with 4 mb RAM.

[@alro7779]

21:36 How does that command really work? I mean, you had 192.168.0.124 (Preferred) and then after typing ipconfig /renew, you obtained the same IP address.

[@machocamacho1503]

what about list or dir command with a redirect to a text file or printer, which includes all subdirectories and file names. This is how I generate a list of mp3s or movies from my private folders

[@landonpraught9170]

Great video

[@oroville12345]

My favorite 😍 command. Format c: /q

[@bigal1863]

The attrib command defeats you. I used to work in a retail store and low IQ users would always try to format the drives, but we protected them with the +r switch. We'd wait until they typed the command, then we'd have them arrested.

[@Galaxy.Windows]

1:00 incorrect as Windows NT 3.1 is its own os and then Windows Me was based on the NT kernel making it its own os.

[@tonywise198]

We managed to do what we had to with both DOS and CP/M in the days before Windows. I remember getting a Windows 3 on a new 286 PC and wondered why I needed it. After all, it was just a DOS front end in those days.

[@ford1546]

this can be nice to know if you want to create a (.bat) file with some commands that you want to run. (.bat) is almost like a program you double-click. instead of writing everything all the time, you have already written them in a (.bat) file that you can run. the odd ones are if it works manually in CMD. then they don't always work in a (.bat) file for a strange reason. if I write in CMD (c:\test\test\test) then it doesn't always go into that folder and it doesn't say (c:\test\test\test) but still (c:\) when I'm going to create a (.BAT) file where you want to run 2 programs after each other and then close the CMD window. so it's not as easy as it sounds. if I want to run a program automatically at startup, it is not always as straight forward as you think.

[@OmgLikeSam]

I used Oscdimg the other day. Very helpfu!

[@douglascobbs2433]

I love your content and yes I hope you do a video on malware. Thanks for all you do.

[@maxmuster7003]

I like to use the path command in DOS to put all executable that i want to use into a specific folder to start the executable from inside any sub folder without to specify the location.

[@jtodora]

The MK command should have been MD for make directory. to use the MK commend it should be mkdir. The mkdir is left over from the Unix days and is still used in most Linux distros.

[@DouglasHeyen]

What is nice about using the mkdir is if you’re a Linux user it’s cross compatible. Both commands do the same. Makes it a bit easier.

[@allenmcclure6017]

I Liked DR. Dos...... it was nice and had a lot of utils in it.

[@fragalot]

does /batteryreport work on UPS if the drivers for it are installed, and the USB cable is hooked up?

[@danielaphugh6206]

What is the name of the commands where you use '/a' and '/p'? Correct me if I am wrong, please, is it recursive commands or?

[@billc2052]

I am not sure if the latest versions of command prompt can handle filenames with spaces. Previously a file called for example, My Files would need to be inside quotes as "My Files" or would produce an error due to the space being seen as a separater rather than part of the file name.

[@mikeytee6821]

Thumbs up if he helped you make the command prompt your biotch! 😋 Nostalgia for me as I first started 'playing' with computers in the windows 95 era where most installations were on top of DOS or 3.1.

[@hugosantos1476]

I might be wrong, but I think /r with chkdsk is not necessary on modern SSD's. I think it was useful just with hard drives with bad sectors.

[@DXMage]

dir /s /o /a /p is helpful or why not bring up Copy con the hail mary command when you don't have any other way to make a text file? Or attrib on the file you made with the copy con command.

[@astroreverb9000]

Hey Rich, I'm sorry to ask this way. But I remember you had a video which included how you made your desk / tables. Can you share the link or video name?

[@AppleyardAndy]

Mkdir? What was wrong with the md command? Rd to delete a directory Ren to rename files. Xcopy a dos program that provides a better copy command.

[@ford1546]

If you want to start a program automatically at login and the program needs administrator rights. How can you start the program with this without having to press accept every time you start your computer? and how do you minimize the program automatically?

[@vancecost]

@CyberCpu Is there a command let’s say to copy your Documents Folder with the Contents Contained within said folder to an External Drive? I ask this question because of not being able to access the folder due to some Microsoft screw up reason, but you are still able to boot into safe mode and access the CMD Prompt to use a command. Thank you 🙏

[@akyhne]

There can be one of two issues, with your folder. Either the folder is corrupted, you might be able to fix that with sfc /scannow. If the folder is totally messed up, all your files are gone. Another issue, can be that you lost your rights to the folder. The first step would be to open an explorer window. Type your user name in the top bar, where the address of the current location is, so if your user account is Alex, type Alex. Then check that there's only one folder, with the name "Documents". If there is only one folder, go ahead and right click on the Documents folder. Choose properties, then - and I might be wrong here, as I'm not on an English Windows - click on the tab "Security". Click on the top group, called "Administrators (something-something\Administrators". In the bottom of the window, now check, if that account has checkboxes all the way down. If it does, and your primary account, "Alex", is admin, then your folder is probably corrupted. You can also, if you're not admin, click in the top, on the account "Users (something-something\Users", and give that account full rights. From here, it's nearly impossible to guide you in writing, as changing ownership of folders and files are tricky. You best find a video, on how to do it properly. One last thing. You can, in Explorer jump to your user folder, with %userprofile% in the top bar, and press enter. You can also use %userprofile%, in CMD, with "cd %userprofile%" . You can try copying with "copy %userprofile% \Documents d:\", where Documents is, if you're on an English Windows, otherwise change to the name in your language, and d:\ is your drive letter, to your external drive. Change as needed.

[@vancecost]

@@akyhne Thank you as always for your videos and your great knowledge on Computers. I wish I could learn how to use/install a different operating system other than Microsoft Windows !!! 70 yo and my mind doesn’t work like it use to. Have a Blessed Day

[@akyhne]

@@vancecost You must be confusing me, with CyberCPU Tech. I don't do videos, on KZbin ;) I'm 54, so not that far behind :)

[@vancecost]

@@akyhne Oh well you gave me the advice I needed and I thank you!!!

[@vancecost]

@@akyhne Running the sec/ scannow function doesn’t help.

[@XtremeDesert]

love these videos keep it up.

[@ronz101]

Very useful info/video. Still have some books on it. Go black screen.

[@lilboogly]

awesome stuff!!

[@ziggelito]

Most important command is "color 0a" to get the green text for the ultimate hackerman aesthetic

[@ford1546]

can you make a video about (task scheduler) win 11 ?? It's not always as easy as you think to get any program to start automatically at startup or login. Possibly this has to do with the security in windows 11. The program will not always start.

[@312diag]

operating system for controlling disks (and later, other storage devices). it's not necessary that they are contained on disks. they are disk/file managers. fdisk, format, dir, del, etc., and loading programs stored as files.

[@rulerzac1]

MONTE VISTA, CA interesting I went through there in 2009. You shared your ip in the video.

[@Gryfang451]

Pipe to text file using > filename at the end. Robocopy, which could be 5 videos on its own, xcopy which has some network uses. Oh, and net use commands to map / unmap and make persistent shared network "drives".

[@rockdem0n]

I could have used this video a couple days ago, while I prefer PowerShell to Command Prompt, I literally had Windows explorer crash on me in the back ground, Chrome was still running, Terminal which I was in at time of incident was fine, for the record I had just used winget to update 7Zip when it broke, I could bring up Task Manager but the taskbar, start menu, and curiously my desktop background were just gone. Finally just gave it the old three finger salute and said come back when you sort yourself out and sure enough everything booted right back up as if nothing happened.

[@DavidC823]

is command prompt more powerful then powershell? can you touch base in a video the differences and why MS created powershell? what can be done in one and not the other? what's the smoke all about, why did MS create powershell? they are even offering to upgrade powershell, why? you don't sound like a fan of PowerShell i have not been either, please let us know the facts or your opinions about the differences?!

[@louf7178]

No. PowerShell is more powerful, but lots is more complicated for the basic DOS operations.

[@valeriuonofrei1692]

thank you