Windows Server How ToYour Windows Server Knowledge Base

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 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!

This post will show you how to reinstall Internet Explorer on your Windows computer.  Note that you will need Windows install CD or Windows install files on your disk to reinstall internet explorer.

To perform reinstal press “Start” > “Run” and type:

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\inf\ie.inf

Press “OK” and browse to Windows install CD or files on your disk to start reinstall.

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

eventvwr.msc

Press “OK” and you are Done!

This post will show you how to block unwanted web sites by editing hosts file on your Windows computer. Lets say you want that all computer users were unable to browse web site named www.badsite.com .

To block web site click “Start” > “Run” and type:

notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Note that there is space between notepad and c:\windows…

In “hosts” file select empty row and type:

127.0.0.1 www.badsite.com

On “hosts” file menu click “File” and and select “Save” to save changes you just made.

After saving changes you can close file and you are done!

This post will show you how to disable automatic restart when system error occurs on your Windows computer. If this option is enabled you are unable to view Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) output and to check system error code for further investigation.

To disable auto restart right click mouse on “My Computer” icon and choose “Properties”. In “System properties” window select “Advanced” tab.

In “Advanced” tab click “Settings” under “Startup and Recovery” section. In “Startup and Recovery” window uncheck “Automatically restart” option.

Press “OK” and You are done!

This post will show you how to clear up Winsock Catalog on your Windows server 2003 or Windows XP machine. To do it open command line and type:

netsh winsock reset

Restart your computer after this.

Note that you might need to run IP reset afterwards to completely rebuild your IP stack.

? Winsock catalog – is the interface between your applications and internet. Many spyware reside there when they infect your OS.