20 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU MUST TYPE ON YOUR PC
cmd• shutdown -s -t • tree / a > dir.txt •. LOG
File Explorer Open Command Prompt at a specific folder
What to type: cmd
Navigating to a specific folder in Command Prompt can take ages. Save yourself the hassle by typing this command into the address bar of File Explorer (Windows key+e). Command Prompt will now open in the same folder as File Explorer (see screenshot below).
Weed out space-hogging videos
What to type: kind:video size:>small When you’re running out of space, those feature-length home videos are often the culprit. Quickly hunt down all videos over 1GB by typing this command into File Explorer’s search box.
Start menu and Run Shut down your PC at a set time
What to type: shutdown -s -t 3600 Having to wait for a file to download so you can shut down your PC and go to bed is an irritation. Type this command into your Start menu and Windows will wait one hour (3600 seconds) before turning your PC off automatically. The number at the end represents the delay in seconds, so you can adjust this to suit your needs. If you have a change of heart, type shutdown -a to abort the shutdown.
Use a stuck key
What to type: osk Considering how much you use them, it’s not surprising keyboards occasionally suffer a key failures. If you’re struggling to type a specific key (or your keyboard simply doesn’t include what you need) press Start then type this command to show an on-screen keyboard. Any key you click will appear in whatever window you’re working in.
Open File Explorer at your user folder
What to type: .
Open the Run box (Windows key+r), then type a single full stop. File Explorer will now appear, displaying your user account folder. If you want to access the files of a different account, type two full stops instead to see all user folders.
Check your security software
What to type: virus protection Windows will warn you periodically if there’s a problem with your firewall or antivirus software. But for peace of mind, type this command into the Start menu to get an instant security briefing.
Command Prompt Copy useful network information
What to type: ipconfig | Clip & Notepad In Command Prompt, you can send the output of any command to the Windows clipboard. In the example above, we’re sending the output from the ‘ipconfig’ command (among other things, this shows your PC’S IP address). Adding ‘& Notepad’ at the end opens a new Notepad window, ready for you to paste the output (Ctrl+v) and save it for future reference.
Reproduce your PC’S folder structure in Notepad
What to type: tree /a > dir.txt
The first step to organising your hard drive is finding out how your folders are structured. Type this into Command Prompt and a graphical view of all your folders and sub-folders will be saved to a file called ‘dir.txt’, which you can then open in Notepad. The file will be saved in the same folder that you run the command from. You can tweak this to save the output from most other Command Prompt commands.
Find out how old your laptop’s battery is
What to type: powercfg /batteryreport You’ve just bought a laptop advertised as new, but the battery barely lasts an hour.
Have you been conned? Open a Command Prompt window showing your desktop folder (see first tip), then type this to place a ‘battery-report.html’ file on your desktop. Double-click this to view the report in your browser. On a new battery, the Full Charge Capacity figure (what your battery is currently capable of) should be close to the Design Capacity – ie it’s original capacity (as it is in the screenshot above).
Find out how stable your PC is
What to type: systeminfo | find “Boot Time” Type this into Command Prompt and you’ll see precisely when your PC last booted. Useful if you’re trying to gauge how stable your computer is.
Rename photos quickly
What to type: ren *.jpg *_Holiday_2019.jpg
You’ve copied a stash of this year’s holiday snaps from your camera in JPEG format, each with a convoluted file name such as Dsc_0288472.jpg. Label them more appropriately by opening Command Prompt in the folder that contains them (see Tip 1), then typing this command. The files keep their original names, but suffixed with ‘_Holiday_2019’.
Browser Try Chrome’s ‘experimental’ features
What to type: chrome://flags Chrome has plenty of features most people never use. Press Alt+d to highlight Chrome’s address bar, then type this command. You’ll see a list of new features Chrome is testing and the option to enable those you want to try. Chrome will warn you the features are experimental and may cause problems, but you can always reset them by clicking ‘Reset all to default’ (top right).
See all your downloads
What to type: chrome://downloads Can’t find a file you downloaded? Want
to know where you downloaded a specific file from? Chrome has the answers. This command, typed into Chrome’s address bar, displays all your recent downloaded files, the URL they came from and the option to open the folder that contains them.
Use Firefox’s hidden settings
What to type: about:config
Type this into Firefox’s address bar and you’ll see a peculiar warning about dragons. Those who dare continue, however, will find a collection of advanced settings to play with. Some make little sense and are therefore best left alone, but others are genuinely useful - such as the ‘zoom.maxpercent’ option at the bottom, which lets you increase the maximum zoom on web pages.
Identify sluggish extensions
What to type: about:performance
As in the tip above, this command is typed into the Firefox browser bar. This one tells you which open tabs and extensions are gobbling more than their fair share of resources. If Firefox is running slowly and you spot something you don’t need, hover over the right edge of the offending item, then click the cross (for tabs) or arrow (for extensions) to kill it.
Reveal your unread emails
What to type: label:unread newer_than:1m
This Gmail command shows you all your unread emails from the past month - type it into the search box at the top. Type label:unread to show all your unread emails, stretching back further.
Office tools Insert special characters in Libreoffice
What to type: :infinity:
Inserting a special character in a document often involves a search of irregular fonts such as Wingdings. Libreoffice Writer has a better way. Open a new document, then type this command. to create an infinity symbol (∞). It works for many other characters too, including pi, omega and even shapes (such as :square:).
Generate timestamps in Notepad
What to type: .LOG
If you want to keep a very simple diary, look no further than Notepad. By typing this (in uppercase) at the top of your Notepad file (see screenshot below left), you’ll get a handy timestamp each time you open it.
Add dummy text in Word...
What to type: =rand(5,10)
You’re crafting a newsletter in Word and just want to see how it looks with dummy copy. Type this command to get five paragraphs of random text, each containing 10 sentences.
...and Libreoffice Writer
What to type: lorem Libreoffice Writer offers a similar, if less flexible dummy text creator. Type this command then press the F3 key to get three paragraphs of Lorem Ipsum (Latin text often used as a placeholder), totalling 233 words. Not a fan of ancient languages? Try typing dt followed by F3 instead.