The PS Tools suite that Microsoft offers allows for some powerful command line level interaction across the network. You can do a great variety of tasks. Some that you could accomplish other ways like VNC, remote desktop, or other command line tools, but this just adds more tools to the toolbox. The PS Tools might be faster than your previous manner or it might offer an … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2008
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Microsoft offers a free application to host virtual machines. It's a very simple interface and allows a lot of flexibility. After a quick download and quick install, you can fire up a "machine" and install either a Windows machine to test or a Linux live CD by just mounting an ISO file. You should be able to install any PC configuration with this and come up with a great test … [Read more...]
Script Your Default Printer
To set your default printer with a batch script, you can use the printui.dll. Just specify the name of the printer in the quotes and you can specify your default printer at logon (put your defaultprinter.bat in your startup folder). @REM Set default printer receipt rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n "Receipt Printer" /q … [Read more...]
Group Policy basics
Currently, my knowledge regarding group policy objects is pretty limited, but it's enough to get me by. Part of the current project of learning and taking ownership of Group Policy Objects will lead to a class coming up. This is what I know so far: Under the command prompt, to force the group policy to re-apply: gpupdate /force To write out to a text file what group policy is … [Read more...]
NMAP – Your open ports
Interested in seeing what ports are open on your machine? Use NMAP to scan your machine or other machines on your network and figure out if there are any holes in your firewall or malicious software setting up camp. Particularly if you are moving a machine from a secure firewall to a less secure (required by a particular application for example), you could run NMAP and try to … [Read more...]