Net Command Availability
The net command is available from within the Command Prompt in all Windows operating systems including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.
Net Command Syntax
The command takes the following general form: net [accounts | computer | config | continue | file | group | help | helpmsg | localgroup | name | pause | print | send | session | share | start | statistics | stop | time | use | user | view] In the above example, I’m sharing the Z:\Downloads folder with everyone on the network and giving all of them full read/write access. You could modify this one by replacing FULL with READ or CHANGE for those rights only, as well as replace everyone with a specific username to give share access to just that one user account. This example of the net accounts command forces a user’s password to expire after 180 days. This number can be anywhere from 1 to 49,710, or UNLIMITED can be used so that the password never expires. Default is 90 days. The above net command example is how you’d stop the Print Spooler service from the command line. Services can also be started, stopped, and restarted via the Services graphical tool in Windows (services.msc), but using the net stop command lets you control them from places like Command Prompt and BAT files. Executing the net start command without any options following it (e.g., net start “print spooler”) is useful if you want to see a list of currently running services. This list can be helpful when managing services because you don’t have to leave the command line to see which services are running.
Related Commands
The net commands are network-related commands and so may often be used for troubleshooting or management alongside commands like ping, tracert, ipconfig, netstat, nslookup, and others.
