Windows 10 IoT Core Command Line Utils

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Looking to configure some of the settings on your device? The below tools are available at your disposal. Use PowerShell to run these commands after connecting to your device.

Note

These tools are not pre-loaded - you will need to include appropriate feature IDs to get these tools in the image.

IoT Core-specific Command Line Utils

Setting startup app

Use the startup editor to configure startup apps on your Windows IoT Core device. Run IotStartup with any of the following options:

  • IotStartup list lists installed applications
  • IotStartup list headed lists installed headed applications
  • IotStartup list headless lists installed headless applications
  • IotStartup list [MyApp] list installed applications that match pattern MyApp
  • IotStartup add adds headed and headless applications
  • IotStartup add headed [MyApp] adds headed applications that match pattern MyApp. Pattern must match only one application.
  • IotStartup add headless [Task1] adds headless applications that match pattern Task1
  • IotStartup remove removes headed and headless applications
  • IotStartup remove headed [MyApp] removes headed applications that match pattern MyApp
  • IotStartup remove headless [Task1] removes headless applications that match pattern Task1
  • IotStartup startup lists headed and headless applications registered for startup
  • IotStartup startup [MyApp] lists headed and headless applications registered for startup that match pattern MyApp
  • IotStartup startup headed [MyApp] lists headed applications registered for startup that match MyApp
  • IotStartup startup headless [Task1] lists headless applications registered for startup that match Task1
  • IotStartup run [MyApp] start app identified by MyApp
  • IotStartup stop [MyApp] stop app identified by MyApp
  • For further help, try IotStartup help

Change settings for region and user or speech language

The IoTSettings tool changes region, user language, or speech language. This is a command line tool that can be invoked from an application using the ProcessLauncher API. These commands must be run as default account, not administrator.

  • IotSettings del account {all | username} deletes all MSA or Azure AD accounts on the system or a specific account. Specific accounts take the form username@provider.com
  • IotSettings del diagnostics deletes diagnostic information in the cloud for the current device. Note that this removes the history up to the time of invocation. New diagnostics information will continue to be logged.
  • IotSettings list account lists all MSA or Azure AD accounts that have been signed into the device.
  • IotSettings list uilanguage lists all UI languages
  • IotSettings list speechlanguage lists all speech languages
  • IotSettings get uilanguage displays current UI language
  • IotSettings get speechlanguage displays current speech language
  • IotSettings get region displays current region
  • IotSettings set uilanguage language\_tag - (e.g. fr-CA) sets default UI language French Canadian)
  • IotSettings set speechlanguage language\_tag - (e.g. fr-CA) sets speech language French Canadian)
  • IotSettings set region region\_code - (e.g. CA) sets default region to Canada)
  • IotSettings set bluetoothpref {sink | source} Specifies the Bluetooth role preference to select when devices built with both IOT_BLUETOOTH_A2DP_SOURCE and IOT_BLUETOOTH_A2DP_SINK features connect to another device that also supports both roles.
  • IotSettings get bluetoothpref returns the current Bluetooth role preference for devices built with both IOT_BLUETOOTH_A2DP_SOURCE and IOT_BLUETOOTH_A2DP_SINK. The default is source.

Tip

IoTSettings -list uiLanguage will give back the list of supported UI language (in the version of Windows IoT core image it has been executed against)

Change default audio device and volume

The IoTCoreAudioControlTool tool controls audio related options, such as setting default capture and playback devices and changing the volume. For a full list of parameters, run IoTCoreAudioControlTool h.

Manually installing .APPX files

DeployAppx enables installing, and removing in .APPX packages in development scenarios. The correct method for installing .APPX packages in production images is to use a provisioning package as documented in the Install your app subject. DeployAppx also supports querying .APPX package information.

  • DeployAppx install MyApp.appx installs the .APPX and the certificate of the same name if found.
  • DeployAppx install force MyApp.appx forces uninstalling the currently installed .APPX with the same package name if found before installing the new .APPX. This is useful for installing an .APPX with the same or lower version number as the currently installed .APPX.
  • DeployAppx install retry MyApp.appx retry installing the .APPX 10 times on failure with 2-second delay between attempts.
  • DeployAppx uninstall App_1.0.1.0_x86__publisherid123 uninstall the .appx with the matching package full name.
  • DeployAppx uninstall MyApp.appx uninstall any installed .APPX with a matching package family name.
  • DeployAppx getpackages lists installed package full names.
  • DeployAppx getpackageid IotCoreDefaultApp.appx prints out the package name, the package family name, and the package full name for the .APPX.
DeployAppx getpackageid IotCoreDefaultApp.appx
         Package Name: 16454Windows10IOTCore.IOTCoreDefaultApplication
  Package Family Name: 16454Windows10IOTCore.IOTCoreDefaultApplication_rz84sjny4rf58
    Package Full Name: 16454Windows10IOTCore.IOTCoreDefaultApplication_2.0.8.0_arm__rz84sjny4rf58
  • DeployAppx register appxmanifest.xml unsupported

General Command Line Utils

Update account password

It is highly recommended that you update the default password for the Administrator account. To do this, you can issue the following command: net user Administrator [new password] where [new password] represents a strong password of your choice.

Create local user accounts

If you wish to give others access to your Windows IoT Core device, you can create additional local user accounts using PS by typing in net user [username] [password] /add. If you wish to add this user to other groups, such as the Administrator group, use net localgroup Administrators [username] /add.

Set password

To change the password on an account on your device, run net user [account-username] [new-password] to change the account password.

Query and set device name

To identify your current device name, simply type hostname. To change the name of your Windows IoT Core device, type SetComputerName [new machinename]. You may need to restart your device for the name change to take effect.

Basic network configuration

Many of the basic network configuration utilities you may already be familiar with are available in Windows IoT Core, including commands such as ping.exe, netstat.exe, netsh.exe, ipconfig.exe, tracert.exe, and arp.exe.

Copy utilities

Microsoft is providing familiar tools, including sfpcopy.exe as well as xcopy.exe.

Process Management

To view currently running processes, you can try either get-process or alternatively tlist.exe. To stop a running process, type kill.exe [pid or process name].

Set Boot Option (Headless vs. headed boot)

Windows IoT Core devices can be set to headed (when display capabilities are required) or headless (when a display is not required or available) device mode. To change this setting, use setbootoption.exe [headed | headless].

Note

Changing this setting will require a reboot in order for the change to take effect.

Task scheduler

To view the current list of scheduled tasks, use the schtasks.exe command. You can create new tasks with the /create switch or run on-demand tasks with the /run switch. For a full list of supported parameters, use schtasks.exe /?

Device drivers

The device console utility is useful in identifying and managing installed devices and drivers. For a full list of parameters, use devcon.exe /?

Registry Access

If you need to access the registry to view or modify settings, use the reg.exe /? Command for the full list of supported parameters.

Services

Managing Windows services can be accomplished via the net.exe command. To see a list of running services, type net start. To start or stop a specific service, type net [start | stop] [service name]. Alternatively, you can also use the service control manager via sc.exe command.

Boot configuration

You can make changes to the boot configuration of your Windows IoT Core device by using bcdedit.exe. For instance, you can enable testsigning with bcdedit –set testsigning on command.

Shutdown/restart device

To shut down your device, type shutdown /s /t 0. To restart the device, use the /r switch instead with the command shutdown /r /t 0.

Viewing and changing display settings

The SetDisplayResolution tool may be used for listing the current display settings and to show the list of supported values. It can further be used for adjusting the display's resolution, refresh rate and/or orientation to values supported by your platform. The utility accepts the following command line arguments:

  • SetDisplayResolution Lists the current display resolution.
  • SetDisplayResolution -list Lists supported display resolutions.
  • SetDisplayResolution -orientation:[n] Change the display orientation, where n=0,90,180 or 270.
  • SetDisplayResolution [width] [height] Change the width and height in pixels
  • SetDisplayResolution [width] [height] [refreshrate] Change width, height, and refresh rate where width and height are in pixels and refreshrate in Hz
  • SetDisplayResolution [width] [height] [refreshrate] [orientation] Change width, height, refreshrate and screen orientation where width and height are in pixels, refreshrate in Hz and orientation is one of 0, 90, 180 or 270.

Take screenshot

You can take the screenshot of your Windows IoTCore device by using ScreenCapture.exe. For example, run ScreenCapture c:\folder\screencap.jpg will take the screenshot and save it in screencap.jpg file.

Get information about Network Adapters

To view the list of all the available network adapters, run GetAdapterInfo tool.

Set folder permissions for UWP apps

Not all folders on your device are accessible by Universal Windows Apps. To make a folder accessible to a UWP app, you can use FolderPermissions tool. For example, run FolderPermissions c:\test -e to give UWP apps access to c:\test folder. Note this will work only with native Win32 apis for eg. CreateFile2 and not with WinRT apis like StorageFolder, StorageFile etc.

Work with Serial Ports

MinComm allows you to work with serial ports from the command line. It is provided as a sample project in the ms-iot samples repo.

Usage: MinComm.exe [-list] device_path [baud=<B>] [parity=<P>] [data=<D>] [stop=<S>] [xon={on|off}] [odsr={on|off}] [octs={on|off}] [dtr={on|off|hs}] [rts={on|off|hs|tg}] [idsr={on|off}]

  -list                List all available serial ports on the system and exit.
  device_path          Device path or COM port to open (e.g. COM1)
  baud=<B>             Specifies the transmission rate in bits per second.
  parity={n|e|o|m|s}   Specifies how the system uses the parity bit to check
                       for transmission errors. The abbreviations stand for
                       none, even, odd, mark, and space.
  data={5|6|7|8}       Specifies the number of data bits in a character.
  stop={1|1.5|2}       Specifies the number of stop bits that define the end of
                       a character.
  xon={on|off}         Specifies whether the xon or xoff protocol for data-flow
                       control is on or off.
  odsr={on|off}        Specifies whether output handshaking that uses the
                       Data Set Ready (DSR) circuit is on or off.
  octs={on|off}        Specifies whether output handshaking that uses the
                       Clear To Send (CTS) circuit is on or off.
  dtr={on|off|hs}      Specifies whether the Data Terminal Ready (DTR) circuit
                       is on or off or set to handshake.
  rts={on|off|hs|tg}   Specifies whether the Request To Send (RTS) circuit is
                       set to on, off, handshake, or toggle.
  idsr={on|off}        Specifies whether the DSR circuit sensitivity is on
                       or off.

Parameters that are not specified will default to the port's current
configuration. For more information on the connection parameters, see the
Technet documentation for the Mode command:
  https://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc732236.aspx

Examples:
  Connect to the first serial port found in the port's current configuration:
    MinComm.exe

  List all serial ports on the system:
    MinComm.exe -list

  Open COM1 in 115200 8N1 configuration:
    MinComm.exe COM1 baud=115200 parity=n data=8 stop=1

  Open COM1 in 115200 8N1 configuration:
    MinComm.exe \\.\COM1 baud=115200 parity=n data=8 stop=1

  Open device interface in 115200 8N1 configuration:
    MinComm.exe \\?\USB#VID_FFFF&PID_0005#{86e0d1e0-8089-11d0-9ce4-08003e301f73} baud=115200 parity=n data=8 stop=1