Windows only: Freeware command-line app NirCmd extends the functionality of the Command Prompt.
NirCmd is a small command-line utility that allows you to accomplish tasks using the Command Prompt that would normally require a user interface. NirCmd has no "formal" installation process. All you need to do is copy "NirCmd.exe" to "C:\Windows" and then begin using it with Command Prompt. You can grab a list of the uses of NirCmd at the project homepage.
NirCmd is a small command-line utility that allows you to do some useful tasks without displaying any user interface. By running NirCmd with simple command-line options, you can write and delete values and keys in the Registry, write values into INI files, dial to your internet account or connect to a VPN network, restart Windows or shut down the computer, create shortcuts to a file, change the created/modified date of a file, change your display settings, turn off your monitor, open the door of your CD-ROM drive, and more...
NirCmd is a small command-line utility that allows you to do some useful tasks without displaying any user interface. By running NirCmd with simple command-line option, you can write and delete values and keys in the Registry, write values into INI file, dial to your internet account or connect to a VPN network, restart windows or shut down the computer, create shortcut to a file, change the created/modified date of a file, change your display settings, turn off your monitor, open the door of your CD-ROM drive, and more...
Examples of what you can do with NirCmd
Open the door of J: CD-ROM drive nircmd.exe cdrom open j:
Close the door of Y: CD-ROM drive nircmd.exe cdrom close y:
Increase the system volume by 2000 units (out of 65535) nircmd.exe changesysvolume 2000
Decrease the system volume by 5000 units (out of 65535) nircmd.exe changesysvolume -5000
Set the volume to the highest value nircmd.exe setsysvolume 65535
Mute the system volume nircmd.exe mutesysvolume 1
Unmute the system volume nircmd.exe mutesysvolume 0
Switch the system volume between the mute and normal state. nircmd.exe mutesysvolume 2
Create a shortcut on your desktop that switch the system volume between the mute and normal state. nircmd.exe cmdshortcut "~$folder.desktop$" "Switch Volume" mutesysvolume 2
Turn off the monitor nircmd.exe monitor off
Start the default screen saver nircmd.exe screensaver
Put your computer in 'standby' mode nircmd.exe standby
log off the current user nircmd.exe exitwin logoff
Ask if you want to reboot, and if you answer 'Yes', reboot the computer. nircmd.exe qboxcom "Do you want to reboot ?" "question" exitwin reboot
Turn off your computer nircmd.exe exitwin poweroff
Turn off all computers specified in computers.txt ! multiremote copy "c:\temp\computers.txt" exitwin poweroff force
Dial to "My Internet" connection nircmd.exe rasdial "My Internet"
Disconnect the "My Internet" connection nircmd.exe rashangup "My Internet"
Make your Internet Explorer windows 75% transparent ! (192 / 256) nircmd.exe win trans ititle "internet explorer" 192
Minimize all your Internet Explorer windows nircmd.exe win min class "IEFrame"
Close all your Internet Explorer windows nircmd.exe win close class "IEFrame"
Close all your Explorer windows (My Computer, folders, and so on) nircmd.exe win close class "CabinetWClass"
Hide all your Internet Explorer windows nircmd.exe win hide class "IEFrame"
Show all your Internet Explorer windows (after you made them hidden with previous example) nircmd.exe win show class "IEFrame"
Center all top-level windows nircmd.exe win center alltop
Remove the title bar of My Computer window. nircmd.exe win -style title "my computer" 0x00C00000
Return the title bar of My Computer window that we removed in the previous example. nircmd.exe win +style title "my computer" 0x00C00000
Set the My Computer window to right-to-left order (For hebrew and arabic languages) nircmd win +exstyle title "my computer" 0x00400000
Set all child windows of My Computer window to right-to-left order (For hebrew and arabic languages) nircmd win child title "my computer" +exstyle all 0x00400000
Create a shortcut on your desktop that closes all your Internet Explorer windows nircmd.exe cmdshortcut " "~$folder.desktop$ "Close All IE" win close class "IEFrame"
Create a shortcut on your desktop that hides all your Internet Explorer windows nircmd.exe cmdshortcut " "~$folder.desktop$ "Hide All IE" win hide class "IEFrame"
Create a shortcut on your desktop that shows back all your Internet Explorer windows nircmd.exe cmdshortcut " "~$folder.desktop$ "Show All IE" win show class "IEFrame"
Set the Windows Calculator as top-most window (above all other windows) nircmd.exe win settopmost title "Calculator" 1
Set the Windows Calculator back to regular window (non top-most window) nircmd.exe win settopmost title "Calculator" 0
Create a shortcut to Windows calculator under Start Menu->Programs->Calculators nircmd.exe shortcut "f:\winnt\system32\calc.exe" "~$folder.programs$\Calculators" "Windows Calculator"
Hide the desktop window nircmd.exe win hide class progman
Show the desktop window (After hiding it in previous example) nircmd.exe win show class progman
Hide the start button on the system tray nircmd.exe win child class "Shell_TrayWnd" hide class "button"
Show the start button on the system tray nircmd.exe win child class "Shell_TrayWnd" show class "button"
Hide the clock on the system tray nircmd.exe win child class "Shell_TrayWnd" hide class "TrayClockWClass"
Show the clock on the system tray nircmd.exe win child class "Shell_TrayWnd" show class "TrayClockWClass"
Kill (terminate) all instance of Internet Explorer processes nircmd.exe killprocess iexplore.exe
Create a shortcut on your desktop that opens the door of K: CDROM drive when you run it. nircmd.exe cmdshortcut "~$folder.desktop$" "Open CDROM" cdrom open k:
Create a shortcut to NirSoft Web site on your desktop nircmd.exe urlshortcut "http://www.nirsoft.net" "~$folder.desktop$" "NirSoft"
Add NirSoft Web site to your Favorities under Links folder. nircmd.exe urlshortcut "http://www.nirsoft.net" "~$folder.favorites$\Links" "NirSoft"
Create a shortcut to NirSoft Web site on the desktop of all computers listed in computers.txt nircmd.exe multiremote copy "c:\temp\computers.txt" urlshortcut "http://www.nirsoft.net" "~$folder.common_desktop$" "NirSoft"
Set the display mode to 800x600x24bit colors nircmd.exe setdisplay 800 600 24
Create a shortcut on the desktop that set the display mode to 800x600x24bit colors nircmd.exe cmdshortcut "~$folder.desktop$" "800x600x24" setdisplay 800 600 24
Copy all shortcuts on your desktop to another folder (f:\temp\desktop). nircmd.exe execmd copy "~$folder.desktop$\*.lnk" f:\temp\desktop
Restart your Apache server (under Windows NT/2000/XP/2003) nircmd.exe service restart apache
Create a shortcut on your desktop that restarts the Apache server nircmd.exe cmdshortcut "~$folder.desktop$" "Restart Apache" service restart apache
Restart your IIS nircmd.exe service restart w3svc
Restart MySql nircmd.exe service restart MySql
Open the desired Registry key/value in RegEdit nircmd.exe regedit "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion" "CommonFilesDir"
Open the Registry key that you copied to the clipboard in RegEdit. nircmd regedit "~$clipboard$"
Disable the screen saver nircmd.exe regsetval sz "HKCU\control panel\desktop" "ScreenSaveActive" 0
Enable the screen saver nircmd.exe regsetval sz "HKCU\control panel\desktop" "ScreenSaveActive" 1
Change the date/time of the specified filename (creation time and modified time) nircmd.exe setfiletime "c:\temp\myfile.txt" "24-06-2003 17:57:11" "22-11-2005 10:21:56"
Copy your desktop folder path to the clipboard nircmd.exe clipboard set ~$folder.desktop$
Copy your start menu folder path to the clipboard nircmd.exe clipboard set ~$folder.start_menu$
Copy the content of info1.txt (simple text file) to the clipboard nircmd.exe clipboard readfile "c:\My Files\info1.txt"
Add the text content of clipboard to info1.txt nircmd.exe clipboard addfile "c:\My Files\info1.txt"
Clear the clipboard nircmd.exe clipboard clear
Create all folders specified in "c:\temp\folders.txt". The folder path names are separated by CRLF characters. nircmd.exe paramsfile "c:\temp\folders.txt" "" "" execmd md ~$fparam.1$
Install the specified .NET assembly in the global assembly cache (like gacutil) nircmd.exe gac install "C:\temp\MyAssembly\bin\MyAssembly.dll"
Empty the recycle bin in all drives. nircmd.exe emptybin
Answer 'Yes' to a standard Windows message-box. nircmd.exe dlg "" "" click yes
