Applies to:
- Windows 7
- Windows 2008
- Windows Vista
Showing posts with label Windows Vista. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Windows Vista. Show all posts
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Open a Command Prompt as Administrator in Windows 7, Vista and Windows 2008
Often, even if you are logged on as a user which belongs to the local Administrators group, you may have to open a command prompt (or other program) as "administrator." Simply right-click the shortcut (Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt) and select Run As Administrator.
Applies to:
Applies to:
Monday, March 1, 2010
Keyboard Shortcut to open Windows Task Manager in Windows 7 and Vista
Microsoft changed things up again. Back in the day (Windows 2000, 2003, XP, etc.) you could easily open Windows Task Manager using Ctrl + Alt + Del, then pressing T. Now in Windows 7 and Windows Vista you can still use Ctrl + Alt + Del which displays a screen whith options like Lock this Computer, Switch User, Log Off, Change Password, and Start Task Manager. However, pressing T does nothing, and in fact, no keyboard shortcuts work on this screen to choose one of the items from the list - even tab and arrow keys don't let you pick from the list. You have to use your mouse pointer. Stupid, stupid, STUPID! Way to go Microsoft!
So to launch Task Manager in Windows 7 and Vista you would have to go through this double step process of pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del, then reaching over to your mouse and clicking on Start Task Manager. I can understand Microsoft trying to make things easier for new users and for the masses. But for heaven's sake please leave old keyboard shortcuts in place for those of us who have been using Windows for a while.
Enough ranting and raving. Although this has probably been the case all along (this old dog had to learn a new trick), you can use Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager directly and bypass the hassle and frustration introduced by MS with Vista.
So to launch Task Manager in Windows 7 and Vista you would have to go through this double step process of pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del, then reaching over to your mouse and clicking on Start Task Manager. I can understand Microsoft trying to make things easier for new users and for the masses. But for heaven's sake please leave old keyboard shortcuts in place for those of us who have been using Windows for a while.
Enough ranting and raving. Although this has probably been the case all along (this old dog had to learn a new trick), you can use Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager directly and bypass the hassle and frustration introduced by MS with Vista.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Restarting IIS using the command-line
You can restart IIS and disable Reliable Restart using the command prompt and Iisreset.exe. See the following command-line usage and parameters.
iisreset [computername]
/RESTART Stop and then restart all Internet services.
/START Start all Internet services.
/STOP Stop all Internet services.
/REBOOT Reboot the computer.
/REBOOTONERROR Reboot the computer if an error occurs when starting, stopping, or restarting Internet services.
/NOFORCE Do not forcefully terminate Internet services if attempting to stop them gracefully fails.
/TIMEOUT:val Specify the timeout value (in seconds) to wait for a successful stop of Internet services. On expiration of this timeout the computer can be rebooted if the /REBOOTONERROR parameter is specified. The default value is 20s for restart, 60s for stop, and 0s for reboot.
/STATUS Display the status of all Internet services.
/ENABLE Enable restarting of Internet Services on the local system.
/DISABLE Disable restarting of Internet Services on the local system.
iisreset [computername]
/RESTART Stop and then restart all Internet services.
/START Start all Internet services.
/STOP Stop all Internet services.
/REBOOT Reboot the computer.
/REBOOTONERROR Reboot the computer if an error occurs when starting, stopping, or restarting Internet services.
/NOFORCE Do not forcefully terminate Internet services if attempting to stop them gracefully fails.
/TIMEOUT:val Specify the timeout value (in seconds) to wait for a successful stop of Internet services. On expiration of this timeout the computer can be rebooted if the /REBOOTONERROR parameter is specified. The default value is 20s for restart, 60s for stop, and 0s for reboot.
/STATUS Display the status of all Internet services.
/ENABLE Enable restarting of Internet Services on the local system.
/DISABLE Disable restarting of Internet Services on the local system.
Example (restart IIS on local computer):
iisreset /restart
Monday, January 4, 2010
Find Last Reboot Time in Windows 7, Vista and Windows 2008
Have you ever wanted a quick and easy way to know how long your Windows 7 (or Vista or Windows 2008 server) system has been running? When it was last restarted or rebooted? There are a few easy ways this can be done, most from the Windows command line. So open a Windows command prompt and choose the one that works best for you. (Most of these commands work with Windows XP, Windows 2003, 2000, etc. See notes below for specifics.)
Or ever shorter use either of the following:
You can use the following on XP, Windows 2003 and earlier (however this will give only the length of uptime and not the system boot time):
Just like with anything there are many ways to skin this cat, so choose your favorite one (or two to double-check data) and go for it.
- This first way will display how long the network service has been running. Generally this will be very close to the same amount of time (within a minute or two) as Windows has been running. It won't be accurate if you restart the network service.
Note: I listed this first because it's the one I usually use.
From a command prompt window run the following (the 'S' in 'Statistics' must be capitalized):
net statistics workstation | find "Statistics"You can shortcut it as well using:
net stats work | find "Stat"Result:
Or ever shorter use either of the following:
net stats work
netstats work |more
- This next method uses the command 'systeminfo.' Again from a command prompt run (make sure to capitalize 'S', 'B' and 'T':
systeminfo | find "System Boot Time"Result:
You can use the following on XP, Windows 2003 and earlier (however this will give only the length of uptime and not the system boot time):
systeminfo | find "Up Time"
- The third method uses WMI, more specifically wmic (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line), but the output is a little cryptic:
wmic OS Get LastBootUpTime
Result: 20091220133343.981621-300, which can be intrepreted as year 2009, month 12, day 20, hour 13 (or 1:00 PM), minute 33, etc. Note: be careful as this may be displayed as UTC time depending on your system - like with Amazon EC2 virtual servers for example.
- You can always use the system event log (this only works on 2003/XP or older). Of course, you could go to Control Panel and browse through the system event log, but let's do it through the command line with:
cscript c:\windows\system32\eventquery.vbs /fi "ID eq 6005" /l systemOver the years I have found system event log event 6005, "The Event log service was started." to be the the most consistent entry after a computer restarts, even from a power outage, BSOD or other event. This command will also give you a history of system startups listed in the System event log.
- Finally, you can use this handy PowerShell script:
Get-WmiObject Win32_NTLogEvent -filter "LogFile='System' and EventCode=6005" | Format-Table ComputerName, EventCode, Message, TimeWritten
Just like with anything there are many ways to skin this cat, so choose your favorite one (or two to double-check data) and go for it.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
How To: Create A Show Desktop Shortcut on Windows 7 and Vista
While Windows 7 (and Vista, if I remember right) does have a "Show Desktop" shortcut - it's in the system tray, to the right of the clock - you may long for the days when it was in the Quick Launch toolbar like in XP or Windows 2003.
Not to fear. You can easily create a show desktop shortcut and place it anywhere you'd like.
Open your favorite text editor and type the following code:
If you want to customize the icon and use your own Icon instead of using the Windows default, put the path of the icon next to 'IconFile=' as follows:
Not to fear. You can easily create a show desktop shortcut and place it anywhere you'd like.
Open your favorite text editor and type the following code:
[Shell]Save the file as 'Show Desktop.scf' and make sure theat 'All Files' is selected in the File Type list. Save this file on your desktop, then drag it to the Quick Launch toolbar.
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
If you want to customize the icon and use your own Icon instead of using the Windows default, put the path of the icon next to 'IconFile=' as follows:
IconFile='PATH_TO_ICON',0See also Create Windows Shortcuts With a Script at the Command Line.
Securely delete files in Windows
The only way to ensure that deleted files, as well as files that you encrypt with EFS, are safe from recovery is to use a secure delete application. Secure delete applications overwrite a deleted file's on-disk data using techiques that are shown to make disk data unrecoverable, even using recovery technology that can read patterns in magnetic media that reveal weakly deleted files. SDelete (Secure Delete) is such an application.
You can use SDelete both to securely delete existing files, as well as to securely erase any file data that exists in the unallocated portions of a disk (including files that you have already deleted or encrypted). SDelete implements the Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DOD 5220.22-M, to give you confidence that once deleted with SDelete, your file data is gone forever. Note that SDelete securely deletes file data, but not file names located in free disk space.
Using SDelete
SDelete is a command line utility that takes a number of options. In any given use, it allows you to delete one or more files and/or directories, or to cleanse the free space on a logical disk. SDelete accepts wild card characters as part of the directory or file specifier.
Usage: sdelete [-p passes] [-s] [-q]
sdelete [-p passes] [-z|-c] [drive letter]
Compressed, encrypted and sparse are managed by NTFS in 16-cluster blocks. If a program writes to an existing portion of such a file NTFS allocates new space on the disk to store the new data and after the new data has been written, deallocates the clusters previously occupied by the file. NTFS takes this conservative approach for reasons related to data integrity, and in the case of compressed and sparse files, in case a new allocation is larger than what exists (the new compressed data is bigger than the old compressed data). Thus, overwriting such a file will not succeed in deleting the file's contents from the disk.
To handle these types of files SDelete relies on the defragmentation API. Using the defragmentation API, SDelete can determine precisely which clusters on a disk are occupied by data belonging to compressed, sparse and encrypted files. Once SDelete knows which clusters contain the file's data, it can open the disk for raw access and overwrite those clusters.
Cleaning free space presents another challenge. Since FAT and NTFS provide no means for an application to directly address free space, SDelete has one of two options. The first is that it can, like it does for compressed, sparse and encrypted files, open the disk for raw access and overwrite the free space. This approach suffers from a big problem: even if SDelete were coded to be fully capable of calculating the free space portions of NTFS and FAT drives (something that's not trivial), it would run the risk of collision with active file operations taking place on the system. For example, say SDelete determines that a cluster is free, and just at that moment the file system driver (FAT, NTFS) decides to allocate the cluster for a file that another application is modifying. The file system driver writes the new data to the cluster, and then SDelete comes along and overwrites the freshly written data: the file's new data is gone. The problem is even worse if the cluster is allocated for file system metadata since SDelete will corrupt the file system's on-disk structures.
The second approach, and the one SDelete takes, is to indirectly overwrite free space. First, SDelete allocates the largest file it can. SDelete does this using non-cached file I/O so that the contents of the NT file system cache will not be thrown out and replaced with useless data associated with SDelete's space-hogging file. Because non-cached file I/O must be sector (512-byte) aligned, there might be some left over space that isn't allocated for the SDelete file even when SDelete cannot further grow the file. To grab any remaining space SDelete next allocates the largest cached file it can. For both of these files SDelete performs a secure overwrite, ensuring that all the disk space that was previously free becomes securely cleansed.
On NTFS drives SDelete's job isn't necessarily through after it allocates and overwrites the two files. SDelete must also fill any existing free portions of the NTFS MFT (Master File Table) with files that fit within an MFT record. An MFT record is typically 1KB in size, and every file or directory on a disk requires at least one MFT record. Small files are stored entirely within their MFT record, while files that don't fit within a record are allocated clusters outside the MFT. All SDelete has to do to take care of the free MFT space is allocate the largest file it can - when the file occupies all the available space in an MFT Record NTFS will prevent the file from getting larger, since there are no free clusters left on the disk (they are being held by the two files SDelete previously allocated). SDelete then repeats the process. When SDelete can no longer even create a new file, it knows that all the previously free records in the MFT have been completely filled with securely overwritten files.
To overwrite file names of a file that you delete, SDelete renames the file 26 times, each time replacing each character of the file's name with a successive alphabetic character. For instance, the first rename of "foo.txt" would be to "AAA.AAA".
The reason that SDelete does not securely delete file names when cleaning disk free space is that deleting them would require direct manipulation of directory structures. Directory structures can have free space containing deleted file names, but the free directory space is not available for allocation to other files. Hence, SDelete has no way of allocating this free space so that it can securely overwrite it.
Download SDelete
(47 KB)
You can use SDelete both to securely delete existing files, as well as to securely erase any file data that exists in the unallocated portions of a disk (including files that you have already deleted or encrypted). SDelete implements the Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DOD 5220.22-M, to give you confidence that once deleted with SDelete, your file data is gone forever. Note that SDelete securely deletes file data, but not file names located in free disk space.
Using SDelete
SDelete is a command line utility that takes a number of options. In any given use, it allows you to delete one or more files and/or directories, or to cleanse the free space on a logical disk. SDelete accepts wild card characters as part of the directory or file specifier.
Usage: sdelete [-p passes] [-s] [-q]
sdelete [-p passes] [-z|-c] [drive letter]
| -c | Zero free space (good for virtual disk optimization). |
| -p passes | Specifies number of overwrite passes. |
| -s | Recurse subdirectories. |
| -q | Don't print errors (quiet). |
| -z | Cleanse free space. |
How SDelete Works
Securely deleting a file that has no special attributes is relatively straight-forward: the secure delete program simply overwrites the file with the secure delete pattern. What is more tricky is securely deleting Windows NT/2K compressed, encrypted and sparse files, and securely cleansing disk free spaces.Compressed, encrypted and sparse are managed by NTFS in 16-cluster blocks. If a program writes to an existing portion of such a file NTFS allocates new space on the disk to store the new data and after the new data has been written, deallocates the clusters previously occupied by the file. NTFS takes this conservative approach for reasons related to data integrity, and in the case of compressed and sparse files, in case a new allocation is larger than what exists (the new compressed data is bigger than the old compressed data). Thus, overwriting such a file will not succeed in deleting the file's contents from the disk.
To handle these types of files SDelete relies on the defragmentation API. Using the defragmentation API, SDelete can determine precisely which clusters on a disk are occupied by data belonging to compressed, sparse and encrypted files. Once SDelete knows which clusters contain the file's data, it can open the disk for raw access and overwrite those clusters.
Cleaning free space presents another challenge. Since FAT and NTFS provide no means for an application to directly address free space, SDelete has one of two options. The first is that it can, like it does for compressed, sparse and encrypted files, open the disk for raw access and overwrite the free space. This approach suffers from a big problem: even if SDelete were coded to be fully capable of calculating the free space portions of NTFS and FAT drives (something that's not trivial), it would run the risk of collision with active file operations taking place on the system. For example, say SDelete determines that a cluster is free, and just at that moment the file system driver (FAT, NTFS) decides to allocate the cluster for a file that another application is modifying. The file system driver writes the new data to the cluster, and then SDelete comes along and overwrites the freshly written data: the file's new data is gone. The problem is even worse if the cluster is allocated for file system metadata since SDelete will corrupt the file system's on-disk structures.
The second approach, and the one SDelete takes, is to indirectly overwrite free space. First, SDelete allocates the largest file it can. SDelete does this using non-cached file I/O so that the contents of the NT file system cache will not be thrown out and replaced with useless data associated with SDelete's space-hogging file. Because non-cached file I/O must be sector (512-byte) aligned, there might be some left over space that isn't allocated for the SDelete file even when SDelete cannot further grow the file. To grab any remaining space SDelete next allocates the largest cached file it can. For both of these files SDelete performs a secure overwrite, ensuring that all the disk space that was previously free becomes securely cleansed.
On NTFS drives SDelete's job isn't necessarily through after it allocates and overwrites the two files. SDelete must also fill any existing free portions of the NTFS MFT (Master File Table) with files that fit within an MFT record. An MFT record is typically 1KB in size, and every file or directory on a disk requires at least one MFT record. Small files are stored entirely within their MFT record, while files that don't fit within a record are allocated clusters outside the MFT. All SDelete has to do to take care of the free MFT space is allocate the largest file it can - when the file occupies all the available space in an MFT Record NTFS will prevent the file from getting larger, since there are no free clusters left on the disk (they are being held by the two files SDelete previously allocated). SDelete then repeats the process. When SDelete can no longer even create a new file, it knows that all the previously free records in the MFT have been completely filled with securely overwritten files.
To overwrite file names of a file that you delete, SDelete renames the file 26 times, each time replacing each character of the file's name with a successive alphabetic character. For instance, the first rename of "foo.txt" would be to "AAA.AAA".
The reason that SDelete does not securely delete file names when cleaning disk free space is that deleting them would require direct manipulation of directory structures. Directory structures can have free space containing deleted file names, but the free directory space is not available for allocation to other files. Hence, SDelete has no way of allocating this free space so that it can securely overwrite it.
Download SDelete
(47 KB)
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Getting the Most out of Windows Command Prompt
If you are like me you use the command prompt a lot. It seems each time I logon to a new system I have to setup the command prompt just the way I want. The first thing I do is create a shortcut in the Quick Launch toolbar. Next I modify that shortcut so it will better suit my needs.
Right-click the shortcut and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab add " /f:on" (without the quotes) to the Target - make sure there is a space between cmd.exe and /f:on, and if cmd.exe ends with a quote place the /f:on outside the quotes. This will enable file and directory name completion characters - you can use Ctl + d for directories and Ctl + f for files. I also like to set the Start In target to C:\.
Click the Options tab. I like to increase the command history buffer to at least 100, this is especially useful if you have a command prompt open for a long time and want to scroll back through your previous commands. Check discard old duplicates to, well, do just that. And check QuickEdit mode. This is a great one as it enables selecting text directly and pasting directly (with right-click) without having to right-click and select copy and/or paste.
Personally I don't change the fonts or colors, but you may prefer different settings. Play around, have fun.
Now click the Layout tab. I normally increase the height and width of the window size a bit, especially with today's higher resolution monitors. And I definitely increase the screen buffer size height, usually to a couple thousand or more. Make sure to increase the screen buffer width to at least match that of your window size width.
I usually leave "Let System Position Window" checked so Windows will tile subsequent command prompt windows:
See also:
CMD.exe /? (help) in Windows 7
Starts a new instance of the Windows command interpreter
CMD [/A | /U] [/Q] [/D] [/E:ON | /E:OFF] [/F:ON | /F:OFF] [/V:ON | /V:OFF] [[/S] [/C | /K] string]
/C Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
/K Carries out the command specified by string but remains
/S Modifies the treatment of string after /C or /K (see below)
/Q Turns echo off
/D Disable execution of AutoRun commands from registry (see below)
/A Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be ANSI
/U Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be Unicode
/T:fg Sets the foreground/background colors (see COLOR /? for more info)
/E:ON Enable command extensions (see below)
/E:OFF Disable command extensions (see below)
/F:ON Enable file and directory name completion characters (see below)
/F:OFF Disable file and directory name completion characters (see below)
/V:ON Enable delayed environment variable expansion using ! as the
delimiter. For example, /V:ON would allow !var! to expand the
variable var at execution time. The var syntax expands variables
at input time, which is quite a different thing when inside of a FOR
loop.
/V:OFF Disable delayed environment expansion.
Note that multiple commands separated by the command separator '&&'
are accepted for string if surrounded by quotes. Also, for compatibility
reasons, /X is the same as /E:ON, /Y is the same as /E:OFF and /R is the
same as /C. Any other switches are ignored.
If /C or /K is specified, then the remainder of the command line after
the switch is processed as a command line, where the following logic is
used to process quote (") characters:
1. If all of the following conditions are met, then quote characters
on the command line are preserved:
- no /S switch
- exactly two quote characters
- no special characters between the two quote characters,
where special is one of: &<>()@^|
- there are one or more whitespace characters between the
two quote characters
- the string between the two quote characters is the name
of an executable file.
2. Otherwise, old behavior is to see if the first character is
a quote character and if so, strip the leading character and
remove the last quote character on the command line, preserving
any text after the last quote character.
If /D was NOT specified on the command line, then when CMD.EXE starts, it
looks for the following REG_SZ/REG_EXPAND_SZ registry variables, and if
either or both are present, they are executed first.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun
and/or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun
Command Extensions are enabled by default. You may also disable
extensions for a particular invocation by using the /E:OFF switch. You
can enable or disable extensions for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a
machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the
following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDIT.EXE:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions
and/or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions
to either 0x1 or 0x0. The user specific setting takes precedence over
the machine setting. The command line switches take precedence over the
registry settings.
In a batch file, the SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS or DISABLEEXTENSIONS arguments
takes precedence over the /E:ON or /E:OFF switch. See SETLOCAL /? for details.
The command extensions involve changes and/or additions to the following
commands:
DEL or ERASE
COLOR
CD or CHDIR
MD or MKDIR
PROMPT
PUSHD
POPD
SET
SETLOCAL
ENDLOCAL
IF
FOR
CALL
SHIFT
GOTO
START (also includes changes to external command invocation)
ASSOC
FTYPE
To get specific details, type commandname /? to view the specifics.
Delayed environment variable expansion is NOT enabled by default. You
can enable or disable delayed environment variable expansion for a
particular invocation of CMD.EXE with the /V:ON or /V:OFF switch. You
can enable or disable delayed expansion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a
machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the
following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDIT.EXE:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\DelayedExpansion
and/or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\DelayedExpansion
to either 0x1 or 0x0. The user specific setting takes precedence over
the machine setting. The command line switches take precedence over the
registry settings.
In a batch file the SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION or DISABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
arguments takes precedence over the /V:ON or /V:OFF switch. See SETLOCAL /?
for details.
If delayed environment variable expansion is enabled, then the exclamation
character can be used to substitute the value of an environment variable
at execution time.
You can enable or disable file name completion for a particular
invocation of CMD.EXE with the /F:ON or /F:OFF switch. You can enable
or disable completion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a machine and/or
user logon session by setting either or both of the following REG_DWORD
values in the registry using REGEDIT.EXE:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar
and/or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar
with the hex value of a control character to use for a particular
function (e.g. 0x4 is Ctrl-D and 0x6 is Ctrl-F). The user specific
settings take precedence over the machine settings. The command line
switches take precedence over the registry settings.
If completion is enabled with the /F:ON switch, the two control
characters used are Ctrl-D for directory name completion and Ctrl-F for
file name completion. To disable a particular completion character in
the registry, use the value for space (0x20) as it is not a valid
control character.
Completion is invoked when you type either of the two control
characters. The completion function takes the path string to the left
of the cursor appends a wild card character to it if none is already
present and builds up a list of paths that match. It then displays the
first matching path. If no paths match, it just beeps and leaves the
display alone. Thereafter, repeated pressing of the same control
character will cycle through the list of matching paths. Pressing the
Shift key with the control character will move through the list
backwards. If you edit the line in any way and press the control
character again, the saved list of matching paths is discarded and a new
one generated. The same occurs if you switch between file and directory
name completion. The only difference between the two control characters
is the file completion character matches both file and directory names,
while the directory completion character only matches directory names.
If file completion is used on any of the built in directory commands
(CD, MD or RD) then directory completion is assumed.
The completion code deals correctly with file names that contain spaces
or other special characters by placing quotes around the matching path.
Also, if you back up, then invoke completion from within a line, the
text to the right of the cursor at the point completion was invoked is
discarded.
The special characters that require quotes are:
&()[]{}^=;!'+,`~
Right-click the shortcut and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab add " /f:on" (without the quotes) to the Target - make sure there is a space between cmd.exe and /f:on, and if cmd.exe ends with a quote place the /f:on outside the quotes. This will enable file and directory name completion characters - you can use Ctl + d for directories and Ctl + f for files. I also like to set the Start In target to C:\.
Click the Options tab. I like to increase the command history buffer to at least 100, this is especially useful if you have a command prompt open for a long time and want to scroll back through your previous commands. Check discard old duplicates to, well, do just that. And check QuickEdit mode. This is a great one as it enables selecting text directly and pasting directly (with right-click) without having to right-click and select copy and/or paste.
Personally I don't change the fonts or colors, but you may prefer different settings. Play around, have fun.
Now click the Layout tab. I normally increase the height and width of the window size a bit, especially with today's higher resolution monitors. And I definitely increase the screen buffer size height, usually to a couple thousand or more. Make sure to increase the screen buffer width to at least match that of your window size width.
I usually leave "Let System Position Window" checked so Windows will tile subsequent command prompt windows:
See also:
- Windows Command Prompt: Auto-Complete Paths and Filenames
- Copy Command Line Output to Windows Clipboard Directly
CMD.exe /? (help) in Windows 7
Starts a new instance of the Windows command interpreter
CMD [/A | /U] [/Q] [/D] [/E:ON | /E:OFF] [/F:ON | /F:OFF] [/V:ON | /V:OFF] [[/S] [/C | /K] string]
/C Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
/K Carries out the command specified by string but remains
/S Modifies the treatment of string after /C or /K (see below)
/Q Turns echo off
/D Disable execution of AutoRun commands from registry (see below)
/A Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be ANSI
/U Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be Unicode
/T:fg Sets the foreground/background colors (see COLOR /? for more info)
/E:ON Enable command extensions (see below)
/E:OFF Disable command extensions (see below)
/F:ON Enable file and directory name completion characters (see below)
/F:OFF Disable file and directory name completion characters (see below)
/V:ON Enable delayed environment variable expansion using ! as the
delimiter. For example, /V:ON would allow !var! to expand the
variable var at execution time. The var syntax expands variables
at input time, which is quite a different thing when inside of a FOR
loop.
/V:OFF Disable delayed environment expansion.
Note that multiple commands separated by the command separator '&&'
are accepted for string if surrounded by quotes. Also, for compatibility
reasons, /X is the same as /E:ON, /Y is the same as /E:OFF and /R is the
same as /C. Any other switches are ignored.
If /C or /K is specified, then the remainder of the command line after
the switch is processed as a command line, where the following logic is
used to process quote (") characters:
1. If all of the following conditions are met, then quote characters
on the command line are preserved:
- no /S switch
- exactly two quote characters
- no special characters between the two quote characters,
where special is one of: &<>()@^|
- there are one or more whitespace characters between the
two quote characters
- the string between the two quote characters is the name
of an executable file.
2. Otherwise, old behavior is to see if the first character is
a quote character and if so, strip the leading character and
remove the last quote character on the command line, preserving
any text after the last quote character.
If /D was NOT specified on the command line, then when CMD.EXE starts, it
looks for the following REG_SZ/REG_EXPAND_SZ registry variables, and if
either or both are present, they are executed first.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun
and/or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun
Command Extensions are enabled by default. You may also disable
extensions for a particular invocation by using the /E:OFF switch. You
can enable or disable extensions for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a
machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the
following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDIT.EXE:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions
and/or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions
to either 0x1 or 0x0. The user specific setting takes precedence over
the machine setting. The command line switches take precedence over the
registry settings.
In a batch file, the SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS or DISABLEEXTENSIONS arguments
takes precedence over the /E:ON or /E:OFF switch. See SETLOCAL /? for details.
The command extensions involve changes and/or additions to the following
commands:
DEL or ERASE
COLOR
CD or CHDIR
MD or MKDIR
PROMPT
PUSHD
POPD
SET
SETLOCAL
ENDLOCAL
IF
FOR
CALL
SHIFT
GOTO
START (also includes changes to external command invocation)
ASSOC
FTYPE
To get specific details, type commandname /? to view the specifics.
Delayed environment variable expansion is NOT enabled by default. You
can enable or disable delayed environment variable expansion for a
particular invocation of CMD.EXE with the /V:ON or /V:OFF switch. You
can enable or disable delayed expansion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a
machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the
following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDIT.EXE:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\DelayedExpansion
and/or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\DelayedExpansion
to either 0x1 or 0x0. The user specific setting takes precedence over
the machine setting. The command line switches take precedence over the
registry settings.
In a batch file the SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION or DISABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
arguments takes precedence over the /V:ON or /V:OFF switch. See SETLOCAL /?
for details.
If delayed environment variable expansion is enabled, then the exclamation
character can be used to substitute the value of an environment variable
at execution time.
You can enable or disable file name completion for a particular
invocation of CMD.EXE with the /F:ON or /F:OFF switch. You can enable
or disable completion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a machine and/or
user logon session by setting either or both of the following REG_DWORD
values in the registry using REGEDIT.EXE:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar
and/or
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar
with the hex value of a control character to use for a particular
function (e.g. 0x4 is Ctrl-D and 0x6 is Ctrl-F). The user specific
settings take precedence over the machine settings. The command line
switches take precedence over the registry settings.
If completion is enabled with the /F:ON switch, the two control
characters used are Ctrl-D for directory name completion and Ctrl-F for
file name completion. To disable a particular completion character in
the registry, use the value for space (0x20) as it is not a valid
control character.
Completion is invoked when you type either of the two control
characters. The completion function takes the path string to the left
of the cursor appends a wild card character to it if none is already
present and builds up a list of paths that match. It then displays the
first matching path. If no paths match, it just beeps and leaves the
display alone. Thereafter, repeated pressing of the same control
character will cycle through the list of matching paths. Pressing the
Shift key with the control character will move through the list
backwards. If you edit the line in any way and press the control
character again, the saved list of matching paths is discarded and a new
one generated. The same occurs if you switch between file and directory
name completion. The only difference between the two control characters
is the file completion character matches both file and directory names,
while the directory completion character only matches directory names.
If file completion is used on any of the built in directory commands
(CD, MD or RD) then directory completion is assumed.
The completion code deals correctly with file names that contain spaces
or other special characters by placing quotes around the matching path.
Also, if you back up, then invoke completion from within a line, the
text to the right of the cursor at the point completion was invoked is
discarded.
The special characters that require quotes are:
&()[]{}^=;!'+,`~
Monday, December 7, 2009
Create Windows Shortcuts With a Script at the Command Line
If you are like me you 1) access numerous Windows computers, in my case mainly servers through Remote Desktop; and 2) like to have your Windows desktop setup a certain way. Here are some examples of a quick and easy way to create shortcuts with a script. These examples are Visual Basic Scripts (.vbs) and use Windows Script Host to execute. Create any or all of the examples and execute it from either the command prompt or Start / Run using:
Although most of these examples will create shortcuts to Windows Explorer (the last one is a shortcut to the Command Prompt), they are being placed in different locations. Of course you could modify the examples to launch any program of your choosing. Additionally you could combine them into one script that could be launched the first time you logon.
For easy reference I highlighted the values you may want to change to tailor the script to your needs.
Windows 7, Vista and Windows 2008 Server note: You will probably have to execute these with administrative rights. One way to do this is to launch a command prompt (the old fashioned way - Start [All] Programs / Accessories / Command Prompt) using right-click and selecting "Run As Administrator."
Example 1 - Shortcut to Windows Explorer in the "All Users" Desktop folder. I named the script Explorer_Shortcut_on_AU_Desktop.vbs.
wscript xyz.vbsNote: These scripts were all tested on Windows 7, Windows 2008 and 2003. They should run fine on earlier versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 2000, etc.) as well.
Although most of these examples will create shortcuts to Windows Explorer (the last one is a shortcut to the Command Prompt), they are being placed in different locations. Of course you could modify the examples to launch any program of your choosing. Additionally you could combine them into one script that could be launched the first time you logon.
For easy reference I highlighted the values you may want to change to tailor the script to your needs.
Windows 7, Vista and Windows 2008 Server note: You will probably have to execute these with administrative rights. One way to do this is to launch a command prompt (the old fashioned way - Start [All] Programs / Accessories / Command Prompt) using right-click and selecting "Run As Administrator."
Example 1 - Shortcut to Windows Explorer in the "All Users" Desktop folder. I named the script Explorer_Shortcut_on_AU_Desktop.vbs.
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )Example 2 - Shortcut to Windows Explorer in the "All Users" Start Menu folder. I named the script Explorer_Shortcut_in_AU_Startmenu.vbs.
strDesktop = WshShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersDesktop" )
set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strDesktop & "\Windows Explorer.lnk" )
oShellLink.TargetPath = "%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe"
oShellLink.WindowStyle = 1
oShellLink.IconLocation = "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe"
oShellLink.Description = "Windows Explorer"
oShellLink.WorkingDirectory = "%HOMEPATH%"
oShellLink.Save
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )Example 3 - Shortcut to Windows Explorer in the "All Users" Startup folder. I named the script Explorer_Shortcut_in_AU_Startup.vbs. This will cause one instance of Windows Explorer to launch during logon. If you're like me you will be using it anyway, so why not have it open automatically.
strStartMenu = WshShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersStartmenu" )
set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strStartMenu & "\Windows Explorer.lnk" )
oShellLink.TargetPath = "%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe"
oShellLink.WindowStyle = 1
oShellLink.IconLocation = "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe"
oShellLink.Description = "Windows Explorer"
oShellLink.WorkingDirectory = "%HOMEPATH%"
oShellLink.Save
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )Example 4 - Shortcut to Windows Explorer in the "Current User" Quick Launch toolbar. I named the script Explorer_Shortcut_in_CU_QuickLaunch.vbs.
strStartup = WshShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersStartmenu" )
set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strStartup & "\programs\startup\Windows Explorer.lnk" )
oShellLink.TargetPath = "%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe"
oShellLink.WindowStyle = 1
oShellLink.IconLocation = "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe"
oShellLink.Description = "Windows Explorer"
oShellLink.WorkingDirectory = "%HOMEPATH%"
oShellLink.Save
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )Example 5 - Shortcut to Command Prompt in the Quick Launch toolbar for you, the current user. I named the script CMD_Shortcut_in_CU_QuickLaunch.vbs.
strStartup = WshShell.SpecialFolders("AppData" )
set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strStartup & "\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Windows Explorer.lnk" )
oShellLink.TargetPath = "%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe"
oShellLink.WindowStyle = 1
oShellLink.IconLocation = "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe"
oShellLink.Description = "Windows Explorer"
oShellLink.WorkingDirectory = "%HOMEPATH%"
oShellLink.Save
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )See also:
strStartup = WshShell.SpecialFolders("AppData" )
set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strStartup & "\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Command Prompt.lnk" )
oShellLink.TargetPath = "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cmd.exe"
oShellLink.WindowStyle = 1
oShellLink.Hotkey = "Ctrl+Alt+C"
oShellLink.IconLocation = "%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe"
oShellLink.Description = "Windows Command Prompt"
oShellLink.WorkingDirectory = "%HOMEPATH%"
oShellLink.Save
Alternatives to HyperTerminal in Windows 7 and Vista
Beginning with Windows Vista Microsoft removed HyperTerminal (aka HyperTerm & Hyper Terminal). Of course, this means it isn't in Windows 7 either. There are several options you can use to replace its functionality.
- PuTTY - My Recommendation
- PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an
xtermterminal emulator. - WinRS (Windows Remote Shell)
- If you only need remote shell access, you can use WinRS which was introduced in Windows Vista. To get help and see execution options with WinRS, run winrs /? at a command prompt.
- Telnet is a simple, text-based program that you can use to connect to other devices over your local network or over the Internet. Telnet can be executed right from the command prompt, although you may have to enable it in Control Panel.
- Phone and Modem Options can be used to troubleshoot modem problems
- Open Phone and Modem Options by clicking the Start button, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, finally Phone and Modem Options.
- Realterm is a terminal program specially designed for capturing, controlling and debugging binary and other difficult data streams. It is far better for debugging comms than Hyperterminal. It has no support for dialing modems, etc – that is what hyperterminal does.
- TeraTerm is another alternative to HyperTerminal. Tera Term is a free software terminal emulator (communication program) which supports:
- Serial port connections.
- TCP/IP (telnet, SSH1, SSH2) connections.
- IPv6 communication.
- VT100 emulation and selected VT200/300 emulation.
- TEK4010 emulation.
- File transfer protocols (Kermit, XMODEM, ZMODEM, B-PLUS and Quick-VAN).
- Scripts using the "Tera Term Language".
- Japanese, English, Russian and Korean character sets.
- UTF-8 character encoding.
- AbsoluteTelnet Telnet, SSH, and SFTP Client. AbsoluteTelnet / SSH is a secure flexible terminal client that is suitable for developers, administrators, or deployment across the enterprise. It includes the industry standard SSH protocols to secure terminal session data across insecure environments such as the internet. Its new tabbed interface is a favorite among AbsoluteTelnet users.
- XP's Hyper Terminal
- If you really want (or just can't be without it) you can still use XP's Hyper Terminal. Just copy the following two files from an existing XP, Windows 2000 or 2003 box or extract them from the installation CD's of the previous OS's: hypertrm.dll and hypertrm.exe. Although you could put them anywhere on the disk as installation is not required, you may want to place them in %SYSTEMROOT% (normally C:\Windows\System32).
Sunday, December 6, 2009
RichCopy - RoboCopy GUI (sort of) by Microsoft
RichCopy is a free utility from Ken Tamaru of Microsoft. The tool was first developed in 2001 and has been updated regularly to keep pace with evolving needs. Worthy of note is that RichCopy is a multithreaded copying tool. That means that rather than copying one file at a time in serial order, RichCopy can open multiple threads simultaneously, allowing many files to be copied in parallel and cutting the total time required to complete the operation several times over. You can also pause and resume file copy operations, so if you lose network connectivity at any point, you can just pick up where you left off.
Of course, these are really just the simplest features of RichCopy. As the figure below shows, you also get a vast array of granular controls that allow you to customize all of those fancy aspects of your file copying —filtering files, saving attributes, adjusting cache size, and so on. If you regularly copy lots of files over the network or between various storage devices, these features will significantly ease your daily life.
Download RichCopy.
For those of you like me who prefer the command line see the following about RoboCopy:
Of course, these are really just the simplest features of RichCopy. As the figure below shows, you also get a vast array of granular controls that allow you to customize all of those fancy aspects of your file copying —filtering files, saving attributes, adjusting cache size, and so on. If you regularly copy lots of files over the network or between various storage devices, these features will significantly ease your daily life.
Download RichCopy.
For those of you like me who prefer the command line see the following about RoboCopy:
- Robocopy Syntax, Command Line Switches and Examples
- More Robocopy Examples
- How to Copy Files Multi-Threaded with Robocopy in Windows 7
- What is the Linux equivalent to robocopy?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Ultimate Windows Tweaker v 2.0 for Windows 7 and Vista
Ultimate Windows Tweaker v 2.0 is a freeware Tweak UI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows 7 & Windows Vista, 32-bit & 64-bit. It can simply be downloaded and used as a portable application to customize your Windows to meet your requirements. With judicious tweaking, it can make your system faster, more stable, and more secure with just a few mouse clicks. The tweaker detects whether you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista installed and accordingly offers you only the relevant tweaks.
The tweaker is a 345KB .exe file which does not require an install, yet packs over 150 tweaks & settings. Simply download the zip file, extract its contents and run Ultimate Windows Tweaker. Please don’t detach Empty Icon from executable’s root, the Empty Icon is copied to system directory and referred in runtime. The tweaker has been designed by Ramesh Kumar for The Windows Club.
Download Ultimate Windows Tweaker. More information.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Disable/Enable User Access Control (UAC) on Windows 7 or Vista from the Command Line
Microsoft introduced User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista. UAC enables users to perform common tasks as non-administrators, called standard users in Windows (Vista and Windows 7), and as administrators without having to switch users, log off, or use Run As. A standard user account is synonymous with a user account in Windows XP. User accounts that are members of the local Administrators group will run most applications as a standard user. By separating user and administrator functions while enabling productivity, UAC is an important enhancement for Windows.
Disable UAC from the command line
Disable UAC from the command line
%systemroot%\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /fEnable UAC from the command line
%systemroot%\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /fA couple caveats
- Must be run with administrative rights. You could right-click on Command Prompt shortcut and select Run as Administrator.
- You may have to reboot for changes to take affect.
IIS 7 Log Files Default Location
In Internet Information Services 7 Microsoft changed the default log files location.
IIS 7 Log files location
IIS 7 Log files location
%SystemDrive%\inetpub\logs\LogFilesIIS 6 Log files location
%windir%\System32\LogFiles
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Reveal, Copy and Get File Full Path with Copy as Path in Windows Vista
Windows 7 (and Vista) comes with a hidden context-sensitive menu or right click menu or shortcut menu that contains Copy as Path menu item or command. Copy as Path, which appears as menu item both for files and folder right click menu, as the name implies, will copy or grab the full path or shortcut to the file or the folder with just one button press and one click. Copy as Path is useful when user want to know the full path or actual location of a file or folder located deep inside a tree of directories or network file share, but want to avoid the hassle to traverse or navigate the path, or avoid having to manually copy and paste from address bar and type the file name.
To use Copy as Path press shift while right-clicking which will reveal the hidden context menu. You will now see the Copy as Path and a couple other options. Click on Copy as Path, then you can paste the full path to the file or folder in your destination application.
Right click context menu without and with hidden menu items (appear only when press Shift key while right clicking).
To use Copy as Path press shift while right-clicking which will reveal the hidden context menu. You will now see the Copy as Path and a couple other options. Click on Copy as Path, then you can paste the full path to the file or folder in your destination application.
Right click context menu without and with hidden menu items (appear only when press Shift key while right clicking).
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Mount an ISO image in Windows 7 or Vista (also works on 2003 and 2008)
The freeware utility from Microsoft to mount ISO Images in XP and 2003 doesn’t work in Windows 7 or Vista. Thankfully there’s another FREE utility that does, Virtual Clone Drive. With it you can mount .ISO, .CCD, .DVD, .IMG, .UDF and .BIN files.
FYI as of the latest version, it should work on Windows 7 or Vista 64 bit edition.
FYI as of the latest version, it should work on Windows 7 or Vista 64 bit edition.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Creating Bootable Vista / Windows 7 USB Flash Drive
This will walk through the steps to create a bootable USB flash drive. These instructions assume that you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Required:
Required:
- USB Flash Drive
- Microsoft OS Disk (Vista / Windows 7)
- A computer running Vista / Windows 7
Step 1: Format the Drive
Warning: This will erase everything on your USB drive.
- Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator” - you must do this or it may not work, displaying the message: "Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects"
- Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
- diskpart
- list disk
The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step. I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1. - Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.
- select disk 1
- clean
- create partition primary
- select partition 1
- active
- format fs=NTFS
- assign
- exit
When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.
Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable
Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable. In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:
- Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.
- Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
- d:
- cd d:\boot - Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
- bootsect /nt60 g:
Step 3: Set your BIOS to boot from USB
This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOS’s allow you to hit a key at boot and select a boot option.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Schedule Windows reboot (restart) from command line with schtasks
Schedule one-time reboot:
Upon successful creation the OS will report, "SUCCESS: The scheduled task "Reboot" has successfully been created."
You can also update an existing scheduled task from the Windows command line:
schtasks /create /tn "Reboot" /tr "shutdown /r /t 1" /sc once /st 01:00:00 /sd 08/18/2009 /ru "System"Create scheduled task to run twice daily:
schtasks /create /tn "TTF" /tr "C:\Temp\T\ttf.bat" /sc daily /st 06:00:00 /sd 08/25/2009 /ri 720 /du 720 /ru "System"Create scheduled task to run every weekday, M-F:
schtasks /create /tn "Reboot" /tr "shutdown /r /t 1" /sc WEEKLY /d "MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI" /st 01:00:00 /sd 08/18/2009 /ru "System"
To update an existing scheduled task run the same command as above with any desired modifications. You will be prompted with, "WARNING: The task name "Reboot" already exists. Do you want to replace it (Y/N)?"
Upon successful creation the OS will report, "SUCCESS: The scheduled task "Reboot" has successfully been created."
You can also update an existing scheduled task from the Windows command line:
schtasks /change /tn "Reboot" /st 04:00:00 /sd 12/11/2009
Schtasks supports the following options
SCHTASKS /Change [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] /TN taskname
{ [/RU runasuser] [/RP runaspassword] [/TR taskrun] [/ST starttime]
[/RI interval] [ {/ET endtime | /DU duration} [/K] ]
[/SD startdate] [/ED enddate] [/ENABLE | /DISABLE] [/IT] [/Z] }
Description:
Changes the program to run, or user account and password used
by a scheduled task.
Parameter List:
/S system Specifies the remote system to connect to.
/U username Specifies the user context under which schtasks.exe
should execute.
/P [password] Specifies the password for the given user context.
Prompts for input if omitted.
/TN taskname Specifies which scheduled task to change.
/RU username Changes the user name (user context) under which the
scheduled task has to run. For the system account,
valid values are "", "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" or "SYSTEM".
For v2 tasks, "NT AUTHORITY\LOCALSERVICE" and
"NT AUTHORITY\NETWORKSERVICE" are also available as well
as the well known SIDs for all three.
/RP password Specifies a new password for the existing user
context or the password for a new user account.
This password is ignored for the system account.
/TR taskrun Specifies the new program that the
scheduled task will run.
/ST starttime Specifies the start time to run the task. The time
format is HH:mm (24 hour time) for example, 14:30
for 2:30 PM.
/RI interval Specifies the repetition interval in
minutes. Valid range: 1 - 599940 minutes.
/ET endtime Specifies the end time to run the task. The time
format is HH:mm (24 hour time) for example, 14:50
for 2:50 PM.
/DU duration Specifies the duration to run the task. The time
format is HH:mm. This is not applicable with /ET.
/K Terminates the task at the endtime or duration time.
/SD startdate Specifies the first date on which the task runs.
The format is mm/dd/yyyy.
/ED enddate Specifies the last date when the task should run.
The format is mm/dd/yyyy.
/IT Enables the task to run interactively only if the
/RU user is currently logged on at the time the job
runs. This task runs only if the user is logged in.
/RL level Sets the Run Level for the job. Valid values are
LIMITED and HIGHEST. The default is to not change it.
/ENABLE Enables the scheduled task.
/DISABLE Disables the scheduled task.
/Z Marks the task for deletion after its final run.
/DELAY delaytime Specifies the wait time to delay the running of the
task after the trigger is fired. The time format is
mmmm:ss. This option is only valid for schedule types
ONSTART, ONLOGON, ONEVENT.
/? Displays this help message.
Schtasks Examples:
SCHTASKS /Change /RP password /TN "Backup and Restore"
SCHTASKS /Change /TR restore.exe /TN "Start Restore"
SCHTASKS /Change /S system /U user /P password /RU newuser /TN "Start Backup" /IT
SCHTASKS /Change [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] /TN taskname
{ [/RU runasuser] [/RP runaspassword] [/TR taskrun] [/ST starttime]
[/RI interval] [ {/ET endtime | /DU duration} [/K] ]
[/SD startdate] [/ED enddate] [/ENABLE | /DISABLE] [/IT] [/Z] }
Description:
Changes the program to run, or user account and password used
by a scheduled task.
Parameter List:
/S system Specifies the remote system to connect to.
/U username Specifies the user context under which schtasks.exe
should execute.
/P [password] Specifies the password for the given user context.
Prompts for input if omitted.
/TN taskname Specifies which scheduled task to change.
/RU username Changes the user name (user context) under which the
scheduled task has to run. For the system account,
valid values are "", "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" or "SYSTEM".
For v2 tasks, "NT AUTHORITY\LOCALSERVICE" and
"NT AUTHORITY\NETWORKSERVICE" are also available as well
as the well known SIDs for all three.
/RP password Specifies a new password for the existing user
context or the password for a new user account.
This password is ignored for the system account.
/TR taskrun Specifies the new program that the
scheduled task will run.
/ST starttime Specifies the start time to run the task. The time
format is HH:mm (24 hour time) for example, 14:30
for 2:30 PM.
/RI interval Specifies the repetition interval in
minutes. Valid range: 1 - 599940 minutes.
/ET endtime Specifies the end time to run the task. The time
format is HH:mm (24 hour time) for example, 14:50
for 2:50 PM.
/DU duration Specifies the duration to run the task. The time
format is HH:mm. This is not applicable with /ET.
/K Terminates the task at the endtime or duration time.
/SD startdate Specifies the first date on which the task runs.
The format is mm/dd/yyyy.
/ED enddate Specifies the last date when the task should run.
The format is mm/dd/yyyy.
/IT Enables the task to run interactively only if the
/RU user is currently logged on at the time the job
runs. This task runs only if the user is logged in.
/RL level Sets the Run Level for the job. Valid values are
LIMITED and HIGHEST. The default is to not change it.
/ENABLE Enables the scheduled task.
/DISABLE Disables the scheduled task.
/Z Marks the task for deletion after its final run.
/DELAY delaytime Specifies the wait time to delay the running of the
task after the trigger is fired. The time format is
mmmm:ss. This option is only valid for schedule types
ONSTART, ONLOGON, ONEVENT.
/? Displays this help message.
Schtasks Examples:
SCHTASKS /Change /RP password /TN "Backup and Restore"
SCHTASKS /Change /TR restore.exe /TN "Start Restore"
SCHTASKS /Change /S system /U user /P password /RU newuser /TN "Start Backup" /IT
Set up your laptop for work: Turn off the crap
When it comes to setting up your work laptop, I suggest that you should only care about speed and efficiency. This means that your computer should be (a) booting up quickly, and (b) running smoothly (without crashes).
The key to a quick startup is minimising the number of programs that run automatically when you bootup Windows. Click the Start button, then Run, and type msconfig. Click on the Startup tab and deselect all of the programs that you do not want to run automatically. For more detailed advice, I refer you to the excellent Make XP Boot Faster from Wikihow.
In order to keep your computer running smoothly you should turn off all of the useless services that run by default in Windows XP. I recommend that you read A Guide To Turning Off Useless XP Services by JasonN and make the necessary changes. If in the future MARCS students begin using Windows Vista *shudder* then I recommend you find a similar guide for turning off all of the useless crap in Vista.
The key to a quick startup is minimising the number of programs that run automatically when you bootup Windows. Click the Start button, then Run, and type msconfig. Click on the Startup tab and deselect all of the programs that you do not want to run automatically. For more detailed advice, I refer you to the excellent Make XP Boot Faster from Wikihow.
In order to keep your computer running smoothly you should turn off all of the useless services that run by default in Windows XP. I recommend that you read A Guide To Turning Off Useless XP Services by JasonN and make the necessary changes. If in the future MARCS students begin using Windows Vista *shudder* then I recommend you find a similar guide for turning off all of the useless crap in Vista.
Windows Command Line Tricks
Here are a few Windows command line tricks that might make your life easier.
Save A List of Files to a Text File by Extension
dir *.ext /s /b > files.txt
This command line will create a file called files.txt. When you open this file, there will be a complete list of all the files in that directory and all subdirectories with the .ext extension. You can then open up this text file in any text editor and work this the information.By changing the ext part, you can select different files. For example, if you wanted to list all of the PDF documents, you would type:
dir *.pdf /s /b > files.txt
Get Your IP Address Information
ipconfig /all
This will retrieve a pile of information about your network connection and IP information. From this command, you can get:
* Host Name
* Primary DNS Suffix
* Node Type
* IP Routing Enabled
* WINS Proxy Enabled
* DNS Suffix Search List
* Connection-specific DNS Suffix
* Network Adapter Description
* Physical (MAC) Address
* DHCP Enabled
* IP Address
* Subnet Mask
* Default Gateway
* DNS Servers
Get Installed Driver Information
driverquery
It can be very useful when troubleshooting to know what drivers are installed on a system. This command will give you a complete listing of the drivers and when they were installed.
Find Files Opened By Network Users
openfiles /query
If you are running a system and you want to know who has files open on your computer, this command will provide you a list of those users and the files that they have open.
Note: If you get an error saying The system global flag ‘maintain objects list’ needs to be enabled to see local opened files, you can fix this issue by typing openfiles /local on. You will have to reboot the system but it will resolve the issue.
Monitor Port Activity
netstat -a 30
This will show you all of the TCP/IP ports that are being used on your system and what they are connecting to (or being connected from). It will continue to monitor these ports and refresh the information every 30 seconds. You can change the refresh rate by changing the number at the end of the command.
Recover Information From A Corrupt File
recover filename.ext
If you have a disk with damaged sectors, you can attempt to recover as much information as possible from the damaged file. Data that is not damaged can be retrieved but data in damaged sectors will be lost.
Defragment Remote Computer
rexec remotePC defrag C: /F
This command used the rexec command to force a defragment of the C: drive on the computer named remotePC. You can use whatever you want to for the command (I just used defrag C: /F as an example). This is very useful for remote maintenance.
Retrieve Detailed System Information
systeminfo
With this command, you can retrieve the following information:
* Host Name
* OS Name
* OS Version
* OS Manufacturer
* OS Configuration
* OS Build Type
* Registered Owner
* Registered Organization
* Product ID
* Original Install Date
* System Up Time
* System Manufacturer
* System Model
* System type
* Processor(s)
* BIOS Version
* Windows Directory
* System Directory
* Boot Device
* System Locale
* Input Locale
* Time Zone
* Total Physical Memory
* Available Physical Memory
* Virtual Memory Max Size
* Virtual Memory Available
* Virtual Memory In Use
* Page File Location(s)
* Domain
* Logon Server
* Hotfix(s)
* NetWork Card(s)
Schedule Defrag to Defragment C: Daily
schtasks /create /tn "Defrag C" /tr "defrag c: /f" /sc daily /st 02:00:00 /ru "System"
This will set your computer to automatically perform a complete defrag of the C: drive each day at 11:00:00 PM (23:00:00). It does this by creating a scheduled task called Defrag C. It will run this command under the computer’s system account.
Map A Drive Letter to a Folder
subst W: C:\windows
Sometimes, your directory structure can get pretty deep and complicated. You can simplify this a bit by mapping a drive letter to commonly used folders. In the example that I have given, this will create a drive letter W: and map it to the C:\windows directory. Then, whenever you go into My Computer, you will see a W: drive and when you browse to it, it will automatically take you to the contents of the C:\windows folder.
You can do this with any unused drive letter and any folder that exists on your system.
List All Tasks Running On The Computer
tasklist
It’s always good to know what is running on your system. This is the command line version of the processes tab in Taks Manager.
Kill A Program
taskkill /im programname.exe /f
If, when using the tasklist command, you discover that there is something running you just want killed. This is the way to do it! Just note the program name and use it in place of programname.exe.
Reboot a Remote Computer
shutdown -r -f -m \\remotePC -c "System will be rebooted in 30 seconds"
Sometimes, you just need to reboot a system. This will do it remotely and give the user a 30 second warning.
Schedule computer reboot
schtasks /create /tn "Reboot" /tr "shutdown /r /t 1" /sc once /st 01:00:00 /sd 08/18/2009 /ru "System"
cmd /c - Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
&& - concatenates commands together
This way you can create a shortcut for short scripts without creating batch files.
e.g. a shortcut for stopping and starting the print spooler.
%windir%\System32\cmd.exe /c "net.exe stop Spooler && net start Spooler"
Sleep
No sleep command in Windows 2000/XP (AFAIK) unless you have the Resource Kit, and then you have to move extra files around with your scripts.
Simply use the ping command to wait predefined times. In this example it’s 10 seconds.
ping -n 10 127.0.0.1 > NUL 2>&1
Find
Windows answer to grep. Not as powerful but still useful.
e.g. In conjunction with systeminfo above to find out the Virtual Memory on the PC.
systeminfo find "Virtual Memory"
Save A List of Files to a Text File by Extension
dir *.ext /s /b > files.txt
This command line will create a file called files.txt. When you open this file, there will be a complete list of all the files in that directory and all subdirectories with the .ext extension. You can then open up this text file in any text editor and work this the information.By changing the ext part, you can select different files. For example, if you wanted to list all of the PDF documents, you would type:
dir *.pdf /s /b > files.txt
Get Your IP Address Information
ipconfig /all
This will retrieve a pile of information about your network connection and IP information. From this command, you can get:
* Host Name
* Primary DNS Suffix
* Node Type
* IP Routing Enabled
* WINS Proxy Enabled
* DNS Suffix Search List
* Connection-specific DNS Suffix
* Network Adapter Description
* Physical (MAC) Address
* DHCP Enabled
* IP Address
* Subnet Mask
* Default Gateway
* DNS Servers
Get Installed Driver Information
driverquery
It can be very useful when troubleshooting to know what drivers are installed on a system. This command will give you a complete listing of the drivers and when they were installed.
Find Files Opened By Network Users
openfiles /query
If you are running a system and you want to know who has files open on your computer, this command will provide you a list of those users and the files that they have open.
Note: If you get an error saying The system global flag ‘maintain objects list’ needs to be enabled to see local opened files, you can fix this issue by typing openfiles /local on. You will have to reboot the system but it will resolve the issue.
Monitor Port Activity
netstat -a 30
This will show you all of the TCP/IP ports that are being used on your system and what they are connecting to (or being connected from). It will continue to monitor these ports and refresh the information every 30 seconds. You can change the refresh rate by changing the number at the end of the command.
Recover Information From A Corrupt File
recover filename.ext
If you have a disk with damaged sectors, you can attempt to recover as much information as possible from the damaged file. Data that is not damaged can be retrieved but data in damaged sectors will be lost.
Defragment Remote Computer
rexec remotePC defrag C: /F
This command used the rexec command to force a defragment of the C: drive on the computer named remotePC. You can use whatever you want to for the command (I just used defrag C: /F as an example). This is very useful for remote maintenance.
Retrieve Detailed System Information
systeminfo
With this command, you can retrieve the following information:
* Host Name
* OS Name
* OS Version
* OS Manufacturer
* OS Configuration
* OS Build Type
* Registered Owner
* Registered Organization
* Product ID
* Original Install Date
* System Up Time
* System Manufacturer
* System Model
* System type
* Processor(s)
* BIOS Version
* Windows Directory
* System Directory
* Boot Device
* System Locale
* Input Locale
* Time Zone
* Total Physical Memory
* Available Physical Memory
* Virtual Memory Max Size
* Virtual Memory Available
* Virtual Memory In Use
* Page File Location(s)
* Domain
* Logon Server
* Hotfix(s)
* NetWork Card(s)
Schedule Defrag to Defragment C: Daily
schtasks /create /tn "Defrag C" /tr "defrag c: /f" /sc daily /st 02:00:00 /ru "System"
This will set your computer to automatically perform a complete defrag of the C: drive each day at 11:00:00 PM (23:00:00). It does this by creating a scheduled task called Defrag C. It will run this command under the computer’s system account.
Map A Drive Letter to a Folder
subst W: C:\windows
Sometimes, your directory structure can get pretty deep and complicated. You can simplify this a bit by mapping a drive letter to commonly used folders. In the example that I have given, this will create a drive letter W: and map it to the C:\windows directory. Then, whenever you go into My Computer, you will see a W: drive and when you browse to it, it will automatically take you to the contents of the C:\windows folder.
You can do this with any unused drive letter and any folder that exists on your system.
List All Tasks Running On The Computer
tasklist
It’s always good to know what is running on your system. This is the command line version of the processes tab in Taks Manager.
Kill A Program
taskkill /im programname.exe /f
If, when using the tasklist command, you discover that there is something running you just want killed. This is the way to do it! Just note the program name and use it in place of programname.exe.
Reboot a Remote Computer
shutdown -r -f -m \\remotePC -c "System will be rebooted in 30 seconds"
Sometimes, you just need to reboot a system. This will do it remotely and give the user a 30 second warning.
Schedule computer reboot
schtasks /create /tn "Reboot" /tr "shutdown /r /t 1" /sc once /st 01:00:00 /sd 08/18/2009 /ru "System"
cmd /c - Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
&& - concatenates commands together
This way you can create a shortcut for short scripts without creating batch files.
e.g. a shortcut for stopping and starting the print spooler.
%windir%\System32\cmd.exe /c "net.exe stop Spooler && net start Spooler"
Sleep
No sleep command in Windows 2000/XP (AFAIK) unless you have the Resource Kit, and then you have to move extra files around with your scripts.
Simply use the ping command to wait predefined times. In this example it’s 10 seconds.
ping -n 10 127.0.0.1 > NUL 2>&1
Find
Windows answer to grep. Not as powerful but still useful.
e.g. In conjunction with systeminfo above to find out the Virtual Memory on the PC.
systeminfo find "Virtual Memory"
Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7, 2003, 2008) Commands
Here is a great list Windows XP/2000 commands that will make any Linux user feel at home at the command prompt. A lot of these commands are intended for administrating a network, but they are great for savvy home users as well.
- at - Windows Scheduling utility
- bootcfg - This utility allows you to set up your boot options, such as your default OS and other loading options
- cacls - Changes the ACLs (security Settings) of files and folders. Very similar to chmod in Linux.
- comp - This utility is very similar to diff in Linux. Use the /? switch to get examples of command usage.
- defrag - Yes, XP comes with a command line disk defrag utility. Here's an example of how to create a scheduled task to defrag every day:
schtasks /create /tn "Defrag C" /tr "defrag c: /f" /sc daily /st 04:30:00 /ru "System" - diskpart - Use this command to manage your disk partitions. This is the text version for the GUI Disk Manager.
- driverquery - Produces a list of drivers, their properties, and their versions. Great for computer documentation.
- eudcedit (unpublished) - Private Character editor. Yes with this program built into Windows XP you can create your own font!
- findstr - Find String - similar to Linux's Grep.
- fsutil (unpublished) - This is a utility with a lot of capability. Come back soon for great examples.
- getmac - This command gets the Media Access Control (MAC) address of your network cards.
- gpresult - This generates a summary of the user settings and computer group policy settings.
- gpupdate - Use this utility to manually apply computer and user policy from your windows 2000 (or newer) Active Directory domain.
- ipconfig - This handy tool displays IP settings of the current computer and much more.
- MMC - Microsoft Management Console. This is the master tool for Windows, it is the main interface in which all other tools use starting primarily in Windows 2000 and newer systems.
- more- Utility used to display text output one screen at a time. Example:
more c:\windows\win.ini - msconfig - The ultimate tool to change the services and utilities that start when your Windows machine boots up. You can also copy the executable from XP and use it in Win2k.
- msinfo32 - An awesome diagnostic tool. With it you can get a list of running processes, including the residing path of the executable (great for manually removing malware) and get detailed information about hardware and system diagnostics.
- narrator - Turns on the system narrator (can also be found in accessibility options in control panel). Will will allow your computer to dictate text to you.
- netsh - A network configuration tool console. At the 'netsh>' prompt, use the '?' to list the available commands and type "exit" to get back to a command prompt.
- netstat - A local network port tool - try netstat -ano.
- nslookup - A DNS name resolution tool.
- openfiles - Allows an administrator to display or disconnect open files in XP professional. Type "openfiles /?" for a list of possible parameters.
- Pathping - A cross between the ping and traceroute utilities. Who needs Neotrace when you can use this? Type "pathping
" and watch it go. - recover - This command can recover readable information from a damaged disk and is very easy to use.
- reg - A console registry tool, great for scripting Registry edits.
- sc - A command line utility called the Service Controller. A power tool to make service changes via a logon/logoff or startup/shutdown script.
- schtasks - A newer version of the AT command. This allows an administrator to schedule and manage scheduled tasks on a local and remote machines.
- secedit - Use this utility to manually apply computer and user policy from your windows 2000 (or newer) domain. Example to update the machine policy: secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy /enforce
To view help on this, just type secedit.
NOTE: In Windows XP SP1 and news, this command is superceded by: gpupdate /force - sfc - The system file checker scans important system files and replaces the ones you (or your applications) hacked beyond repair with the real, official Microsoft versions.
- shutdown - With this tool, You can shut down or restart your own computer, or an administrator can shut down or restart a remote computer.
- sigverif - With the sigverif tool you can have all driver files analyzed to verify that they are digitally signed. Just type 'sigverif' at the command prompt.
- systeminfo - Basic system configuration information, such as the system type, the processor type, time zone, virtual memory settings, system uptime, and much more. This program is great for creating an inventory of computers on your network.
- sysedit - System Configuration File Editor. An old tool that was very handy for the Windows 9X days. msconfig is what you want to use now.
- tasklist - Tasklist is the command console equivalent to the task manager in windows. It is a must have when fighting malware and viruses. Try the command:
tasklist /svc to view the memory resources your services take up. - taskkill - Taskkill contains the rest of the task manager functionality. It allows you to kill those unneeded or locked up applications.
- tree - This command will provide a 'family tree' style display of the drive/folder you specify.
- WMIC - Windows Management Instrumentation Command tool. This allows you to pull an amazing amount of low-level system information from a command line scripting interface.
Of course this list in note exhaustive, I just wanted to focus on tools that are particularly helpful that everyone might use. For the official list, please visit Microsoft Windows XP Pro Command Reference.
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