Category: Utility

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benchmark CrystalMark Freeware HD Tach Linux NoveBench Prime95 Utility

Best free PC Benchmark tools for Windows

Prime95 – test system stability. Prime95 has become extremely popular among PC enthusiasts and overclockers as a stability testing utility. It includes a “Torture Test” mode designed specifically for testing PC subsystems for errors in order to help ensure the correct operation of Prime95 on that system, which effectively stress-tests a PC.

HD Tach – hard drive benchmark tool that tests the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds of the attached storage device (hard drive, flash drive, removable drive etc). Drive technologies such as SCSI, IDE/ATA, IEEE 1394, USB, SATA and RAID are supported.

CrystalMark – benchmark suite, that lets you to test your CPU, memory, HDD and video (GDI, Direct Draw, OpenGL).

NoveBench


  • Extensive CPU speed tests
  • Multi-threaded tests take advantage of multiple cores/processors
  • Hardware accelerated graphics tests
  • Hard drive write speed test
  • CPU temperature monitor
  • Tabbed interface for benchmark results
  • Outputs overall system score
  • Online score comparison system.
  • Freeware.

Categories
FREE Freeware Linux Recovery SSH Utility

Trinity Rescue Kit | CPR for your computer

Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues.  TRK is a complete command line based distribution, apart from a few tools like qtparted, links, partition image and midnight commander.

Some of Trinity Rescur Kit’s most significant features

  • Easily reset windows passwords
  • Full read/write and rpm support
  • Multiple virus scan products integrated in a single uniform commandline with online update capability
  • Full ntfs write support thanks to ntfs-3g (all other drivers included as well)
  • Clone NTFS filesystems over the network
  • Wide range of hardware support (kernel 2.6.39.3 and recent kudzu hwdata)
  • Easy script to find all local filesystems
  • Self update capability to include and update all virus scanners
  • Full proxy server support
  • Fun a samba fileserver (Windows-like filesharing)
  • SSH server
  • Recovery and undeletion of files with utilities and procedures
  • Recovery of lost partitions
  • Evacuation of dying disks
  • UTF-8 international character support
  • Powerful multicast disk cloning utility for any filesystem
  • Rootkit detection uitilities

Although version 3.3 is still beta, it is recommended you download this version, as most features which were included in version 3.2 are still running just fine (and are more up-to-date) and the new stuff is presumed to be running fine too.

TRK can be booted three different ways:

  • as a bootable CD which you can burn yourself from a downloadable iso file 
  • from a USB stick/disk (optionally also a fixed disk), installable from Windows or from the bootable TRK cd
  • from network over PXE, which requires some modifications on your local network (version 3.2). Version 3.3 has the ability to act as a network bootserver itself, without any modifications to your local network.

The idea behind Trinity Rescue Kit

From the author:

Back in 2001, I had this great bootable dos cd I created, packed with all great utilities for offline PC operations called “The Vault”.  Unfortunately, the Vault consisted for 90% of software you should pay for. So distributing it in a legal way was certainly no option and I ‘m not the guy that wants to spend his time in maintaining something that ‘s illegal anyway.

So I brewed on the idea of creating a free bootable Linux CD containing all available free tools that can help you in any way of rescueing your Windows installation.  And eventually, this is how far it has gotten now.

Trinity Rescue Kit is based on binaries and scripts from several other distributions, like Timo ‘s Rescue CD, Mandriva 2005 and Fedora Core 3 and 4, as well as many original source packages and tools from other distros.  Startup procedure and methods, several scripts and concept is completely selfmade or at least heavily adapted.

More information.
Download Trinity Rescue Kit.

Categories
Encryption FREE Linux Open Source Passwords SourceForge TrueCrypt Utility Windows

TrueCrypt – Free Open Source Industrial Strength Encryption

TrueCrypt provides a solution for encrypting sensitive data – everything from portable, mountable volumes to entire hard disks.  Encrypting your data renders that access useless, even if your computer or your thumbdrive falls into the wrong hands.

And TrueCrypt makes it not only easy, but nearly un-crackable.  TrueCrypt is both open source and FREE.

There are two approaches to using TrueCrypt:

  • Whole Drive Encryption – you can use TrueCrypt to encrypt your entire hard disk, including your boot partition. In order to boot the machine, you must first supply your pass phrase to enable decryption. Once booted, data is automatically and transparently encrypted and decrypted as it travels to and from the disk. Once your machine is turned off, the data is unrecoverable without knowing the pass phrase.
  • Container Encryption – with this approach you create a single file on your computer’s hard drive that is encrypted. You then “mount” that file using TrueCrypt, supplying the correct pass phrase to decrypt it after which the contents of that file appear as another drive on your system. Reading from and writing to that “drive” automatically and transparently decrypts and encrypts the data. Once the drive is unmounted, the data is once again unrecoverable without knowing the pass phrase.

TrueCrypt is both simple and elegant.

Most users prefer container based encryption for its portability, and for the fact that you need only mount the encrypted drive when you need access. You could keep personal information in a TrueCrypt container that could be regularly copied between machines, onto a thumbdrive, and even backed up to the Internet. When you need to access the encrypted data, simply mount it, specify your pass phrase to unlock it, and use the files that are stored within it.

TrueCrypt is not tied to any one platform, your user account or anything else; just the pass phrase. In fact, you can copy your encrypted file to another machine entirely and mount it with TrueCrypt. Even using other operating systems such as Mac or Linux.

Here are a couple of important caveats:

  • Encryption does not make a bad pass phrase any more secure. If you choose an obvious pass phrase, an attack can certainly be mounted that could unlock your encrypted volume. This is why we talk about pass phrase instead of password. Use a multi-word phrase that you can remember to be the key to your encrypted data, and it’ll be much, much more difficult to break.
  • An encrypted volume does you no good if the files you care about are also elsewhere on your machine.
  • Make sure you have secure backups, updated regularly. Preferably keep them UNencrypted, but secure in some other way, in case you lose your encrypted volume or forget your pass phrase. If you’ve chosen a good passphrase, without it the data is not recoverable.

TrueCrypt is FREE open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
TrueCrypt Features:

Data encryption is an important part of an overall security strategy. TrueCrypt can be a key part of that strategy.

Download TrueCrypt.

Categories
BgInfo Linux SysInternals Utility Windows

BgInfo – create a Windows desktop wallpaper full of useful information


  Download BgInfo (387 KB)

Introduction

How many times have you walked up to a system in your office and needed to click through several diagnostic windows to remind yourself of important aspects of its configuration, such as its name, IP address, or operating system version If you manage multiple computers you probably need BGInfo. It automatically displays relevant information about a Windows computer on the desktop’s background, such as the computer name, IP address, service pack version, and more. You can edit any field as well as the font and background colors, and can place it in your startup folder so that it runs every boot, or even configure it to display as the background for the logon screen.

Because BGInfo simply writes a new desktop bitmap and exits you don’t have to worry about it consuming system resources or interfering with other applications.

Sysinternals BgInfo

Installation and Use

See this Windows IT Pro Magazine Power Tools article for a primer on using BgInfo. If you have questions or problems, please visit the Sysinternals BgInfo Forum.

By placing BGInfo in your Startup folder, you can ensure that the system information being displayed is up to date each time you boot. Once you’ve settled on the information to be displayed, use the command-line option /timer:0 to update the display without showing the dialog box.
You can also use the Windows Scheduler to run BGInfo on a regular basis to ensure long-running systems are kept up to date.

If you create a BGInfo configuration file (using the File|Save Settings menu item) you can automatically import and use those settings on other systems by adding the /I or /iq command line option.

Using BgInfo

When you run BGInfo it shows you the appearance and content of its default desktop background. If left untouched it will automatically apply these settings and exit after its 10 second count-down timer expires.
Selecting any button or menu item will disable the timer, allowing you to customize the layout and content of the background information.

If you want BGInfo to edit or use a configuration stored in a file (instead of the default configuration which is stored in the registry) specify the name of the file on the command line:

BGInfo MyConfig.bgi

Appearance Buttons

Fields: Selects what information appears on the desktop, and the order in which it is displayed. For networking fields (NIC, IP, MAC, etc.) a separate entry is created for each network card on the system. Use the Custom button to add special information you define yourself.
Background: Selects the color and/or wallpaper to use for the background. If you select the Copy existing settings option then BGInfo will use whatever information is currently selected by the logged on user. This option allows end users to personalize their desktop while still displaying the BGInfo information.
Position: Selects the location on the screen at which to place the text. If some items are very long (for example some network card names) you can use the Limit Lines to item to wrap them. The Compensate for Taskbar position checkbox adjusts the position of the text to ensure that it is not covered by the Taskbar. The Multiple Monitor Configuration button allows you to specify how multiple monitors attached to a single console should be handled.
Desktops: Selects which desktops are updated when the configuration is applied. By default only the User Desktop wallpaper is changed. Enabling the Logon Desktop for Console users option specifies that the wallpaper should be displayed on the logon desktop that is presented before anyone has logged onto the system. On Windows 95/98/ME systems the same desktop is used for users and the login screen, so this option has no effect. Enabling the Logon Desktop for Terminal Services users option specifies that the wallpaper should be displayed on the Terminal Services login screen. This option is useful only on servers running Terminal Services.
Preview: Displays the background as it will appear when applied to your system.

Configuration Menu Items

These are options that control how the bitmap is produced, where it is located and how to import/export settings.
File | Open: Opens a BGInfo configuration file.
File | Save As: Saves a copy of the current BGInfo configuration to a new file. Once created, you can have BGInfo use the file later by simply specifying it on the command line, or by using File|Open menu option.
File|Reset Default Settings: Removes all configuration information and resets BGInfo to its default (install-time) state. Use this if you can’t determine how to undo a change, or if BGInfo becomes confused about the current state of the bitmap.
File|Database: Specifies a .XLS, .MDB or .TXT file or a connection string to an SQL database that BGInfo should use to store the information it generates. Use this to collect a history of one or more systems on your network. You must ensure that all systems that access the file have the same version of MDAC and JET database support installed. It is recommended you use at least MDAC 2.5 and JET 4.0. If specifying an XLS file the file must already exist.
If you prefer to have BGInfo update the database without modifying the user’s wallpaper you can unselect all desktops in the Desktops dialog; BGInfo will still update the database.
Bitmap|256 Colors: Limits the bitmap to 256 colors. This option produces a smaller bitmap.
Bitmap|High Color/True Color: Creates a 16-bit or 24-bit color bitmap.
Bitmap|Match Display: Creates a bitmap with color depth matching that of the display. Because the bitmap generated by BGInfo is not updated when a user changes the display’s color depth you may see unexpected results (especially dithering of the text and background) with some combinations of bitmap and display depth.
Bitmap|Location: Specifies the location to place the output bitmap file. On Terminal Services servers the bitmap should be placed in a location that is unique to each user.
Edit|Insert Image: Allows you to insert a bitmap image into the output. Because BGInfo‘s configuration information is stored in the registry and Windows limits the size of registry values you may encounter errors when inserting larger images. On Windows 9x/Me systems the limit is 16K, while on NT/2000/XP systems the limit is 64K.

Command Line Options

        Specifies the name of a configuration file to use for the current session. Changes to the configuration are automatically saved back to the file when OK or Apply is pressed. If this parameter is not present BGInfo uses the default configuration information which is stored in the registry under the current user (“HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareWinternalsBGInfo“).
/timer Specifies the timeout value for the countdown timer, in seconds. Specifying zero will update the display without displaying the configuration dialog. Specifying 300 seconds or longer disables the timer altogether.
/popup Causes BGInfo to create a popup window containing the configured information without updating the desktop. The information is formatted exactly as it would if displayed on the desktop, but resides in a fitted window instead. When using this option the history database is not updated.
/silent Suppresses error messages.
/taskbar Causes BGInfo to place an icon in the taskbar’s status area without updating the desktop. Clicking the icon causes the configured information to appear in a popup window. When using this option the history database is not updated.
/all Specifies that BGInfo should change the wallpaper for any and all users currently logged in to the system. This option is useful within a Terminal Services environment, or when BGInfo is scheduled to run periodically on a system used by more than one person (see Using a Schedule below).
/log Causes BGInfo to write errors to the specified log file instead of generating a warning dialog box. This is useful for tracking down errors that occur when BGInfo is run under the scheduler.
/rtf Causes BGInfo to write its output text to an RTF file. All formatting information and colors are included.


Download BgInfo
(387 KB)

Run BgInfo now from Live.Sysinternals.com

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BareTail FREE Linux Nessus NeWT Passwords Utility Windows Winfingerprint

FREE Windows Utilities for Scanning, Auditing, and Monitoring

BareTail
Many applications keep detailed logging data in straight text files because the Windows event logs aren’t appropriate for certain types of data (e.g., IIS log files). In the course of monitoring or troubleshooting these types of applications, it’s often helpful to watch these log files in real time. However, because they’re text files, that process typically consists of opening the file in Notepad or another text editor, looking at the contents, closing the file, then reopening the file to see what’s changed.


In the UNIX world, a utility that serves this purpose has been available for quite some time: It’s called tail. Fortunately, the good folks at Bare Metal Software have developed a free version of the tool called BareTail.


BareTail is a great utility for watching log files, such as IIS logs, cluster logs, and any other type of logs that can generate a lot of data quickly. BareTail can keep up with large log files (e.g., greater than 2GB) just as quickly as with smaller files, and—for easier visual recognition—it can selectively highlight specific entries that appear in a file based on matching text strings. For example, suppose you want to highlight references to cmd.exe in an IIS log file to easily spot which incoming connections are attempting to exploit known vulnerabilities.


One of BareTail’s most compelling qualities is that it’s a completely standalone executable. There’s no installer package to work with, so you can use the utility on a client’s system and feel safe that you’ve had little or no impact on the system after you complete your work.
NeWT
When I have security on the brain, I generally look to the open-source community for answers, rather than to specific vendors. After all, the open-source community can be voracious in its efforts to find and understand every aspect of a vulnerability or flaw. A shining example of this security consciousness is the open-source vulnerability scanner called Nessus.
Nessus is the world’s most popular opensource vulnerability scanner. An estimated 75,000 organizations worldwide rely on Nessus to assess their networks and check for vulnerabilities. Originally launched in 1998 for UNIX, Nessus has been ported over to Windows by Tenable Network Security in a version called NeWT.
Tenable Network Security provides the standard version of NeWT free for anyone to use for any reason. The only limitation is that the host that NeWT runs on can scan only its local subnet. With more than 6000 known vulnerabilities that it can test for, NeWT is now the best vulnerability scanner available for the Windows platform.
When you unleash NeWT on your local subnet, it starts its process of testing each host it finds for vulnerabilities in its database. You can configure NeWT to test only for certain vulnerabilities—for example, if you’re a 100 percent Microsoft shop, you don’t need to test for UNIX vulnerabilities—and whether to attempt to fully exploit any vulnerabilities found to confirm its tests. NeWT can check for buffer-overflow vulnerabilities, watch for misconfigured application services (e.g., mail, Web), find all the listening ports on a server and determine the OS type, look for backdoors installed on an infected host, and more.
If you provide NeWT with appropriate administrative credentials, it will dive even deeper into your systems and check for local patching or the existence of malicious software. For example, on a test “victim” system in my lab, NeWT detected several spyware and adware packages that I intentionally installed on that host for some tests. NeWT recommended that I remove those applications. NeWT is the first tool I grab when I start a security assessment for a client, and it should be in every administrator’s toolbox.
Winfingerprint
If you’re looking for a quick and simple way to obtain information about a remote system, Winfingerprint is the tool of choice. Winfingerprint is a network scanner that runs on Windows. Unlike most network scanners, Winfingerprint is specifically designed to obtain information about Microsoft hosts and applications. Winfingerprint can use ICMP, RPC, SMB, SNMP, TCP, and UDP to obtain information (e.g., OS version, users, groups, SIDs, password policies, services, service packs and hotfixes, NetBIOS shares, transports, sessions, disks) about target systems. Winfingerprint comes in both a GUI version and a command-line version, so however you prefer to work, there’s a version of Winfingerprint for you.

Winfingerprint determined the number of drives I had installed on my target system, as well as the MAC addresses of the interfaces and the OS and patch level. What you can’t see in the figure, however, is that Winfingerprint went on to enumerate all the share names on that system, as well as the services that were installed and the names of the users. The tool obtained all that data in about 20 seconds, making Winfingerprint a terrific tool for quickly collecting inventory data about networked systems.

Categories
ethernet FREE FTP Grep Linux Networking NGrep Packet Sniffing SSH Utility Windows WinDump WinPCap WireShark

FREE Windows Utilities for Sniffing


WinDump
WinDump is an exceptionally powerful command-line packet sniffer. Ported over from the source of the Tcpdump utility available for UNIX, WinDump carries over the same power and flexibility to the Windows world, all in a lightweight executable.
WinDump is a helpful utility when you need to do some quick and easy packet capturing to diagnose a network problem. It’s flexible, and it can capture and display details about every packet going across the network interface. It can filter the output results based on protocol (e.g., Address Resolution Protocol—ARP, IP, TCP, UDP), source network or host, destination network or host, source port, destination port, and many other criteria.
To use WinDump, you’ll first need to download and install the Windows Packet Capture Library (WinPcap), the Windows port of the open-source packet-capture and network-analysis library libpcap for UNIX. WinPcap runs on all versions of Windows.
After you install WinPcap, you can download the standalone WinDump executable. To launch WinDump, simply run it from the command line with the appropriate options for what you’d like to capture or read. You’ll find the online manual for WinDump here.
The first command you might want to execute is Win-Dump -D, which will display a list of interfaces available on your computer, as well as a corresponding number for each interface, so that you can determine which interface to use for your sniffing activities. After you know which interface to run, you can simply use that number with the -i option (i.e., WinDump -i 3, if number 3 is the interface you’d like to use) to start viewing packet data in real time. (Because these are ports of UNIX utilities, the command-line switches are case-sensitive.)
Ngrep
Although WinDump is a tremendous utility, sometimes it requires a considerable amount of overhead or knowledge to determine what you’re looking for. For example, suppose you’re trying to look up whether a DNS query is making it across your network, but you aren’t familiar with the protocols and that DNS uses by default. Or, suppose a lot of traffic is coming across a network connection, and you’re finding it too cumbersome to work through all the packets just to find the one particular packet you’re looking for. For such situations enter ngrep, the network-aware grep utility.
If you aren’t familiar with grep, it’s probably one of the most widely known and oft-utilized UNIX utilities. Grep finds matching text strings (through a mechanism known as regular expressions) in files on a file system, then outputs the lines to the display. You might compare grep with the Windows command-line Find utility, but grep differs by providing an exceptional amount of power in its search for text strings.
By applying these capabilities to the network layer, ngrep provides the same level of functionality for packet sniffing. As a result, you don’t need to know what protocols, ports, network, or IP addresses that two devices are using to transfer data. You just need to know something about the packet’s payload, and ngrep will find it for you—regardless of how it’s transmitted.
Ngrep is great for troubleshooting DNS query problems. In a large Active Directory (AD) environment, dozens of DNS queries are typically occurring across the network per second. If I’m trying to troubleshoot a specific set of problems, searching each packet to find the one I’m looking for is cumbersome at best. Instead of relying on a straight packet capture of all DNS traffic, I can simply use ngrep to find the text string I’m looking for because DNS queries and responses are performed in plain text.
Ngrep currently recognizes ICMP, IGMP, Raw, TCP, and UDP protocols across 802.11, Ethernet, FDDI, PPP, SLIP, Token Ring, and null interfaces. Like WinDump it requires the WinPcap library to operate properly.
WireShark (formerly Ethereal)
When you face a situation in which you need to roll up your sleeves and dive as deeply as possible into network capture and analysis, one utility needs to come to mind: the world’s most popular network analyzer, WireShark. Network experts around the world use WireShark because it has all the standard features you’ll find in most protocol analyzers, in addition to some you won’t find in any other product. More than 400 developers around the world have made contributions to this open-source application. A decade ago, you would have to pay thousands of dollars for software that had the same capabilities, but WireShark offers it all free.
WireShark can capture data off your network connection, filter the data, dive into the details of each packet, save the packet capture for detailed analysis, send packet captures to other network engineers (or vendors) to help with debugging, and open packet captures from many other leading packet-capture utilities. WireShark can capture data off of various network transports, such as Classical IP over ATM (CIP), Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), Token Ring, 802.11, and loopback interfaces (although it doesn’t support all types on every platform). Across all those network transports, WireShark can “dissect” more than 750 protocol types, including FTP, HTTP, NetBIOS, POP3, remote procedure call (RPC), SNMP, SSH, SMTP, and Telnet, just to name a few.
Like the other sniffing utilities I’ve mentioned, WireShark depends on an installation of WinPcap to function properly, so you’ll need to install that first. Then, after you install the latest Ethereal distribution for Windows, simply access the Capture, Interfaces menu and select the interface you want to start using for capture. Then, you’re ready to start analyzing your traffic.
Categories
Administration BareTail Encryption FREE FTP Grep Linux Notepad++ SSH Utility Windows

32 FREE Windows Administration Utilities

  1. BareTail. A free real-time log file monitoring tool.
  2. CamStudio. Free screen recording software.
  3. CDBurnerXP. Burns CD-ROMs, DVDs, audio CDs, and ISO images.
  4. Comodo Firewall Pro. Is a firewall and antivirus application.
  5. DriveImage XML. Is a program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives.
  6. FileZilla. GUI FTP client.
  7. GParted LiveCD. Manages partitions on systems.
  8. InfraRecorder. Burns ISO images and creates data and audio CDs and DVDs.
  9. Lansweeper. Is a network inventory tool that performs hardware scanning, software scanning, and Active Directory (AD) reporting.
  10. LocatePC. Emails you whenever any private or public IP address in your system changes – great for tracking a stolen computer.
  11. MyDefrag (formerly JkDefrag). Defragments and optimizes disks.
  12. Nessus (formerly NeWT). Network/computer vulnerability scanner.
  13. Ngrep. Is a packet sniffer based on finding matching text strings.
  14. Notepad++. Is a text and code editor (more info).
  15. NTFS Undelete. Recovers deleted files that are no longer in the recycle bin.
  16. Open Computers and Software Inventory (OCS Inventory NG). Provides detailed inventory data for an entire network of computers as well as deploys packages.
  17. OpenSSH. Creates secure, encrypted shell sessions.
  18. PageDefrag. Determines how fragmented your paging files and registry hives are, and defragments them.
  19. Paint.NET. Free image and photo editing software for Windows.
  20. PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost) — Backup and Restore Disk Partitions.
  21. PRTG Traffic Grapher. Is a powerful network monitor.
  22. System Information for Windows (SIW). Gathers detailed information about a computer’s system properties, settings, and displays.
  23. TestDisk. Recovers damaged partitions, makes non-bootable disks bootable again, and repairs damaged boot sectors.
  24. TrueCrypt.  Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.
  25. WinDirStat. Determines how space is being utilized across disks and visually represents the results in multiple ways.
  26. WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment). Lets you make a Windows command-line boot recovery DVD.
  27. WinDump. WinDump is the Windows version of tcpdump, the command line network analyzer for UNIX / Linux.
  28. Winfingerprint. Is a network scanner.
  29. Wink. Builds screencast recordings.
  30. WireShark (formerly Ethereal). Network protocol analyzer.
  31. XML Notepad. Is a specialized XML editor.
  32. ZoomIt. Magnifies portions of a screen and lets you draw on and annotate the screen.
Categories
Linux PureText Utility Windows

Copy and paste text sans the formatting

Traditionally to remove formatting (fonts, size, etc.) from being carried over during copy/paste you had to do something like paste the text to notepad, copy it from notepad then paste it to the final destination. Enter the handy utility PureText, which enables copying text only – no additional crap.

PureText helps you removing rich formatting from text such as font face, font style, font color, paragraph styles, margins and etc without changing the actual text content. Once PureText is launched and running, it will run as “PT” tray icon. There are 2 ways you can paste the text without original format. First one is to click on “PT” icon to remove text formatting or alternatively users can utilize hot-key to paste the text instead of using standard CTRL+V. The default hot-key used to paste text without formatting is WINDOWS+V. However, you are allowed to change the default hot-key to your own preference in Options menu.

PureText is free and runs on Windows 7 / Vista / XP, etc.

Categories
Clipboard Command Line DOS Linux Resource Kit Utility Windows

Copy Command Line Output to Windows Clipboard Directly

Starting with Windows Vista and Windows 2003 Microsoft has finally included clip.exe.  With clip.exe you can copy items directly to the Windows clipboard from a command prompt.  XP (and earlier) users can get clip.exe from Microsoft with the Windows Server 2003 resource kit.

You can use clip with a PIPE (|) operator in your command line commands. Here are some examples:

dir /h | clip – Copy the help manual for DIR command to the clipboard

tracert powercram.com | clip – Trace the path from your computer to another website – the output is automatically copied to the clipboard and not displayed on the screen.

netstat | clip – Check if your computer is connecting to websites without your knowledge.

The clip.exe utility can also be used to copy contents of text files to clipboard directly from the command line.

clip < C:MyFile.txt – will copy all the text from MyFile.txt to your Windows Clipboard.

Copy clip.exe help to clipboard with clip /? | clip:

CLIP

Description:

    Redirects output of command line tools to the Windows clipboard.

    This text output can then be pasted into other programs.

Parameter List:

    /?                  Displays this help message.

Examples:

    DIR | CLIP          Places a copy of the current directory

                        listing into the Windows clipboard.

    CLIP < README.TXT   Places a copy of the text from readme.txt on to the Windows clipboard.

Categories
Command Line Resource Kit Robocopy RoboCopy Examples Utility Windows

Robocopy Syntax, Command Line Switches and RoboCopy Examples

RoboCopy (Robust File Copy) is a command-line file copying tool in Windows 7, and Windows Vista. Although RoboCopy has been available for free with the Windows Resource Kit, it has never been an official feature of the operating system until Windows Vista. Unlike other built-in file copying commands such as Copy and XCopy, RoboCopy is designed for reliable copy or mirroring of entire folders of any size, and in the copying process, ensure that all NTFS ACLS, attributes, owner information, alternate data streams, auditing information, timestamps and properties are copied except security information unless explicitly requested with /COPYALL switch. And best of all, RoboCopy works over network connections that are subject to disruption or outages with resume copying feature, and has progress indicator on the command line that is useful when copying large files.

RoboCopy Syntax

ROBOCOPY source destination [file [file]…] [options]

Where source is Source Directory (drive:path or \serversharepath), destination is Destination Directory (drive:path or \serversharepath) and file is File(s) to copy where names or wildcards can be specified and default is “*.*” (all files).

RoboCopy Options and Switches
RoboCopy Copy Options

  • /S – copy Subdirectories, but not empty ones.
  • /E – copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.
  • /LEV:n – only copy the top n LEVels of the source directory tree.
  • /Z – copy files in restartable mode.
  • /B – copy files in Backup mode.
  • /ZB – use restartable mode; if access denied use Backup mode.
  • /EFSRAW – copy all encrypted files in EFS RAW mode.
  • /COPY:copyflag[s] – what to COPY for files (default is /COPY:DAT).
    (copyflags : D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps).
    (S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info).
  • /DCOPY:T – COPY Directory Timestamps.
  • /SEC – copy files with SECurity (equivalent to /COPY:DATS).
  • /COPYALL – COPY ALL file info (equivalent to /COPY:DATSOU).
  • /NOCOPY – COPY NO file info (useful with /PURGE).
  • /SECFIX – FIX file SECurity on all files, even skipped files.
  • /TIMFIX – FIX file TIMes on all files, even skipped files.
  • /PURGE – delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source.
  • /MIR – MIRror a directory tree (equivalent to /E plus /PURGE).
  • /MOV – MOVe files (delete from source after copying).
  • /MOVE – MOVE files AND dirs (delete from source after copying).
  • /A+:[RASHCNET] – add the given Attributes to copied files.
  • /A-:[RASHCNET] – remove the given Attributes from copied files.
  • /CREATE – CREATE directory tree and zero-length files only.
  • /FAT – create destination files using 8.3 FAT file names only.
  • /256 – turn off very long path (> 256 characters) support.
  • /MON:n – MONitor source; run again when more than n changes seen.
  • /MOT:m – MOnitor source; run again in m minutes Time, if changed.
  • /RH:hhmm-hhmm – Run Hours – times when new copies may be started.
  • /PF – check run hours on a Per File (not per pass) basis.
  • /IPG:n – Inter-Packet Gap (ms), to free bandwidth on slow lines.

RoboCopy File Selection Options

  • /A – copy only files with the Archive attribute set.
  • /M – copy only files with the Archive attribute and reset it.
  • /IA:[RASHCNETO] – Include only files with any of the given Attributes set.
  • /XA:[RASHCNETO] – eXclude files with any of the given Attributes set.
  • /XF file [file]… – eXclude Files matching given names/paths/wildcards.
  • /XD dirs [dirs]… – eXclude Directories matching given names/paths.
  • /XC – eXclude Changed files.
  • /XN – eXclude Newer files.
  • /XO – eXclude Older files.
  • /XX – eXclude eXtra files and directories.
  • /XL – eXclude Lonely files and directories.
  • /IS – Include Same files.
  • /IT – Include Tweaked files.
  • /MAX:n – MAXimum file size – exclude files bigger than n bytes.
  • /MIN:n – MINimum file size – exclude files smaller than n bytes.
  • /MAXAGE:n – MAXimum file AGE – exclude files older than n days/date.
  • /MINAGE:n – MINimum file AGE – exclude files newer than n days/date.
  • /MAXLAD:n – MAXimum Last Access Date – exclude files unused since n.
  • /MINLAD:n – MINimum Last Access Date – exclude files used since n.  (If n < 1900 then n = n days, else n = YYYYMMDD date).
  • /XJ – eXclude Junction points. (normally included by default).
  • /FFT – assume FAT File Times (2-second granularity).
  • /DST – compensate for one-hour DST time differences.
  • /XJD – eXclude Junction points for Directories.
  • /XJF – eXclude Junction points for Files.

RoboCopy Retry Options

  • /R:n – number of Retries on failed copies: default 1 million.
  • /W:n – Wait time between retries: default is 30 seconds.
  • /REG – Save /R:n and /W:n in the Registry as default settings.
  • /TBD – wait for sharenames To Be Defined (retry error 67).

RoboCopy Logging Options

  • /L – List only – don’t copy, timestamp or delete any files.
  • /X – report all eXtra files, not just those selected.
  • /V – produce Verbose output, showing skipped files.
  • /TS – include source file Time Stamps in the output.
  • /FP – include Full Pathname of files in the output.
  • /BYTES – Print sizes as bytes.
  • /NS – No Size – don’t log file sizes.
  • /NC – No Class – don’t log file classes.
  • /NFL – No File List – don’t log file names.
  • /NDL – No Directory List – don’t log directory names.
  • /NP – No Progress – don’t display % copied.
  • /ETA – show Estimated Time of Arrival of copied files.
  • /LOG:file – output status to LOG file (overwrite existing log).
  • /LOG+:file – output status to LOG file (append to existing log).
  • /UNILOG:file – output status to LOG file as UNICODE (overwrite existing log).
  • /UNILOG+:file – output status to LOG file as UNICODE (append to existing log).
  • /TEE – output to console window, as well as the log file. 
  • /NJH – No Job Header.
  • /NJS – No Job Summary.
  • /UNICODE – output status as UNICODE.
RoboCopy Job Options
  • /JOB:jobname – take parameters from the named JOB file.
  • /SAVE:jobname – SAVE parameters to the named job file
  • /QUIT – QUIT after processing command line (to view parameters).
  • /NOSD – NO Source Directory is specified.
  • /NODD – NO Destination Directory is specified.
  • /IF – Include the following Files.

RoboCopy Examples
RoboCopy is simple to use, very similar to Copy and Xcopy. For example, to copy entire folder of C:Users to C:UserBackup, simply type:

robocopy C:Source C:Destination

Copy directory contents recursively, all contents of SourceDir to DestDir:

robocopy C:SourceDir C:DestDir /E

Copy directory recursively (/E), and copy all file information (/COPYALL, equivalent to /COPY:DATSOU, D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps, S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info), do not retry locked files (/R:0).

robocopy C:source C:destination /COPYALL /E /R:0

Mirror source to destination, deleting any files in destination that are not present in source (/MIR), copy files in restartable mode (/Z) in case network connection is lost:

robocopy C:source \DestServerdestination /MIR /Z

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