Posts in category Career Tips

Breaking Into Windows Administration–Part 3

Sep10th
2012 Written by mike

In the first installment, we talked about the personal qualities that will help you get ahead in Windows Administration. In the second installment, we talked about the importance of being able to script (using DOS batch scripts, VBScript, and Powershell) because this enables you to be much more productive and automate more of your work. In this installment, we’re going to talk about some system administration and support tools that you should be familiar with. These tools will help you be a more effective problem solver, scripter, and application packager.

WMI Code Creator

This older Microsoft tool is a great resource for creating VBScript code that accesses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) objects. WMI can provide a wealth of information about the hardware and software on a PC. It can help control processes and services, identify installed patches, and more. WMI Code Creator has two great functions for VBScript writers: (1) It allows you to browse live WMI values on the PC you’re running it against, and (2) It provides sample VBScript code that provides the same values for any PC.

Because Microsoft is phasing VBScript out in favor of PowerShell, it can be a little hard to find this tool online. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons I can’t post it here.

PowerShell Scriptomatic

For PowerShell scripting, the PowerShell Scriptomatic from Microsoft can make it much easier to write PowerShell scripts which use WMI information. Just as with the WMI Code Creator above, this tool generates PowerShell code to access WMI information.

Windows Sysinternals Tools

Years ago, a man named Mark Russinovich made quite a name for himself by creating a set of tools to help himself solve unusual and difficult Windows problems. The resulting “Sysinternals” tools became so popular and valuable that Microsoft itself brought them on board. If you support, troubleshoot, and administer Windows and haven’t worked with these tools you have been missing out. Mastery of the Sysinternals tools can make you a much more effective administrator and application packager.

What kinds of things can you do with the Sysinternals tools? Here are a few:

Process Explorer: This tool provides far more detail than the Windows Task Manager, including which processes host other processes (e.g., you can see what is running under “svchost.exe”, which threads the process is running, what TCP/IP connections it makes, text strings inside the executable, where the executable is located, etc.
Pslist: A command line tool that lists the processes currently running on the current PC or any PC the administrator can reach on the LAN.
Autoruns: Shows all of the software that runs during startup. This can be helpful in finding and removing malware, or identifying resource-sapping software.
Pskill: Kill a process running on the local or a remote PC from the command line.
Handle: Shows all the files open on the computer and the processes which have them open.

The Sysinternals page linked above provides some excellent examples of how these tools can be used to troubleshoot challenging problems.

AutoIt – Automation and Scripting Language

AutoIt is a tool which can be used to automate many GUI-based processes and perform a variety of other administrative tasks. While it’s not the best way to automate software installations or certain other tasks, it does have its uses.

Orca – Windows Installer Editor

Orca is a Microsoft tool which can be used to view and modify the contents of Microsoft Installer (MSI) and template (MST) files. Orca can also create MST files from existing MSI files. This can be useful in application packaging, when you need to adjust an installation.

Other Tools

There are a number of other tools you may find valuable in work as a Windows Desktop Administrator. Most of these aren’t free, but you can download trial versions that will both help you become familiar with their function and perhaps give you the justification to convince your employer to purchase them for you:

Sapien PrimalScript and PrimalForms: This is a development environment for VBScript, DOS batch scripts, and PowerShell scripts. It features auto-complete, syntax highlighting, and much more. I use it almost daily. Unfortunately, it’s not cheap.
Quest Software MSI Studio: When you’re planning to deploy an application which can’t be made to install silently, you’ll want a tool that can turn that application into a standard Windows Installer (MSI) file. MSI Studio is one of the best and most cost-effective tools on the market for doing this. Wise Package Studio (approaching end-of-life) and Flexera AdminStudio are also excellent products (but more expensive).
LANDesk, SCCM, or Altiris: These are two of the most popular client management tools on the market. LANDesk, for example, can provide client hardware and software inventory, patch management, software deployment, and more.
VMware Workstation or Oracle VirtualBox: When doing application packaging and patch testing, it’s important not to damage the PC you use every day.
VirusTotal: This web site can scan any file you upload to it with approximately 40 different antivirus engines. When you’re dealing with a suspected item of malware, running it through this service may identify the nastiness within.
VMware vSphere and VMware View: In this economy, many organizations are turning to virtual machines as a cost-effective solution to deploying physical PCs. ESX Server is a popular hosting platform, and a limited-functionality free version is available. VMware View is a tool for deploying virtual machines on-demand.

Breaking into Windows Administration – Part 3

Apr23rd
2011 Written by winadmin

In our first installment, we talked about the personal qualities that make for a good Windows Desktop Administrator. In this article, we’ll talk about Scripting and why it’s extremely valuable to learn.

Scripting

Remember earlier when I told you about “productive laziness”? If you’re “ordinary lazy” then you won’t be getting any work done. Before long, your boss is going to notice that and send you packing. But if you’re “productively lazy” you don’t want to do work that is boring, repetitive, and prone to mistakes. That’s where scripting comes in.

There are many different scripting languages you can use in Windows. Many beginners start with DOS batch scripts. That’s a good place to get a feel for scripting. Batch scripts are great for quick-and-dirty operations, like copying a bunch of files to every PC on your network. You can do that in a couple of lines of scripting and be confident that it’s getting done methodically and consistently. But there are many things batch scripts just can’t do. For example, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to have a batch script create an Excel spreadsheet, populate it with data and formulas, then save it. That’s where more powerful languages like VBScript come in.

VBScript based on the Visual Basic programming language and is very powerful. With VBScript, you can contact machines across the network and change registry settings. You can launch applications and send them commands to do things (like the spreadsheet example above). You can read serial numbers, create Active Directory accounts, and any number of other things. VBScript is something every desktop administrator should know how to use. Otherwise, you’re probably spending a lot of time doing things that a script could handle for you automatically. Have a look at the VBScript examples on this site to show you what it can do for you.

Powershell is the next step after VBScript. This language is emerging as the gold standard with the rise of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. It’s like mixing the best of DOS command prompts with the power of VBScript.

Learning VBScript

Below are some books on scripting that I’ve personally read and found useful to me. If you are learning to script, these are excellent resources. You may also want to do some Internet searches for tutorials on scripting and work your way through some of those.

WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner by Jerry Lee Ford Jr.

Advanced VBScript for Microsoft Windows Administrators by Don Jones and Jeffery Hicks

VBScript, WMI, and ADSI Unleashed: Using VBScript, WMI, and ADSI to Automate Windows Administration by Don Jones

learning to script, Scripting, VBScript

Breaking into Windows Administration–Part 1

Apr9th
2011 Written by winadmin

This post is intended to provide advice to those seeking a career in Windows Desktop Administration. The advice and suggestions in this post may not be applicable for every Windows Desktop Administration position, at every organization, in every country. Take these recommendations as a starting point and tailor them to suit your own career goals and the needs of the organization you’re hoping to join.

This post assumes that the reader has a decent familiarity with Windows already, perhaps as a help desk technician, a person who does "some PC work on the side", or just a computer enthusiast hoping to turn his or her hobby into a career. If I use terms in this article that are unfamiliar to you, you should take that as an opportunity to read about those topic areas and learn what you can about them.

There are a number of personal qualities that make for a good Windows Desktop Administrator:

A desire to learn: The Windows desktop landscape is constantly changing. There is always a new piece of hardware, a new application, a new scripting language, or a new "something" coming into your environment. If you aren’t interested in learning new things, you will find yourself become obsolete quickly.
A touch of "productive laziness": A good Windows administrator tries to avoid doing the same manual task repeatedly. After doing the same thing a few times, a good administrator will ask the question "Is there a way I can automate this to save myself some time and improve my accuracy and efficiency?" This should be followed by an effort to automate the task.
Communication skills: Given the amount of change involved in desktop administration, communication is critical. You need to let other IT infrastructure groups know what you are changing and when. You need to let users know what is changing, why that’s a good thing, and how to cope with the change. You need to keep your managers informed about what you’re doing. You may even need to make presentations to convince those who control the budget to spend money on an idea you have.
Teamwork: In all but the smallest shops, there is usually a team of IT people providing computing and networking services to end users. You need to cooperate with teammates, colleagues in other areas, and the users themselves.
A thick skin: The nature of Windows Administration is such that when you are doing your job correctly, no one knows you exist. They don’t get virus infections, their data is backed up, their systems run smoothly, their software is kept current, etc. When you make a mistake, or when something unplanned happens, it can feel like everyone is out to get you. You can’t let that get to you. But you do need to listen, learn what you can from the feedback, and adjust your procedures accordingly.
A love of technology: If you don’t like computers, and don’t have at least a little bit of passion for them, you’re going to burn out quickly in this job. It’s all about technology and how you can help others get their work done with technology.
Problem-solving skills: No matter how well you test things, how bullet-proof your designs, etc., things are going to break. When they break, you need to be able to visualize how the troubled system works and troubleshoot the possible causes of failure. If you don’t enjoy puzzles and mysteries, you may find desktop administration frustrating.

Let’s say you have all these skills and traits. Is that enough? No, probably not. But it will help. The rest of this article is intended to give you some advice and guidance on how to turn yourself into a great desktop administrator.

In the next installment, we’ll talk about scripting and why it’s a critical skill for a Windows Desktop Administrator.

What are Career Tips?

Apr7th
2011 Written by winadmin

In the context of the Windows Desktop Administration Site, career tips are pieces of information that may help you in your career. This can include articles suggesting topics that prospective Windows administrators should study, ways that current administrators can be more efficient and effective, etc. They won’t necessarily be technical articles, but they’re articles of value to people working in Windows administration.