Find out which Hypervisor your Windows 7 is running on!
If you need to determine which virtualization platform is a Windows 7 Virtual Machine (VM) is running on, while, you have no access to any other tools such as, the hypervisor or virtualization manager, you can easily find out by issuing a simple command from the Windows command-line interface.
Categories: Management Tags: command, Hyper-V, hypervisor, VirtualBox, virtualization, VM, VMware, wmic, Xen
Search for Strings within Executables
Search for embedded strings within binary files using the Strings command-line utility by Mark Russinovich. Executables and object files will many times have embedded UNICODE strings that you cannot easily see with a standard ASCII strings or Grep programs. In combination with the Grep utility, Strings utility allows you to perform a search and find specific text such as, version numbers in binary files. It can also assist you in malware investigations such as, searching for URLs embedded within malicious binary files. However, the utility will not find any meaningful strings in compressed or encrypted binary files.
Run a command prompt in the Local System context!
Sometimes you may need to run a command, especially when you are troubleshooting a problem that requires the System context to execute and return results. The Local System context, which is normally a protected layer for the operating system to execute services, can be accessed using a privileged service account called NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM or LocalSystem. If a service running in the Local System context is compromised then your system is at risk!
Categories: Utilities Tags: command, command prompt, LocalSystem, Mark Russinovich, privilege, psexec, psexec.exe, pstools, Technet, Windows Sysinternals
Migrating a Power Plan in Windows 7
Windows 7 Power Plans control how the computer uses energy, where users can select a plan that meets their needs without having to elevate privileges. The command-line tool Powercfg.exe allows users to manage and migrate power plans between computers. In the following steps we will be using the import and export options of the Powercfg command-line utility:
Categories: Management, Utilities Tags: command, energy, Export, GUID, Import, power, Power Plan, Power Scheme, powercfg, Scheme
Creating a Shared Folder in Windows 7
In this procedure you learn how to share a folder using the Create A Shared Folder Wizard. The procedure includes the steps how to create two users and a user group that will be allowed to access and modify data in the shared folder. Without further ado, let’s go to the steps required to complete this task:
Categories: Management Tags: command, command-line, folder, net, net localgroup, net share, net user, permission, share, Shared folders
Powercfg
Many laptop users rely on the manufacturer supplied software to monitor the laptop battery status and condition while few are the users that perform power efficiency reports which can help them fix power related issues. The Powercfg command in Windows 7 enables users to control the power settings and it has a slew of command options such as, listing all power schemes of the current configuration, displaying the contents of a specified power scheme, changing a setting in the current power scheme and many more. To list all options, type powercfg /? from an elevated command prompt.
Categories: Management, Troubleshooting Tags: battery, battery condition, battery state, command, hibernate, laptop, mode, power, powercfg, sleep
Tweaking Windows Explorer default behavior
Opening Windows explorer from the taskbar icon takes you to the Library location by default. If you are annoyed with this behavior you can easily change the default location by following these steps:
