How to Check Which Ports Are Open on a Windows 10 PC

Maybe you are troubleshooting a network connectivity issue for a specific program and need to check if its port access is open or wondering if your NAS device is able to communicate with your Windows 10 PC regardless of either reason, you need to check open ports.

In this article, we will provide you with detailed steps on how to check open ports on Windows 10 using several tools that are easily available, built-in or free to download and use.

How to Check Which Ports Are Open on a Windows 10 PC

There are a few handy tools you can use to scan open ports in Windows. We'll show you how to do this on NetStat, PortQry.exe, and NirSoft CurrPorts.

NetStat

One of the easiest ways to do this is NetStat.exe, you can find this tool in “System32” folder in Windows 10. With NetStat, you can see open ports or ports a specific host is using.

There are two commands that will be useful, depending on your needs. The first option will list all active ports and the name of the process using them, which is “netstat -ab. The second option, "netstat -aon" will also provide a process ID that you can search for later in the Task Manager.

Here's what you need to know to fully understand the two commands:

Netstat is short for Network Statistics. It will display the protocol statistics as well as the

TCP and IP network connections. And here is the explanation of the meaning of each letter of the commands:

• "a" will show all connections and listening ports.
• 'b' will show all executables involved in creating each listening port.
• "o" will display the owner process ID associated with each of the connections.
• "n" will display addresses and port numbers in numerical form.

We'll start with the simplest form: netstat -ab. Just follow these steps and you'll be good to go:

1. Open the The Start menu, type “Command Prompt” and select Execute as administrator.
   
2. Now type “netstat -ab” and press Enter.
   
3. Wait for the results to load, the port names will be listed next to the local IP address.
   
4. Just find the port number you need, and if it says LISTEN Condition : Good column, it means your port is open.
   

The second option will be useful when the process name is not enough to identify which program has a specific port bound. In that case, just follow these steps:

1. Again, if it's not already open, type "Command Prompt" and choose Execute as administrator.
2. Once inside, type the command “netstat -aon” and press Enter.
   
3. You will now see five columns: Protocols, Local address, foreign address, Condition : Good, and PID (Process ID). In the Local address, next to the IP address column, you will have a port number. For example: 0.0.0.0:135. Here, 135 is the port number.
   
4. In the column titled Condition : Good, you will see if a specific port is open. For open ports it will say LISTEN.
   

This is the first part that will give you the port and process ID. To check which app is using it, follow these steps:

1. In the command prompt, find the PID (the number in the last column) for a specific port.
   
2. Open the Task Manager using the Ctrl + Shift + Esc shortcut, or right-click on a free space on your Windows taskbar and open the Task Manager.
   
3. Now go to Details ou Services tongue. You will see all the processes on your Windows 10. Sort them by the PID column and find the PID that belongs to the port you are trying to troubleshoot. You can see which application binds the port in the Description section.
   

NirSoft CurrPorts

If you find the command prompt solution too difficult, we present its easiest alternative. This is a tool that will show your currently open ports (TCP or IP as well as UDP). You will also be able to see information about a specific process, such as name, path, version information, etc.

This tool has been around for a while and is available for Windows 10. You can find a download link at the bottom of this page.

Note: Make sure you download the correct version: they have a 32x and 64x version, and you won't need to install this app because it's portable, you just have to unzip and run it.

Once CurrPorts is running, we can start with the steps to see the open ports:

1. You will see a list of your IT processes, sort them by Local port to find them more easily.
   
2. Now find and select the port you are troubleshooting.
   
3. Now you can see all the details such as its Process name, Process ID, Condition : Good, etc.
   

Another way is to simply double-click on a process to see all of its details in a single window.

PortQry.exe

PortQry.exe is another handy tool that will let you scan for open ports, you just need to download and extract the tool to run it through the command prompt.

With portqry.exe you will insert specific parameters that you will find in the executable folder.

1. For example, if you run "portqry.exe -local", it will show the TCP and UDP ports used for a local host. In addition to all the parameters you can see in NetStat, Portqry.exe also shows you a number of port mappings along with the number of ports in each state.
2. You can also search for open ports for a remote host. Just run this command in the command prompt: “portqry.exe -n [hostname/IP]” Be sure to replace the hostname and IP with the name and IP address of the remote host .
3. If you want to search for a specific port, you can run this command: “-e [port_number]”.

Additional FAQs

How to check if port 3306 is open in Windows 10?

If you read the main part of this article, you'll get an idea of ​​how to check if a specific port is "listening" - in this case, port 3306. To keep things simple, here's a quick overview:

You have three options: the first via NetStat and the second via CurrPorts.

We recommend NetStat, because you won't have to download any new software for it:

• Run the command prompt as an administrator.

• Run this command: “netstat -ab” and press Enter.

• Wait for the results to load. Port names will be listed next to the local IP address.

• Simply find the port number you need, in this case 3306. You can press Ctrl + F and type “3306” in the word box. If the port is open, it will appear in the results.

To check if port 3306 is open via CurrPorts, just follow the steps above from the “NirSoft CurrPorts” section. In step 2, find port "3306" in the list. If the port is open, it will appear in the list.

For PortQry.exe, run this command in command prompt “-e [3306]” and press Enter.

Configuring Open Ports in Windows 10

Knowing how to check whether a specific port is open or not can come in handy if you are troubleshooting a program network connection. Fortunately, there is an easy way to do this.

We recommend using NetStat through the command prompt as it's built-in and will usually give you all the details you need. There may be a few extra steps required compared to CurrPorts, but you don't have to download anything.

Which method do you find most convenient to check open ports on Windows 10? Let us know in the comments section below.