List of Windows 8 Recovery Environment Command Prompt commands

Unlike Windows, which has a graphical user interface, the Windows 8 Recovery command prompt requires you
to type in all your commands. Simply type a valid command that you wish to perform and then press the Enter
key on your keyboard. It is also possible to start some graphical programs like Notepad or an antivirus program
from within the Recovery Console command prompt. Unfortunately, not every Windows program will run in
this environment, so you will need to test each one to determine if they will work.
A partial list of commands and prompts that work within the command prompt are listed below. To get help on
how to use these commands, you can use the /h or /? arguments to get help information for the commands. For
example, if you wish to see the help information for bcdedit you would type bcdedit /h and then press Enter on
your keyboard. The help information for the program would then be displayed in the command prompt. If there
is too much information, you can pipe the help information through the more command. This allows you to see
the help information one page at a time. To do that you would type bcdedit /h | more and press Enter on your
keyboard.

The list of commands are:

Console
Command
attrib
bcdboot
bcdedit
cd
chkdsk
copy
defrag
del
dir
diskpart

format
icacls
manage-bde.exe
mkdir
more
move
recover
reg
ren
rd
sfc
type
xcopy
Windows
Program Name
bmrui.exe
Notepad.exe

Description
Allows you to change permissions on files.
BCDboot is a tool used to quickly set up a system partition, or to repair the boot
environment located on the system partition.
Displays and allows you to change how Windows boots up. This command is useful for
people who are having trouble with the Windows Boot Manager
Changes the current directory to another directory.
Checks a hard disk for errors and attempts to repair them.
Copy a file from one location to another.
Allows you to defrag your hard drive.
Deletes a file
Lists the files and folders in the current directory
Load the Windows disk management program. From this program you can create,
delete, shrink, and expand your existing partitions as well as get information about
partitions and hard drives
Allows you to format drives.
Change file and folder permissions and display or modify access control lists (ACLs)
Configure BitLocker drive encryption on disk volumes.
Creates a new folder
Displays the content of a file one page at a time
Moves a file or a folder
Allows you to attempt to recover files from a damaged drive.
Perform Windows Registry operations.
Rename a file or folder
Remove an empty folder
Scans and checks the integrity of your Windows files. Useful way to see if a system file
is missing or has been tampered with.
Display the contents of a file
Copy a folder or files to another location
Description/Notes
This command will open the System Image Recovery screen to restore Windows from
an image.
Opens up the Windows Notepad so you can view and edit text files. You can also use
the file browser when click the File -> Open menus to copy, move, rename, and delete
files.

Regedit.exe
rstrui.exe

The Windows Registry Editor.

The System Restore console where you can restore your computer back to earlier
restore points.

When you are finished using the Command Prompt you can exit it by typing exit and then
pressing the Enter key on your keyboard. The command prompt will close and you will now
be back at the list of available repair tools, where you can reboot your computer.

How to load a registry hive in the Recovery Environment Command Prompt

An extremely important feature of the Recovery Command Prompt is the ability to load
Windows Registry hives and then be able to access them with Regedit. This will allow you to
stop computer infections from automatically starting or repair corrupt Registry data that may
be causing issues when starting Windows 8. A good example of how this can be used is when
a computer infection is locking your desktop when you start Windows. To fix this, you would
just start the Windows Recovery Environment Command Prompt, load the hives, delete the
Run value that is loading the infection, and unload them again. Then when you restart your
computer the infection will not be started and you can access your desktop again.
A registry hive can be loaded using the reg command. For more information on how to use
this command, you can type reg load /? and press Enter on your keyboard. An example of
how we can load Registry hives to fix a corrupt Userinit entry can be seen below:
Type REG LOAD HKLM\WinSoft :\Windows\System32\config\software and press Enter
to load the HKLM\Software Registry hive as the WinSoft key.
Type regedit.exe and press Enter to start the Windows Registry Editor. When the Registry
editor is started, browse to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run key.
Look for the Registry value that is loading the computer infection and delete it.
Close the Windows Registry Editor.
In the command prompt type REG UNLOAD HKLM\WinSoft and press Enter to unload
the Registry hive.
Type exit and press Enter on your keyboard to go back to the Advanced Options screen. You
can then reboot your computer from there.
Please note that in the above commands I have specified drive letters as . For the purposes of
this guide, stands for the drive letter of your Windows installation while in the Windows 8
Recovery Environment and should be substituted for the proper drive letter. You can use the
info here to determine this drive letter.

How to determine the drive letter of your Windows drive

When you are in the Recovery Command Prompt, the drive letters for your hard drives
changes. This can cause your Windows install to be listed under a different drive letter than it
normally has. To find out the drive letter assigned to your normal Windows drive, you can
use the bcdedit.exe program.
To find the drive letter of your Windows installation under the Recovery Command Prompt,
please type the following command and then press Enter on your keyboard.
bcdedit | find "osdevice"
When you run this command it will display output that is similar to os device partition=D:.
The letter after the partition= is the drive where Windows installation resides. To change
your current working directory to that drive, you can type D:, or whatever other drive letter it
shows, and press Enter on your keyboard.

Conclusion
As you can see the Windows 8 Recovery Command Prompt is a powerful tool for fixing
problems that would normally not allow you to start Windows. The ability to access your files
and the Windows Registry while Windows 8 is offline is a powerful tool for fixing corrupted
Registry and removing malware. If you find other useful programs or tools for the Windows
Recovery environment please let us know in the forums so we can update this tutorial.
As always if you have any questions or tips on using the Windows 8 Recovery Environment
command prompt you should let us know in the Windows 8 Forum.