Endpoint Management Community Blog

Eshwar | 07 Jul 2008 | 14 comments

You can manually delete temporary files and folders from the following locations:
[C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp]
[C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files]

You can ignore the above method since there is a smart way to do it. Just execute the following script and you are done.

'=============================================
'File Name: DELETE_TEMP_FILES.VBS
'Comment: This script will delete all temporary files and folders
'=============================================

On Error Resume Next

'Declare variables
Dim fso 
Dim oFolder1
Dim oFolder2
Dim oFolder3
Dim oSubFolder1
Dim oSubFolder2
Dim oSubFolder3
Dim colSubfolders1
Dim colSubfolders2
Dim colSubfolders3
Dim oFile
Dim userProfile
Dim Windir

'Set up environment
Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set fso = createobject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
userProfile = WSHShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%userprofile%")...

Pause Batch Script for a Number of Seconds

CondorMan | 07 Jul 2009 | 4 comments

There are a few ways to have a batch script wait for a number of seconds. The simplest and most widely available without any additional programs is to use the ping command.

The following is is an example... PING!

ECHO Waiting 5 seconds
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 5000 > NUL

Script Database Changes Using OSQL

CondorMan | 25 Jun 2008 | 0 comments

OSQL is a flexible command-line utility that allows you to run SQL Queries, Commands, and Stored Procedures from the command-line or through a Batch script.

In order to run OSQL, you can either run it on your SQL Server or copy OSQL.EXE and osql.rll to a location that a client machine can run them from.

The syntax for OSQL is:

usage: osql       [-U login id]     [-P password]
 [-S server]      [-H hostname]     [-E trusted connection]
 [-d use database name] [-l login timeout]   [-t query timeout]
 [-h headers]      [-s colseparator]   [-w columnwidth]
 [-a packetsize]    [-e echo input]    [-I Enable Quoted Identifiers]
 [-L list servers]   [-c cmdend]      [-D ODBC DSN name]
 [-q "cmdline query"]  [-Q "cmdline query" and exit]
 [-n remove numbering] [-m errorlevel]
 [-r msgs to stderr]  [-V...

Windows Error Codes

CondorMan | 18 Jun 2008 | 1 comment

Sometimes a Windows Executable, Script, or Command will fail with an error. What does that mean?

While there is no enforced set of error code meanings, most executables and all system commands follow a standard definition of error codes.

You can find out the meanings by viewing Microsoft's list of Windows Error Codes and their descriptions here.

You might want to add that link to your favorites.

Service Control Command

CondorMan | 18 Jun 2008 | 0 comments

Have you ever wanted to start, stop, delete, create, or configure a service in your batch script? The "SC" command will allow you to do this and more.

Here are a few examples of how you can use this command:

Start a service	sc start ServiceName
Stop a service	sc stop ServiceName
Delete a service	sc delete ServiceName
Create a service	sc create ServiceName binPath="C:\Program Files\InstallDir\Service.exe" start=auto
Configure a service	sc config ServiceName <options>

For more information about the settings you can make when creating and configuring services, go to a command prompt and type "sc create /?" and "sc config /?"...

Get the Serial Number, Manufacturer, and Model from Windows 2008 64-Bit Systems

nravenscroft | 16 Jun 2008 | 1 comment

While running some reports on server hardware I realized that some of the servers were missing the serial, manufacturer, and model information. I needed this information for inventory forwarding and system model counts. After identifying the systems I realized that all of these systems were Windows 2008 64Bit.

I called Altiris and they acknowledged that this is a know issue and is not likely to be resolved until NS 7.0. Well I need this data in the reports today not months down the road.

The Problem

The issue appears to be in the aexsnplus.exe uses 16bit code and the 16bit subsystem is removed from Windows 2008 64bit, so the aexsnplus.exe ends failing to run.

The Solution

Since the information we're looking for is available in a couple of WMI classes (Win32_ComputerSystem &...

Windows Installer 4.5 is Available

Martin Charker | 12 Jun 2008 | 3 comments

Windows Installer 4.5 is now available as a redistributable system component for the following operating systems:

Windows Server 2008, 32-bit editions
Windows Server 2008, 64-bit editions
Windows Server 2008, Itanium-based editions
Windows Vista
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)
Windows Server 2003 SP1
Windows Server SP2

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942288/en-us

Windows Installer Error Codes

CondorMan | 09 Jun 2008 | 4 comments

Sometimes a Windows Installer will fail with an error 16xx. What does that mean?

You can find out by viewing Microsoft's list of Windows Installer Error Codes and their meanings here. You might want to add that link to your favorites if you manage a lot of .msi installs.

COMPACT.EXE Search Parameters

CondorMan | 05 Jun 2008 | 1 comment

If your workstations are using the NTFS file system, you can use COMPACT.EXE that is included with Windows to compress files with a certain extension. For example, to compress all of the .CHM files (which are rarely used), use the command: COMPACT /C /S:C:\ *.CHM

Here is a list of all the available parameters:

COMPACT [/C | /U] [/S[:dir]] [/A] [/I] [/F] [/Q] [filename [...]]

/C	Compresses the specified files. Directories will be marked so that files added afterward will be compressed.
/U	Uncompresses the specified files. Directories will be marked so that files added afterward will not be compressed.
/S	Performs the specified operation on files in the given directory and all subdirectories...

Enable MSI Installer Logging

CondorMan | 05 Jun 2008 | 2 comments

I just learned that you can enable MSI logging so that if your installer fails with an error you can see where the MSI failed.

To enable MSI loggging:

Open Regedit.
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer.
Create a new Reg_SZ value named "Logging" with the value "voicewarmup".

While "voicewarmup" is easy to remember, it actually signifies all of the different options that you want to enable.

Here is the complete list of options:

...

v	Verbose output
o	Out-of-disk-space messages
i	Status messages
c	Initial UI parameters
e	All error messages
w	Non-fatal warnings
a	Start up of actions
r

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