IT Knowledgebase Articles

How can I quickly perform search operations in AD from my desktop? No problem. Create a new shortcut on your desktop with the following command: ​%SystemRoot%SYSTEM32rundll32.exe dsquery,OpenQueryWindow Give it a name and run it. This is what you’ll get: You can also configure a specific search option, such as a subset of the entire domain…

Sometimes you might need to retrieve the CD Key used to install Windows in order to find out if it’s legally purchased, or just for safe keeping. I usually find myself in that position whenever I’m at a client’s location, trying to see if the copy of Windows 2000 he’s using is indeed legally registered….

How can I quickly reach specific MS Knowledge Base articles? As of November 7, 2002, prefix letters were phased out of all Knowledge Base (KB) articles worldwide making it easier for you to request an article in a language other than the one set in your browser. Today, KB articles are published in 21 languages,…

How can I quickly open a Command Prompt on a folder in Windows Vista? Although most of the Windows operating system tasks can be performed through the graphical user interface (or GUI) you can still find many important tasks and operations that require a Command Prompt window. Running CMD.exe from the run command is quick,…

How can I quickly open Command Prompt (cmd) with elevated credentials in Windows Vista? As you’ve learned so far, Windows Vista has the built-in ability to automatically reduce the potential of security breeches in the system. It does that by automatically lower the administrative rights of users that are part of the local administrators group,…

If you format many floppy disks you know how tedious it is to get to the Format command. You have to first open either Windows Explorer or My Computer, then right-click on the floppy disk drive icon, and select the Format command from the shortcut menu. You can shorten this three-step procedure into a single…

You can also find the used IP Addresses on your network by use of GUI tools. There are many tools that can do that, but I prefer 2 nice, small and most important – free – tools: Net World Scanner Small, free and simple – this tool will list all IP addresses on a given…

Instead of manually pinging all IP addresses on your LAN you can use this nice command: Open Command Prompt and type: ​FOR /L %i IN (1,1,254) DO ping -n 1 192.168.0.%i | FIND /i “Reply”>> c:ipaddresses.txt The “-n 1” is for only 1 ping packet to be sent to each computer. Change 192.168.0 to match…

The process of testing a remote server’s open or listening ports is called "Scanning". The Internet is full with various scanner and network suit programs, and many security related websites offer a lot of information about these programs, therefore I’ve decided to only write about a small number of my favorite programs, and only if…

If you want to see all the used and listening ports on a remote computer use the PORTQRY.EXE command, which is available on any Windows 2000, XP or Windows Server 2003 computer. PORTQRY.EXE reports the status of a TCP/IP port in one of the following three ways: Listening – A process is listening on the…