Deployment tips, questions, blogs and other technical materials related to Microsoft Microsoft Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools 11. The Windows Server 2008 Resource kit has tremendous ammounts of detail into how the difference aspects of Windows actually works. This is a great way to study for the MCITP exams when used in conjunction with the Training Kits for each exam. If you really want to get to know Windows Server 2008, this is the product to buy.
Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) - Microsoft).
Security Bulletins - Microsoft Security TechCenter.
Microsoft Update Catalog - Search for specific updates by KB#
Windows Command Line Tools For Developers - Microsoft.
Rob van der Woude.com - Batch files, VBS.
CommandLine - Batch File examples and Utilities.
Old New Thing - Raymond Chen, Microsoft.
Windows Commands Help file (Server 2008 R2 / Vista) - Microsoft.
ToolKits
Many resource kit tools and utilities will run successfully on multiple versions of Windows. However Active Directory and NTFS have changed significantly over the years so I recommend you only use the tools supported for your platform.
Windows 10 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) KBase
Windows 2008/2012 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) Built-in feature.
RSAT includes Active Directory Domain Services Tools, elements of the RSAT package can be enabled under Control Panel | Programs and Features | Windows features. RSAT is a replacement for the Adminpak.msi tookits in older versions of Windows.
Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0 - SetObjectSecurity.exe PolicyAnalyzer and Security Baselines. Release notes.
KB4577586 - Windows Update to remove Adobe Flash (October 2020).
Windows 10 PowerToys (beta) - Including Power Renamer.
ColorTool.exe - Select a terminal color scheme.
Rktools 2008 Trailer
Windows 10 Show or hide Windows Updates - Troubleshooter package.
IE 11 Enterprise Mode Site List Manager - Create / Edit an Enterprise Mode Site List XML.
Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) - Manage local account passwords across a domain.
Windows 2003 resource Kit (Archive.org)
Deployment tools
Windows 10 Update Assistant - update to the latest version, includes hardware check.
Windows 10 - ISO download.
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations - With WinFS
Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 version: 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004
Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) - Customize Windows 10 images for large-scale deployment.
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) - Automate desktop and server OS deployments.
Upgrade Windows 7 licence to Windows 10.
Other Windows Toolkits:
Sysinternals Suite - Download the Sysinternals utilities.
Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit - Evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues for Vista and Windows 7. Includes the Compatibility Administrator which can be used to set UAC exceptions (Application fix.)
Account Lockout Status (LockoutStatus.exe) - Display lockout information for a particular user account (Aug 2012).
Account Lockout and Management Tools - Includes LockoutStatus, plus tools to troubleshoot account lockouts, and display password ages(Aug 2012).
Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0 - Microsoft-recommended security configuration baselines for Windows 10.
SMB1 How to disable it - Windows 7 up to Windows Server 2016.
Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista + Elevation blog
File, Folder and Share Permission Utility Tool - Enumerate all the permissions, Technet/Monimoy Sanyal.
File Checksum Integrity Verifier (FCIV) - Compute and verify cryptographic hash values for files.
Policy Analyzer from Aaron Margosis - Compare sets of Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Highlight redundant settings or internal inconsistencies.
Group Policy Management Console SP1 & Group Policy Object Settings spreadsheet 2003/2008/2008R2/Win7.
Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) - Manage local account passwords of domain joined computers (howto).
Windows 10 PowerToys - FancyZones / Shortcut Key Guide / Batch file renamer / Process terminate tool / Animated gif screen recorder.
Remote Desktop Connection Manager - RDP to multiple machines.
WMI Diagnosis Utility - Diagnose and repair problems with the WMI service.
Recommended Books.
[ Full disclosure: I get a finder's fee on stuff you buy from Amazon.com by clicking through this website.
That doesn't cost you anything, but the commissions help to keep the site running ]
Batchography: The Art of Batch Files Programming
by Elias Bachaalany, 2016
Discover the lost art of Batch file programming, start with the basics of manipulating numbers, strings and variables and move on to looping operations, recursion, debugging and troubleshooting of your scripts. The final chapter has a number of batch file recipes: parsing .ini files, creating interactive menus and more. Highly recommended.
Troubleshooting with the Windows Sysinternals Tools (2nd Edition)
by Mark E. Russinovich
Guidance and inside insights for the Windows Sysinternals tools. Guided by Sysinternals creator Mark Russinovich and Windows expert Aaron Margosis
Windows Internals, Part 1 (2017) and Part2 (2019)
by Mark E. Russinovich, David A. Solomon and Alex Ionescu
Insider perspectives and hands-on experiments to demonstrate how Windows operates.
Windows 10: The Missing Manual
by David Pogue
An enjoyable but still very detailed read with lot's of good tips and keyboard shortcuts.
Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2
by Mark Minasi.
Comprehensive and understandable guide. Improve the performance and manageability of your network.
minasi.com
Windows NT Shell Scripting
by Tim Hill.
First published in 1998 so no mention of VBS or Powershell, despite this it's still a solid introduction to writing batch files under Windows. Sample chapter.
Also see - Recommended VBScript Books
Utilities - Command line
SysInternals - Microsoft System utilities.
Console 2 - Windows console emulator for CMD and/or PowerShell (review)
ConEmu-Maximus5 - Windows console emulator for CMD and/or PowerShell (review)
CommandLine.co.uk - Useful tools (free Win32 utilities - mostly console)
CryptoPrevent - A Group Policy to block executables from specific paths.
Cygwin - Linux-like environment for Windows, tutorial: 1, 2, 3
DOFF - Print a formatted date and time, with an optional date offset, e.g. -1 prints yesterday, +1 prints tomorrow. (source + BSD licence).
FastCopy - An alternative to RoboCopy.
Frank P. Westlake Batch Scripts + mirror of older console utilities.
Gow - Lightweight UNIX utilities compiled as native win32 binaries.
ImageMagick - Edit/Convert bitmap images(PNG, JPEG, GIF) on the command line (scripts)
Jason Hood - Utilities including Search & Replace, Date/Time, ANSI escape recognition for CMD.
Joeware.net - Admin, AD and Exchange tools.
Nirsoft Utilities and NirCMD freeware Command-Line Tool.
Npocmaka - Batch scripts, zipjs.bat + others.
PDFtk - Command-line tool for processing PDFs.
Petter Nordahl-Hagen - Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor.
pretentiousname - Utilities by Leo Davidson.
Repl.bat - FInd and Replace text, JScript/Batch script.
FindRepl.bat - FInd and Replace text, JScript/Batch script.
SetRes - Set screen resolution (Ian Sharpe).
SoX - Sound processing command line utility.
Bill Stewart - Batch script and Windows admin tools (TrueLast LogonTime).
SetACL - Utility to manage permissions, auditing and ownership (free).
System Tools - Dump Event Log, Registry or Security info.
unxutils - Port of unix utilities to run under the CMD shell.
WebP utilities - encode/decode WebP animated images, Google.
Wake On Lan Command Line: Depicus / Gammadyne / Nirsoft / PowerShell Wake On LAN script
Windows Terminal (App Store) + GitHub
Package Managers
Rktools
Chocolatey - Package manager for Windows.
Ninite - Automate software installations and updates.
PC Decrapifier - Remove shovelware.
Windows Package Manager (preview, expected May 2021) - WINGET - Currently install only (no uninstall), borged from AppGet
GUI Applications
Agent Ransack - File Search (search all file types).
AIMP3 - Fully featured free music player.
Autohotkey - Automate keystrokes, mouse clicks and more.
AutoIT - GUI scripting.
Brackets - Open source HTML/CSS code editor.
Calc.exe - The old calculator from Windows 2003.
CamStudio - Record screen and audio activity on your computer.
Clonezilla - Partition and disk imaging/cloning program.
CPU-Z - gather information on system devices.
Dban - Darik's Boot and Nuke, a boot CD that securely wipes hard disks.
Event Sentry - Event log monitoring.
Everything - Locate files and folders by name instantly.
FTP - Cyberduck - FTP client .
FTP - FileZilla - FTP client [Warning: some official builds contain malware] (also via Ninite)
FTP - WinSCP - Free SFTP, SCP and FTP client for Windows .
Flash uninstall - EOL Date= Dec 2020
Firefox Enterprise - with Windows Group Policy support.
Foobar 2000 - freeware audio player.
FreeCAD - Sketch 2D shapes and create high quality drawings / 3D models.
Ghost Solution Suite - Disk / Partition Imaging.
Glasswire - Firewall with network monitoring.
Inkscape - Vector Graphics (Illustrator)
imgburn.com - Free CD/DVD/Blu-ray burner (MajorGeeks link to avoid OpenCandy malware).
isoRecorder - Burn iso image to bootable CD.
iTunes 7 - (Old Version) Minimal 32 bit media player, unsupported but still works on Windows 10.
Krita - Open Source photo/graphics editor.
Lansweeper - Network Monitoring.
Lost NT password
MakeMSI - Build Windows Installer files.
MalwareBytes - Anti Malware, detect and remove worms, Trojans, rootkits, etc.
Metapad - Simple notepad replacement.
Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator - Remap keys. (see also remapkey.exe in the Windows 2003 resource Kit)
Notepad++ - Notepad replacement (n.b. the syntax highlighting for parentheses in CMD/BAT files is faulty.)
Photoshop Elements - Basic photo editing and organisation.
Trinity Rescue Kit - Recovery and repair of Windows machines.
Netikus - Password, Ping, FTP, event log alerts.
PhotoRec - Data recovery software - hard disk, CD-ROM & Memory Cards.
Pinboard.in - Bookmarking + app SimplePin
PuTTY - Free Telnet/SSH Client.
Rapid Environment Editor - Edit environment variables, donationware.
RawTherapee - Raw image processing.
Recuva - Recover deleted files.
Servers Alive - Network monitoring.
Shotcutapp - free, open source, cross-platform video editor.
SoftPerfect - Search, Scan for open file shares and other utils.
Speccy - System information, hardware and software (serial numbers etc).
Sumatra - PDF viewer.
SyncBack - GUI Backup and synchronize files.
SyncToy - Synchronize files and folders.
TeamViewer - Screen sharing/Remote control (Mac/PC/Linux.)
Textadept - cross-platform text editor.
TightVNC - Remote control.
WinAmp 2.95 - Old but still usable MP3 player.
WinMerge - open source WinDiff
VirtualBox - Open Source virtualisation for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris.
Virtual PC - Virtualisation for Windows.
VLC Media Player - Free versatile media player.
VueScan - Scanner Software.
WSUS Offline Update - Microsoft updates without an internet connection.
Wink - Capture screenshots/video, add help text.
Zero Assumption Recovery - data recovery.
Find more utilities, or add you own over in the forum
Related
Usenet - news: alt.msdos.batch.nt
DosTips forum
The Scripting Guys Forum - a mix of VBScript, Batch and PowerShell.
SS64 - Windows CMD discussion Forum
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