CLI Secrets

Network trace without NetMon, wireShark, etc… Part 2

By Alexander Trofimov

As I told you in the previous episode, there is more than just capturing without installing any software. Much more, actually. There is a .cab file which contains many files: 33 to be accurate (at least in my case). The files contain the heck of information about the computer’s networking configuration as well as logs. Let’s take a look at those files:   1) adapterinfo.txt: contains info about your NICs’ drivers: How can this be useful? Easily, say, you see the driver for a physical NIC which was issued 5 years ago: why not to upgrade it first? Anyway, this … Continue reading Network trace without NetMon, wireShark, etc… Part 2

Network trace without NetMon, WireShark, etc…

By Alexander Trofimov

It is often necessary to capture and analyze some network traffic to troubleshoot a problem. Usually, it requires to install some software package similar to several stated in the subject to this article. It’s ok, when the computer in question is, say, your laptop, or its user is at least advanced user, has administrative permissions and it is permitted by a security policy to install some new software. But what if it is not the case? A user is some sales manager who don’t want to spend their time installing anything? Or this is a server, where you cannot change … Continue reading Network trace without NetMon, WireShark, etc…

%systemroot%\System32 secrets: defrag

By Alexander Trofimov

The next command also seems to be used the further the less. Partly, probably, because performance of modern computers allows forgetting about the problem of fragmentation unless it is too late becomes huge. Partly because some myths about it have successfully died. But mostly because it is running by default once a week. Earlier (in 9x age) we had a nice GUI-based defragmentation program, now we have only a command line tool and very reduced (without that visualized fragmentation status: it was totally useless, but absolutely awesome. Hey, I believe that the fact we don’t have this magic now is … Continue reading %systemroot%\System32 secrets: defrag

%SystemRoot%\System32 Secrets: compact & convert

By Alexander Trofimov

I’ve been quite busy for some time, so there is a quick run over two utilities: compact and convert. The first one can be used sometimes while the second, I think, has almost died out. Let’s take a look on them. compact Remember cipher? The same stuff: cipher deals with encryption, this one – with compression on an NTFS volume. You need to script it or find it boring to use all that GUI? It’s for you. But seriously: do many people use it? I don’t like the feature, actually. But anyway, if you need it, you get it. convert … Continue reading %SystemRoot%\System32 Secrets: compact & convert

%SystemRoot%\system32 secrets: cipher

By Alexander Trofimov

Next command in my list is what you never remember about unless user comes in with a cry: “I’ve reset my password and now all my EFS-encrypted files are gone!!!”. Are you familiar with the situation? I am not, fortunately, but I heard some related horror stories. Backup the encryption keys is the key. And updating of keys on the files. And creating of recovery keys. And backing up the encryption keys. All that the utility in the question can do for you. There are plenty of articles about the actions described above. But when I tried to look at … Continue reading %SystemRoot%\system32 secrets: cipher

BITS Transfer PowerShell cmdlets

By Alexander Trofimov

One friend of mine told me that I shouldn’t have spread knowledge about BITSAdmin command while there was the PowerShell cmdlets in place. Well, to some extent he is definitely right: 1) PowerShell is better self-documented. 2) It is waaaay easier to script with. 3) It is more simple to use in some basic situations like “just give me that darn file”. 4) Many people just like PoSh. So, the tasks I did in my post about BITSAdmin seems to be done in one command: Start-BitsTransfer –source <URL> –destination <PathToFile> but one need to do his homework better: Seems like … Continue reading BITS Transfer PowerShell cmdlets

%SystemRoot%\system32 secrets: Choice

By Alexander Trofimov

We won’t assess the next three commands – chglogon, chgport and chguser – because they are all replaced by change. Therefore the next candidate in the race is choice While not being helpful alone it could be useful in batch scripts. Those can be actually very powerful, still I like PowerShell more because it allows me to do stupid things faster and of more quality. But just in case you want to do some *.bat files with not linear logic depending on a user’s input, you can use it. For example, you can ask something like this: =))) Moreover, you … Continue reading %SystemRoot%\system32 secrets: Choice

Migrate scheduled tasks from 2003 to 2008

By Alexander Trofimov

Well, the time has come for me to learn at last syntax for schtasks what I was reluctant to do. Some time you have to migrate a task or a bunch of them from one computer to another. In my case it was even more “interesting” task: migrate some tasks from Windows Server 2003 box to Windows 2008 R2. If you have only one it is no problem to move it manually, but what if there are many of them? Here it is: the moment of schtasks’ triumph! =) What it can do for us is to export 2003’s tasks … Continue reading Migrate scheduled tasks from 2003 to 2008

%System%\System32 secrets: change

By Alexander Trofimov

Another old-timer here. I cannot remember when I last used it, but I guess it still can be useful in a number of situations. For example I used to use it to install new software on a terminal server or to cease users logins to it. Now I usually don’t touch terminal servers and as far as I know they have other means to complete these tasks. Anyway, Windows 2003 is still in place and we still have the command around. It can the following:   Change logon setting: we can turn new logons to the TS. Just change logon … Continue reading %System%\System32 secrets: change

%SystemRoot%\System32 Secrets: certreq

By Alexander Trofimov

The next two candidates for the series from System32 folder were bootcfg and cacls (I’m going through them alphabetically). But they are deprecated and, what’s important too, I’ve managed to learn theirs new variants. Moreover, I’ve already described BCDEdit, which is a successor to bootcfg (and I’ve managed to learn how to use the new one ;)). Therefore I’m skipping these two commands and go straight to certreq command. So, certreq. It is more for advanced admin use, then for general user. But still it is good to remember of it… Just in case you need to: create new request … Continue reading %SystemRoot%\System32 Secrets: certreq