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This eBook will provide you with a practical introduction to some of the most important tools in the resources kits and the Support Tools provided by Windows 2000 and Windows NT Professional editions. Each chapter presents a different group of tools as they relate to various network management tasks. You'll learn about tools that ease computer management tasks, desktop production, and network management. You'll also find out about diagnostic tools, such as the Browser Monitor, and the file and disk tools such as the Compress command. After reading this eBook, you'll master the most important tools in the resources kits and the Support Tools.
Windows 2000 and Windows NT provide a powerful set of graphical tools that network administrators can use to manage network servers and desktop systems. Although Win2K's and NT's built-in graphical tools are powerful and easy to use, they can be cumbersome and even error-prone for highly repetitive tasks. In addition, the tools don't lend themselves to scripting. Fortunately, Microsoft realized early on that network administrators needed a set of powerful and scriptable tools to manage servers and desktop systems from the command line. In response to this need Microsoft created a set of resource kits for the company’s Windows Server and Windows Professional editions. Microsoft's Windows resource kits contain a wealth of tools that let you perform most Windows administrative tasks from the command line. In addition, you can usually incorporate these commands into your own management scripts. The resource kits aren't included in the Windows products; you must purchase the resource kits separately. You can find more information about the resource kits at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit. In addition to the resource kits, Microsoft added an extra set of tools called Windows Support Tools to the Windows installation CD-ROM. The Windows Support Tools folder is on the Windows Server and Windows Professional CD-ROMs in the \support folder.
This book will provide you with a practical introduction to some of the most important tools in the resources kits and the Support Tools. Each chapter presents a different group of tools as they relate to various network management tasks. The tools in Chapter 1 let you perform computer management tasks such as deleting profiles, dumping the event log, finding registry entries, and killing processes. This chapter includes information about using the Movetree tool, which can move Active Directory (AD) objects between organizational units (OUs). Chapter 2 focuses on desktop productivity tools. Here you'll learn about tools such as Cmdhere, which opens a command window starting in a specified directory, and TweakUI, which can customize several of your desktop settings. Chapter 3 presents a group of network diagnostic tools such as Browser Monitor, which queries your network's browser list, and Domain Monitor, which queries domain controllers (DCs) on your network. In Chapter 4 you'll see how to use several file and disk tools. You'll learn how to use the Compress command to save disk space and how to use the share.vbs script to create shares. This chapter also presents the Fileman.vbs script, which you can use to change the ownership of files on an NTFS volume. Chapter 5 presents some important network management tools. In this chapter you'll learn how to use the Addusers command to create new user accounts and how to use the Netdom tool to manage domains. This chapter includes information about using the Dhcpcmd tool, which lists active DHCP leases. In Chapter 6 you'll see how to use some scripting tools. Among other things, this chapter presents a group of Perl scripts that can perform virtually all DNS-related tasks. This chapter also presents the Logevent command, which you can use to write events into the event log for your own batch files.
You'll find this book to be a valuable and practical guide that enables you to quickly master the most important tools in the resource kits and the Support Tools.
-- Mark Minasi