Important and Useful Windows Scripts Used By Professionals

Hi All, Welcome to Professional Mondays week #2. After my First post about 10 Important Must Have Security Group Policies For Windows Systems, I have received many concerns about the term Scripts and its uses. I came to know many are unaware of the scripts usage and power. We at corporate companies tend to perform same activities periodically across many computers in a network and its difficult to run the application or task individually on all the PC’s. So we write certain scripts to automate the process or Application installations and force them to run through group Policies as discussed in my earlier post at start-up or login times.A script is nothing but a list of commands that are executed by a respective programs or scripting mechanisms.

Scripts can be used to automate processes on a PC or to generate Web pages on the Web. For example, DOS scripts and VB Scripts are used to run processes on Windows Operating Systems, and Apple Script scripts can automate tasks on Macintosh computers.ASP, JSP, and PHP scripts are used to design and generate Web Pages. In this post I am going to give you some sample scripts prepared using simple DOS commands and VB for advanced users that automate few tasks in windows with less user intervention. Please note that you need to have a very good grip over DOS commands to understand few commands that I used in scripts. You can copy the below commands to a notepad and save the file with the relevant name and save the file name as example.bat (batch Script) Example.cmd (command Script).

SHUTDOWN/RESTART WINDOWS :

For a shortcut to RESTART Windows XP:
SHUTDOWN -r -t 01

For a shortcut to SHUT DOWN Windows XP:
SHUTDOWN -s -t 01

CLEANUP TEMPORARY FILES AND TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE (WITH MENU) :

ECHO OFF
CLS
:MENU
ECHO.
ECHO ………………………………………..
ECHO PRESS 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 to select your task, or 7 to EXIT.
ECHO ………………………………………..
ECHO.
ECHO 1 – DELETE COOKIES
ECHO 2 – DELETE RECENT DOCUMENTS LIST
ECHO 3 – DELETE MY TEMP
ECHO 4 – DELETE MY TEMP INTERNET FILES
ECHO 5 – DELETE SYSTEM TEMP
ECHO 6 – DELETE RECYCLE BIN
ECHO 7 – EXIT
ECHO.
SET /P M=Type 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 then press ENTER:
IF %M%==1 GOTO DELETE COOKIES
IF %M%==2 GOTO RECENT DOCUMENTS LIST
IF %M%==3 GOTO MY TEMP
IF %M%==4 GOTO MY TEMP INTERNET FILES
IF %M%==5 GOTO SYSTEM TEMP
IF %M%==6 GOTO RECYCLE BIN
IF %M%==7 GOTO EXIT
: DELETE COOKIES (no space between : and D)
del /F /S /Q C:\docume~1\%USERNAME%\cookies\*.*
GOTO MENU
:RECENT DOCUMENTS LIST
del /F /S /Q C:\docume~1\%USERNAME%\recent\*.*
GOTO MENU
:MY TEMP
del /F /S /Q C:\docume~1\%USERNAME%\locals~1\temp\*.*
GOTO MENU
:MY TEMP INTERNET FILES
del /F /S /Q C:\docume~1\%USERNAME%\locals~1\tempor~1\*.*
GOTO MENU
:SYSTEM TEMP
del /F /S /Q %SystemRoot%\temp\*.*
GOTO MENU
:RECYCLE BIN
REM del /F /S /Q C:\recycler\*.*
GOTO MENU

Please note to change the Path with your own path for your profile if you are using windows 7.

This one is optimized for windows xp. If any doubts, you can always ping me.

CLEANUP TEMPORARY FILES AND TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE (WITHOUT MENU).

rem @ECHO OFF
SET SRC1=C:\Documents and Settings
SET SRC2=Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5
SET SRC3=Local Settings\History
SET SRC4=Local Settings\Temp
SET SRC5=Recent
echo About to delete files from Internet Explorer “Temporary Internet files”
FOR /D %%X IN (“%SRC1%\*”) DO FOR /D %%Y IN (“%%X\%SRC2%\*.*”) DO RMDIR /S /Q “%%Y”
echo About to delete files from Internet Explorer “History”
FOR /D %%X IN (“%SRC1%\*”) DO FOR /D %%Y IN (“%%X\%SRC3%\*.*”) DO RMDIR /S /Q “%%Y”
FOR /D %%X IN (“%SRC1%\*”) DO FOR %%Y IN (“%%X\%SRC3%\*.*”) DO DEL /F /S /Q “%%Y”
echo About to delete files from “Local settings\temp”
FOR /D %%X IN (“%SRC1%\*”) DO FOR /D %%Y IN (“%%X\%SRC4%\*.*”) DO RMDIR /S /Q “%%Y”
FOR /D %%X IN (“%SRC1%\*”) DO FOR %%Y IN (“%%X\%SRC4%\*.*”) DO DEL /F /S /Q “%%Y”
echo About to delete files from “Recent” i.e. what appears in Start/Documents/My Documents
FOR /D %%X IN (“%SRC1%\*”) DO FOR %%Y IN (“%%X\%SRC5%\*.lnk”) DO DEL /F /S /Q “%%Y”
echo About to delete files from “Windows\Temp”
cd /d %SystemRoot%\temp
del /F /Q *.*
@echo Y|RD /S “”

This can be placed in the “login” tab according to my previous post  for cleaning the junk in the disk soon after you login to your PC. Please note to change the Path with your own path for your profile if you are using windows 7. This one is optimized for windows xp.

INSTALL MSI PACKAGES WITHOUT YOUR MUCH INVOLVEMENT :

You all download stuff from internet, I too do it periodically…at office we download Microsoft updates to be installed in the systems. while installing it becomes a pain for us to keep on clicking on next>next>Finish button at each systems which are time consuming.
So to avid them..Just follow the below commands in the same format.

Example:
Internet Explorer setup9.exe –z –m
Or
Internet Explorer setup9.msi –z –m

Above commands are applicable only if you are going to install a update or setup file similar to IE5,6,7,8,9 setups. This wont popup any window but just installs them in the background.

SCRIPT TO DISPLAY OS VERSION DETAILS (VBSCRIPT):

Paste the code in notepad and save the file as Version.vbs

strComputer = “.”
Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:” _
& “{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\” & strComputer & “\root\cimv2″)

Set colOSes = objWMIService.ExecQuery(“Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem”)
For Each objOS in colOSes
Wscript.Echo “Computer Name: ” & objOS.CSName
Wscript.Echo “Caption: ” & objOS.Caption ‘Name
Wscript.Echo “Version: ” & objOS.Version ‘Version & build
Wscript.Echo “Build Number: ” & objOS.BuildNumber ‘Build
Wscript.Echo “Build Type: ” & objOS.BuildType
Wscript.Echo “OS Type: ” & objOS.OSType
Wscript.Echo “Other Type Description: ” & objOS.OtherTypeDescription
WScript.Echo “Service Pack: ” & objOS.ServicePackMajorVersion & “.” & _
objOS.ServicePackMinorVersion
Next

CLASSIC SHUTDOWN MENU (VBSCRIPT) :

‘Shutdown.vbs – Call Windows shutdown choice popup.
set WshShell = wscript.CreateObject(“Shell.Application”)
WshShell.ShutdownWindows

I can go on like this with many useful scripts…Any of the reader interested in any script to automate your task.

The Reason Blue Screen of Death in Windows

Every once in a while your PC might come up with an error and the dreaded blue screen of death (BSOD). Sometimes these errors are just random and probably won’t come up again. But then again, there are times when the errors are caused by a specific program/file/system component. There is an easy way to narrow down the search so that you know what’s causing these errors.

Windows creates a log whenever it crashes, and these “dumps” are usually stored in :\Windows\Minidump. These files hold the key to finding out what component or file is causing all the trouble.

To set it so that Windows creates these minidump files, follow these instructions:

FOR WINDOWS XP :

1. Right click ‘My Computer’ and select Properties.
2. In System Properties click ‘Advanced’ and then ‘Settings’ under the ‘Startup and recovery’ frame.

3. In the opened window, there is a frame called ‘Write debugging information’, under it, select “Small Memory Dump (64KB)” from the drop down menu and click ‘Ok’ to confirm.

FOR WINDOWS 7:

1. Right click ‘Computer’ from start menu, click Properties and then click ‘Advanced system settings’.
2. Under the ‘Advanced’ tab , click the ‘Settings’ button in the ‘Startup and recovery’ frame.
3. In the opened window, there is a frame called ‘Write debugging information’, under it, select “Small Memory Dump (256KB)” from the drop down menu. Now uncheck ‘Automatically Restart’ under the ‘System failure’ frame and click ‘Ok’ to confirm.

Now, even when you know what file is causing the problem, just removing it may not solve the problem. For example, if a file with .sys extension is the cause of the problem, search for that particular file on Google and find out what it belongs to. If it is part of a driver set, simply update or reinstall those drivers. If it is an .exe or .dll file, again search and find out if it is part of a program. Simply uninstall or reinstall the program it is a part of, if it indeed is part of a program.

Sometimes even removal of the program that seems to cause the errors may not solve your problem. In this case, check the crash dumps that may occur after removal of the faulty program. The dumps will provide more insight into the faulty components because program files are often interconnected and require each other to run properly and it might have been a root file instead of the program itself that was causing all the problems.

So how can you read these crash dumps and find out what’s causing them? By using a small free software called BlueScreenView. It scans and displays detailed info of all your crash dumps so you can find out what’s causing all those pesky BSOD’s. For each crash, BlueScreenView displays the minidump filename, the date/time of the crash, the basic blue screen and the details of the component that possibly caused the crash (file/product name and version).

This immensely helpful software enables you to fix critical errors yourself and you can minimize calling any tech support. It can be run in safe mode as well so even if your PC doesn’t bootup normally, you can find out what’s preventing it from doing so. It even has multiple display modes that can help you find out the source of the problem. The displays available are:

1. All drivers loaded during the crash.
2. Only drivers whose memory addresses were found in the stack of the crash.
3. A simulated blue screen, similar to a Windows XP blue screen which displayed during the crash.

So here’s how you go about investigating the source of a blue screen of death:

1. Download BlueScreenView from here. Install it in desired location
2. Run it and click the first icon under File menu, the default location, let’s say C:\Windows\Minidump is already set. Click Ok and a list of previous crash dumps appear.
3. Click the last crash dump and select Options->Lower Pane Mode menu to display your desired output.
4. Read the filename, location and other details. If you don’t know what the component does, search for it on Google and find out what is it a part of.
5. Perform necessary actions like reinstalling or uninstalling the main program/driver set or whatever it is a part of.

This simple program can save you a lot of hassle while trying to figure out what is causing all those extremely annoying BSOD’s, although you have to do the actual fixing, at least you know how you can start solving the problem.