Command Line

A few weeks back I needed to figure out how to add some computers to our domain. I did not want to go to every computer. There are a couple of ways to add a computer to the domain. The first is a VBS script. I am not sure where I found this script, but here it is:

I work at a college, and there is a need to have students who are registering or applying to our school to use computers. The problem is that they usually don't have a user name or password. In the past we created an account they could use to log in to a computer, but we discovered that everyone ended up knowing the user name and password. It became a security risk.

It has been a while, but it is time to finish this series off. All of us have had to install Windows at some point. Most companies have stuck with XP, so we have had lots of practice getting it installed. I have installed XP on all kinds of different computers, and frankly I decided that I was sick of it. I determined that if I had to enter our XP serial number in one more time I might just switch my users to Linux. Luckily I found a solution that literally installs Windows for me.

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.

I just discovered a nifty utility in the eXpress share called wndctl.exe. You can use it to lock the keyboard and mouse prior to any install/script and unlock it later. It can also activate, minimize, maximize, restore, hide, show, flash, close, disable, enable, tile, cascade, center, move, and resize window(s).

Part of nearly every Altiris Notification Server implementation includes Software Delivery. Software Delivery enables us to, well, deliver software, but also provides us distribution points, policy-based actions on client computers, and repeatable, dependent rollout of system and application changes. No doubt the longer you have utilized Software Delivery, the more collections, packages, and tasks you have created. When it comes time to rebuild your Notification Server or move to a new NS, migrating the SWD infrastructure can become very, very time consuming. This article will demonstrate how to migrate your existing SWD tasks to a newly built server without recreating all the necessary items by hand.

It's really not that difficult to direct a Unix, Linux or Macintosh client to a different NS server. Simply change the 'Server-1' value in the client.conf, restart the agent and voila! The following shell script will even do it all for you!

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.

Do you hate (or don't know how to use) the Unix and Mac vi editor but need to troubleshoot a Unix or Mac client running the Altiris Agent?

Here are a few tips (and a script) to get you on your way.