Hi everybody I was wondering if you could help me out? I have a windows XP home edition operating system. I've been tinkering with the command prompt recently, just seeing what i could do with it. It seems like a useful tool, and ultimately I wanted to be able to, say, diagnose and eliminate/repair programs which are slowing down my computer. Or track down and murder viruses. I dunno. Are such things even possible? That is not the point. The point is, when i look up command references on the internet, there are a whole bunch. Then i go to the command prompt on my computer and type one in. Take driverquery for example. C:\documents and settings\user account\driverquery [presses enter] 'driverquery' is not recognized as an internal or external command [] This happens with a fair amount of commands. Why wont my machine accept them? Is there anything I can do to make my machine accept them? I would really appreciate the help.
Do you type the path out or is that the returning prompt? You just need to put in the command followed by any variables. Drivequery -a I don't know how o use that one but that's what it should look like Also sometimes your machine might not be loaded with some of those commands
The standard commands in dos don't require a path to execute. When you type a path to a program, it looks for the program in that path. Just type: driverquery At the prompt and it will work. A full list of driverquery's flags can be found here.
Not to change the subject but if you are concerned about system stability you should download this Download CCleaner - FileHippo.com Its free, no ads or bloatware, and helps keep the registry, temp directories, startup programs, etc all nicely maintained. It also cleans various other things like internet history etc. Its also updated regularly so its compatible with system and program updates. I use it on all my computers to keep them running like new. Have been using it for years and is what I use to diagnose many common problems on my friends and family computers. I don't work for this company and hope I'm not breaking any rules so Mods please be kind!
thanks guys your suggestions have been really helpful ima try to download some different things, see if i can't upgrade my command prompt
Just so you know, almost everything you can do by clicking a mouse, you can do without a mouse. If you type into the cli "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" Internet Explorer opens. If you type into the cli "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" www.grasscity.co^^ Internet explorer opens and you goto to the Grasscity homepage.
IMO if you love to use the cmd look into linux. You have more freedom with the bash terminal. I suggest taking a look at ubuntu and mint.
and don't forget the help feature. Just type help before any command and it will display all of the switches available for that command and how each one is used. And as cyperkiller182 said, Linux is a very fun system to work with if you really want to get into the OS. On Linux, instead of help you just type man (for manual).
Also, for the driverquery question. I use the /v switch to display a detailed list of the drivers. So the cmd looks like this driverquery /v
Love bash terminal. Using is much easier than commandprompt in windows. CYGWIN is an excellent addition to windows. Allows linux commands such as SSH directly from windows terminal.