50 Windows Commands Every Azure VM Admin Needs (PowerShell + Active Directory)

Source: Dev.to

Why This List Exists

Azure Portal is great until:

• RDP is slow
• You need to fix networking
• Active Directory breaks
• You’re troubleshooting dozens of VMs

Then you need actual Windows commands.

Networking

Get-NetIPAddress | Format-Table InterfaceAlias, IPAddress, PrefixLength

Resolve-DnsName azure-noob.com -Server 8.8.8.8

tracert 10.0.1.4

Test-NetConnection -ComputerName 10.0.1.4 -Port 443

route print

ipconfig /flushdns

netstat -ano | findstr ESTABLISHED

Active Directory

Add-Computer -DomainName contoso.com -Credential (Get-Credential) -Restart

nltest /dsgetdc:contoso.com

repadmin /replsummary

Get-ADDomainController -Filter * | Select Name, IPv4Address

Reset-ComputerMachinePassword -Server DC01 -Credential (Get-Credential)

nltest /sc_query:contoso.com

Disk Management

Get-Disk | Format-Table Number, FriendlyName, Size, PartitionStyle

Initialize-Disk -Number 2 -PartitionStyle GPT

New-Partition -DiskNumber 2 -UseMaximumSize -DriveLetter F
Format-Volume -DriveLetter F -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel "Data"

Resize-Partition -DriveLetter C -Size (Get-PartitionSupportedSize -DriveLetter C).SizeMax

Get-PhysicalDisk | Select FriendlyName, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus

Service Management

Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Running"} | Format-Table Name, DisplayName

Start-Service -Name "W32Time"
Stop-Service -Name "Spooler"

Set-Service -Name "wuauserv" -StartupType Manual

Get-Service -Name "W32Time" | Select -ExpandProperty DependentServices

Get-Service WSearch | Restart-Service

Performance & Monitoring

Get-Counter '\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time' -SampleInterval 1 -MaxSamples 5

Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem |
    Select @{N="FreeGB";E={[math]::Round($_.FreePhysicalMemory/1MB,2)}}

Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select -First 10 Name, CPU, PM

Get-Counter '\PhysicalDisk(_Total)\Disk Reads/sec','\PhysicalDisk(_Total)\Disk Writes/sec'

(Get-Date) - (Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem).LastBootUpTime

Windows Update

Get-WindowsUpdate

Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -AutoReboot

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_QuickFixEngineering | Select HotFixID, InstalledOn

Local Users & Groups

Get-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators"

Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member "CONTOSO\john.doe"

query user

logoff 2 /server:localhost

File Permissions

Get-Acl C:\Important\File.txt | Format-List

Firewall

Get-NetFirewallRule | Where Enabled -eq $true | Select Name, DisplayName

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow SQL" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 1433 -Action Allow

Set-NetFirewallProfile -Profile Domain,Public,Private -Enabled $false

Event Logs

Get-EventLog -LogName System -EntryType Error -Newest 20

Get-EventLog -LogName Application | Where-Object {$_.Message -like "*SQL*"}

Get-EventLog -LogName Security -InstanceId 4624 -Newest 10

Azure‑Specific Commands

Get-Service WindowsAzureGuestAgent

Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{"Metadata"="true"} -Method GET -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance?api-version=2021-02-01"

Get-AzVMExtension -ResourceGroupName "RG-Prod" -VMName "VM-SQL-01"

System Information

Get-ComputerInfo | Select WindowsProductName, WindowsVersion, OsBuildNumber

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Select Name, Version

Get-WindowsDriver -Online

Cleanup & Maintenance

net stop wuauserv
del C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\*.* /s /q
net start wuauserv

Remove-Item -Path "$env:TEMP\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue