Windows Server How ToYour Windows Server Knowledge Base

Windows server 2003 has very nice tool “forfiles.exe” which provides you with quick and nice file search function.

If you want to use it with your Windows XP machine download it from here .

This tool can be played with mass of functions and in this article i`ll show how to use it with some of them.

For example i want to search through all *.log files in C:\Windows folder and subfolders.

If i find any *.log file there that size is greater than 1MB i want to export  path, size and modify time information of that file into C:\Data\LogFileInfo.txt .

In that case open command line and type:

forfiles.exe /p C:\Windows /s /m *.log /c “cmd /c IF @fsize GTR 1000000 (echo @path @fsize @fdate)” >C:\Data\LogFileInfo.txt

Syntax:

/p – what path to search
/m – what file type to search
/s – include subfolders
GTR – greater than

Few weeks ago i got tough situation when share i made offline was moved to another server by local administrator and all users were still trying to synchronize offline files with old server.

How to act in this situation You would ask?

First of all you must download Windows server 2003 Resource Kit Tools from this site .

In this case we will need csccmd.exe tool which will work on Windows XP systems too.

Install tools pack you downloaded, open command line and navigate to Resourse Kit Tools folder.

When you are in place type:

csccmd.exe /moveshare:\\oldserver\oldshare \\newserver\newshare

Press “Enter” and you are done !

This topic will show how to set static IP 192.168.0.10 with mask 255.255.255.0 to your Windows server 2008 Core interface named “Local Area Connection” .

Also we will set DNS server IP 192.168.0.11.

To set static IP address and mask type:

netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”Local Area Connection” source=static address=192.168.0.10 mask 255.255.255.0

To set DNS server IP type:

netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=”Local Area Connection” address=192.168.0.11

Do you know how to script basic  FTP server connect/copy operations?

I`ll show you that.

Lets assume you want every Friday at 06:00pm to connect to specific FTP server and download all files from it to directory named D:\Scanfiles.

On your Windows server 2003 or Windows XP start notepad and type:

@echo off
echo user username> ftpbat.dat
echo password>> ftpbat.dat
echo prompt>> ftpbat.dat
echo mget *.*>> ftpbat.dat
echo quit>> ftpbat.dat
ftp -n -s:ftpbat.dat FTPserverIP
del ftpbat.dat

Save file as ftp.bat and place it in D:\Scanfiles folder.

Change this data:

username – your ftp username
password – your ftp password
FTPserverIP – ip address of ftp server to connect

After that create new scheduled task to run ftp.bat file every Friday at 06:00pm .

Cheers!

If you want to test quick way how to query your Global Catalogs open command line on Windows server 2003 and type:

dsquery server -isgc

Press “Enter” button and you are done !

I`ll show you how to create very nice .bat script which will defragment your disks and generate report in log file.

This script was tested on Windows server 2003 or Windows XP machines.

Ok then, lets say you want to defragment C: and D: disks every Monday and Friday starting job at 10:00pm.

Also you want to store log file on C:\Tools folder.

OK, lets open notepad and copy paste this text:

@Ecxo off
Set logfile=C:\Tools\defrag.log
Echo Start %date%,%time% >>%logfile%
Echo *************************** >>%logfile%
Echo Defragmenting C: disk >>%logfile%
Echo. >>%logfile%
defrag.exe c: -f >>%logfile%
Echo *************************** >>%logfile%
Echo Defragmenting D: disk >>%logfile%
Echo. >>%logfile%
defrag.exe d: -f >>%logfile%
Echo *************************** >>%logfile%
Echo Finished %date%,%time% >>%logfile%
Echo *************************** >>%logfile%

Save this file as Defrag.bat and place it to C:\Tools folder

Now open command line and shedule defragmenting by typing:

at 10:00pm /every:M,F C:\Tools\Defrag.bat

Press “Enter”

And we are finished !

Have you ever encountered this annoying window when trying to access Windows server 2003 via Remote Desktop connection?

It draws me mad every time i see it !

So  i`ll show you how can we get rid of it in a few seconds.

Lets say that session limit was reached on server named “Testserver”.

Login to another Windows server 2003 in your domain, open command line and type:

query session /server:Testserver

Press “Enter”

In output you will get information about taken sessions: what user is using it, session ID and status.

If you want to reset specific session note session ID you are going to reset. Lets say ID number is 2.

Open command line and the type following:

reset session 2 /server:Testserver

Press “Enter”

Thats all ! The road is clear for now…

Here is quick tip how to create dummy file with size of your choice using Windows server 2003 or Windows XP machine.

To do that i will use utility named “fsutil”. Basic syntax for creating a file is:

fsutil file createnew <name of file> <size in bytes>

For example following command:

fsutil file createnew C:\dummyfile.txt 1000000

will create 1Mb file named dummyfile.txt in C:\

Lets check quick tip how to find authoritative DHCP servers for your domain.

For this open command line in Windows Server 2003 and type:

netsh dhcp show server

Press “Enter” and you are done !

Easy as pie!

Do you know that Windows server 2003 and Windows Vista include command line tool called “takeown” that lets you take ownership of files and folders?

Takeown tool basic syntax is:

takeown /f <file or folder name>

For example to take ownership of file secret.doc which resides in C:\Docs\ open command line and type:

takeown /f C:\Docs\secret.doc

Thus, if you want to take ownership of a folder named C:\Docs, as well as any files and folders inside C:\Docs, you`ll type:

takeown /f C:\Docs /r

One more tip… if you want to avoid Windows asking you questions like “Do you really want to do that?”… add one more key:

takeown /f C:\Docs /r /d y

This post will show you how to find out which server is responsible for issuing certificates in your domain and get some additional information related to local certification authority.

To do it open command line on Windows computer and type:

certutil.exe -TCAinfo

Press “Enter” and you are done !

This post will show you how to use net share command to share folder.

Lets say we want to share “D:\Test” folder with share name “TestDocs”.

Open command line on your Windows server 2003 or Windows XP computer and type:

net share TestDocs=D:\Test

Press “Enter” button and you are done !