Windows Server How ToYour Windows Server Knowledge Base

Two days ago i have encountered following situation.

I have scheduled check disk for C: drive via command line on my Windows server 2003 because it was spitting some strange errors in event log about inconsistency of logical drive.

To check C: drive i have opened command line and typed:

chkdsk C: /f /r

to check logical disk,  locate bad sectors and recover any readable information if needed

After this i was asked if i want to schedule this procedure run after next restart as it cant perform this on running system.

I confirmed that by typing Y.

One hour after i foung buggy software that was the source of errors in event log and CHKDSK i scheduled earlier bacame needless.

After some googling i have found the way you can reset scheduled CHKDSK task.

For that you must open registry by typing regedit in command line.

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

Can you see BootExecute string in there. I bet you do!

Open it and clear all value data by leaving only autocheck autochk *

Registry editor BootExecute string

And… press OK. After this registry editing your CHKDSK sheduled task will be canceled.

Thats it !

This post will show you how to randomly reset local user password on you Windows machine using command line.

Lets say we have local user named “testuser” and we want randomly reset its password.

For this press Start>Run, type CMD and press “OK” .

In command line type:

net user testuser /random

Press “Enter”.

Password will be reseted and it will be shown to you after you pressed “Enter” button.

The output will be similar to:

Good job!

This post will show you how to edit remote access to the registry settings.

To make changes press “Start” then “Run” and type regedit.

In registry editor navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurePipeServer\winreg

Security permissions that are set on key “winreg” controls who can access registry remotely.

If you want to change current settings right click “winreg” key and choose Permissions.

In this “Permissions for winreg” window you can set who will be able to access registry remotely.

This quick post will show you how to delete files that are being used by system or running processes.

When you try to delete that kind of files on your Windows machine  you get error:

“Access denied”

or

“File/Folder is being used by applications. Please close the application and then try again”

To delete these “corrupted” files you can use  tool named “Unlocker”. It removes lock from file or folder and you can delete it afterwards.

You can download this tool from here .

Cheers!

In this post i`ll show one of many ways how to connect your users to shared printer. For that open notepad in Windows server 2003 or Windows XP and type:

REM Add Printers
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\sever\printername1
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\sever\printername2

REM Set Default Printer
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n \\server\printername2
EXIT

For example i have two shared printers on server named “Fileserver” and these printers are shared as “HPLJ1″ and “HPLJ2″. Also i want “HPLJ1″ as default printer for all users. I will type :

REM Add Printers
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\Fileserver\HPLJ1
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\Fileserver\HPLH2

REM Set Default Printer
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n \\Fileserver\HPLJ1
EXIT

Save this file as Addprinter.bat and place it as login script via group policy or you can deploy it to your users in any other way you prefer.

Sometimes you can encounter situation when you try to connect to Terminal server using RDP with Printer redirection enabled but printer doesn`t show in Terminal session. This problem occurs with printer port names that do not begin with COM, USB or LPT.  How to deal with that? In that case you must add registry setting to redirect all printer ports. To do that open registry on your Windows XP machine and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR

On the Edit menu select New and then DWORD value. Type FilterQueueType and press Enter. On new value right click and select modify. Type FFFFFFFF and click OK. This will enable all ports to be redirected.

That all!

This post will show you how to hide file in Alternate Data Streams.

ADS (Alternate Data Streams) is a “feature” of the NTFS that permit files to be completely hidden from the system.

Lets say we have  secret.txt file that contains confidential info and it is placed in C:\Test folder . We want to hide secret.txt file from unwanted eyes and hidden file attribute is too simple solution for us.

In this case we can use ADS feature to completely hide it from system. Lets fork secret.txt file to C:\Windows\Zapotec.bmp file which is one of desktop backgrounds installed by default on Windows XP.

To fork it press “Start” > “Run”, type cmd and press “OK”.

In command line window type:

type c:\test\secret.txt > c:\Windows\Zapotec.bmp:secret.txt

Press “Enter”.

Ok, you forked secret.txt file to zapotec.bmp.

Now go to c:\Test folder and delete secret.txt file. Yep, you got it right, delete it.

After that you can start windows Search and try to locate secret.txt file. No traces… it is gone…

And now the Magic moment!

Open command line and type:

notepad c:\Windows\Zapotec.bmp:secret.txt

and press “Enter”

Secret info file is there and it is hidden pretty well this time.

Well done!

This post will show you how to view hidden files and folders on your Windows machine.

To do it press “Start” > “Run” and type:

control folders

Press “OK”.

In “Folder options” window select “View” tab and navigate down to “Hidden files and folders” options.

As you can see, by default, “Do not show hidden files and folders” option is selected.

Select “Show hidden files and folders” option, press “Apply” and “OK”.

You are Done!

This post will show you how to start “Add/Remove programs” via Run on your Windows computer. To start Add/Remove programs press “Start” > “Run” and type:

appwiz.cpl

Press “OK” and you are Done!

This post will show you how to start “Administrative Tools” via Run on your Windows computer. To start Administrative Tools press “Start” > “Run” and type:

control admintools

Press “OK” and you are Done!

This post will show you how to remove invalid boot paths from boot.ini file on your Windows machine.

To do it press “Start” > “Run” and type:

msconfig

Press “OK”.

In “System Configuration Utility” window press “Check All Boot Paths” button.

Computer will check all boot paths and will remove invalid ones.

After check restart your computers and you are Done!

This post will show you how to start “Certificate Manager” via Run on your Windows computer. To start Certificate Manager press “Start” > “Run” and type:

certmgr.msc

Press “OK” and you are Done!