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Windows Command-Line Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, Second Edition, by William Stanek

Excerpted by Maria Gargiulo, content project manager, Microsoft Press
Windows Command-Line Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, Second Edition, by William R. Stanek, is a completely updated edition of the award-winning, number-one best-selling Windows command-line book.

This revised and expanded edition features more than 200 new pages and covers the essential command-line tools included in the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems. Whether you are an administrator, developer, or power user, you’ll be able to use this book to master the core command-line tools and techniques, and to learn numerous timesaving ways to get the job done.

This book will be available from Microsoft Press in June. Following is an excerpt from the introduction.

Windows Command-Line Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, Second Edition, is designed to be used in the daily administration of Windows systems, and as such the book is organized by job-related tasks rather than by Windows features. Speed and ease of reference is an essential part of this hands-on guide. The book has an expanded table of contents and an extensive index for finding answers to problems quickly. Many other quick reference features have been added as well. These features include quick step-by-step instructions, lists, tables with fast facts, and extensive cross-references.

The book is organized into both parts and chapters. Part I, “Windows Command-Line Fundamentals,” reviews the fundamental tasks you need for command-line administration. Chapter 1 provides an overview of command-line administration tools, techniques, and concepts. Chapter 2 is designed to help you get the most out of the command shell. It details techniques for starting up the command shell using parameters, how to control command path settings, what redirection techniques are available, and how to use multiple commands in sequences. Chapter 3 discusses the essentials for creating command-line scripts. You’ll learn how to set variables, work with conditional controls, and create procedures.

Windows provides many command-line tools to help in the management of daily operations. Part II, “Windows Systems Administration Using the Command Line,” discusses the core tools and techniques you’ll use to manage Windows systems. Chapter 4 explores techniques for configuring roles, role services, and features on Windows servers. Chapter 5 discusses many of the key administration tools, including those that help you gather system information, work with the Windows registry, configure Windows services, and shut down systems remotely. Chapter 6 examines the logging tools available for Windows systems that can help you identify and track system problems, monitor applications and services, and maintain system security. You’ll also learn how to write events to the system and application logs. In Chapter 7, you’ll learn about tools and techniques for monitoring applications, examining processes, and maintaining performance. Chapter 8 provides techniques you can use to manage the way logging is performed, centralize event logging across the enterprise, and collect and generate reports on performance data. Chapter 9 discusses ways you can automate tasks to reduce the daily workload.

The book continues with Part III, “Windows File System and Disk Administration Using the Command Line.” Users depend on hard disk drives to store their word processing documents, spreadsheets, and other types of data. If you’ve worked with Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 for any length of time, you’ve probably used the Disk Management tool. The command-line counterpart of Disk Management is the disk partition utility (DiskPart). You can use DiskPart to handle most disk management tasks as well as to perform some additional tasks that cannot be performed in the graphical user interface. Chapter 10 provides an introduction to DiskPart and also discusses FSUtil, ChkDsk, and CHKNTFS. Chapter 11 discusses partitioning basic disks. Chapter 12 examines dynamic disks and how they are used. The chapter also examines implementing, managing, and troubleshooting RAID.

Part IV, “Windows Active Directory Administration Using the Command Line,” concentrates on the core commands you’ll use for configuring, managing, and troubleshooting Active Directory. Chapter 13 discusses many of the key directory services administration tools, including tools that help you gather directory information. Chapter 14 examines tools that help you create and manage computer accounts in Active Directory. You’ll also learn how to configure domain controllers as global catalogs and operations masters. Chapter 15 discusses creating and managing accounts for users and groups in Active Directory.

The final part, Part V, “Windows Network Administration Using the Command Line,” examines network printing, TCP/IP networking, and related issues. Chapter 16 examines network printing and print services. Chapter 17 discusses configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting TCP/IP networking from the command line.

Appendix A provides a quick reference for command-line utilities discussed in the book. In Appendix B, you’ll find a quick reference for the contexts and commands available when you are working with the network services shell (Netsh). You can use Netsh to manage the configuration of various network services on local and remote computers.