WMI Asset Logger System Management Tool for remote controling the Windows systems

Intro

WMI Asset Logger is a multifaceted utility that has the ability to return a great deal of information about windows based computer systems on your network, all from the convenience of your Windows XP workstation. WMI Asset Logger is also much more than that too, it is an administrator’s friend. Once you have scanned your network the true power of WMI Asset Logger comes out. Using the right-click speed menu enables you to quickly perform many tasks. Simply right-click on the desired host and choose Remote Control (initiate RDP Session), Remote Management Console, Install Software, View/Browse/Delete Shares, View/Start/Stop Processes on remote systems, and more. If you have administrative rights to a XP workstation, but the firewall is preventing you from getting results, simply right-click on the system and disable the XP firewall. Wait one minute, and rescan the system.

Tired of having client/server based tools that blue-screen remote hosts? Or tired of dealing with messy Logon scripts to gather important information? WMI Asset Logger does not require any client-side installations and is a stand alone application. WMI Asset Logger uses all the tools that already exist on your XP Workstation to perform its duties. These utilities are native to windows and are much more stable than any add-on could hope to be. WMI Asset Logger also monitors its own progress too, if a client system hangs up WMI Asset Logger and you have to terminate it, it will automatically blacklist the computer system that was being scanning when it was terminated.

Just need a down dirty quick inventory of NetBIOS -> IP -> MAC -> FQDN relationships? Not a problem, simply perform an IP Inventory using WMI Asset Logger. WMI Asset logger will blaze through a list of 2000 computer with impressive speeds, and will even return the IP Address of systems that are currently off-line, allowing you to determine if a system’s account may need to be deleted. (No IP information typically means the PC hasn’t been seen in the duration of a DHCP lease cycle).

You can enumerate a list of hosts to scan using the master browser list, or through the use of ADSI (Active Directory Server Interface). WMI Asset logger can also import text files as well as directly import DSQUERY COMPUTER text dumps too. And as a last resort an IP Ping Sweeper that will ping every IP Address that exists between any two addresses. WMI Asset Logger has the ability to save scans to Tab delimited text files, Straight to Microsoft Excel, or directly to your default printer, and now as of version 5.7f, dump your scans straight to the included MS Access Database.

Features

• Microsoft Access Database Support - no limitations on number of clients.
• FREELY LICENSED FOR PERSONAL AND CORPORATE USE.
• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Network Scanning.
• DNS Forward/Reverse look-up tool.
• InstallNow! Use WMI to remotely install software packages in real-time.
• Dump Advanced WMI report of any computer straight to HTML or XLS.
• View, Create, and Stop remote processes on any computer (requires necessary user rights).
• View, Explore, Map, and Delete remote shares, including hidden shares!
• Perform an IP Inventory. This generates a list of NetBIOS --> IP --> MAC --> FQDN for all your windows hosts. (amazingly fast too)
• NEW! Script Runner ! RUN YOUR OWN EXTERNAL VBS, BAT, or CMD FILES USING WMI Asset Logger!
• Remote software installation, this copies files to the remote computer and adds a RunOnce registry entry. This causes the installation to run silently in the background the next time the PC is re-booted.
• Remotely start/stop Windows XP Firewall Service! Sometimes the Windows XP Firewall will prevent the WMI interface from responding on the remote system. WMI Asset Logger can disable the firewall of the remote host so you can still get results.
• Use of Alternate User credentials for WMI scanning.
• Import DSQUERY COMPUTER text file dumps directly into WMIAL.
• Alternate user passwords are encrypted for security purposes.
• In-depth information on systems that return results via WMI.
• Right-click speed menu system and Hot-Key enabled menu systems.
• Dump straight to your default printer, from WMIAL, with out the need for any third-party software. No need to open results in Excel or Word to print.
• Dump directly to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, XP, and 2003!
• Right-click management of scanned systems, and remote control(Remote Control requires Windows XP)
• Push software to large numbers of computers with a few simple clicks.
• Non-proprietary Information storage for flexibility and portability. (TAB Delimited Text file dumps).
• Text File importing, scan a specific list of systems with-out having to muddle through an expansive list of computers in the Network Neighborhood.
• Fall back Registry scanning in the event WMI is not present or errors out.
• Reboot or shutdown remote hosts.
• Result type filtering, great for finding systems that don’t have WMI, or for finding systems where your access is denied (which means you need to go add your global admin groups)
  OS Filtering. You can use this to filter out NT, XP, or 2000 systems.
• IP Ping utility, use PING to generate a list of scan candidates from just about any range of IP Addresses.
• Browse List Enumeration for faster scanning and ADSI Enumeration for pulling domain member list.
• You can dump multiple domains into the list for scanning, and then select systems across domains to scan in the even you have people spread out over a few locations or states.
• Automated E-Mailing of the results via. SMTP

To Download this tool click on this link

TRUECRYPT Data Security Open Source Tool

TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted right before it is loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password/keyfile(s) or correct encryption keys. Entire file system is encrypted (e.g., file names, folder names, contents of every file, free space, meta data, etc).

Files can be copied to and from a mounted TrueCrypt volume just like they are copied to/from any normal disk (for example, by simple drag-and-drop operations). Files are automatically being decrypted on the fly (in memory/RAM) while they are being read or copied from an encrypted TrueCrypt volume. Similarly, files that are being written or copied to the TrueCrypt volume are automatically being encrypted on the fly (right before they are written to the disk) in RAM. Note that this does not mean that the whole file that is to be encrypted/decrypted must be stored in RAM before it can be encrypted/decrypted. There are no extra memory (RAM) requirements for TrueCrypt. For an illustration of how this is accomplished, see the following paragraph.Let's suppose that there is an .avi video file stored on a TrueCrypt volume (therefore, the video file is entirely encrypted). The user provides the correct password (and/or keyfile) and mounts (opens) the TrueCrypt volume. When the user double clicks the icon of the video file, the operating system launches the application associated with the file type – typically a media player. The media player then begins loading a small initial portion of the video file from the TrueCrypt-encrypted volume to RAM (memory) in order to play it. While the portion is being loaded, TrueCrypt is automatically decrypting it (in RAM). The decrypted portion of the video (stored in RAM) is then played by the media player. While this portion is being played, the media player begins loading next small portion of the video file from the TrueCrypt-encrypted volume to RAM (memory) and the process repeats. This process is called on-the-fly encryption/decryption and it works for all file types, not only for video files.

Note that TrueCrypt never saves any decrypted data to a disk – it only stores them temporarily in RAM (memory). Even when the volume is mounted, data stored in the volume is still encrypted. When you restart Windows or turn off your computer, the volume will be dismounted and files stored in it will be inaccessible (and encrypted). Even when power supply is suddenly interrupted (without proper system shut down), files stored in the volume are inaccessible (and encrypted). To make them accessible again, you have to mount the volume (and provide the correct password and/or keyfile).

To Download the Truecrypt Link

Expanding Virtual Disk of VMware Server in Windows

To expand an existing partition, the Virtual Machine must be shutdown and powered off. The vmware-vdiskmanager utility resides in the directory that VMWare server was installed. Open a command prompt and navigate to the VMWare server directory.

C:\Program Files>cd VMware

C:\Program Files\VMware>cd "VMware Server"

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server>vmware-vdiskmanager -x 25GB "d:\VM\ForumTest\ForumDB.vmdk"
Using log file C:\DOCUME~1\Jakki\LOCALS~1\Temp\vmware-jakki\vdiskmanager.log

Grow: 100% done.
The old geometry C/H/S of the disk is: 2610/255/63
The new geometry C/H/S of the disk is: 3263/255/63
Disk expansion completed successfully.

WARNING: If the virtual disk is partitioned, you must use a third-party
utility in the virtual machine to expand the size of the
partitions. For more information, see:
http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1647
You should now see the new size of the virtul disk. Also, notice the Warning message above. You will need to use a third party tool such as Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director to resize the partition inside the Virtual Machine Operating System.
To list all available options for vmware-vdiskmanager, just enter the following at a command prompt:
vmware-vdiskmanager.exe /?

Steps for installing server roles on a 2008 Server Core installation

To see the roles installed on the server, we should use oclist command.

DNS Server role
To install the DNS Server role
1. At a command prompt, type:
start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role

After this by using dnscmd from the command prompt we can configure the configuration part like adding DNS zones & records, One more easy way is there by using remote management we can configure all these configurations from the remote server by using DNS management GUI console.

To uninstall the DNS server role

start /w ocsetup DNS-Server-Core-Role /uninstall

IMPORTANT: Server role should be mentioned with case sensitive.

DHCP Server role
To install the DHCP Server role
1. At a command prompt, type:
start /w ocsetup DHCPServerCore
2. Configure a DHCP scope at the command prompt by using netsh, or by remotely using the DHCP snap-in from Windows Server 2008.
3. If the DHCP server is installed in an Active Directory domain, you must authorize it in Active Directory. The DHCP Server service does not start automatically by default. Use the following procedure to configure it to start automatically and to start the service for the first time.

To configure and start the DHCP Server service
1. At a command prompt, type:
sc config dhcpserver start= auto
2. Start the service by typing:
net start dhcpserver
start /w ocsetup DHCPServerCore /uninstall at the command prompt will uninstall the DHCP Server role

To install File Services role features

For File Replication Service, type the following at a command prompt:
start /w ocsetup FRS-Infrastructure

For Distributed File System service, type:
start /w ocsetup DFSN-Server

For Distributed File System Replication, type:
start /w ocsetup DFSR-Infrastructure-ServerEdition

For Services for Network File System (NFS), type:
start /w ocsetup ServerForNFS-Base
start /w ocsetup ClientForNFS-Base

Hyper-V role
To install the Hyper-V role, at a command prompt, type:
start /w ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V
To manage Hyper-V on a Server Core installation, use the Hyper-V management tools to manage the server remotely. These tools are available for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Print Services role
To install Print Services role features
For the Print Server feature, type the following at a command prompt:
start /w ocsetup Printing-ServerCore-Role
For the Line Printer Daemon (LPD) service, type:
start /w ocsetup Printing-LPDPrintService
To add a printer to the print server
1. Determine the IP address or host name of the printer. This may be on the printer's test or printer configuration page or you might need to refer to the manufacturer's documentation for instructions.
2. Verify that the print server can communicate with the printer through the network by pinging the printer from the print server.
3. On another computer running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, open the Print Management console and add the server running the Server Core installation.
4. Expand the entry for the print server running a Server Core installation, right-click Drivers, and then click Add Driver. The Add Printer Driver Wizard starts.
5. Complete the wizard to install the printer driver for your printer.
6. In the Print Management console, right-click Printers and then click Add Printer. The Network Printer Installation Wizard starts.
7. Click Add a TCP/IP or Web Services printer by IP address or hostname and then click Next.
8. Enter the printer's host name or IP address (the port name will be the same by default), and then click Next.
9. Make any necessary changes to the printer name, contact information, or sharing status, and then click Next.

Web Server (IIS) role
To install the Web Server role
For the default installation, type the following at a command prompt and press ENTER:
start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel

For an installation that includes all of the options, type the following at a command prompt and press ENTER:

start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-HttpRedirect;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASP;IIS-CGI;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-ServerSideIncludes;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-ODBCLogging;IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-URLAuthorization;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-IPSecurity;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementScriptingTools;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;IIS-LegacyScripts;IIS-FTPPublishingService;IIS-FTPServer;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel

Known issues for installing a server role on a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008 R2

1)You cannot use the Active Directory Domain Controller Installation Wizard (Dcpromo.exe) on a server running Server Core installation. You must use an unattend file with Dcpromo.exe to install or remove the domain controller role. Alternately, you can run Dcpromo.exe on another computer running Windows Server 2008 R2 and use the wizard to save an unattend file that you can then use on the server running Server Core installation.

2)Dcpromo.exe will restart the computer immediately when the installation is complete or when Active Directory is removed unless RebootOnCompletion=No is included in the answer file.

3)The Web Server (IIS) role supports a subset of ASP.NET in Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008 R2. The following IIS features are available in Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008 R2, see the section “Web Server (IIS) role.”