Is there an auditable file on a Windows machine that shows the command-line history for either cmd or PowerShell? On UNIX machines I believe there is a hidden file in the home directory called .history.
Windows – .history file on Windows machines
command-line-interfacepowershellwindows
Related Solutions
I've had success with Sysinternals Process Explorer. With this, you can search to find what process(es) have a file open, and you can use it to close the handle(s) if you want. Of course, it is safer to close the whole process. Exercise caution and judgement.
To find a specific file, use the menu option Find->Find Handle or DLL... Type in part of the path to the file. The list of processes will appear below.
If you prefer command line, Sysinternals suite includes command line tool Handle, that lists open handles.
Examples
c:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite>handle.exe |findstr /i "e:\"(finds all files opened from drivee:\"c:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite>handle.exe |findstr /i "file-or-path-in-question"
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Best Answer
For plain old
cmd, no there really isn't anything like that.Even under PowerShell, I believe the history is still limited to the lifetime of the PowerShell session, though it gives you the functionality to work with and export the history, and even load it. You can use that to create some helper scripts to load and save your history easily as demonstrated here, but nothing out-of-the-box.