Introduction of Windows Internal | Windows Internal Overview | Windows Internal Quick Guide

Windows Resource Kits
The Microsoft® Windows Resource Kit Tools are a set of tools to help administrators streamline management tasks such as troubleshooting operating system issues, managing Active Directory®, configuring networking and security features, and automating application deployment.

Task and Responsibilities

  • Deployment
  • System administration scripting
  • Directory services
  • Networking and internetworking
  • Internet services
  • Custom and automated installations
  • Registry
  • Security
  • Policy-based administration
  • Server management
  • Clustering and load balancing
  • Performance management
  • Troubleshooting

About the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit
Once you have download and installed the resource kit (very easy process), you are pretty much set up, now all you need to do it work with each tool so you know what they can do, and that’s the intention of this article series.

After the installation, go to Start => All Programs => Windows Resource Kit Tools => Command Shell

Download – http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=17657

If you do a dir, you will see the directory listing for all the files listed here. Each file has a brief description of what it does:

Clearmem.exe: Clear Memory
Compress.exe: Compress Files
Confdisk.exe: Disk Configuration Tool
Consume.exe: Memory Consumers Tool
Dh.exe: Display Heap
Delprof.exe: User Profile Deletion Utility
Diskuse.exe: User Disk Usage Tool
Gpmonitor.exe: Group Policy Monitor
Instsrv.exe: Service Installer
Memmonitor.exe: Memory Monitor
Vrfydsk.exe: Verify Disk

Reference – http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-2003/Windows-Server-2003-Resource-Kit.html

What is Windows Service?
Windows Service applications run for a long time and are mostly used in server environments therefore they are usually called long-running applications. Capability to create windows service is one of the powerful features of .net.

Windows Service applications do not have any user interface or they do not produce any visual output. Services can run in the background while a user is performing or executing any other task in the foreground. If any user messages are generated, they are written to the Windows Event Log.

Windows Services are controlled by the Service Control Manager that helps to start, stop or pause the windows service, as needed.

Examples of windows services include task scheduling, running message queues, file indexing, plug and play device detection etc.

In the source code, Windows Service extends the System.ServiceProcess.Service class.

All Windows Services that are built in .NET need to extend this class. Visual studio includes the following methods by default, which are overridden by the service when it is created.
Dispose – clean up any managed and unmanaged resources
OnStart – control the service startup
OnStop – control the service stoppage

How to create Windows Service?

  • Select a new project from File menu.
  • Expand “Visual Basic” tab and select “Windows”.
  • Then select Windows Service in it and specify the name of the service.
  • Then right click on the form and select Add Installer.
  • Project Installer gets added.
  • Select ServiceInstaller1, go to properties and set DisplayName, ServiceName and set StartType as Automatic.
  • Then select ServiceProcessInstaller1 and set Account property as LocalSystem.

Windows troubleshooting For Build Issues

  • OS Environment issues
  • Application Configuration settings
  • OS Memory Utilization
  • Disk I/O activies
  • Services running
  • Network issues

Chkdsk
The Windows Chkdsk (check disk) utility can find and fix common problems with disks and storage devices.

Disk Cleanup utility
The Disk Cleanup utility is a simple tool in Windows XP and Windows Vista that can remove temporary files from your PC, thus freeing up hard disk space.

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Make for Windows: NMake | What is Nmake?

windows-nmake

Make for Windows: NMake

What is Nmake?
NMAKE is Microsoft’s implementation of the make tool. The Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility (NMAKE.EXE) is a 32-bit tool that builds projects based on commands contained in a description file.

Another definition found on web as well
nmake is the “make” program for Visual Studio. A “make” program builds (makes) an executable and/or package by reading a set of “make” files. These files are essentially scripts that specify what is to be made, what files (header, source code, resource) are needed for each output file, etc. So nmake can be used to completely automate the process.

A frequently asked question: “Where can I find make for Windows?“. The answer is: “Download and use NMake“.

Downloading NMake
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q132084

Direct Downloan Link of Nmake
http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/patch/1.52/w95/en-us/nmake15.exe

Installing NMake

Run the downloaded executable to extract the files. Copy both the NMAKE.EXE and the NMAKE.ERR file to your Perl bin directory, normally C:\Perl\bin. Make sure that you copy the NMAKE.ERR file as well.

1. Download nmake15.exe

2. Double click on nmake15.exe. It will generate 3 files: nmake.exe, nmake.err and readme.txt.

3. Copy nmake.exe and nmake.err to \perl\bin, which is where ActivePerl executable files are located.

4. Now try the nmake command in a command window. If you see the following message, NMake 1.5 is installed correctly:

>nmake
Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 1.50    Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp 1988-94. All rights reserved.
NMAKE : fatal error U1064: MAKEFILE not found and no target specified    Stop.

Example of an NMake session

Normally building Perl modules and installing them consist of the following steps:

perl Makefile.pl
make
make test
make install

Reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd9y37ha%28v=vs.71%29.aspx

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Read About Windows 7 Deployment Best Practices

windows-7-deployment-best-practices

Windows 7 Deployment Best Practices

This week, I and my colleagues are at the IT Business Edge Midmarket CIO Summit, where we are focusing on the needs and concerns of CIOs in mid-sized businesses and government organizations. I’m doing the talk on Windows 7 deployment best practices and to prepare for that talk, I’ve interviewed around 10 companies that have either deployed Windows 7 or are in trials with it. In Don Tennant’s CIO panel last night, he asked how their trials were going and the CIOs who responded gave answers that are consistent with what I have found. The trials are going vastly better than expected and a high percentage of CIOs appear to be major fans of the offering. Given that I couldn’t find a single CIO that liked Windows Vista, this is certainly a dramatic change.

Let’s talk about what is going right and I’ll make recommendations at the end.

The Advantage of a Maintenance Release

Windows 7 is a Maintenance Release — and Maintenance Releases historically — are more reliable and vastly better liked by IT and users than the initial release of a new product. Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows 7 were all maintenance releases and generally were better received than Windows 95, Windows NT and Windows Vista. Windows 2000 and Windows ME were exceptions. Windows 2000 was a primary release but because of the massive testing for Y2K it actually went in reasonably well, and Windows ME should have been a second Maintenance Release but they made too many changes and didn’t do enough testing and it was horrid. As a result, Windows 2000 behaved more like a Maintenance Release and Windows ME a primary, almost a 1.0, release. The first was widely deployed; the second was avoided like the plague.

A Maintenance Release seems to work better because it focuses on tuning and user-interface simplification. The core aspects of the product remain largely unchanged from the prior service patched product. As a result, the Maintenance release is a vastly more mature product out of the gate. Windows 7, based on testing results, is behaving consistently well, like a Maintenance Release should.

Key Benefits

The review and deployment sites indicated they were seeing a number of strong benefits with Windows 7 over Windows XP. These benefits include much stronger IT control, which has resulted in better reliability for the product because there are fewer employee-driven problems. IT can better block unapproved activities and IT is better able to remotely correct mistakes that do get through.

CIOs appear to be using Windows 7 to significantly extend their PC use cycles for at least another three years and for up to 10 years total. They are seeing performance improvements and getting good installation results on hardware that is up to seven years old.

Security improvements, particularly for government sites, are one of the big reasons for moving to the product and Bitlocker is being used widely in the trials and deployments to protect company data. In addition, the protections against malware are making it much harder for employees to install it, reducing breakage.

With the reduction or elimination of support for Windows XP, problems with that platform are now increasing and the quality of support for Windows 7 appears higher. This is consistent with Microsoft practice, as it tends to put its best support resources on the new platform and discontinue support for any platform that is two versions back. Sites are reporting almost no driver issues — they had been experiencing increasing driver problems with new hardware and Windows XP as core vendors stopped doing driver updates for XP some time ago.

One feature of Windows 7 that dovetailed very well with Windows Server 2008 is Branch Cache for companies that were using it successfully to improve remote office performance. Windows Server 2008, in most cases, was either being rolled out before or concurrently with Windows 7 in most of the sites I spoke with.

Best Practices

The most compelling justification, from a financial standpoint, to rolling out Windows 7 this year is extending the life of existing hardware up to four additional years. Against the avoided hardware cost, the cost of the OS and deployment services appears trivial. Be aware, however, that system memory needs to be assured on any system built before 2008 because both Windows Vista and Windows 7 use memory heavily. If the memory is faulty or mismatched, intermittent and hard-to-diagnose failures will result. After 2008, the vendors put in practices that better tested system memory before shipment.

Big Bang deployments continue to work better because everyone is put on the same software platforms and support is better able to deal with any problems consistently. However, Windows 7 interoperates well with Windows XP and phased deployments remain the most common way these CIOs plan to roll out the offering.

Extended trials are showcasing few problems but also showing that the benefits of putting a contained group on Windows 7 for an extended period before deployment is worth the effort. Most sites are deploying to their own IT organizations first and then six or so months later, after all problems are fully understood and most mitigated, rolling out to the rest of the company.

Tools

There are a number of Microsoft tools that companies are recommending based on their experiences. Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager is being used heavily to properly provision reimaged PCs in large numbers. This tool, which was developed with extensive feedback from IT, has proven to be a huge help in terms of matching the PC configurations to the organizations and employees they have been deployed to.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit has formed the basis for early adapter installations and been one of the primary reasons so few applications have failed after deployment or stalled deployments. This tool goes to the core of why an impressive number of CIOs seem to like Windows 7.

The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack has helped early adopting organizations to move up to two-thirds of their desktop applications to servers and off the desktop itself. hey are primarily using App-V.

Other Considerations

As companies begin to think about rolling out Windows 7, there are a number of other things that they are considering at the same time. Remote access is expensive and paying for multiple remote data plans excessively expensive. As a result, they are revising WAN access policies and starting to favor plans and phones that allow tethering.

Some of the firms that are significantly trying to extend aging hardware cycles are looking at employee purchase and access to some corporate resources by employee-owned machines so that individuals who feel they need something newer can purchase the solution themselves.

In much the same fashion, firms are looking at PC alternatives and thinking of starting trials with tablets, smartphones or smartbooks to supplement their PC products.

Bundled bids are being considered, given that Windows Server 2008 is often deployed in the same window to both eliminate vendor complexity and get the strongest volume discounts for both the servers and desktops.

Recommended Considerations

Based on my experience, I suggest you consider some additional items. First, if you are eliminating a vendor, make sure there are no dependencies you don’t know about. One of the worst problems I ever ran into was when the CIO of a firm I was working for eliminated a vendor who also turned out to be our largest corporate customer. That was nearly a career-ending decision.

Look at monitors and interfaces if you are rolling out new hardware. DisplayPort is an increasing option but your existing monitors may not support it, and it isn’t yet universally used.

In looking back at my conversations with these early deployment and trial sites, a number of things occurred to me. One is that if ROI is used consistently for purchases like this, the competency in doing ROI analysis improves and the success rate with the CFO improves as well. This deployment is a huge opportunity to rethink what actually goes on the desktop and you can use it to reduce your desktop complexity and desktop operating costs significantly.

Vendors should be held to the results they share with you for ROI calculations and if the sold benefits don’t result, this should be taken into consideration for future business. So many deployments like this are managed tactically and often the results suffer.

Spend some time talking to similar firms who have already deployed Windows 7 or who are also in trials. Events like this CIO forum are a great place to meet folks like this.

Generally deployments like this work vastly better with new hardware and given the relatively low cost of that hardware, you may be better off with it rather than extending the life of the existing stuff. As vendors focused on cost containment several years ago, they designed for three-year life cycles. The chance of catastrophic hardware failure goes up sharply after thee years as a result.

Particularly in the first half of the year, Microsoft is looking for early deployment sites and will make available resources for free that can substantially reduce your cost of deployment. In addition, because you will then be visible, it will tend to go to greater lengths to keep you happy. Firms have found that invaluable in the past.

Make sure you have enough system memory,. Systems with less than 2 GB of memory are very slow and users will likely complain about the result. With a focus on putting applications and data on servers, consider low-capacity SSD drives over high-capacity magnetic drives. They are more reliable, dramatically faster, and help force the employee to put information on servers where it belongs.

 

Wrapping Up

It amazes me that I found no CIO who didn’t like Windows 7 and an impressive number that seemed to actually love it. Don’t be surprised that, after your testing and deployment, you actually think better of the platform and Microsoft as a result. That seems to be the outcome so far.

Article Source:

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/enderle/windows-7-deployment-best-practices/?cs=40045&page=1

 

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Windows XP/2000 Commands & Tools | Windows XP Command-line Reference

windows-xp-2000-commands-tools

Here’s the ultimate Windows XP/2000 command list 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.  We even listed which OS you need for these commands.

Many thanks to the digg users who ‘dugg’ our site and care to leave comments of helpful commands that we have left out!

  • at (windows XP/2000)
    Scheduling utility.
  • bootcfg (XP only)
    This utility allows you to set up your boot options, such as your default OS and other loading options.
  • cacls (XP, 2000, & NT4.0)
    Changes the ACLs (security Settings) of files and folders. Very similar to chmod in Linux. 
  • comp (XP & 2000)
    This utility is very similar to diff in Linux.  Use the /? switch to get examples of command usage.
  • contig (works with NT4.0 and newer)
    A great defrag utility for NTFS partitions.
  • control (XP only) – unpublished!
    Allows you to launch control panel applets from the command line. 
    control userpasswords2, for example will launch a helpful local user admin utility.
  • defrag (XP only – NT4.0 and Win2k use contig)
    Yes, XP comes with a command line disk defrag utility. If you are running Win2k or NT4.0 there is still hope. Contig is a free defrag program that I describe on the defrag page.
  • diskpart (XP only)
    Use this command to manage your disk partitions.  This is the text version for the GUI Disk Manager.
  • driverquery (XP only)
    Produces a list of drivers, their properties, and their versions. Great for computer documentation.
  • eudcedit (XP only) – unpublished!
    Private Character editor.  Yes with this program built into Windows XP you can create your own font!
  • fsutil (XP only) – unpublished!
    This is a utility with a lot of capability.  Come back soon for great examples.
  • getmac (XP & 2000)
    This command gets the Media Access Control (MAC) address of your network cards.
  • gpresult (XP & 2000)
    This generates a summary of the user settings and computer group policy settings.
  • gpupdate (XP only)
    Use this utility to manually apply computer and user policy from your windows 2000 (or newer) domain.
  • ipconfig (XP, 2000 & NT4.0)
    This handy tool displays IP settings of the current computer and much more.
  • MMC (XP, 2000 & NT4.0) – 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. Ex. more c:\windows\win.ini
  • msconfig (XP only)
    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 (XP &smp; 2000)
    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 (XP only)
    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 (XP & 2000)
    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.
  • nslookup (all)
    A DNS name resolution tool.
  • openfiles (XP Only)
    Allows an administrator to display or disconnect open files in XP professional. Type “openfiles /?” for a list of possible parameters.
  • Pathping (XP & 2000)
    A cross between the ping and traceroute utilities. Who needs Neotrace when you can use this? Type “pathping <ip address>” and watch it go.
  • recover (XP & 2000)
    This command can recover readable information from a damaged disk and is very easy to use.
  • reg (XP & 2000)
    A console registry tool, great for scripting Registry edits.
  • sc (XP & 2000)
    A command line utility called the Service Controller.  A power tool to make service changes via a logon/logoff or startup/shutdown script.
  • schtasks (XP only)
    A newer version of the AT command.  This allows an administrator to schedule and manage scheduled tasks on a local and remote machines.
  • secedit (XP & 2000)
    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 (XP & 2000)
    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 (XP & 2000)
    With this tool, You can shut down or restart your own computer, or an administrator can shut down or restart a remote computer.
  • sigverif (XP only)
    Microsoft has created driver signatures. A signed driver is Microsoft tested and approved. 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 (XP only)
    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 (XP/2000)
    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 (XP pro only)
    Tasklist is the command console equivalent to the task manager in windows. It is a must have when fighting scumware and viruses. Try the command:
    tasklist /svc
    to view the memory resources your services take up.
  • taskkill (XP only)
    Taskkill contains the rest of the task manager functionality.  It allows you to kill those unneeded or locked up applications.
  • tree (XP & 2000)
    An amazing experience everyone should try!  This command will provide a ‘family tree’ style display of the drive/folder you specify.
  • WMIC (XP & 2000)
    Windows Management Instrumentation Command tool.  This allows you to pull an amazing amount of low-level system information from a command line scripting interface.
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