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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Windows 8’ Category

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Using dsquery and dsget to get computer information from a domain

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/05/13

This article is a very brief example of how to use dsquery/dsget/find to get computer information from in the active direrctory of a domain.

The main aim for myself is to condense the information here, and have some links for background information.

If you have the right credentials then the below batch file works very well.

It uses these tools:

  • dsquery to query the active directory on your domain controller for the existence and Distinguished Name (or ID/path) of various objects (in this example dsquery computer to check if a computer exists in a domain)
  • dsget which can get you various detail information about an object (for instance dsget computer used in this example))
  • find to raise the correct errorlevel (and indicate if we indeed found a CN – or Common Name – from a distinguished name)

The ds* tools do not raise any errorlevel, so that’s what find is used for.

Further reading: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

Reminder to self: links to HP C4680 Windows Drivers

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/05/05

Reminder to Self: links to HP C4680 Windows Drivers.

My mom has an HP C4860 all-in-one inkjet printer/scanner/copier.

Soon she will have a new laptop, so here are some links I will need to get that printer installed:

I’m not sure though why “Basic drivers” still need to be close to 40 megabytes.

–jeroen

via: HP C4680 Windows Drivers – Google Search.

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 | Leave a Comment »

; a semi-colon starts a comment line in a .reg file (via: Windows Server content from Windows IT Pro)

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/05/05

Thanks John Savill from Windows IT Pro:

To include comments in a registry file, place a semicolon (;) at the beginning of the line, as shown below:

; This will delete the key below because of the - sign
\[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SavillTech\key\]

–jeroen

via: How do I place comments in a .reg file? | Windows Server content from Windows IT Pro.

Posted in Microsoft Surface on Windows 7, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

Easiest way to grant/query “Log on as a service” to a Windows user from the command-line? (my question on Super User)

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/28

I want to script an install where a service needs to be run as a user. I want to be able to specify the user.

Creating the user is easy through the [Wayback/Archive] NET USER /ADD command.

Specifying the user for the service can also be done: the [Wayback/Archive] SC CONFIG command [Wayback/Archive] allows this (thanks [Wayback/Archive] wmz and [Wayback/Archive] ofiris).

Now the missing link: granting the user the [Wayback/Archive] “Log on as a service” privilege as a [Wayback/Archive] logon right (SeServiceLogonRight). Is there a command for this? Or a simple script for PowerShell?

(I know only Local Service can do this out of the box, and [Wayback/Archive] no other accounts by default are, but I want to have control over the account and what other privileges that account has).

Edit: solved. Thanks [Wayback/Archive] Mathias R. Jessen.

Here is the solution, including a few comments.

The easiest way to do this from a command line is definitely using NTRights.exe from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Toolkit.

ntrights +r SeServiceLogonRight -u jeroen -m \%COMPUTERNAME%

I changed the command-line a bit:

ntrights +r SeServiceLogonRight -u %USERNAME% -m \%COMPUTERNAME%

Note that

whoami /all

doesn’t show any change (not even after a reboot, it does not matter if you run it with or without UAC token).

secpol.msc

does show the change however, and does not require UAC (follow the tree to “Security Settings -> Local Policies -> User Rights Management -> Log on as a service” to see the users having the permission).

–jeroen

via: [Wayback/Archive] Easiest way to grant “Log on as a service” to a Windows user from the command-line? – Super User.

PS: Later I found out it is way easier to query the right:

accesschk.exe /accepteula -q -a SeServiceLogonRight

It will list the users having that right, for instance:

        IIS APPPOOLClassic .NET AppPool
        NT SERVICEALL SERVICES
        VCS-CIContinuaCI

There are similar rights one might want to query:

SeBatchLogonRight
SeDenyBatchLogonRight
SeInteractiveLogonRight
SeDenyInteractiveLogonRight
SeServiceLogonRight
SeDenyServiceLogonRight
SeNetworkLogonRight
SeDenyNetworkLogonRight

Thanks [Wayback/Archive] twasbrillig for explaining that at as answer to [Wayback/Archive] powershell – How to view user privileges using windows cmd? – Stack Overflow

Posted in Batch-Files, CommandLine, Development, Power User, PowerShell, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista | Leave a Comment »

Windows/NTFS – this works from one file system to another: `junction -D`

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/20

I’m glad that junction did work to create a directory junction to link a directory from one NTFS file system to another with this small batch file (that falls back from mklink to junction):

  @echo off
:start
  if !%1!==!! goto :help
  goto :main
:help
  echo %0 TargetFolder
  echo   Creates directory symbolic link using MKLINK or JUNCTION so that TargetFolder points to %~dp0
  goto :eof
:main
  :: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-symlinks-in-windows-vista/
  call :do mklink /D %1 %~dp0
  call :do junction %1 %~dp0
  goto :eof
:do
  echo %*
  %*
  goto :eof

Some more reading on juncions, hard links, symbolic links, etc:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Fiddler2 to the max: inserting proxy authentication to use DropBox (or other app) behind a corporate firewall

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/16


A while ago, I was working with a not so cooperative corporate firewall. All web browsers would work fine, but most other applications would not go through the proxy in a nice way.

For instance, DropBox would show the dreadfull “Connection Error” dialog shown on the right.

That dialog basically means “Dropbox has no clue what happens, try fiddling with your proxy or account settings, then press Reconnect Now” to retry.

Many other applications had issues (for instance Visual Studio connecting to Team Foundation System was very unreliable and the workarounds clumsy).

CNTLM: not the solution

I got inspired by the [WayBack] I code and code: Tutorial: How to use Dropbox behind a corporate proxy server using CNTLM, even though I was pretty sure the corporate firewall was not NTLM based.

And indeed, CNTLM -v -M http://google.com -c CNTLM.INI would give errors like this:

cntlm: Proxy returning invalid challenge!
headers_send: fd 4 warning -999 (connection closed)
Connection closed

HTTP Fiddler: looks promising

So I fired up my old buddy [WayBack] Fiddler 2 HTTP debugging proxy.

Further on, you will learn that Fiddler2 is much more, but right now it is enough to know that it basically sits as a local proxy between your applications and the outside world. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in .NET, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, base64, Cntlm, Development, DropBox, Encoding, Fiddler, JavaScript/ECMAScript, NTLM, Power User, Scripting, SocialMedia, Software Development, Web Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows-Http-Proxy | Leave a Comment »

Windows Explorer – copying path/name of files and folders (full/short; regular/UNC; unix/cygwin): Path Copy Copy – Home

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/11

This Explorer extension is brilliant: Path Copy Copy – Home.

It works in Windows XP and up (including 7, 8 .x, 20xx Server, etc).

The Open Source is done in Visual Studio with C++.

–jeroen

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in C++, Development, Power User, Software Development, Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio and tools, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

CleanMgr: Disk Cleanup Wizard addon lets users delete outdated Windows update files

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/10

Not only for Windows 7 SP1, as it works on newer Windows versions too:

The article lists many steps, but these are the ones you don’t want to miss:

  • Start the Disk Cleanup wizard by running ‘CleanMgr‘ as Administrator
  • Make sure you press the “Cleanup system files” button:
    this will restart CleanMgr as administrator and include obsolete Windows Update files in the scan.

Both scanning and cleaning can take quite a while, and you often have to reboot afterwards.

You automate parts of the non-administrator process, but the automation task does not support the “Cleanup system files” option. Normally I’d rather see what it wants to cleanup, so I have not used this automation way yet..

–jeroen

via: Disk Cleanup Wizard addon lets users delete outdated Windows updates on Windows 7 SP1.

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 | Leave a Comment »

Updating Windows Defender signatures (only) on Windows 8, 7 and XP (via: twm’s blog)

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/08

Based on Updating Windows Defender signatures (only) » twm’s blog (thanks Thomas!), I found it would not work on all my Windows systems.

So I wrote a small batch file that works on my Windows 8.x, 7 and XP systems: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

Windows: setx sets environment variables in a persistent way (from values on cmd-line, registry or text files)

Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/02

Wow, I totally missed the introduction of SETX.

From TechNet:

SETX:

Creates or modifies environment variables in the user or system environment, without requiring programming or scripting. The Setx command also retrieves the values of registry keys and writes them to text files.

Even better, is that it allows you take values from these sources so it is easy to get those into environment variables:

  • Command-line parameter
  • Registry key
  • Text file (with some filtering/search options)

From a bit of searching around, I think it got introduced in a Windows Resource Kit, and got included by default starting Windows Vista.

Excellent addition to my toolset (:

–jeroen

via Setx.

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista | Leave a Comment »

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