What Is a Symbolic Link?
A Symbolic Link acts (and looks) like a shortcut but provides a transparent link to the target file at the file system level instead of within explorer.
Symbolic Links are used most for backward compatibility. It can be used to trick software into thinking its accessing files at a location where the files have been moved.
Create a Relative or Absolute Symbolic Link
Relative Symbolic Links: A relative symbolic link is a symbolic link that identifies the location of its target by its location.
For Example: I created a folder called test in the root of C:\. I also created a text file called file2.txt in the folder called test. I’m going to create a relative symbolic link in the folder test I created called file1.txt to the text file file2.txt.
1. Open the command prompt with admin privileges by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and then select Run as administrator.
2. After navigating to the test folder I created I type mklink file1.txt file2.txt in the command prompt and then press enter.
Now if you open file1.txt file2.txt actually opens. To prove this, open file2.txt, type something in it and then open the file1.txt symbolic link.
Note: If the relative symbolic link is moved the link will not work anymore.
Absolute Symbolic Links
An absolute symbolic link is a symbolic link that identifies the location of its target by a full path.
Using the example above you’d type mklink file1.txt C:\test\file2.txt.
Note: If you move the absolute link to a different location it will still work.
Create a Symbolic Link to a Shared Folder
To create a symbolic link to a shared folder you’d type mklink file1.txt \\file-server\test\file2.txt or mklink file1.txt Z:\test\file2.txt for a mapped folder.
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Written by Jason on July 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1340 and 1354 and 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and 544 and Compatibility and Contributors and Explorer and Internet and Software and administrator and command and command prompt and how to.
This guide shows you how to run the check disk (chkdsk) command from the System Recovery Options included on the Windows Vista DVD.
So your computer won’t boot up and you need to run check disk (chkdsk) on it to try and repair errors on the hard drive. This guide shows you how to run check disk by booting from the Windows Vista DVD and running check disk from the System Recovery Options command prompt.
Run Check Disk from a System Recovery Command Prompt
1. Place a Windows Vista DVD in the DVD drive and restart or turn on your computer.
2. When asked if you want to boot from the CD/DVD press any key on your keyboard to say yes. You might have to press F10 or a similar key to boot from a CD/DVD. See your computer manufacturer’s manual for help with that.
3. Once your computer has booted from the DVD, choose your language options and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Select the operating system you want to run the check disk command on and then click Next.
6. Click Command Prompt in the System Recovery Options window.
7. Now you have a command prompt open where you can run check disk from.
See my guide on how to use check disk for information on how to use check disk.
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Written by Jason on July 12th, 2008 with no comments.
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In the first half of June 2008, when they gave a taste of the new features cooking for Internet Explorer 8 which are planned for integration starting with Beta 2, Jane Maliouta - IE Program Manager and James Pratt - IE Product Manager pointed out that IE8 would come with slipstream support by default. This is valid as early as the Beta 1 Build of Internet Explorer 8, but only with Windows Vista RTM, Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft has left Windows XP SP3 out of the IE8 slipstream equation, this is nothing new for XP, as slipstreaming was also not supported even with Internet Explorer 7.
“With IE8 and Windows Vista, you are able to integrate IE8 into the image file of the original operating system in about 15 minutes. No more booting the OS image, manually installing IE and re-capturing the image. The slipstreaming support also extends to IE8 cumulative updates and language packages. Slipstreaming IE8 into an OS image will only be supported on Vista and Windows Server 2008 platforms. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 do not currently offer a solution for slipstreaming Windows components, which are built using update.exe,” Maliouta revealed.
Microsoft has made it clear that support for IE8’s integration into the latest Windows client and server operating systems is a feature aimed at IT Professionals. In this context, users will need the right tools to get the slipstream job done, namely the Windows Automated Install Kit for managing custom Vista and Windows Server 2008 images. The operating system directory from the media has to be copied on a local computer. Maliouta has created c:\slipstreaming\VistaSP1×86en. In the same directory, the following folders have to be created: Mount, Pkg, Sandbox, namely “c:\slipstreaming\mount; c:\slipstreaming\pkg; and c:\slipstreaming\sandbox.” At this point in time, IE8 has to be downloaded and placed in the same directory under a folder dubbed IE8×86en.
Maliouta added that in order “to extract the MSU, in the command prompt [users will have to] run this
/x: .
Example: c:SlipstreamingIE8×86enIE8-WindowsVista-x86-enu.exe /x: c:SlipstreamingIE8×86en
To expand the MSU, in the command prompt run this
expand.exe
-F:*.
Example: expand.exe c:SlipstreamingIE8×86enIE8.MSU -F:* c:Slipstreamingpkg
Users will have to mount the install image of Windows Vista into the location on the machine. This can be done via the following command run at command prompt:
“imagex.exe /mountrw install.wim “
Specifically for Windows Vista Ultimate in the context of this scenario this command is:
“C:Program FilesWindows AIKToolsx86imagex.exe” /mountrw C:SlipstreamingVistaSP1×86ensourcesinstall.wim 4 C:Slipstreamingmount
Maliouta explained that introducing a number bigger than 4 will display help information in the command prompt which will reveal the specific numbers corresponding to Vista editions. In the end users will have to save changes to the new image now slipstreamed with IE8. The command which needs to be run is this:
imagex /commit /unmount
Example: “c:Program FilesWindows AIKToolsx86imagex.exe” /commit /unmount c:Slipstreamingmount
Maliouta warned that as far as the RTM version of Windows Vista is concerned users will have to perform another task prior to slipstreaming IE8. This involves modifying the read only attribute flag ahead of running the slipstream command.
attrib -R “WindowsOffline Web Pages”
Example: attrib -R “C:SlipstreamingmountWindowsOffline Web Pages”
And only then:
pkgmgr.exe /n:
WindowsVista-KB#-NEUTRAL.xml /o:”;windows” /s: /l:
Example: “c:Program FilesWindows AIKToolsx86Servicingpkgmgr.exe” /n:”c:SlipstreamingpkgWindows6.0-KB944036 -x86.xml” /o:”"c:Slipstreamingmount”;”c:Slipstreamingmountwindows”" /s: “c:Slipstreamingsandbox” /l:”c:Slipstreamingslp.log”
At the end of the slipstreaming process the read only attribute flag will need to be set back into place:
attrib +R “WindowsOffline Web Pages”
Example: attrib +R “C:SlipstreamingmountWindowsOffline Web Pages”
IE8 Beta 1 is available for download here.
Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) 1.0 is available for download here.
Tags:command prompt,
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Written by Jason on June 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1354 and 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and 544 and Contributors and IE8 and Internet and Windows Vista and Windows XP and Xp Sp3 and command prompt and internet explorer 8 and sp1 and vista sp1 and windows and windows server.
In the
last post I have instructions for using the Command Prompt to navigate to a particular folder; however, there is an easier way to do this in Windows XP by installing a
PowerToy (this feature is already available in Vista).
To install this feature, look for 'Open Command Window Here' the list of PowerToys on the right hand side of the page and click on CmdHere.exe to download it (or simply
click here - if this links stops working please leave a comment). After installing the software, when you right click on a folder icon, or on the empty space within a folder, you will see a new entry in the menu that opens: 'Open Command Window Here'. Click on this to open up a Command Prompt window that will already be focused on the current folder.
There are a number of other PowerToys available, including the excellent Clear Type Tuner, which was the subject of an
earlier post. In future posts on this blog, I will look at some of the other tools available to enhance Windows XP.
Written by Stepterix on June 12th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Contributors and command prompt and freeware.
1. Open the command prompt with administrative privileges by clicking the Start orb, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
2. Type defrag c: -b (assuming you want to defragment files on your C: drive) and then press Enter on your keyboard. You could also type defrag –b to defrag boot and application files on all hard drives.
3. You won’t see any output in the command prompt during the defrag process.
4. When it’s finished defragmenting a new line will appear in the command prompt.
Note: You can stop a defrag running from the command prompt at any time by pressing Ctrl+C on your keyboard.
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Written by Jason on June 8th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Boot and Contributors and Defragment and Windows Vista and administrator and application and command and command prompt and defrag and hard drive and how to and windows.
There are a number of programs available that will create a text file from a list of files in a folder, but here is a quick and easy way of doing the same using the Command Prompt.
Firstly, open up the Command Prompt (aka the MS-DOS Box). To do this either click on 'Run' in the 'Start' menu, or hold down the Windows key and press R (the Windows key is the one with the Windows logo on). In the box that opens type cmd, and either click the 'OK' button or press the Return key. The Command Prompt application should open, looking something like this.
Secondly, you will need to navigate to the folder which contains the files you wish to list. If it is on a different drive type the drive letter followed by colon (e.g. D:) and hit return. Then type cd (change directory) followed by the path of the folder, for example:
cd c:\documents and settings\owner\my documents
On some versions of Windows you only need to type part of the folder name and then press the Tab key and the Command Prompt will fill in the rest, e.g. type cd c:\docu and press Tab to change the command to cd c:\documents and settings.
If you do not know the full path of the folder, you can set Windows Explorer to show it in the address bar or title bar - one of my
earlier posts explains how to do this (I would recommend showing the full bath in the address bar). You can copy the path from the address bar and paste it into the command prompt screen by clicking on its icon in the top left hand corner, which opens a drop down menu as shown below.
Once you have navigated to the right folder you can type the command to create a file list in that folder in the form of a text file that can be opened in notepad or your word processor.
Note: Windows Vista includes a feature where you can hold down the Shift key and right-click on the icon of the folder you wish to list the files contained within and select 'Open Command Window Here' from the menu that opens. I will be publishing a post soon which will provide instructions on how to add this feature to Windows XP.
Directory List Command
To create a list of all the files in the folder type dir /a-d /b > filelist.txt and press Return/Enter.
The command includes two switches, /a-d and /b. The first of these stops the dir command. from listing folders; the second prevents the command from showing the extra information you see if you just type dir and hit Return. If you wish the text file to have a different name change it from 'filelist' but remember to put '.txt' at the end so that Windows knows that it is a text file.
The dir command has a variety of other switches, the following command will list the names of all the mp3 files in the current folder and all the sub-folders that it contains:
dir *.mp3 /a-d /s /b > mp3filelist.txt
The *.mp3 part tells the command to only list files with that extension, and the /s sets it to list the files in sub-folders too. Note that the files in the sub-folders will be listed prefixed by the folder name, e.g. 'D:\soulseek\placebo - covers1 Running up That Hill.mp3'.
If you have a particular requirement for a file list leave a comment on this post and I will look into it for you. Also, if anyone is interested in learning more about the various commands and programs available in the Command Prompt please leave a comment.
One last point, you can use > filename.txt to send the results of any command to a text file, which can be very useful if you have to pass information on to a technician.
Now you can impress your friends and co-workers with your 'old skool' techie skills.
Written by Stepterix on June 4th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Contributors and command prompt.
The Microsoft acquisition Sysinternals that is famous for their useful Windows utilities has a new site up that allows you to easily access any of their utilities for free over the internet in your command prompt. This allows you to run any of their utilities without first downloading it to your computer. Just open an administrative level command prompt and type in:
\\live.sysinternals.com\tools\toolname.exe
For example if you want to run Autoruns (a great program to see what starts up automatically) type \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\autoruns.exe and hit Enter.
Every Sysinternals utility is available for “live” use.
Available Commands
* accesschk.exe
* AccessEnum.exe
* accvio.EXE
* ADExplorer.exe
* ADInsight.exe
* adrestore.exe
* Autologon.exe
* autoruns.exe
* autorunsc.exe
* Bginfo.exe
* Cacheset.exe
* Clockres.exe
* Contig.exe
* ctrl2cap.exe
* Dbgview.exe
* DEFRAG.EXE
* diskext.exe
* Diskmnt.exe
* Diskmon.exe
* DiskView.exe
* du.exe
* efsdump.exe
* Filemon.exe
* handle.exe
* hex2dec.exe
* junction.exe
* ldmdump.exe
* Listdlls.exe
* livekd.exe
* LoadOrd.exe
* logonsessions.exe
* movefile.exe
* newsid.exe
* NotMyfault.exe
* ntfsinfo.exe
* pagedfrg.exe
* pendmoves.exe
* PHYSMEM.EXE
* pipelist.exe
* portmon.exe
* procexp.exe
* ProcFeatures.exe
* Procmon.exe
* psexec.exe
* psfile.exe
* psgetsid.exe
* Psinfo.exe
* pskill.exe
* pslist.exe
* psloggedon.exe
* psloglist.exe
* pspasswd.exe
* psservice.exe
* psshutdown.exe
* pssuspend.exe
* RegDelNull.exe
* Reghide.exe
* regjump.exe
* Regmon.exe
* RootkitRevealer.exe
* sdelete.exe
* ShareEnum.exe
* ShellRunas.exe
* sigcheck.exe
* streams.exe
* strings.exe
* sync.exe
* SysInternalsBluescreen.scr
* tcpvcon.exe
* Tcpview.exe
* Testlimit.exe
* testlimit64.exe
* Volumeid.exe
* whois.exe
* Winobj.exe
* ZoomIt.exe
For a “live” list visit http://live.sysinternals.com/Tools/
Tip: When you are typing in a command hit the Tab key to automatically fill in the rest of the file name. E.g. type autor and then hit Tab to get autoruns.exe
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Written by Jason on June 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Contributors and Prompt and Sysinternals and Windows Vista and Windows XP and autologon and command and command prompt and computer and defrag and utilities and windows.
Are you not able to fire up any commands just because your run prompt is not visible in your windows xp start menu?
We have already posted a procedure on how can you restore your run prompt in start menu, but still even after following the procedure given there if it does not appear then,
You can try this freeware called Command Prompt Bar which provides an alternative Command prompt in the task bar, but you will need to activate this new command prompt which will reside in your windows taskbar. Command Prompt Bar becomes a part of your Windows taskbar and allows you to launch command lines from your windows bar. (as shown in the image below).
It simply adds a toolbar in the Taskbar which Saves time with many features like (Auto-Complete, URL Launcher, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer Integration, etc.)
Download Command Prompt Bar
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Written by Jason on May 21st, 2008 with no comments.
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I don’t know about you but I think the default font of the command prompt is ugly and hard to read. This guide shows you how to change the default font from a Raster font to a Consolas font specially designed for developers.
If your computer doesn’t have the Consolas font this guide shows you where to get it and how to configure the command prompt to recognize it.
Change the Command Prompt’s Font
1. Click the Start orb, All Programs, Accessories, and then open the Command Prompt.
2. Right-click the top bar of the command prompt and then select Defaults.
3. Select the Font tab.
4. Change the font to Lucinda Consolas and set the size to 14. If you don’t see the Lucinda Consolas font follow the directions below to install it.
5. Click OK to save the changes.
Install the Consolas Font
1. Download and install the Consolas font from Microsoft.
2. Open an elevated command prompt (Start, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator) and then type the following: reg add
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont” /v 00 /d Consolas
3. Press Enter on your keyboard to add the registry key.
4. Restart your computer and follow the instructions under Change the Command Prompt’s Font above.
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Written by Jason on April 28th, 2008 with no comments.
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The dir command has a variety of other switches, the following command will list the names of all the mp3 files in the current folder and all the sub-folders that it contains: