Windows System Administration Reference

My personal Windows system administration reference

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• Resources
• Misc
• Graphical System Utilities
• PowerShell
• System32 / Command Prompt
• External Utilities
  • Sysinternals

Resources

• Windows documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows

Misc

• Common types of unmovable files are the paging file, hibernation file, and system restore points

Graphical System Utilities

Note: The .msc extension is only required if launching via the Run menu

• Computer Management (compmgmt.msc)
• Event Viewer (eventvwr)
• Registry Editor (regedit)
• Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc)
• Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security (wf.msc)
• Control Panel (control)
  • Programs (appwiz.cpl)
• System Configuration (msconfig) (Provides some limited configuration options, including boot options)
• System Information (msinfo32)
• Windows Installer (msiexec)

PowerShell

PowerShell is a cross-platform task automation solution made up of a command-line shell, a scripting language, and a configuration management framework. PowerShell runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

• Windows PowerShell Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/
  • Module Browser: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module

Misc

• Select-String (sls) (Finds text in strings and files)

Help / Basic Awareness

• Help
  • Get-Help (help) (Displays help about Windows PowerShell cmdlets and concepts)
    • Get-Help <command> to show the name, syntax, aliases, and remarks for the command
  • <command> -? to get help with the command (same output as Get-Help)
• Commands
  • Get-Command (gcm) (Gets all commands)
    • Default command information: CommandType, Name, Version, Source
    • Get-Command to list all available PowerShell commands and their information
    • Get-Command -CommandType Application to list all available applications (external executables) in the path and their information
    • Get-Command -Module <module> to show all commands available from the module and their information
    • Get-Command <command> to show the command's information
• Modules
  • Get-Module (gmo) (Lists the modules imported in the current session or that can be imported from the PSModulePath)
    • Default module information: ModuleType, Version, Name, ExportedCommands
    • Get-Module to list PowerShell modules loaded in the current session (modules are loaded on first use)
    • Get-Module -ListAvailable to list all available PowerShell modules
    • Get-Module <module> to list information for the module
• Formatting output
  • Select-Object (select) (Selects objects or object properties)
    • <command> | Select-Object * to list all objects provided from the command instead of the default view
  • Format-List (fl) (Displays formatted text of the output as a list of properties)
    • <command> | Format-List * to list all objects provided from the command instead of the default view, in text format (loses object orientation)
      • Eg: Get-Module <module> | Format-List * to view all information provided by the output of Get-Module <module> instead of the default set of information

Process Management

• Get-Process (ps) (Gets the processes that are running on the local computer)
  • Get-Process to see all processes
  • Get-Process <name> to view the process

Networking

Firewall

• Get-NetFirewallRule (Retrieves firewall rules from the target computer)
  • Get-NetFirewallRule to get all firewall rules
    • Filters
      • -Direction <Inbound|Outbound>
      • -Action <NotConfigured|Allow|Block>
      • -DisplayName <name>
• Set-NetFirewallRule (Modifies existing firewall rules)
  • Set-NetFirewallRule -Name "FPS-ICMP4-ERQ-In" -Enabled <True|False> to enable/disable ICMPv4 pings

System32 / Command Prompt

Command Prompt reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/windows-commands

Deprecated

• wmic (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line; deprecated since 10.0.19043)

General

Misc

• help <command> (Provides help information for Windows commands)
• findstr (Searches for patterns of text in files)
  • /i for case insensitive
  • /v to invert matches
  • /m to only list files with matches
• tar (Manipulates archive files; since 10.0.17063)
  • tar --help
• curl (since 10.0.17063)
  • curl --help

Starting a Process

• start (Starts a separate Command Prompt window to run a specified program or command)
  • start "<title>" <program>
  • "<title>" (required) to set the new Command Prompt window title
  • /wait to block parent batch program until finished
• call (Calls one batch program from another without stopping the parent batch program)
  • call <program>
• cmd (Starts a new instance of the command interpreter, cmd.exe)
  • cmd <program> (or just <program>) to pass on control to <program> and not return to script
  • cmd /c <program> (Carries out the command specified by and then exits the command processor)
  • cmd /k <program> (Carries out the command specified by and keeps the command processor running)

Command Prompt Scripting and Shell

• doskey (Edits command lines, recalls Windows commands, and creates macros)
  • doskey /history to see command history
• <command> >nul 2>&1 to redirect stdout and stderr to nul
• echo %ERRORLEVEL%
• if errorlevel 1 echo ERROR to print ERROR if the last %ERRORLEVEL%>=1

System Management

Misc

• sc (Interface to Service Control Manager and services)

System Information

• ver (Displays the Windows version)
• systeminfo (Displays operating system configuration information for a local or remote machine, including service pack levels)

Disk Management

• diskpart (Manages disks, partitions, volumes, and virtual hard disks; interactive)
• fsutil (Performs tasks related to FAT and NTFS file systems, such as managing reparse points, handling sparse files, or dismounting a volume)
• sfc (Scans the integrity of all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions)
  • /scannow to perform the scan on all files and repair
    • /scanfile <file> to perform only on the file
  • /verifyonly to perform the scan on all files but not repair
    • /verifyfile <file> to perform only on the file
  • Offline
    • /offwindir <offline-windows-dir> to perform the scan and repairs on an offline Windows directory
    • /offbootdir <offline-boot-dir> to perform the scan and repairs on an offline boot directory
    • /offlogfile=<file> to specify log file for offline scan and repairs
• defrag
  • NOTE! Do not use the traditional defragmentation option with SSDs, which is default. Use with /o (see below) instead.
  • defrag c: /a /u /v to perform an fragmentation analysis only (/a) on C:, print progress (/u), and use verbose output (/v)
  • /o (Perform the proper optimization for each media type)

Registry

• reg (Performs operations on registry subkey information and values in registry entries; NOTE! Use with caution: This can break your system)
  • Query
    • reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize" to query personalization registry subkeys
    • reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize" /v AppsUseLightTheme to query AppsUseLightTheme registry entry
  • Add/modify
    • reg add <keyname> /v <valuename> /t <data-type> /d <data> /f to add/modify registry entry values (/f to overwrite existing entry)

Environment Variables

• setx (Creates or modifies environment variables in the user or system environment. Can set variables based on arguments, regkeys or file input.)
• set (Displays, sets, or removes cmd.exe environment variables)
  • Update system path:

  set "NEW_PATH=%PATH%;C:\new\dir"
  setx /M PATH "%NEW_PATH%"

Package Management (Winget)

winget comes pre-installed as the default package manager since 10.0.17763

Winget documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget

---

• winget list to list installed packages
• winget search <command> to search for package candidates
• winget show <package> to show details of package candidates
• winget install <package> to install a package
  • --accept-package-agreements to accept any license agreements, and avoid the prompt
  • --accept-source-agreements to accept any source license agreements, and avoid the prompt

Process Management

• tasklist (Displays a list of currently running processes on the local computer or on a remote computer)
  • tasklist to see the tasklist
    • Default task information: Image Name, PID, Session Name, Session#, Mem Usage
  • tasklist /v to see the verbose tasklist
    • Verbose task information: Image Name, PID, Session Name, Session#, Mem Usage, Status, User Name, CPU Time, Window Title
  • tasklist /fi "imagename eq procexp*" to filter processes for Process Explorer
• taskkill (Ends one or more tasks or processes)
  • Examples
    • taskkill /im procexp* to filter for and kill Process Explorer
    • taskkill /pid <pid> to filter for and kill the process by PID
  • Parameters
    • /im <imagename>
    • /pid <pid> to kill by PID
    • /fi <filter>
    • /f to kill forcefully
    • /t to kill child processes along with parent

Account Management

• whoami (Shows information about the user, groups, and privileges for the account currently logged on to the local system)
  • whoami to show domain\username
  • whoami /all to show information on the user, their groups, privileges, security IDs, and more
  • whoami /priv to show the security privileges of the current user
  • whoami /groups to show the group memberships of the current user
• net to perform operations on groups, users, account policies, shares, and more
  • net session to determine who's using resources on local computer
  • net user (Details, adds, modifies, or deletes user accounts)
    • net user <username> to see details of the user

Networking

Network Observability and Troubleshooting

• tracert (Traces the route to a destination)
• pathping (Traces the route to a destination and calculates latency and loss between hops)
• netstat (Displays active network connections and statistics)
  • netstat 1 to run and refresh every 1 second
  • netstat -bao to display all active/listening TCP and UDP connections/ports (-a), display executable names (-b), and display PIDs (-o)
  • netstat -r to display routing table
  • netstat -e to display Ethernet statistics

Network Management

• ipconfig (Displays network configuration and refreshes DHCP and DNS settings)
  • /release (Releases the IPv4 address for the specified adapter)
  • /renew (Renews the IPv4 address for the specified adapter)
  • /flushdns (Purges the DNS Resolver cache)
  • /registerdns (Refreshes all DHCP leases and re-registers DNS names)
• netsh (Network shell; Displays and modifies network settings, automates tasks, and troubleshoots network issues locally or remotely)
  • Note: The netsh docs are very helpful: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/netsh
  • netsh to start an interactive netsh session
  • Wireless network information
  • netsh wlan show all to show all wireless device and networks information
  • Profiles
    • netsh wlan show profiles
    • netsh wlan show profile "<profile-name>"
    • key=clear to display security key in plaintext
  • Firewall
    • netsh advfirewall show allprofiles to show all firewall profiles
    • netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=all to show all firewall rules
    • netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="<firewall-rule-name>" action=allow localport=8080 protocol=TCP dir=in to add a firewall rule to allow inbound TCP traffic to port 8080 on the local host
    • netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name="<firewall-rule-name>" to show the firewall rule details
    • netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name="<firewall-rule-name>" to delete the firewall rule
  • Port forwarding
    • netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenaddress=<src-address> listenport=<src-port> connectaddress=<dst-address> connectport=<dst-port> to add a persistent TCP ipv4-to-ipv4 portproxy rule to forward traffic received from local <src-address>: <src-port> to <dst-address>:<dst-port>

Tasks

• Switch system to dark mode (reg, taskkill)
  • reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize" /v SystemUsesLightTheme /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f to switch system theme to dark mode
  • reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize" /v AppsUseLightTheme /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f to switch apps to dark mode
  • taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer.exe to restart Explorer, which refreshes the desktop and applies the dark theme

External Utilities

Sysinternals

• See the Sysinternals page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals
• See the list of tools: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite

Graphical

• Process Explorer
• Process Monitor
• TCPView (Shows detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints)
• Autoruns (Shows the configured auto-start applications)
• DiskView (Shows a graphical map of the disk)

Command-line

• autorunsc (Command-line version of Autoruns)
• sigcheck (Shows file information including signature details and performs optional VirusTotal scan)
• listdlls (Reports DLLs loaded into processes)
• contig (Performs single-file defragmentation)
• strings
• psloglist (Dumps the contents of an Event Log on the local or a remote computer)
• tcpvcon (Command-line version of TCPView)
  • -a to show all endpoints
  • -n to not resolve addresses