In his third and final look at the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit, James divulges his favorite support utilities.

Resource Kit Riches, Part 3

In his third and final look at the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit, James divulges his favorite support utilities.

• By James Carrion
• October 01, 2000

The Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit is a massive work, jam-packed with valuable information for the network administrator. In my August column, I examined the kit’s distributed systems, internetworking, and server operations guides. My September column covered the kit’s TCP/IP and Internet Information Services 5.0 guides, plus the Internet Explorer 5 resource kit. Now, in my third and final look at the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit, let’s explore the kit’s support utilities.

The kit’s utilities CD will install only on a Win2K system—it will error out if you try to install it on Windows NT. If you install all of the 200-plus utilities found on the CD, the setup will occupy 66M of disk space. Note that Microsoft doesn’t offer support for any of these utilities, so use them at your own risk.

You should also know that the Win2K installation CD includes various utilities found on the Resource Kit CD, plus other utilities not found on the latter CD. If you want the complete set of utilities, you’ll have to install both packages. The Win2K support tools can be installed by running setup from the Support\Tools directory on the Win2K CD. In addition, Resource Kit updates are available at www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/default.asp,where you’ll also find some 25 Resource Kit utilities that can be freely downloaded.

Utilities, Utilities, Utilities

As I went through the Resource Kit, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of third-party applications included. Some of the most notable are Intergraph’s SmartSketch LE, a CAD-type drawing program; Seagate’s Crystal Reports, a robust reporting tool; Internet Security Systems’ Internet Scanner, a security-analysis program that analyzes network and system vulnerabilities; and Telco Research’s Tru Access Lite, a program for dial-up accounting and costing.

Now, let’s take a further look at the Resource Kit utilities. The tools fall into various areas, and I’ve listed these categories below with the total number of utilities in each. As it’s not possible to comment on the merits and uses of every utility in this short column, I’ll highlight some tools from each category that I believe will be of the most benefit to the average Win2K network administrator.

Computer Management Tools (43 Tools Total)

Delprof.exe: User Profile Deletion Utility—Deletes inactive user profiles on computers running Win2K.

Regentry.chm: Technical Reference to the Windows 2000 Registry—This help file documents Win2K Registry entries. If you’ve ever wondered what to enter as a valid data range when modifying a registry value, go here first.

Debugging Tools (2 Tools Total)

Debug version of ntdetect.com—This tool came on the NT installation CD but isn’t present on the Win2K CD. You can replace your existing NTDETECT.COM with this debug version and it will report at boot-up what hardware devices it detects before passing the information to the kernel.

Deployment Tools (8 Tools Total)

Gpolmig.exe: Group Policy Migration—If you’re migrating from an NT network employing NT System Policies, this tool will help you migrate these policies (NTCONFIG.POL) to Win2K Group Policy.

Desktop Tools (11 Tools Total)

Chklnks.exe: Link CheckWizard—Have you ever been frustrated by non-working Start menu shortcuts that exist because deleted apps didn’t take their offspring with them? This utility checks to see if a shortcut actually points to an existing application or document; if not, gives you the option to delete it.

Quiktray.exe: Quick Tray—I have to say this is my favorite desktop tool. It allows you to have any application show up as an icon in the System Tray and then launch that application with a single click. As I write this, I’m trying to fit the MS Word icon next to the Quake 3 icon.

Diagnostic Tools (37 Tools Total)

Addiag.exe: Application Deployment Diagnosis—If you’re using Win2K Group Policy for software distribution, then you need this tool. AdDiag is a command-line tool that provides information on the current status of an assigned or published software package.

Dommon.exe: Domain Monitor—Monitors domain controllers and their statuses and relationship to other domains (trusts). You can monitor secure channel status to the domain controller and to domain controllers in trusted domains.

File and Disk Tools (32 Tools Total)

Directory Disk Usage—Shows disk space used per folder. You can use this tool to check disk space usage in users’ home folders and you don’t even need NTFS permissions to the folders!

Linkd.exe—With this neat utility, you can join two directories “at the hip,” so when you navigate through the “virtual” directory it appears as though you’re navigating the partner directory.

Internet Explorer Tools (3 Tools Total)

Microsoft Internet Explorer Administration Kit—If you plan on taking the IEAK 5 exam, here’s an easy way to get your hands on this kit and its offerings.

Internet Information Server (IIS) Tools (15 Tools Total)

Metabase Editor: Metaedit.exe—Gives you REGEDIT-type access to the IIS Metabase, the database where IIS stores all of its configuration settings. Just as with REGEDIT, with Metaedit.exe you can add, modify, rename, and delete metabase keys, plus backup, restore, import, and export the database.

Network Management Tools (72 Tools Total)

Grpcpy.exe: Group Copy—Allows you to copy a group and its members to another group in the same or a different domain.

Performance Tools (23 Tools Total)

Cpustres.exe: CPU Stress Utility—Is Microsoft stressing you out? Take it out on your processor. This tool puts a simulated load on your system’s CPU for performance monitoring.

Pfmon.exe: Page Fault Monitor—Use this utility to find out if lack of memory is the bottleneck in your system.

Scripting Tools (10 Tools Total)

Activeperl.exe: Active Perl—Are you secretly a Linux groupie who works with Win2K only because your boss makes you? This tool allows you to run your Perl scripts on Win2K.

Security Tools (3 Tools Total)

Internet Scanner from Internet Security Systems—Ferret out your system’s vulnerabilities—before hackers do. This network security scanner analyzes your system for security weaknesses.

Enjoy! Play! Indulge! The Resource Kit utilities are a must-have for Win2K network administrators. With the correct tools and knowledge, you’ll be able to tame this software’s complexity.