How to work with a command prompt

Opening the terminal

1. Click the Spotlight icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen 

   

2. Begin typing Terminal until you see the Terminal application appear in the search results
   

   

3. Press Return to open the Terminal application
4. A new terminal window will appear
5. Type commands and press Return to execute them
   

   

Running commands as an administrator

Commands that require administrative rights begin with the word sudo. The first time you enter a sudo command you will be prompted to enter the Mac OS X user's password.

Not all macOS users have administrative rights. You might need to log into the computer as a different user to run sudo commands.

As you type the password you won't see anything change on the screen. This is a security feature, and rest assured your password is being received.

Press Return and the command will execute with administrative rights. If you mis-typed the password, you will see a message asking you to re-enter the password:

Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:

Once you've authenticated with administrative rights you can run further commands using sudo without the need to re-enter the password. If you go five minutes without entering a command, however, you will need to re-enter your password for the next sudo command.

Closing the terminal

1. Type exit
2. Press Return
3. Quit the Terminal application

Opening the command prompt

1. Press the Windows key or click Start
2. Type cmd.exe
3. Press Enter
   
   

   

   
   
   
4. The command prompt will open
5. Type commands and press Enter to execute them
   
   

   

Running commands as an administrator

In Windows, you must open the command prompt as an administrator to run commands that require administrative rights. You cannot switch from a standard command prompt to an administrative command prompt, although you can have both open at once.

1. Press the Windows key or click Start
2. Start typing cmd.exe
3. Right-click cmd.exe in the search results and choose Run as Administrator
4. Some installations of Windows may require you to authenticate either by clicking an Allow button or entering a username and password
   
   

   

   
   
   
5. A command prompt will open. Note the window title indicates this command prompt is being run as an administrator
6. Any commands entered in this window will be executed as an administrator

Closing the command prompt

Type exit and press Enter to close the command prompt.