Windows Tips

Windows
Windows Console Commands

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Windows

Hide 3D folder

If you find the 3D folder in the navigation pane of Explorer in Windows 10 annoying, you can hide it using the Registry Editor. To do this, you must delete the two keys
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A}"
and
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A}"

By executing the file Hide 3D Folder.reg the changes in the Windows Registry are made automatically.

Screen timeout at login screen

After the login screen appears when starting Windows 10, the screen often goes into standby mode too quickly. You can change this time span using the steps below.

First, this setting must be enabled via the Registry Editor. To do this, in the key
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7" the value "Attributes" can be changed from 1 (hide) to 2 (show).

By executing the file Enable Console Lock Display Off Timeout.reg the changes in the Windows Registry are made automatically.

Then, in Windows Settings, select "System" and then "Power & sleep." Click "Additional power settings" on the right side, click "Change plan settings" to the right of the current power plan, and then click "Change advanced power settings" to open the "Power Options" window. In the list, expand "Display" and then "Console lock timeout." You can specify the desired time in minutes.

Open files without extension

Sometimes you want to open files without an extension with a specific program. To do this, open the Registry Editor and change the default value of the key "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.\shell\open\command" to the path of the application, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Application\Application.exe" "%1".

The key may need to be recreated. It's important to enclose path names and the parameter ("%1") in quotation marks if they contain spaces.

Open command prompt via the Explorer context menu

To open the console from an Explorer window in Windows 10, you can add an entry to the context menu. This will display the "Open Command Prompt Here" entry in the Explorer context menu (only displayed with Shift + right mouse button).

By executing the file Add Command Prompt to Context Menu.reg the changes in the Windows Registry are made automatically.

Open command prompt via the Explorer address bar

To open the console in Windows 10 from an Explorer window, click in an empty area of the address bar, such as after the last folder name. This will highlight the entire path and replace it with the command "cmd." Press the ↩ Return key to confirm your entry. A console window will open with the current path.

Conversely, the command "explore ." in the console causes an explorer window to open for the current path (specified with a single dot).

Read information from log files

Not only the Windows Event Viewer contains useful information, but also some log files. These include information about when the computer was used, system information, and time zone settings.

CBS

Folder: "%windir%\Logs\CBS", files "CBS.log", "CbsPersist_*.log" and the "CbsPersist_*.log" files in the archives "CbsPersist_*.cab"

These files contain information about installing and updating Windows components related to the Component Servicing Infrastructure (CSI).

The following console command prints all lines containing the date and time of each logging session, the last system boot time, and the respective Universal Time.

findstr /C:"Initializing Trusted Installer" /C:"Ending TrustedInstaller finalization" /C:"Last boot time" /C:"Universal Time is" C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

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DISM

Folder: "%windir%\Logs\DISM", file "dism.log"

This protocol is used by the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) service, a diagnostic tool for detecting and repairing corrupted Windows image files.

The following console command prints all lines containing the date and time of each logging session, as well as some computer information such as the number of processors, processor architecture, and operating system version.

findstr /C:"Starting DismApi.dll session" /C:"Stop logging" /C:"Host machine information" C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log

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Change folder name for display

Windows Explorer can display an alternative name for folders. This is defined in the "desktop.ini" file using the "LocalizedResourceName" value in the ".ShellClassInfo" section.

One possibility is to manually create a file named "desktop.ini" in the folder to be renamed with the following content:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName="New Display Name

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After the "System" file attribute is set for the file, the folder name "New Display Name" is displayed in Explorer. The system attribute is set with the console command "attrib +s desktop.ini". However, the actual folder name is displayed in some places, such as in the address bar with input focus or in several fields of the properties dialog.

Another option is to assign a different folder icon. This will automatically create the "desktop.ini" file and assign it the "System" and "Hidden" attributes. Clicking on an empty area of the address bar makes the current path editable. Then, add "\desktop.ini" and press Enter to open the file in a text editor.

Now the value "LocalizedResourceName" can be added to the ".ShellClassInfo" section, which could look like this:

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconResource=C:\Windows\System32\SHELL32.dll,19
LocalizedResourceName=New Display Name
[ViewState]
Mode=
Vid=
FolderType=Documents

Disable internet search suggestions in the Start menu

To disable internet suggestions when searching in the Start menu in Windows 10, you must use the Registry Editor to set the value "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" from 0 to 1 in the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer".

By executing the file Disable Web Search in Start Menu.reg the changes in the Windows Registry are made automatically.

Reinstall Telnet on Windows 10/11

Telnet is no longer installed by default in Windows 10 and Windows 11. However, the program can be installed using Windows Features:

In Settings, select "Apps", then click "Programs & features" and "Programs and Features" under "Related settings" on the right. In the newly displayed window, click "Turn Windows features on or off". In the "Windows Features" window, select "Telnet Client" from the list and confirm with "OK".

Windows Console Commands

Data transfer with curl

With "curl" you can send and receive data via HTTP, FTP, and some other protocols. Further information can be found in the integrated help ("curl --help").

Examples

HTTP headers can be output using the "-I" parameter. The "-L" parameter follows redirects. Example: "curl -IL https://www.gaijin.at".

The command "curl wttr.in/Vienna" displays weather information from "wttr.in" for the specified city (e.g. "Vienna") in the console.

The command "curl -IL "https://tinyurl.com/gaijinat" -s | findstr Location:" can show the URL behind a Tiny (here "https://tinyurl.com/gaijinat"). The output for this example would be "Location: https://www.gaijin.at/en/".

To create a QR code with the "qrenco.de" service, specify the data after the slash. "curl qrenco.de/https://www.gaijin.at" generates a QR code with the URL "https://www.gaijin.at" for example.

Show installed applications

The command "winget list" shows a list of all installed programs directly in the console.

Show location of programs/files

The "where" command can be used to determine the location of a program or file. To do so, the desired program or file name must be specified after "where," e.g., "where curl" to determine the location of the "curl" program.

The command "where /R c:\ myfile.txt" for example, searches recursively in drive C: for files named "myfile.txt".