Windows

Table of Contents

Overview

All windows technologies.

Memory

• Microsoft Windows Hardware Developer Central
  • Operating Systems and PAE Support
  • Memory Management: What Every Driver Writer Needs to Know
• Microsoft Support Forums
  • The old 4gb /PAE thing...
• TechNET
  • TechNet Library
  • PAE X86 Technical Reference
• MSDN
  • Physical Address Extension
  • Memory Limits for Windows Releases
• Mark Russinovich's technical blog
  • Pushing the Limits of Windows: Physical Memory
  • Pushing the Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory
• Microsoft Help and Support
  • A detailed description of the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature in Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, and Windows Server 2003

Remote Assistance

• Things You Didn't Know About Windows XP - WindowsXP hidden features
  • You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address --they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com-- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
• Enable Remote Desktop Connection through Windows Firewall Remotely
• Freeware to Turn On and Enable Remote Desktop on Another Computer Remotely
• Enabling Remote Desktop,remotely

psexec \\machinename reg add "hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\terminal server" /f /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0

You can execute reg.exe against a remote machine directly, and skip psexec:
reg add \\machinename\hklm\...

Windows XP Tips

• WindowsXP Tips
• Windows XP How-to Articles
• How to make your programs run on Windows startup
• How to make a program run like a service in Windows Server Family
• How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks
• Windows Program Automatic Startup Locations
• More About SrvAny
• How To Create a User-Defined Service
• Quicklaunch your USB workspace

Welcome Screen

• Administrator and Users on the Welcome Screen

Game Development

• A Primer for Microsoft's XNA

Backup

• Ntbackup
• Unison rsync for Windows
• Moving files and settings to a new computer running Windows XP
• robocopy
• FileSyncingHowTo - Synching Files Between Remote PCs

Software Development (Games, Web, Hardware, Windows)

• Visual Studio 2008 Express Developer Center
• Rsync for Windows
• Rsync client and server for Windows
  • How can I secure connections between windows rsync clients and cwRsync servers ?
• Installing RSYNC on Windows 2003/2000/NT
• Installing ssh and rsync on a Windows machine: minimalist approach
• http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/rsync_pc1.html (Novell)
• Windows to UNIX porting, Part 1: Porting C/C++ sources - Demystifying the process of porting a C/C++-based project from Windows to UNIX
• File Checksum Integrity Verifier utility

Windows PE 2.0

• Windows PE 2.0: a tiny version of Windows for system maintenance

Tools

Resource Kits

• Windows 2000 Resource Kit Tools for administrative tasks

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools
  • Brief Description - The Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP are intended for use by Microsoft support personnel and experienced users to assist in diagnosing and resolving computer problems.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Support Tools

• Apply Windows XP Service Pack 3 and all critical post-SP3 hotfixes

Environment Variables

• Environment Variables in Windows XP
• SETX.exe (Resource Kit)
• How to propagate environment variables to the system

Registry

• How to change registry values or permissions from a command line or a script

Altiris Technology

• Scripted OS Install - Part 1: Installing Windows XP

Scripting

• The Windows Command Line, Batch Files, and Scripting
• How to Find Useful Free Script Programs for Windows XP
• Scripting and Batch Programming Resources
• Environment Variables Not Set by "Double-Click" Or Available in Another Command Window

Windows PowerSehll

• Windows PowerShell
• PowerShell in Windows XP
• Scripting with Windows PowerShell
• Script Center
  • Consider this your one-stop shop for all your Windows system administration scripting needs.

Batch Files

• Windows XP Command Line Tools Summary
• Sed for Windows
• THE SED FAQ
• Sed - An Introduction and Tutorial
• Sedand Regular Expressions
• sedsed
• developerWorks - Common threads: Sed by example, Part 1
• developerWorks - Common threads: Sed by example, Part 2
• developerWorks - Common threads: Sed by example, Part 3
• How do I ... create the autorun.inf file for my CDs and DVDs?
• File Checksum Integrity Verifier utility
• Good reference on how to script windows updates

Managing Windows networks using scripts

• 8 part article - Managing Windows networks using scripts

Windows Filesystem

• How to use Xcacls.vbs to modify NTFS permissions
• File Checksum Integrity Verifier utility

Microsoft Windows Installer

• Wikipedia - Windows Installer
• Role-based Guide to Windows Installer Documentation
• How to create a third-party Microsoft Installer package
• INFO: Disadvantages of Repackaging Applications
• INFO: Description of Resiliency in Windows Installer
• MSDN Windows Installer Reference
• Resiliency
• How To Disable Windows Installer Resiliency
• "Stop Installation Idiocy" PCWorld's Hassle Free PC article
• Windows Installer, the Class table, and resiliency repair dialogs
• Why does Windows Installer start installing some other product when I try to install or use a different MSI-based product?
• Windows Installer (MSI) Tips and Notes
• Command-Line Switches for the Microsoft Windows Installer Tool
• Command-Line Switches for the Microsoft Windows Installer Tool
• Extract files from a MSI package
• Command-line switches for IExpress software update packages
• Instructions for performing unattended / silent installations of many popular application installers
• File Checksum Integrity Verifier utility

InstallShield

Silent Installs

• Q101901: HOWTO: Authoring a Silent Installation
• InstallShield Setup Silent Installation Switches
• Wrap it up! Silent, multiproduct installations in one easy wrapper

1. Run the setup program with the /r command line parameter.
   1. Respond to all dialogs and complete the installation.
   2. When finished, there will be a response file created with the file extension .iss
   3. The file will be setup.iss and in your Windows directory, but you may have to look around for the file.
2. Move/rename the .iss file.
3. Run setup using the .iss file
4. IS6.3 has a bug were silent install doesn't work unless you are in the directory which contains setup.exe
5. syntax is: setup -s -f1"setup.iss"

User State Migration Tool

• User State Migration
• User State Migration Tool (USMT) team blog
• *Wipe-and-load* and *Side-by-side* migration *Example Scenarios*
• Quick Start Guide to Windows Vista User Profile Migration
• User State Migration Tool 3.0
• Description of the User State Migration Tool for Windows XP Professional
• Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT) Version 3.0.1

How to add or remove Windows Components

• How to add or remove Windows Components by using Sysocmgr.exe
• How To Perform an Unattended Installation of IIS 6.0

Automatic Logon

• Automatic Logon Does Not Work if the Local Administrator Password Is Encrypted in the Answer File

Sysprep

• How to use the Sysprep tool to automate successful deployment of Windows XP

Windows Updates

• Windows Update Catalog

Performance

• Step by Step The Complete Guide to Speeding Up Your PC's Startup
• Little Known Tweak to Boost Hard Drive Performance

Troubleshooting

• How do I reset Windows Update components? - this is a great fix to handle situations where Windows Update fails to run and you have already tried the othr common solutions.
• Advanced troubleshooting for shutdown problems in Windows XP
• Why Windows takes so long to shut down
• You experience log off problems on a Windows XP-based, Windows Server 2003-based, Windows 2000-based, or Windows NT 4.0-based computer
• User Profile Hive Cleanup Service
• Microsoft: Windows XP Professional Resource Kit
• How to gather information after a memory dump in Windows XP
• What is a DLL?
• Windows XP Professional Resource Kit - Troubleshooting the Startup Process
• INFO: Useful Tools for Package and Deployment Issues
• How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 2
• Windows Update Error number: 0x80244030
  • just doing regsrv2 steps fixed a particular workstation
    • regsvr32 Msxml3.dll
    • regsvr32 Msxml2.dll
    • regsvr32 Msxml.dll
• Mass Storage Drive Problem
• Junfeng Zhang's Windows Programming Notes (Diagnosing SideBySide failures)
• How to find the MAC address of a remote computer
• A detailed description of the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature in Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, and Windows Server 2003
• About Normal.dot in Microsoft Word
• You are prompted to save the changes to the Normal.dot or Normal.dotm or Normal.dotm global template every time that you quit Word
• Prompt to save Normal.dot when using Word as an automation server
• How to use startup command line switches to start Word 2007, Word 2003, Word 2002, and Word 2000
• How to reset user options and registry settings in Word
• How to troubleshoot damaged Word documents
• Available switch options for the Windows XP and the Windows Server 2003 Boot.ini files
• Microsoft's Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool
• After XP SP3 Upgrade - Device Manager Empty / Network Connection Icons Missing
• Empty Device Manager
• Device Manager list empty
• Blank device manager
• Device Manager is totally blank but PC is working?
• How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes
• How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
• How to Use the SPCheck Tool in Windows XP

WMI

• WMI Isn't Working!
• Repairing and re-registering the WMI

Windows File Protection

• Disable Windows File Protection
• Tweaking XP: Windows File Protection and SP2
• Disabling Windows File Protection
• Registry settings for Windows File Protection
• Disable Windows File Protection (Windows 2000/XP)

Debugging Tools

• Microsoft: Debugging Tools for Windows - Overview

Windows Activation

• Transferring Windows XP Activation Information

Windows Errors

Microsoft Sites

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Find Solutions
• Windows Update Newsgroup
• Microsoft Online Assisted Support(no-cost for Windows Update issues)

Third Part Sites

• (Needs entries)

Specfic Errors

• Windows Update Version 6 error code list (Windows Update Fails with Error Code 0x80244030)
  • Search Results: 0x80244030
    • Error number: 0x80244030- The Fix

MSDOS Tools

• SMARTDrive 4.0 Design Overview

Security

• How to Crack a Windows Password With a Live CD
• Built-in Windows commands to determine if a system has been hacked
• BLOG: Built-in Windows Command-Line Security Tools
• Administrator and User Passwords in Windows XP
• Policy settings for the Start menu in Windows XP

Disk Imaging

• ImageX and WIM Image Format File-based disk imaging is a core capability of Windows Vista

Virtualization

• Convert Physical Windows Systems Into Virtual Machines To Be Run On A Linux Desktop

Services

• System Services for the Windows Server 2003 Family and Windows XP Operating Systems

Microsoft Office

• Working with Multiple Versions of Office
• Information about using 2007 Office suites and programs on a computer that is running another version of Office
• Button To Open Template - Outlook 2007
• How to manually uninstall the 2007 Office system if you cannot uninstall it by using the "Add or Remove Programs" feature

Essential

• Essential Utilities

Printing

• How to print to a network printer from an MS-DOS-based program in Windows XP
• Command Line Printer Control

Power Management

• Intel SpeedStep, Windows XP, and confusing Power Profiles

SQL Server

• How to uninstall an instance of SQL Server 2005 manually

Data Recovery

• Recover deleted Outlook e-mail by corrupting the PST file
• How to: Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook for FREE

Scheduling Tasks

• Schtasks.exe Enables an administrator to create, delete, query, change, run, and end scheduled tasks on a local or remote computer. Running Schtasks.exe without arguments displays the status and next run time for each registered task.

Uninstall Various Applications

• How do I uninstall or remove Internet Explorer 8?
  • To remove IE8 from Windows XP use: %windir%\ie8\spuninst\spuninst.exe