If you want to streamline the administration of your Windows servers and workstations by using command line scripts, this is the book for you! With every new version of Windows, Microsoft attempts to ease administrative tasks by adding more and more layers of graphical user interface (GUI) or configuration wizards (dialog boxes). While these "wizards" are interactive and make the administrator's job simpler, they are nowhere near as quick or efficient as a well-crafted command-line script or batch file. This next title in Syngress' best-selling "How to Cheat" series teaches system administrators hundreds of powerful, time-saving tips for automating daily system administration tasks using Windows command line scripts. The book is divided into five sections.

The first section covers the basics of command line scripts and batch files including, usage of filters, conditional processing and command redirection. The readers will learn to create and schedule tasks to automating administration jobs from the Task Scheduler and from the command prompt.

Part two discusses basic Windows administration including disk check, disk defragmentation, converting basic disks to dynamic, and file system commands as well as administering partitions and volumes.

Part three focuses on scripting Active Directory including administering user and group accounts, and administering computers and domains. Part four moves on to Windows networking where the reader will learn to troubleshooting command-line tools, manage network printers, manage services for DHCP, DNS, WINS services as well as manage and monitor security including Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and certificate services.

In the final part of the book, the reader will learn to manage Windows systems including starting and stopping services, configuring service startup types, managing event log files, setting log filters, configuring system monitor, starting a performance log, setting objects, and configuring performance alerts.

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Discover the Windows command line - 2006-10-06
Reviewer Rating:
Disclaimer: I was the technical editor of the book

"There's more than one way to skin a cat", as the old saying goes.

Everything, and more, that can be done using the graphical, mouse-driven, interfaces provided by Windows, can be accomplished by using the command-line. What's more, these tasks can get scripted and be automated!

This book covers the basics of the command-line and how to go about writing batch files (or scripts).

After these fundamentals are covered, commands in various areas of system, domain and network administration are discussed. From configuring and using the task-scheduler, to performance, to managing disks, to AD administration, to network trouble-shooting, one is ready to tackle any administrative task from the command line.

The book also contains a very handy Appendix for those MS-DOS old-timers amongst us. The Appendix covers the MS-DOS commands no longer supported in Windows XP and those not supported in Windows 2003.

A final note is that this book was written with Windows XP and Windows 2003 in mind.

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