Active Directory
1. To quickly list all the groups in your domain, with members, run this command:
dsquery group -limit 0 | dsget group -members –expand
2. To find all users whose accounts are set to have a non-expiring password, run this command:
dsquery * domainroot -filter “(&(objectcategory=person)(objectclass=user)(lockoutTime=*))” -limit 0
3. To list all the FSMO role holders in your forest, run this command:
netdom query fsmo
4. To refresh group policy settings, run this command:
gpupdate
5. To check Active Directory replication on a domain controller, run this command:
repadmin /replsummary
6. To force replication from a domain controller without having to go through to Active
Directory Sites and Services, run this command:
repadmin /syncall
7. To see what server authenticated you (or if you logged on with cached credentials) you can run either of these commands:
set l
echo %logonserver%
8. To see what account you are logged on as, run this command:
whoami
9. To see what security groups you belong to, run this command:
whoami /groups
10. To see the domain account policy (password requirements, lockout thresholds, etc) run this command:
net accounts
Windows Networking
11. To quickly reset your NIC back to DHCP with no manual settings, run this command:
netsh int ip reset all
12. To quickly generate a text summary of your system, run this command:
systeminfo | more
13. To see all network connections your client has open, run this command:
net use
14. To see your routing table, run either of these commands:
route print
netstat -r
15. Need to run a trace, but don’t have Netmon or Wireshark, and aren’t allowed to install either one? Run this command:
netsh trace start capture=yes tracefile=c:\capture.etl
netsh trace stop
16. To
quickly open a port on the firewall, run this command, changing the
name, protocol, and port to suit. This example opens syslog:
netsh firewall set portopening udp 161 syslog enable all
17. To
add an entry to your routing table that will be permanent, run the
route add command with the –p option. Omitting that, the entry will be
lost at next reboot:
route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 172.16.250.5 –p
18. Here’s a simple way to see all open network connections, refreshing every second:
netstat –ano 1
19. You can add a | findstr value to watch for only a specific connection, like a client ip.addr or port:
netstat –ano | findstr 216.134.217.20
20. You can use the shutdown to shutdown or reboot a machine, including your own, in a simple scheduled task like this:
shutdown –r –t 0 –m \\localhost
21. To
make planned DNS changes go faster, reduce the TTL on the DNS records
you plan on changing to 30 seconds the day before changes are to be
made. You can set the TTL back to normal after you confirm the changes
have been successful.
22. Set
a short lease on DHCP scopes that service laptops, and set Microsoft
Option 002 to release a DHCP leas on shutdown. This helps to ensure your
scope is not exhausted and that machines can easily get on another
network when the move to a new site.
Windows 7
23. Want
to enable the local administrator account on Windows 7? Run this
command from an administrative command prompt. It will prompt you to set
a password:
net user administrator * /active:yes
24. You can do the same thing during install by pressing SHIFT-F10 at the screen where you set your initial user password.
Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts:
25. Windows Key+G
Display gadgets in front of other windows.
26. Windows Key++ (plus key)
Zoom in, where appropriate.
27. Windows Key+- (minus key)
Zoom out, where appropriate.
28. Windows Key+Up Arrow
Maximize the current window.
29. Windows Key+Down Arrow
Minimize the current window.
30. Windows Key+Left Arrow
Snap to the left hand side of the screen
31. Windows Key+Right Arrow
Snap to the right hand side of the screen.
32. To
quickly launch an application as an administrator (without the
right-click, run as administrator), type the name in the Search programs
and files field, and then press Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
Here are some tips that can save you from buying commercial software:
33. Need
to make a quick screencast to show someone how to do something? The
Problem Steps Recorder can create an MHTML file that shows what you have
done by creating a screen capture each time you take an action. Click
the Start button and type ‘psr’ to open the Problem Steps Recorder.
34. Need
to burn a disc? The isoburn.exe can burn ISO and IMG files. You can
right click a file and select burn, or launch it from the command line.
35. Windows
7 includes a screen scraping tool called the Snipping Tool. I have tons
of users request a license for SnagIt, only to find this free tool
(it’s under Accessories) does what they need.
36. You can download this bootable security scanner from Microsoft that will run off a USB key, which is very useful if you suspect a machine has a virus.
37. A great way to save all your command line tools and make them available across all your computers is to install Dropbox,
create a folder to save all your scripts and tools, and add that folder
to your path. That way, they can be called from the command line or any
other scripts, and if you update a script, it will carry across to any
other machine you have.
Windows 2008
38. You
can free up disk space on your servers by disabling hibernate. Windows
2008 will create a hiberfil.sys equal to the amount of RAM. This is very
useful with VMs that have lots of RAM but smaller C: drives. To disable
hibernation, and reclaim that space, run this command:
powercfg -h off
39. You can get to the complete collection of Sysinternals tools online. You can even invoke them from the run command. Use the url: http://live.sysinternals.com or the UNC path: \\live.sysinternals.com\tools.
40. Speaking
of the Sysinternals tools, almost any command line in this article can
be run remotely on another machine (as long as you have administrative
rights) using the psexec command included in the Sysinternals tools.
41. You can kill RDP sessions at the command line when you find that all the RDP sessions to a server are tied up.
regsvr32 query.dll [enter] You only have to do this the first time.
query session /server:servername [enter]
reset session # /server:servername [enter]
42. You
can create a list of files and display the last time they were
accessed, which is very useful when a network drive is low on space and
users swear they have to have that copy of Office 2003 on the network.
My advice? If they haven’t touched it in two years, burn it to DVD or
write it to tape and then delete it from disk:
dir /t:a /s /od >> list.txt [enter]
43. The
Microsoft Exchange Err command is one of the best all around
troubleshooting tools you will find, as it can decode any hex error code
you find as long as the products are installed on the machine. Download
it from here.
44. You can see all the open files on a system by running this command:
openfiles /query
45. You can pull all the readable data out of a corrupt file using this command:
recover filename.ext
46. Need
to pause a batch file for a period of time but don’t have the sleep
command from the old resource kit handy? Here’s how to build a ten
second delay into a script:
ping -n 10 127.0.0.1 > NUL 2>&1
47. If
your Windows website has stopped responding, or is throwing a 500
error, and you are not sure what to do, you can reset IIS without having
to reboot the whole server. Run this command:
iisreset
48. You can use && to string multiple commands together; they will run sequentially.
49. If
you find yourself restarting services frequently, you can use that
&& trick to create a batch file called restart.cmd and use it to
restart services:
net stop %1 && net start %1
50. You can download a Windows port of the wget tool from here, and use it to mirror websites using this command:
wget -mk http://www.example.com/
