Executing Nmap

Executing Nmap

1. Make sure the user you are logged in as has administrative privileges in the box (should be in the administrators group).
2. Open a command/DOS Window. Though it can be found in the program menu 11511u2017l tree, the simplest approach is to choose Start -> Run and type cmd<enter>. Opening a Cygwin window (if you installed it) by clicking on the Cygwin icon on the desktop works too, although the necessary commands differ slightly from those shown below.
3. Change to the directory you installed Nmap into. Assuming the example directory name used in the install section above, type the following commands.

6. Execute nmap.exe. Figure 2, "Executing Nmap from a Windows command shell" is a screen shot showing a simple example

Figure 2. Executing Nmap from a Windows command shell

If you execute Nmap frequently, you can the Nmap directory (c:\program files\nmap-VERSION in this case) to your command execution path. The exact place to set this varies by Windows platform. On my Windows XP box, I do the following:

1. From the desktop, right click on My Computer and then click properties.
2. In the System Properties window, click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Environment Variables button.
4. Choose Path from the System variables section, then hit edit.
5. Add a semi-colon and then your Nmap directory (such as c:\program files\nmap-VERSION) to the end of the value.
6. Open a new DOS window and you should be able to execute a command such as nmap scanme.nmap.org from any directory.