Caffeine - Utility to disable screen saver w/o interrupting input

I ran this on a machine I was RDP’d into to prevent the screen saver from appearing while I was logged in.  Handy.  And like other powerful utilities, potentially dangerous.  Not so much in an RDP session, though, because the console running the RDP client wouldn’t/shouldn’t(not a good idea) have this running, just the target host.  The author simulates an F15 keypress to make this work.  Didn’t know I had an F15 key.  Very nice.

Only 2 files inside the compressed download, and one is a README.

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/caffeine/
Caffeine

If you have problems with your PC locking or going to sleep, caffeine will keep it awake. It works by simulating a keypress once every 59 seconds, so your machine thinks you're still working at the keyboard, and won't lock the screen or activate the screensaver.

The icon is shown above - it's the leftmost one in the task tray, and this is all you see. Double-clicking the icon empties the coffee pot (that's what the icon is) and temporarily disables the program. Double-clicking it again refills the pot, and will keep your machine awake.

Free Space on all servers for all fixed drives? Done.

A while ago I posted on querying free disk space using WMI and batch.

I wouldn't query free disk space using batch anymore.  The PowerShell script I tweaked and currently use to query free disk space is displayed below.  The script truncates for readability – the rounding methods are commented out if that’s your preference:

# spaceused.ps1
# Lars-UT http://larsrasmussen.blogspot.com
(Get-Date -format 'yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss').ToString() | Out-Default
$outData = @("")
$server = $args[0]
$dataFromServer = Get-WmiObject Win32_Volume -ComputerName $server | Select-Object SystemName,Label,Name,DriveLetter,DriveType,Capacity,Freespace

foreach ($currline in $dataFromServer) {
    if ((-not $currline.name.StartsWith("\\")) -and ($currline.Drivetype -ne 5)) {
        [float]$tempfloatcapacity = [math]::truncate($currline.Capacity/ 1000000000)
    #[float]$tempfloatcapacity = [math]::round(($currline.Capacity/ 1000000000),1)
    add-member -InputObject $currline -MemberType NoteProperty -name Capacity_in_GB -value "$tempfloatcapacity GB"
    
    [float]$tempfloat = ($currline.Freespace / 1000000) / ($currline.Capacity / 1000000)
        $temppercent = [math]::round(($tempfloat * 100),2)
        add-member -InputObject $currline -MemberType NoteProperty -name FreePercent -value "$temppercent %"
        
    [float]$tempfloatfreespace = [math]::truncate($currline.Freespace/ 1000000000)
    #[float]$tempfloatfreespace = [math]::round(($currline.Freespace/ 1000000000),1)
    add-member -InputObject $currline -MemberType NoteProperty -name Freespace_in_GB -value "$tempfloatfreespace GB"
        
    $outData = $outData + $currline
    }
}

$outData | Select-Object SystemName,Label,Name,Capacity_in_GB,Freespace_in_GB,FreePercent | sort-object -property Name | format-table -autosize

To run this against muliple servers just put the server names, one per line, in a text file and save that file. You'll then assign that file to a variable in PowerShell and loop through each line for each server:

PS C:\> $serverlist = Get-Content .\ServerNames-Prod.txt
PS C:\> foreach ($server in $serverlist) { .\spaceused.ps1 $server }

Here’s the pretty output!  Yep, those are sub-second times for querying multiple servers.

Need to document this?  Use Start-Transcript.  I’ve seen auditors use it like so:

PS C:\> $strTimestamp =  [string](Get-Date -format "yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm")
PS C:\> start-transcript .\ServerSpace-$strTimestamp.txt
PS C:\> foreach ($server in $serverlist) { .\spaceused.ps1 $server }   
PS C:\> Stop-Transcript

Enjoy.

PathPing > Traceroute

Thanks Chris, for telling me about PathPing!

PathPing is a network utility supplied in Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista. It combines the functionality of Ping with that of Traceroute (in Windows: tracert), by providing details of the path between two hosts and Ping-like statistics for each node in the path based on samples taken over a time period, depending on how many nodes are between the start and end host. The advantages of PathPing over ping and traceroute are that each node is pinged as the result of a single command, and that the behavior of nodes is studied over an extended time period, rather than the Ping's default sample of four messages or Traceroute's default single route trace. The disadvantage is that, using the default settings, it often takes more than five minutes to produce a result.

PathPing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Use the -q number option to reduce the number of queries per hop if you're in a hurry, as the default is 100.

Automation Using SQLCMD with Batch

In the January 2009 Meeting of the Utah County SQL Server Users Group I gave a presentation on using SQLCMD.EXE with batch files for automating T-SQL scripts.

Automation Using SQLCMD with batch

1. Why SQLCMD?

   1. Repetitive processes, same targets, deployment tasks

      1. Scenarios

         1. Run schema change on multiple server/db targets

         2. CREATE/ALTER stored proc on multiple server/db targets

         3. Query Permissions on multiple server/db targets

         4. Speed! Can be much faster than GUI

2. SQLCMD basics
   
   install location:
   C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\SQLCMD.EXE
   
   -S SERVERNAME
   -d DBname
   -i inputfile
   >> append operator
   
   
   

3. CMD Batch Overview (2K, XP, 2003, Vista, Server 2008)
   
   REM I love comments!
   :: Protect yourself at the command line with this!
   
   %1 first argument passed
   %2 second argument passed
   
   
   

   1. Arguments examples – copying files to a server
      
      

      copy-backups.cmd
      robocopy /MAXAGE:1 "%1" "%2" "*.bak"
      

      copy-winrar.cmd
      robocopy /S "%programfiles%\WinRAR" "\\%1\c$\Program Files\WinRAR" *.exe
      

      
      
      

   2. use self-documenting batch files - commented examples or output when no arguments are passed

      IF "%~1"=="" goto help
      

      
      
      
      
      

4. Putting it all together

Examples:

Demonstrate sqlcmd to multiple targets, then parse command line by copying everything before the append operator.

The batch file, ONEOFF.CMD contains the targets for the T-SQL to be executed.
ONEOFF.CMD accepts two arguments: the name of the .SQL file containing the T-SQL commands, and a log file for output.

I saved all 3 files to the same directory( C:\BIN ) to simplify the example and ran the following:

C:\BIN>ONEOFF.CMD ONEOFF.SQL ONEOFF.LOG

The log file can be very helpful in determining which servers/databases successfully parsed the commands, and which targets failed. The first part of the .SQL file contains the following 5 lines:

SET NOCOUNT ON;
GO
SELECT '-- ' + cast(@@SERVERNAME as char(16)), cast(db_name() as char(20)), getdate()
SET NOCOUNT OFF;
GO

These 5 lines above format the outputted log file with the server name, database name, and timestamp. In the example log file output below, the "server" name is my laptop(T60-LAPTOP) since I ran the demo locally. The first 3 lines show that database Chile accepted the .SQL without errors. Lines 4-7 show errors when running against database Cuba.

------------------- -------------------- -----------------------
-- T60-LAPTOP       Chile                2009-01-29 18:43:22.793
                                                        
------------------- -------------------- -----------------------
-- T60-LAPTOP       Cuba                 2009-01-29 18:50:13.543
Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Server T60-LAPTOP, Procedure sp_BackupNow, Line 7
Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'BEGIN'.
                                                        

Links:

SQLCMD standalone installer(Microsoft SQL Server Native Client required for install, found on same page)
http://bit.ly/sqlcmd-and-sql-native-client

Using the sqlcmd Utility
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180944.aspx

Command line reference
http://www.ss64.com/index.html

NotePad ++
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net

All Your Command (CMD) Prompts Are Belong To Us

Ever typed SET to display all the useful environment variables windows has?

You can add those environment variables to your command prompt permanently. And No, Billy, this won't work by simply editing System Properties, so read on...

Four files and the PSEXEC.EXE utility are needed - save all 4 files in the same directory in a share(such as \\server\share ) to prepare to deploy your groovy command prompt on every server under your influence.

I changed the command prompt to better keep track of which server and which credentials are in use, and added a timestamp.

CMDPROMPT.BAT - contains the prompt with your preferred environment variables and gets copied to %windir%

:: c:\windows\cmdprompt.bat
@echo off
prompt $_[%ComputerName%\%Username%] $t$_$p$g

CMDPROMPT.REG - get registered on the target machine(s) to invoke CMDPROMPT.BAT when CMD.EXE is executed

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor]
"AutoRun"="%windir%\\cmdprompt.bat"

CMDPROMPT-INSTALL.CMD - the installer script - important for deploying the prompt to multiple machines

:: \\server\share\cmdprompt-install.cmd
@echo off
copy /Y \\server\share\cmdprompt.??? %windir%\
regedit /s %windir%\cmdprompt.reg

SERVERLIST.TXT - a list of target machines(one per line) that will receive the newly minted command prompt goodness.

Eriador
Gondor
GreyHavens
Minastirith
Mordor
Rivendell
Rohan
Bullwinkle
Rocky
Elaine
George
Jerry
Challenger
Cubs
Hindenburg
SpruceGoose
Titanic
TowerofPiza

Now to install! Open up a command prompt and cd to the directory containing the SERVERLIST.TXT , then run the following:

psexec @SERVERLIST.TXT -c -u DOMAIN\%username% \\server\share\cmdprompt-install.cmd

Login to some of these target servers and enjoy the utility of the improved prompt.

Create Windows Shares from the Command Line using RMTSHARE.EXE

RMTSHARE.EXE from one of the Windows NT Resource kits makes quick work of creating shares.

Here's an example of creating a hidden, read-only share accessible only by the fictional AD group 'DOMAIN\AdminsSQL':

rmtshare \\SQLSERVERNAME\BACKUPS-RO$=E:\BACKUPS /GRANT "DOMAIN\AdminsSQL":r

Want write(change) access but still with a hidden share? Use this syntax:

rmtshare \\SQLSERVERNAME\BACKUPS-RW$=E:\BACKUPS /GRANT "DOMAIN\AdminsSQL":c

Remove the dollar sign from the end of the share name if you want the share to be visible.

Running RMTSHARE.EXE against a \\SERVERNAME with no parameters shows all the shares(including the hidden shares) available, like so:

C:\>rmtshare \\SQLSERVERNAME

Share name   Resource                        Remark

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IPC$                                         Remote IPC
C$           C:\                             Default share
X$           X:\                             Default share
ADMIN$       C:\WINDOWS                      Remote Admin
BACKUPS-RO$  E:\BACKUPS                      Shared by remote command.
BACKUPS-RW$  E:\BACKUPS                      Shared by remote command.
D$           D:\                             Default share
L$           L:\                             Default share
E$           E:\                             Default share
The command completed successfully.

Tested in Vista, Server 2003, Server 2000. Let me know if you find a version of Windows incompatible with RMTSHARE.EXE!

'Copy as Path' - Vista's Best Feature

Arguably one of the best features in Vista for those who live in Explorer with files and directories appears by holding down the Shift key when right-clicking a file or folder:

Copy as Path copies the full path of the file or folder selected as text to the clipboard that can then be pasted in email, in code or at the command line.

The full path gets copied as a plain text string, surrounded by quotes to handle any spaces that might be contained in the path/filename.