Submitted by Helge Klein

If you look under the hood of Windows you find permissions everywhere. Files and folders, registry keys, network shares, printers, services and WMI objects – all of these have security descriptors storing ownership, permission and auditing information. That opens up powerful management options and SetACL is the great tool for the job. It sets and lists permissions practically anywhere in the system, locally and over the network, from the command line, scripts or programs.

SetACL – Manage access control lists

Managing Windows permissions

With nearly 500,000 downloads SetACL is a proven tool for automating and managing permissions. SetACL does everything Explorer does and much more. It has, for example, no problem whatsoever processing very long paths with more than 260 characters.

When you start to work with SetACL the command line options may first seem intimidating. That is because the program packs many features you will appreciate, like being able to bypass security when listing permissions.

If you have always wanted to check out the content of the “System Volume Information” folder stored in the root of every drive, try the following command on an elevated command prompt:

SetACL.exe -on "c:\System Volume Information" -ot file -actn list -lst f:tab -rec cont_obj

This instructs SetACL to list (-actn list) the permissions of the file system object (-ot file) System Volume Information (-on) recursively (-rec cont_obj), i.e. including all subfolders and files. The listing is printed in easy-to-read tabular format (-list f:tab) on the screen.

Automatic re-acling in migrations

Obviously SetACL is very good at setting permissions and changing object ownership. But let us rather skip to some very special capabilities, one of which is the re-acling feature. Copying existing permissions between domains can be extremely useful when you are performing a domain migration.

Suppose you have a domain OldDom whose user accounts you need to recreate in NewDom. You have already created all user accounts in NewDom with identical attributes as in OldDom, but the new user accounts still have no access to the company’s file shares. That is because although the user names in NewDom are the same as in OldDom, the users’ SIDs are different, and SIDs are what is stored in security descriptors, not user names.

In such a situation the following SetACL command would help:

SetACL.exe -on "\\server1\share1" -ot file -actn domain -rec cont_obj -dom "n1:OldDom;n2:NewDom;da:cpydom;w:dacl"

This instructs SetACL to copy all permission entries from OldDom to the corresponding account in NewDom for every file and folder below “\\server1\share1″.

SetACL can do much more than could be described in this article. To learn more, download SetACL, check out the program’s documentation and have a look at the examples. Any remaining questions are likely answered quickly in the support forum

SetACL

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Windows is not really made to be managed from a command-line interface, and the somewhat primitive Windows Command Prompt stresses this fact. But the strongest side of Windows is that, for every weakness, a third party steps into the breach—and, in many cases, the stopgap is free. (Which is why the 4sysops list of free Windows admin tools now already contains 343 tools.) Console is another candidate.

Windows Command Prompt alternative – Console

Console’s list of features reads like a list of Windows Command Prompt shortcomings:

Resizing the Windows Command Prompt

To enlarge a Windows Command Prompt window, you have to specify width and height through the window properties. Can someone please tell me what the point of this “feature” is? The majority of commands and messages don’t fit into the tiny default size. Of course, you can change the default size, but then when you need a smaller window, you have to go through this cumbersome resizing procedure again.

With Console, you can resize the shell with the mouse, just like with every other Windows application. Yes, you can decrease the window size of the Windows Command Prompt with the mouse, but then you have to scroll horizontally to view lines that don’t fit into the window. Console creates line breaks, which makes the reading of long lines much easier. The only thing missing here in Console is that it is not possible to maximize the window.

Copy and paste on the Windows Command Prompt

Copying and pasting on the Windows Command Prompt only works after you enable Quick Edit. I’m not sure why this is necessary. But my main critique here is this strange highlighting method that allows you to select only a rectangular area. Whenever you want to copy a command or output messages that extend over multiple lines, you have a problem. You either select too much text or not enough—never what you want.

Copy and paste – Windows Command Prompt

Copy and paste – Console

Console allows you to select text just as in any other Windows program by moving the cursor to the position where the command ends, which is the only highlighting method that really makes sense. By default, you have to press the SHIFT key while selecting text. However, you can configure this. You can copy text through the context menu, or you can configure a hot key. Avoid using CTRL + C though, because you might need this key combination to abort commands. The default setting is CTRL + INS. To paste text, you have to press SHIFT + INS. I don’t see any reason not to configure CTRL + V here. By the way, there are many other hot keys. Check out the Console Settings.

Tabs

If you only launch the Windows Command Prompt whenever you want to ping a remote host, you probably won’t need this feature. But for those admins who think that GUI administration tools are only for sissies and who curse in PowerShell when you wake them up in the middle of the night, tabs are a must-have feature. If you want to use PowerShell with Console, you have to add a tab in the Console Settings and use this command for the shell on a Windows 7 machine: %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe. You can then open a PowerShell tab through the toolbar.

PowerShell geeks might prefer the Windows PowerShell ISE, especially for writing scripts. However, Console has more settings to offer when it comes to working on the command shell. In particular, the hot keys that allow you to switch quickly between tabs are quite useful.

Moreover, you can assign different kinds of shells to each tab. You just have to point the tab to the corresponding executable. Just in case you’re thinking of using Putty with Console, well, this doesn’t work. This would be my second favorite feature for the next Console version. My favorite feature? Support for Windows Server 2008 2 Server Core.

By the way, Console is portable. The settings can either be stored in an XML file in its folder or in the user profile.

Do you know of another good Windows Command Prompt alternative?

Console

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Why would you need a BAT to EXE converter? There are at least four reasons: You don’t want your users to view or mess with your batch files, your script depends on several other files that you can add to an EXE file, you have to run the batch script with administrator rights in a user context, or you want to pin EXE files to the Windows 7 taskbar or the Windows Start Menu (something you can’t do with BAT files). In this article, I will outline four ways to convert BAT files to EXE files.

1. IEXPRESS.EXE

IEXPRESS.EXE is a Windows tool that allows you to create your own setup programs. A setup program is just a program; that is, the output of IEXPRESS.EXE is simply an EXE file. You can find the tool under C:\windows\system32. Double-click to start the IEXPRESS wizard that guides you through the creation of the EXE file. Essentially, you tell the tool what files you want to add to your package and which files to execute when the EXE file is executed—in this case, this will be your BAT file. There are quite a few settings you can configure, such as whether the file extraction is visible to the user. Note that not all batch commands will work. For example, you can’t use the copy command, but xcopy works fine. A detailed description of how to use IEXPRESS.EXE for a BAT to EXE conversion can be found here.

2. Free Bat To Exe Converter tool

WARNING: The tool appears to contain a trojan. 

Contrary to IEXPRESS.EXE, the free Bat To Exe Converter tool has only one purpose. Yes, you guessed it right: you can convert a batch file to an EXE file with this free utility. The portable tool has an easy-to-use interface that allows you to configure a few useful settings for your EXE file. You can configure a working directory, specify whether the batch execution will be visible, and even encrypt the EXE and protect it with a password. Like with IEPRESS.EXE, you can add files that your batch script requires to the EXE. I recommend testing the EXE thoroughly before running it on user computers. Some batch commands don’t work at all or work differently. For example, you can’t use the set command to set environment variables. The only downside of the Bat To Exe Converter tool compared to IEXPRESS.exe is that you first have to download it, whereas IEXPRESS.exe is available on every Windows PC.

3. Sysadmin Geek’s BAT to EXE converter script

Scripting guys often have a natural aversion towards GUIs. If you belong in this category of Windows admins, you might like the Sysadmin Geek’s BAT to EXE converter script. The script relies on the bundle and execute feature of the free compression tool 7-Zip. So you have to download and install this tool first before you can use the script.

4. Commercial BAT to EXE compiler

Several commercial BAT to EXE compiler tools offer a few features that might come in handy if you often have to convert batch scripts to executables. Such features are built-in batch script editors, support of other script formats (BScript, JScript, WSF, WSH, etc.), and better support for Windows commands. Most of these tools can be used for free with one little downside: Quick Batch File Compiler is only free for home use, and the Advanced BAT to EXE Converter displays a nag screen on computers other than the one where the batch files are compiled. This is acceptable if you only use the EXE, but you probably don’t want to bother end users with a purchase reminder.

Do you know of other ways for BAT to EXE conversion?

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The problem is that “now” is usually the wrong time from the user’s perspective, and sometimes Windows insists that “then” is too late. There are many reasons why Windows can initiate a restart without user consent, including during the processing of automatic Windows updates or when an updated application just wants to be sure that everything will work properly. Or perhaps you just initiated the shutdown at the moment your boss calls to ask for some important data and you want to stop it.

I know of four ways to stop or prevent shutdowns and reboots:

1. Click the clock

If you are sitting in front of the PC and recognize that one application window after the other magically closes without your intervention, then you have to be very quick to convince Windows that “now” is not “then.” This can be done by clicking the clock in the systray to change the date to a time in the past. This makes Windows believe that “now” is still in the future and so it stops the shutdown or reboot process. The problem with time machines is that they need a lot of energy and, in this case, a lot of speed to be put into action. If you only have a few applications open for Windows to close, you will see the “Shutting down…” message before you even had the chance to click the calendar.

2. Shutdown -a

The “click the clock” trick is not the official way to cancel shutdowns. An alternative is to open a command prompt and type “shutdown -a”. However, only a young PowerShell geek who doesn’t have arthritis in his fingers yet would be fast enough for that. To be prepared for the future, you can just create a Windows shortcut and use the “shutdown -a” command as the “location of the item.” If you copy this shortcut to the quickstart bar or to the Windows 7 taskbar, then you can stop a shutdown with a single click in the future.

3. Shutdown Event Tracker

Click the clock and shutdown -a only help if you are currently working on the PC. Besides, only John Wayne in his early days would have been fast enough to always win the duel with Windows. For seasoned admins like me, it makes sense to activate the Shutdown Event Tracker. If this setting is enabled, Windows will always display the Shutdown Event Tracker dialog before it actually shuts down the computer. You probably know this feature from Windows Server; enabling this GPO setting will activate it for Windows clients as well. This means an extra click to shut down Windows, but, at least, you will always have enough time to load your rifle and pull the trigger when you are ready. The corresponding Group Policy setting to activate the Shutdown Event Tracker can be found here: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Display Shutdown Event Tracker.

4. ShutdownGuard

If you don’t want the Shutdown Event Tracker to ask for a reason every time you reboot, then you might be interested in ShutdownGuard. This tiny free tool sits in the systray and can be enabled or disabled with a mouse click. If enabled, it will prevent every shutdown. In Windows XP, ShutdownGuard displays its own warning message in the systray; in Vista and Windows 7, the integrated new shutdown warning dialog appears. You can then either cancel the shutdown or just click “Force shut down”.

Do you know of another way to cancel or prevent shutdowns?

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Of course, you could use a virtualization solution to run DOS apps, but that might be overkill for some purposes. The DOSBox setup of version 0.73 produced an error message on Windows 7 x64 after the installation. However, it appeared to work smoothly, anyway. The emulator comes with only a couple of DOS commands, which are usually enough to run programs. If you want to have a full blown DOS environment, you can use FreeDOS within DOSBox.

To run external programs in DOSBox, you have to mount a folder on the host with the command “mount c c:\[folder]“. This folder will then be your C drive. To configure settings, such as the screen size or the amount of high memory available to programs (how I miss these good old DOS times), you have to edit the dosbox.conf file. There are a couple of frontends that simplify the configuration.

I must say I was quite fascinated when I played with DOSBox. When I installed WordPerfect, I began to remember how system administration was in those days. The DOS era ended only about 20 years ago, but this environment seems unbelievably primitive compared to today’s information technology. Considering that the development in IT is growing exponentially, it is likely that the next five years or so, will bring comparable innovations to those of the last 20 years. If this is true, Windows 7 will soon be a very primitive OS. But I am sure there will be Windows 7 emulators running somewhere in the cloud or on your watch-sized mobile phone.

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I suppose if I had asked this question a few years ago, we would have received an even stronger bias for the GUI. PowerShell is changing the view of many Windows admins, simply because you can now do many things on the CLI that you can’t do with the admin tools that come with Windows. Before we had PowerShell, the Windows command prompt was mostly used for relatively trivial tasks like pinging a remote computer or perhaps clearing the DNS cache.

It is not difficult to guess for what I have voted. I am clearly pro GUI. It is not really that I am completely against working on command prompt. On a Linux server, I wouldn’t even install a desktop environment. In my view, Windows is just not made for the command line. Perhaps this is the reason why PowerShell commands are often so longwinded.

What upsets me in this discussion is the argument that you can “automate” administration tasks with PowerShell. In my opinion, this claim is absolutely meaningless. Every piece of software is meant to automate tasks. In fact, software has no other purpose. PowerShell fans usually want to imply with this assertion that with GUI tools, you have to do everything manually and that Windows admins can save a lot of time if they finally start automating things, just as their Linux colleagues do. The main reason why Windows is so successful is because there are so many great administration tools available that allow you to automate all kinds of tasks for thousands of machines with just a few clicks.

However, that doesn’t mean that I am against PowerShell. On the contrary! PowerShell is one of the most important Windows enhancements of the last years. It is probably the best programming language for Windows management. Thus, it has become a very important tool for all system management developers.

I also recommend that every Windows admin learns PowerShell. Microsoft sometimes offers only a PowerShell interface for new Windows features, probably in the hope that someone else will take on the expensive task of programming a graphical user interface. And, of course, sometimes you have no other choice than to write a script to get the job done, simply because no one else has yet written such a program or because your organization can’t afford a new tool. (Even though this is not as often the case as in former times.) Some readers have pointed out that it depends on the kind of task whether a GUI or a CLI is preferable. This is certainly also true.

The fact that one third of Windows admins can live perfectly with the command prompt also shows that, to a certain degree, the answer to this question is a matter of taste. Not all brains work the same way. I have seen admins who can type faster than I can think. If you feel comfortable on the command prompt, my anti-CLI rants won’t persuade you anyway. I am the most tolerant person when it comes to the choice of the right administration tool. Just do me the favor and don’t tell me that you can automate tasks just because you have PowerShell. It is like telling me that you can sit because you have the tools to build a chair and all others have to keep standing.

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To some extent, the article reads as if Repadmin is a new tool, yet both tools have already been introduced in Windows 2000. Therefore, Microsoft dropped a GUI tool in favor of the command line version. This is in contradiction to Microsoft’s official policy, i.e., that command line and graphical admin tools are supported in the same manner. It has occurred to me several times, however, that this is really no longer the case. Ned Pyle indicates why:

Windows administrators are much more comfortable with the command-line, and that’s great…

I am not sure how to interpret this sentence. Perhaps he means that Windows admins are now more comfortable with the command line than they were some years ago, but the “that’s great” comment, as well as the tone in the article, seem to claim that Windows admins currently prefer command line tools.

This sort of praising of command line tools is relatively new for Microsoft, and it all started with the introduction of PowerShell. The idea for PowerShell was born at a time when many believed that Linux was a serious threat to Windows. Linux advocates often argued that Windows’ MS-DOS-based command shell is no match for the UNIX-like shells of the Open Source OS. Microsoft then decided to make up for this shortcoming. It was with the release of PowerShell 2.0 that Microsoft actually surpassed Linux in this field.

This certainly strengthens the Windows platform, but I also see the danger in the possibility that Repadmin won’t be the last tool that will be dropped in favor of a command line tool. Of course, it is much cheaper to develop a command line tool than the corresponding GUI version. Since more and more Microsoft tools are now based on PowerShell, the temptation to offer only a command line version is significant.

In detail, I’ve already outlined my view about the GUI-CLI controversy. I am still very much pro-GUI, and I believe that this renaissance of the command line interface (CLI) is a step backward. I started working as a sys admin at a time before Windows conquered PC networks, and I am also used to managing Linux boxes. In this respect, I feel like I know both worlds.

Anyway, I would like to know if Ned Pyle’s claim is true. I know that my obvious support for the GUI fraction endangers the validity of this poll since it might influence some readers. However, I also recommend reading Ned Pyle’s article as a counterweight. You might also want to read some of the pro CLI comments in my former rant against the CLI.

Before you vote, sit back for a moment, forget everything you have read, close your eyes, and then imagine your daily work as a Windows admin. Then, make your decision.

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With the command line tool Export.exe you can put the stdout output of win32 console programs into CMD.EXE environment variables, which is very useful for batch files

It partly covers the functionality of the tool conset.exe (but export.exe also comes with a 64-bit version) or the linux export – command

export.exe

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While the future of command line administration and scripting certainly belongs to PowerShell, I know that many admins still prefer simple batch scripts when it comes to scripting in a Windows environment. PowerShell is powerful, but it also requires a powerful memory if you only use it every now and then. What I like most about NirCmd is that its structure is so simple that one can easily memorize its commands.

Another advantage of simple batch scripts is that you can run them on every Windows box without installing .NET and PowerShell. Because NirCmd is only about 30KB, you can load it from a network share when you have to run a script on remote machines. In addition, it is possible to execute NirCmd commands on remote computers. You can explicitly add the computer names in your script or specify a text file with a list of the computers on which you want to run a specific NirCmd command.

To give you an idea about the multi-purpose character of NirCmd, I will list a few examples which I just copied from the NirSoft website. There you will find more examples and a description of how to use NirCmd.

NirCmd

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a nice approach to running with/without elevated rights.

RunAsAdmin

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nice eye-candy replacement for cmd.exe (launches cmd but adds transparency, tabs, cursors, etc)

console

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the best S.M.A.R.T. software; add blat.exe and you’ll get automated email reports for failing disks.

Publisher’s description:

The smartmontools package contains two utility programs (smartctl and smartd to control and monitor storage systems using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System (SMART) built into most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks. In many cases, these utilities will provide advanced warning of disk degradation and failure.

smartmontools for win32

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Blat doesn’t have to be installed, although it is possible to do so. However, this will only store a couple of settings to the Windows Registry such as the SMTP server or the number of times Blat will try to send an email. But you can also specify these settings in environment variables or as command options.

This is a simple example, which I just copied from the documentation of Blat:

@echo off :::::::::::::: Lets set some variables :::::::::::::: set eMail=tim@blat.tld set subj=-s "Test Blat" set server=-server localhost set x=-x "X-Header-Test: Can Blat do it? Yes it Can!" set debug=-debug -log blat.log -timestamp ::::::::::::::::: Now we run Blat! ::::::::::::::::: blat %0 -to %eMail% -f %eMail% %subj% %server% %debug% %x%

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This is at least true if you take the original meaning of the term “shell” which is just a user interface. Of course, you can also use Powershell on the command prompt. However, I doubt that many Windows sysops will really do this. Consider this example from the book which lists processes by its name and CPU time:

get-process | ForEach-Object { write-host $_.ProcessName $_.CPU}

Who really wants to type such longwinded commands? Yeah, you could also just use “get-process” to get a (different kind of) list of processes. But why not just use task manager for this? The point is, you usually need such a formatted list of processes only if you want to use it as input for another command. And that’s what I call scripting and not working on the command shell. Therefore, a better name for Powershell would have been “Powerscript” in my view.

I think that Windows doesn’t really need a powerful command shell because it has very powerful GUI tools. This is the main difference to Linux. However, there are some tasks you can’t even do with a powerful GUI. But then they are usually so complicated that a longwinded command won’t be of help either. That’s were scripts come in.

On my blog someone asked why Sever Core doesn’t support Powershell. The official answer to this question is that Powershell needs .Net which is not supported by Server Core. Another reason is that Server Core wouldn’t probably benefit much from Powershell because it is a scripting language and not a command shell.

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To start PowerShell you only have to type “Power” at Vista’s Start Search prompt. What I like about it is that its default background is now blue. This black background of the command prompt is really ugly.

Copy and paste is better, too. On the command prompt, it is quite complicated to enable the “Mark” feature (click on the left upper corner, then “Edit”, then “Mark”). You don’t this need anymore for the PowerShell user interface. Just mark the text, press “Enter” and then right click where you want to paste the text.

Another difference to the command prompt is that if you click on the maximize symbol, you get a bigger window. However, you still can’t enlarge it to full screen mode. I wonder why? If you need a window bigger than 120 characters, you have to change the properties and set the width manually. This is a quite longwinded procedure. Why can’t one just resize the window? Well, okay, the real power of the PowerShell lies not in its new user interface, of course.

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Most important, I think, is the fact that it can resume where it previously left off whenever the copy process is somehow cancelled. I also like the fact that it can synchronize two folders. Please, check out this Wikipedia article for a list of other important features.

Robocopy is certainly a better tool than xcopy. I just wonder why Microsoft didn’t just enhance xopy with its features. Countless scripts will have to be rewritten if xcopy is not supported in the future, anymore.

Via Matt Pietrek (PS: I was surprised, too)

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But one thing is clear. The command line will be more important for Windows administrators in the future. Take Exchange 2007, as an example. Exchange Server 2007 will leverage Windows PowerShell to provide improved command line automation. This doesn’t mean that Exchange won’t have a graphical user interface, of course. It only means that you can also manage Exchange with command line tools.

This will improve the flexibility since you can now perform many tasks faster than before. For instance, you could move mailboxes which haven’t been accessed for some months to another Exchange Server on the command line within minutes what usually take a quite sometime with the GUI.

If you are one of the Windows administrators who always preferred clicking instead of typing (like me), it might be time for a change and have look at PowerShell now. You can also check out the PowerShell blog for more information. There is a lively discussion going on.

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• bind processes to specified CPU cores
• assign process priorities
• switch active power schema profiles
• terminate black listed processes
• execute commands when a certain process starts

I specially like the last feature. It is useful, if you want to trigger actions during the opening of an application. For this, you can configure ProcessWatchV2 to start a program or a script whenever the specified process starts. The tool needs .Net 2.0.

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The only input that YourDir needs is the root directory, the maximum number of items and the maximum number of subfolder levels displayed. Furthermore, you can specify whether you want to include files or only display folders. It then presents a graphical output of the directory structure which you can export in a graphics file (BMP) or in a text file (CSV). YourDir also can print the output. Note: the tool needs the .Net Framework 1.1.

XDir 1.2 is much more powerful than YourDir 1.7. However, you can’t use YourDir without studying a manual (it doesn’t even have one). Studying XDir’s somewhat difficult to read documentation is a must, though. You will understand best what XDir can do, if I show you some examples from its manual:

This command displays all folders with its contents’ total size and redirects the output to a text file: XDir /NoFiles /Dirs /S /Form=*D*P*F*E\t*S>xdir.txt XDir is not only good for displaying directory contents; you can also use its output for further processing by other commands. For example this command renames a folder to its present date: XDir Folder /NoFiles /Dirs /Execute "/Form=REN *D*P*F*E {/Today=[78904512]} And this deletes all files older than seven days: XDir /Execute "/Form=?(#{/ZDay=}'L'{/ZToday=}-7)DEL *D*P*F*E" If you’re going to use XDir often, you should add its installation folder to the PATH environment variable. Open the System tool in the Control Panel and go to the “Advanced Tab”. There you can set all environment variables. Don’t forget to reboot afterwards.

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