How to carry out whois query under Windows

Microsoft Windows Operating Systems does not have a inbuilt whois utility. However, you can download a small whois utility from Microsoft Technet (Windows Sysinternals) to carry out a whois search.

Navigate to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897435.aspx

Download whois.zip from http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Whois.zip.

Unzip the file.
Open command prompt.
Navigate to the directory where you extracted the zip file.
Execute the command in the following format:

whois domainname [whois.server]

where domainname can be either a DNS name (e.g. www.abc.com) or IP address (e.g. 11.22.11.22)

For the whois.server, you have to select a server from the following whois server list.

Whois Server List 1
Whois Server List 2
Whois Server List 3

An example - whois microsoft.com whois.verisign-grs.com

c:\>whois microsoft.com whois.verisign-grs.com

Whois v1.01 - Domain information lookup utility
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
Copyright (C) 2005 Mark Russinovich

Connecting to whois.verisign-grs.com...
Connecting to whois.verisign-grs.com...
Connecting to whois.melbourneit.com...


Domain Name.......... microsoft.com
Creation Date........ 1991-05-02
Registration Date.... 2009-10-06
Expiry Date.......... 2015-05-04
Organisation Name.... Microsoft Corporation
Organisation Address. One Microsoft Way
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Redmond
Organisation Address. 98052
Organisation Address. WA
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

Admin Name........... Administrator .
Admin Address........ One Microsoft Way
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ Redmond
Admin Address........ 98052
Admin Address........ WA
Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
Admin Email.......... domains@microsoft.com
Admin Phone.......... +1.4258828080
Admin Fax............

Tech Name............ Hostmaster .
Tech Address......... One Microsoft Way
Tech Address.........
Tech Address......... Redmond
Tech Address......... 98052
Tech Address......... WA
Tech Address......... UNITED STATES
Tech Email........... msnhst@microsoft.com
Tech Phone........... +1.4258828080
Tech Fax.............
Name Server.......... NS2.MSFT.NET
Name Server.......... NS4.MSFT.NET
Name Server.......... NS1.MSFT.NET
Name Server.......... NS5.MSFT.NET
Name Server.......... NS3.MSFT.NET

c:\>