To manage the configuration of Windows, you can go through the settings of Windows 10 or formerly the control panel .
But we can also use the command prompt .
For this, a series of net commands exist.
Many allow you to modify the configuration of a workstation or a PC that is a member of a domain.
It is therefore rather orders intended for administrators or technicians.
This article gives you the list, usage examples, and descriptions of Windows NET commands .
Contents
- 1List of Windows NET commands
- 2Windows NET commands
- 1net accounts
- 2net user and net localgroup
- 3net share and net view
- 4net start and net stop
- 3Links
- 4Find the solution on the help forum
LIST OF WINDOWS NET COMMANDS
| Ordered | Description |
| net accounts | Changes password and logon settings |
| net computer | Add or remove a computer from a domain |
| net config | Displays configurable services that are currently running, or displays and modifies settings related to a Server or Workstation service |
| net continues | Restarts a paused service with a clear pause |
| net file | List and display files opened by a folder share |
| net group | View, add or modify user groups |
| net help | Show help for net commands |
| net helpmsg | Displays a net command error by its error number |
| net localgroup | Edit local groups |
| net name | Add or remove an email alias on a computer |
| clear break | Quiesces a Windows resource or service |
| net print | Manages the print queue |
| net send | Used to send messages to other users, computers or network name created email aliases |
| net session | The net session command is used to list or disconnect sessions between the computer and others on the network |
| net share | Created, deletes, and otherwise manages shared resources on the computer |
| net start | Used to start a network service or list the network services running |
| net statistics | Displays the network statistics log for the Server or Workstation service |
| net stop | Used to stop a network service |
| net time | Used to display the current time and date of another computer on the network. But you should rather prefer the W32tm command |
| net use | Displays information about shared resources on the network you are currently connected to, as well as for connecting to new resources and disconnecting from connected resources |
| net user | add, remove and otherwise manage users on a computer |
| net view | Displays a list of computers and network devices on the network |
List of Windows NET commands
Some commands have been removed on Windows Vista or Windows 7.
This is particularly the case for net name , net send and net print , hence the fact that it is crossed out.
WINDOWS NET COMMANDS
As you can see, there are a lot of NET commands.
It is therefore quite difficult to give a complete description with examples.
Here are the main ones.
NET ACCOUNTS
Use this command to set local and account and password policies.
When entering net accounts without any parameters, it displays the configuration and parameters of the passwords .
We find in particular the lifespan of a password , that is to say its expiration period .
It allows you to modify the configuration.
For example, this command allows you to set the password expiration time:
net accounts /maxpwage:50
Find out or remove the expiration date of a password on Windows 10
In particular with the following options:
| options | Description |
| / forcelogoff: { minutes | no } | Sets the amount of time (in minutes) that must elapse before a user is logged off from a server when the user account or valid logon time expires. The default, no , prevents users from being forced to log off. |
| / minpwlen: length | Sets the minimum number of characters for the password for a user account. Values can be in a range of 0 to 127 characters and the default length is 6 characters |
| / maxpwage { days | unlimited } | Sets the maximum period of validity (in days) for the password of a user account. With the value unlimited , there is no maximum duration. The / maxpwage command-line option must be greater than the value of / minpwage . The values can be in a range from 1 to 49,710 days ( unlimited being 49,710 days), and the default is 90 days. |
| / minpwage: days | Sets the minimum amount of time (in days) that must pass before a user can change the password. The default is zero days, which does not define a minimum duration. Values can be in a range from 0 to 49,710 days. |
| / uniquepw: number | Prohibits a user from using the same password again within a specified number of password changes. Values are in a range of 0 to 24 password changes, and the default is 5 password changes. |
| / domain | Performs the operation on the primary domain controller for the current domain. Otherwise, the operation is performed on the local computer. |
The options of the net accounts command
NET USER AND NET LOCALGROUP
net user allows you to manage Windows user accounts , so you can add, delete a Windows user.
But also modify the configuration.
Its equivalent is net group in order to manage user groups.
Finally net localgroup gives the possibility to add or remove a user from a group.
For example to create a user with his password, we use the parameter / add :
net user nomutilisateur motdepasse /add
To delete a user, we use the / delete parameter
net user nomutilisateur motdepasse /delete
net user has a few options.
| Options | Settings |
| / active: { no | yes } | Disables or enables the user account. If the user account is not active, the user cannot access resources on the computer. Default is yes (active) |
| / comment: ” text “ | Provides a descriptive comment for the user account. This comment can be up to 48 characters long. Place the text in quotes. / countrycode: nnn Uses the country / region codes of the operating system to implement the specified language files for a user’s help and error messages. The value 0 designates the default country / region code |
| / expires: {{ mm / dd / yyyy | dd / mm / yyyy | mmm , dd , yyyy } | never } | Causes the user account to expire if you specify a date . Depending on the country / region code, expiration dates can be in the following formats: [ mm / dd / yyyy ], [ dd / mm / yyyy ] or [ mmm , dd , yyyy]. Note that the account expires at the start of the specified date. For the value for the month, you can use numbers, spell the month in full, or use the three-letter abbreviation (for example, Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec). As for the value of the year, it can be represented by two or four digits. Use commas or slashes to separate date elements. Spaces are prohibited. If you omit yyyy , the next occurrence of the date (depending on the date and time on your computer) is taken into account. For example, the following entries are equivalent if they are entered between January 10, 1994 and January 8, 1995: Jan, 9 1/9/95 January, 9.1995 1/9 |
| / fullname: ” name “ | Specifies the full name of the user rather than a user name. Place the name in quotes |
| / homedir: path | Specifies the path to the user’s home directory. This path must exist |
| / passwordchg: { yes | no } | Indicates whether users can change their own password. The default is yes . |
| / passwordreq: { yes | no } | Indicates whether a user account must have a password. The default is yes . |
| / profilepath: [ path ] | Defines the path of the user’s connection profile. This path points to a registry profile. |
| / scriptpath: path | Sets the path to the user’s logon script. The path cannot be an absolute path. It is relative to% systemroot % \ System32 \ Repl \ Import \ Scripts. |
| / times: { day [ – day ] [ , day [ – day ]] , hour [ – hour ] [ , hour [ – hour ]] [ ; …] | all } | Specifies when the user is authorized to use the computer. The time is limited to one hour increments. As for the day values , they can be written in full or represented by the abbreviations (L, Tu, Me, D, V, S, D). Hours can follow the 12 or 24 hour scoring format. If you choose the 12 hour format, use AM / PM or AM / PM. The value all means that a user can always be logged on. The null value (white) means that a user can never log in. Separate the day and time with commas and the units of the day and time with semicolons (for example, L, 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Tu, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.). Do not use spaces to denote hours |
| / usercomment: “ text “ | Indicates that an administrator can add or edit the “User Comment” for the account. Place the text in quotes |
| / workstations: { computer_name [, …] | * } | Lists up to eight workstations from which a user can connect to the network. Separate multiple entries in the list with commas. If / workstations does not have a list or if it matches the asterisk (*), it means that the user can log in from any computer |
The options of the net user command
The net localgroup command works in much the same way.
For example to add a user to a group.
net localgroup nomdugroupe nomutilisateur /add
More examples and explanations in this more comprehensive article:
Create, delete a user account in Windows command prompt
PowerShell also allows this:
Add, remove, and modify user accounts and local groups with PowerShell
NET SHARE AND NET VIEW
net share and net view are commands for administering network shares .
net share allows you to manage network shares while net view allows you to view shares.
For example to create a network share with net share Downloads which targets the Z: \ Downloads folder with full permissions for everyone.
net share Telechargement=Z:\Downloads /GRANT:”tout le monde”,FULL
net view is very simple to display the shares of a remote computer:
net view \\NomPC
More details :
net share: manage network shares in command prompt on Windows
Note also that we can also manage the services in PowerShell :
PowerShell: Manage Windows 10 network and folder shares
NET START AND NET STOP
To start or stop a service , you can use the services.msc console but in command prompt, there are net start and net stop .
For example to start the eventlog service (Event observers), we use net start like this:
net start eventlog
On the contrary, to stop it, we use the net stop command:
net stop eventlog
To specify a service with spaces, it must be surrounded by quotes.
net start “client service for netware”
