Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Looks like we finally got around to releasing the 30 day eval version of the Diagnostics & Recovery Toolset.

The Microsoft Diagnostics & Recovery Toolset (DART) is a powerful set of tools that we acquired from our acquisition of Winternals a.k.a. Mark Russonovich & company.  It allows administrators to recover PCs that have become unusable, and easily identify root causes of system issues.

It enables Windows desktop & server admins to:

• Recover an installation of the Windows OS, instead of "reinstalling" when safe mode won’t work.
• Undelete files that have been removed.
• Recover local passwords
• Manage services, boot time software, drivers, etc.
• Monitor Active Directory queries to debug authentication issues between a client and a domain controller

Here is a list of actual tools in the DART:

• Windows Shell 
• Command Line Regedit 
• Unzip
• ERD Commander 
• ERD Help 
• LockSmith 
• Chkdsk 
• Crash Analyzer 
• File Explorer 
• File Search 
• Notepad 
• File Restore 
• System File Scan 
• System Restore 
• Disk Commander 
• Computer Management 
• Map Network Drive 
• Hotfix Uninstall 
• DiskWipe

OVERVIEW & DEMONSTRATION:
A complete overview of the Diagnostics & Recovery Toolset is available here (XPS Viewer required)
A demonstration & presentation in a demonstration video is available here.

LICENSING:
DART is only available to our volume-licensed customers.  You must be either a corporate customer with an Enterprise Agreement (site license) or a customer who’s purchased the Windows Desktop OS for their workstations under Software Assurance (a multiyear contractual agreement) in order to license DART. 

For these licensees:  DART is available as one part of a 4 component software package called the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack which is licensed at pricing anywhere from $7-$10 per desktop/year.  For more information on the other 3 components of the Desktop Optimization pack, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/enterprise/default.mspx?tab=Microsoft%20Desktop%20Optimization%20Pack

DOWNLOAD:
The download is an .ISO file meaning that you’ll need to burn it to a disc using a tool like our free CDBURN.EXE which is available in our Windows Server 2003 Support Toolkit.

DOWNLOAD CDBURN.EXE (WINDOWS SERVER 2003 SUPPORT TOOLKIT):
http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/e/c/8ec3a7d8-05b4-440a-a71e-ca3ee25fe057/rktools.exe

DOWNLOAD DART 30-DAY EVAL OF DART: 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5d600369-0554-4595-8ab4-c34b2860e087&displaylang=en&tm

Simply run the .MSI that you download above, and burn the .ISO file using the CDBURN.EXE tool from the Windows Server 2003 Support Toolkit by using the following command:

cdburn.exe d: c:dart.iso