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What's in the box, Windows sysadmin?
Windows is a powerful and complex Operating System (OS). As with any modern OS, it comes equipped with numerous features, utilities, and applications. But Windows' default tools are not always the best widget for the job at hand. The ubiquity of these tools makes them a standard minimal toolkit that Windows administrators can …
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On Windows
Can you do something like;
grep something /var/log/syslog
or
tail -F /var/log/syslog | grep something
If not, then it is still a toy OS that is administered by trained monkeys.
On Windows
"Can you do something like" <blah blah look at me I know some Linux stuff blah>
If you can't answer that question yourself you're in no position to comments. Ignorance Boy ...
It was about Tools for Windows admin...
Big Fucking Hammer.
Couple of extras
SIW from gtopala.com - very handy, does a whole bunch of stuff I don't care about, but for me the really nice aspect is the hardware list - it's basically lspci for Windows
It's not free, but it is very very useful: Super Flexible File Synch from superflexible.com provides an easy to use rsync interface for Windows.
Is Hirems getting stale?
Just look at Hirems, which sounded intruging, but the software seems to be getting stale. 2011 dates and TeamViewer 7 is now out. Is he out the door?
@Tom about Hiren's
Sorry for the plug but ... use UBCD4Win instead. You can rebuild an ISO with updated software on it (and extra too) whever you please.
Disclaimer: I have nothing against Hiren. I've used it for many years since version 6 I think. It still use it from time to time to run DOS-based programs like Seatools.
xyplorer can't make up their mind
if their software runs on Windows or Mac-operated-by-attractive-blonde.
http://www.xyplorer.com/
No contradiction
>> if their software runs on Windows or Mac-operated-by-attractive-blonde.
Since Apple jumped ship to Intel, many Macs operated by attractive blondes have been running Windows.
ftp?
Filezilla portable and Filezilla Server for FTP... Invaluable freeware over the last couple of weeks...
Data Recovery
Forgot to mention Backtrack distro when trying to grab stuff off a knackered drive. I'm crap at Linux stuff, but Photorec and (can't remember the name of the other recovery app?) have proved to be really useful kit.
Photorec is part of the Testdisk utility suite. Recover your deleted partitions
I use Parted Magic boot CD, is has both plus more.
http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=start
Doesn't anyone use Total Commander?
Did you hear about Far (similar to Total Commande) ? I liked it when I had Windows.
Wrongaaaaa
Its not powerful, its overly and unnecessarily complex, and its only just barely classifiable as an 'OS'. A better description of MSW is as a modular Desktop with some OS capabilities. I pretty much stopped reading at that point.
Linux people
Please, bog off.
I have nothing against linux at all. But why do you feel the need to drop your pro-linux droppings all over an article talking about windows administration? Does it make you happy?
***
For my money, half the tools on the list aren't tools at all, but a list of the free software which is handy to have for the user longterm (as a fix, why do you need to create pdf's for instance?)
A BartPE disk is my weapon of choice if it's so nerfed I can't get into it at all. A lot of the other stuff is extra gubbins not required for any fix itself.
This penguin agrees.
Much as I dislike Windows, when we're talking about Windows admin tasks, let's talk about /Windows/ admin tasks.
If I still had to administer MS machines, one thing I might use is gparted. I don't know what comes with later versions, but it will certainly do a heap more than the XP-provided disk utilities. Doubtless, there are other Linux-based tools that may be useful in Windows administration. In context, that's great: otherwise, yelling Linux is about as useful as shouting "buy a Mac!"
I have nothing outside the home to administer any longer, but Bart PE is also my favourite tool for the job, along with Drive Image XML
No idea how stuff like gparted and DI-XML compares with the commercial partion-managment and imaging/restore stuff I used to use (partition magic etc) as I'm not in the market for buying it any longer.
Re: Linux people
Possibly because it's amusing to watch the Windows admins finally get a decent toolset most of which are based on old linux tools.
Bite the bullet, admit you're wrong, dump the MS tie-in, reduce your operating costs and download CentOS, ffs.
DriveImage XML
@Thad: had problems with DriveImageXML either not writing correct output or not getting it to read a backup file. Switched to MacriumReflect.
I suspect that the newer tools from Microsoft might work as well; haven't kept track...
Cheers
It has worked for me, both with image restores and file-level restores.
Always better to know if there are potential problems, though.
@DaWolf
I'm both a Windows and Linux admin and quite frankly I disagree. Different people, different pov's and in the end chances are high that we'll all learn something. Not to mention that in many cases Linux out of all things can be extremely helpful with fixing Windows (-related) issues.
Also I somewhat dislike your generalizing a bit; "Linux people" ? This isn't about 'Linux people', its about a bunch of kids who can't help look down on something. Just ignore 'm, that's the best way to keep things clean. Kids will be kids ;-)
@Goat Jam
Ah I see you're still harping on to days of old - Windows Server 2008, and the newer 2008 R2 along with desktop versions like 7 etc do have a web server included, but like much of Windows these days it isn't usable or active at all unless you explicitly go and enable it. It's pretty much like having the installer pre-loaded but not actually installed.
Your argument on the security fail is therefore a fail in itself and based on history rather than reality over the last few years.
Oh and just to save time, before we get into the "but Linux has never included this security fail blah blah" - that's good, you go live in the past, you know back when Linux SMTP servers also thought it was just as acceptable to be open relay by default. Things change... times move on...
As for bloat, I guess it depends how much you care. Windows Server uses more space than Linux, true enough but disk storage is dead cheap, and at least I haven't got to go and apt-get or some other variant a bucketload more things I need to get going. It's just a different way of doing things.
Man, such hostility...
Some mainly Windows BOFHs also do Linux admin & vice versa. Such people may have Linux tools that they use for Windows admin & system rescue, therefore mentioning such tools is surely quite legitimate when they've been asked what tools they use. It's each to their own, either deal with it or get a job llama farming or some shit. In fact bollocks, it's your blood pressure.
I'm a complete agnostic when it comes to OS preference, each has it's own merits. But Windows admins going all frothy at the mouth as soon as someone mentions that they use Linux tools to fix things is quite frankly a bit sad, just as sad as the reverse would be. I've picked up tips here on both MS & Linux based options, if you stop going all red mist & actually read some of the comments you may learn about something that will save you some serious time & effort at some point.
Serious, this is making iTards look positively liberal & cuddly, & a fair proportion of both Windows & Linux BOFHs who have posted look like a bunch of cockwombles.
Tools is tools is tools.
I agree entirely. As a bit of a newbie to the SysAdmin game I'd love to know about any tools that could save me time.
Trawling through all your pro/anti-Windows/Linux ramblings to find anything of worth have cost my company a few pretty pennies this morning!
I'm using Cobian to back up each employees work to our server via FTP. This is especially helpful as we have a lot of travelling employees. You can never have too many backups.
"GIMP for minor image work"? I dread to think what you use for major image work. An electron microscope to flip the bits by hand?
tsk tsk,. should really have hirens installed on a USB pen, with all your portable software on it also, then you dont need anything else, nice idea with the dropbox/portable combo :P
FoxIt out ->SumatraPDF in
Vastly prefer SumatraPDF as it's not bloated and probably can be installed on a USB stick (why did you say that doesn't make sense, Trevor?)
In general, nice article that provokes some nice responses (and some not so nice, but not as much as I'd have feared)
+1 for photorec/testdisk for use in recovering Windows files by the way. Might be that one could try first with a tool like Recuva...
Portable PDF viewer
While it certainly is possible to use Sumtra or Foxit in portable mode, I find the point of them - PDF viewer shell/browser integration - to be missed. PDFs are a bog standard format for manuals nowadays (say...the mobo manual with the jumper layouts...) and really should be part of the OS itself.
I also like the ability to use them for scripts. I have found portable versions have problems with printint in Windows 7 if you summon them from the command line. Every now and again I have to coxe some widget that scans a directory, looks for any new pdfs and prints them. Bitter experience has taught me to use shell-integrated copies.
NewSID not required:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2009/11/03/3291024.aspx
I often refer to this thread:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/26366-BEST-One-STOP-Free-Windows-Software-2012
Not all of it is portable, but practically everything on the list is good.
Don't forget rkill and TDSSKiller
you had me at... NOT!
I stopped reading at "Windows is a powerful and complex Operating System"
All of the above on a Zalman hard drive
Lost of useful tools above this post, lots of great live CDs etc.
I use one of the zalman external usb enclosures:
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/09/05/geek_treat_of_the_week_zalman_zm_ve200_external_hdd_case/
This not only lets you carry round as many of the handy live CDs as you want, it has a write protection switch & with a large enough drive you can also use it to save the images you make with clonezilla etc on it. It's really a number of tools in one!
Only Issue I've had is either 1) crappy old BIOS which can't seem to boot from it because its a usb device and 2) if the ISO files are at all fragmented they wont mount properly.
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