Windows Command Line: The Personal Trainer

for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

William Stanek

at a Glance

Introduction

Overview of the Windows Command Line

Getting the Most from the Command Line

Command-Line Scripting Essentials

Working with the Registry

Managing System Services

Restarting and Shutting Down Computers from the Command Line

Event Logging, Tracking, and Monitoring

Managing Processes and Maintaining Performance

Scheduling Tasks to Run Automatically

Configuring, Maintaining, and Troubleshooting TCP/IP Networking

Essential Command-Line Tools Reference

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Book Details

Price	2.00 USD
Pages	342 p
File Size	1,854 KB
File Type	PDF format
Published	Stanek & Associates
Copyright	2015 William Stanek

About the Author

William Stanek (http://www.williamstanek.com/) has more than 20 years of hands-on experience with advanced programming and development. He is a leading technology expert, an award-winning author, and a pretty-darn-good instructional trainer. Over the years, his practical advice has helped millions of programmers, developers, and network engineers all over the world. His current and books include Windows 8.1 Administration Pocket Consultants, Windows Server 2012 R2 Pocket Consultants and Windows Server 2012 R2 Inside Outs.

William has been involved in the commercial Internet community since 1991. His core business and technology experience comes from more than 11 years of military service. He has substantial experience in developing server technology, encryption, and Internet solutions. He has written many technical white papers and training courses on a wide variety of topics. He frequently serves as a subject matter expert and consultant.

William has an MS with distinction in information systems and a BS in computer science, magna cum laude. He is proud to have served in the Persian Gulf War as a combat crewmember on an electronic warfare aircraft. He flew on numerous combat missions into Iraq and was awarded nine medals for his wartime service, including one of the United States of America’s highest flying honors, the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross. Currently, he resides in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and children.

William recently rediscovered his love of the great outdoors. When he’s not writing, he can be found hiking, biking, backpacking, traveling, or trekking in search of adventure with his family!

Find William on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WilliamStanek 

and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/William.Stanek.Author.

Introduction

Windows Command Line: The Personal Trainer is the authoritative quick reference guide to Windows Command Line and is designed to be a key resource you turn to whenever you have questions about Windows Command Line. To this end, the book zeroes in on the key aspects of Windows Command Line that you'll use the most.

Inside this book’s pages, you'll find comprehensive overviews, step-by-step procedures, frequently used tasks, documented examples, and much more. One of the goals is to keep the content so concise that the book remains compact and easy to navigate while at the same time ensuring that the book is packed with as much information as possible—making it a valuable resource.

What’s This Book About?

In this book, I teach you how Windows Command Line features work, why they work the way they do, and how to use them to meet your needs. One of the goals is to keep the content so concise that the book remains compact and easy to navigate while ensuring that the book is packed with as much information as possible—making it a valuable resource. In addition, this book provides hands-on, tips, and best practices for working with Windows Command Line.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 16

What’s This Book About? .............................................................................................................. 16

What Do I Need to Know? ............................................................................................................ 16

How Is This Book Organized? ...................................................................................................... 17

What Conventions Are Used in This Book? ............................................................................... 17

Other Resources ............................................................................................................................... 17

Chapter 1. Overview of the Windows Command Line

Command Line Essentials ............................................................................................................... 21

Understanding the Windows Command Shell ....................................................................... 21

Understanding Windows PowerShell ...................................................................................... 27

Configuring Command-Line Properties ................................................................................... 29

Working with the Command History ...................................................................................... 31

Making Supplemental Components Available ............................................................................ 33

Using the Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8.1 ................... 33

Registering the Remote Server Administration Tools Package ............................................ 34

Configuring and Selecting Remote Server Administration Tools ........................................ 35

Removing the Remote Server Administration Tools ............................................................. 35

Removing the Remote Server Administration Tools Package .............................................. 36

Chapter 2. Getting the Most from the Command Line

Managing Command Shell Startup ............................................................................................... 38

Working with the Command Path ................................................................................................ 41

Managing the Command Path ................................................................................................... 41

Managing File Extensions and File Associations ..................................................................... 43

Redirecting Standard Input, Output, and Error ......................................................................... 44

Redirecting Standard Output to Other Commands ............................................................... 46

Redirecting I/O to and from Files ............................................................................................. 47

Redirecting Standard Error ........................................................................................................ 48

Chaining and Grouping Commands ............................................................................................. 48

Using Chains of Commands ....................................................................................................... 50

Grouping Command Sequences ................................................................................................ 50

Chapter 3. Command-Line Scripting Essentials

Creating Command-Line Scripts ................................................................................................... 52

Common Statements and Commands for Scripts ....................................................................... 54

Clearing the Command-Shell Window .................................................................................... 55

Adding Comments to Scripts ..................................................................................................... 56

Managing Text Display and Command Echoing .................................................................... 57

Fine-Tuning Command Echo with @ ...................................................................................... 58

Setting the Console Window Title and Colors ....................................................................... 59

Passing Arguments to Scripts......................................................................................................... 62

Getting Acquainted with Variables ............................................................................................... 63

Using Variables in Scripts ............................................................................................................... 65

Naming Variables ........................................................................................................................ 65

Setting Variable Values .............................................................................................................. 66

Substituting Variable Values ..................................................................................................... 68

Localizing Variable Scope ........................................................................................................... 70

Using Mathematical Expressions ................................................................................................... 71

Working with Arithmetic and Assignment Operators .......................................................... 72

Understanding Operator Precedence ........................................................................................ 73

Simulating Exponents ................................................................................................................. 74

Command-Line Selection Statements .......................................................................................... 74

Using If .......................................................................................................................................... 75

Using If Not .................................................................................................................................. 76

Using If Defined and If Not Defined ........................................................................................ 77

Nesting Ifs ..................................................................................................................................... 77

Making Comparisons in If Statements ..................................................................................... 78

Command Line Iteration Statements ............................................................................................ 79

Iteration Essentials ....................................................................................................................... 79

Stepping Through a Series of Values ........................................................................................ 81

Iterating Through Groups of Files ............................................................................................ 82

Iterating Through Directories ................................................................................................... 84

Parsing File Content and Output .............................................................................................. 86

Creating Subroutines and Procedures .......................................................................................... 89

Using Subroutines ....................................................................................................................... 90

Using Procedures ......................................................................................................................... 92

Chapter 4. Working with the Registry

Understanding Registry Keys and Values .................................................................................... 94

Querying Registry Values ............................................................................................................... 97

Comparing Registry Keys ............................................................................................................... 98

Saving and Restoring Registry Keys ............................................................................................ 100

Adding Registry Keys .................................................................................................................... 101

Copying Registry Keys .................................................................................................................. 102

Deleting Registry Keys .................................................................................................................. 103

Exporting and Importing Registry Keys ..................................................................................... 104

Loading and Unloading Registry Keys ........................................................................................ 105

Chapter 5. Managing System Services

Viewing Configured Services........................................................................................................ 109

Starting, Stopping, and Pausing Services.................................................................................... 112

Configuring Service Startup ......................................................................................................... 113

Configuring Service Logon ........................................................................................................... 114

Configuring Service Recovery ....................................................................................................... 116

Chapter 6. Restarting and Shutting Down Computers from the Command Line

Managing Restart and Shutdown of Local Systems .................................................................. 121

Managing Restart and Shutdown of Remote Systems ............................................................. 122

Adding Shutdown or Restart Reasons and Comments ............................................................ 122

Chapter 7. Event Logging, Tracking, and Monitoring

Windows Event Logging ............................................................................................................... 129

Viewing and Filtering Event Logs ................................................................................................ 134

Viewing Events ........................................................................................................................... 134

Filtering Events .......................................................................................................................... 136

Writing Custom Events to the Event Logs ................................................................................ 139

Creating and Using Saved Queries .............................................................................................. 141

Monitoring Performance: The Essentials ................................................................................... 146

Understanding Performance Monitoring at the Command Line ....................................... 146

Tracking Performance Data ..................................................................................................... 149

Chapter 8. Managing Processes and Maintaining Performance

Managing Applications, Processes, and Performance ............................................................... 156

Understanding System and User Processes ........................................................................... 156

Examining Running Processes ................................................................................................. 158

Obtaining Detailed Information on Processes .................................................................. 159

Viewing the Relationship Between Running Processes and Services ............................. 161

Viewing Lists of DLLs Being Used by Processes .............................................................. 163

Filtering Task List Output ................................................................................................... 165

Monitoring System Resource Usage and Processes .............................................................. 168

Stopping Processes .................................................................................................................... 179

Detecting and Resolving Performance Issues Through Monitoring ...................................... 181

Monitoring Memory Paging and Paging to Disk .................................................................. 182

Monitoring Memory Usage and the Working Memory Set for Individual Processes ..... 184

Resolving Performance Bottlenecks ........................................................................................ 188

Chapter 9. Scheduling Tasks to Run Automatically

Scheduling Tasks on Local and Remote Systems ...................................................................... 193

Introducing Task Scheduling ................................................................................................... 194

Monitoring Scheduled Tasks ................................................................................................... 200

Scheduling Tasks with Task Scheduler ...................................................................................... 202

Creating Basic Tasks ................................................................................................................. 202

Creating Advanced Tasks ......................................................................................................... 206

Managing Task Properties........................................................................................................ 208

Enabling and Disabling Tasks .................................................................................................. 209

Copying Tasks to Other Computers....................................................................................... 209

Running Tasks Immediately .................................................................................................... 210

Removing Unwanted Tasks ..................................................................................................... 210

Scheduling Tasks with Schtasks .................................................................................................. 210

Creating Scheduled Tasks with Schtasks /Create ................................................................ 211

Creating Scheduled Tasks Triggered by Windows Events ................................................. 218

Changing Scheduled Tasks with Schtasks /Change ............................................................. 220

Querying for Configured Tasks with Schtasks /Query ....................................................... 224

Creating Tasks Using XML Configuration Files .................................................................. 225

Running Tasks Immediately with Schtasks /Run ................................................................ 230

Stopping Running Tasks with Schtasks /End ....................................................................... 230

Deleting Tasks with Schtasks /Delete .................................................................................... 231

Chapter 10. Configuring, Maintaining, and Troubleshooting TCP/IP Networking

Using the Network Services Shell ............................................................................................... 233

Working with Netsh Contexts ................................................................................................ 233

Working with Remote Computers .......................................................................................... 237

Working with Script Files ........................................................................................................ 239

Managing TCP/IP Settings ......................................................................................................... 240

Configuring IPv4........................................................................................................................ 241

Setting a Static IPv4 Address............................................................................................... 241

Setting a Dynamic IPv4 Address ......................................................................................... 243

Adding IPv4 Addresses and Gateways ............................................................................... 244

Setting DNS Servers to Use for IPv4 ................................................................................. 245

Specifying Additional DNS Servers to Use ....................................................................... 246

Deleting IPv4 Address Resolution Protocol Cache .......................................................... 247

Deleting TCP/IPv4 Settings ............................................................................................... 247

Configuring IPv6........................................................................................................................ 249

Setting IPv6 Addresses ......................................................................................................... 249

Setting DNS Servers to Use for IPv6 ................................................................................. 251

Deleting TCP/IPv6 Settings ............................................................................................... 253

Supporting TCP/IP Networking ................................................................................................ 253

Obtaining and Saving the TCP/IP Configuration ............................................................... 254

Examining IP Address and Interface Configurations ........................................................... 257

Working with TCP Internet Control and Error Messages ................................................. 259

Examining Fragmentation, Reassembly, and Error Details ................................................. 263

Examining Current TCP and UDP Connections ................................................................. 264

Working with TCP ............................................................................................................... 265

Working with UDP .............................................................................................................. 268

Troubleshooting TCP/IP Networking ...................................................................................... 269

Viewing Diagnostic Information ............................................................................................. 270

Diagnosing General Computer Configuration Issues ........................................................... 272

Diagnosing IP, DNS, and WINS Configuration Issues ................................................. 290

Appendix A. Essential Command-Line Tools Reference ........................................................ 295

About the Author .......................................................................................................................... 341

Bookscreen

What Do I Need to Know?

To get practical and useful information into your hands without the clutter of a ton of background material, I had to assume several things. If you are reading this book, I hope that you have basic networking skills and a basic understanding of Windows. With this in mind, I don’t devote entire chapters to understanding Windows architecture, installing Windows, or Windows startup and shutdown. I also assume that you are fairly familiar with Windows commands and procedures as well as the Windows user interface. If you need help learning Windows basics, you should read the Windows documentation.

How Is This Book Organized?

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and this book wasn’t intended to be read in a day, a week, or even 21 days. Ideally, you’ll read this book at your own pace, a little each day, as you work your way through the features Windows Command Line has to offer.

Making this book easy to follow and understand was my number one goal. I really want anyone, skill level or work schedule aside, to be able to learn how to effectively use Windows Command Line.

To make the book easy to use, this book is organized into multiple chapters. The chapters are arranged in a logical order, taking you from the essential concepts you need to know to work with Windows Command Line to techniques for managing computers with scripts.

Windows Command Line: The Personal Trainer is designed to be used with Windows Command Line for Administration: The Personal Trainer. While this book focuses on core features, the latter book focuses using Windows Command Line to manage computers, networks, printers and Active Directory.