Batch files - Browse/search the examples

Use batch files to:

. . . store everything in variables:

• A registry value, using ReadReg.bat
• A value from an INI file, using ReadINI.bat
• The boot drive
• CD-ROM drive letter (Windows 95/98)
• NT's country setting
• The amount of RAM installed on an NT machine (native commands only, but slow)
• The amount of RAM installed on an NT machine (fast, but needs Resource Kit)
• The current drive letter
• Date and time
• IP address (Windows NT/2000/XP and OS/2 Warp/eCS)
• WAN IP address (Windows NT/2000/XP)
• MAC address
• Windows' registry values
• Ramdisk drive letter (Windows 95/98)
• User input

. . . check everything:

• Display help on "all" NT commands (also available in VBScript)
• List free space for all partitions on any computer or list of computers
• Is this "third party tool" available or do I need to download it?
• What is this screen's resolution? (NT)
• Is that drive FAT formated? Or NTFS? (NT)
• Is this a valid device name?
• Is drive A: ready?
• Errorlevels
• Free space on disk (the hard way)
• How much disk space is occupied by each subdirectory? (Windows 2000)
• Do I have an Internet connection?
• Check interrupt vectors to see if they have changed (link to Terry Newton's web pages)
• Display your video adapter's manufacturer information
• I/O addresses of serial and parallel ports
• Was this file created or modified today?
• What is the status of the printer ports?
• List properties of all shortcuts in the Start Menu (NT)
• Check if a files's size exceeds the specified minimum size
• Which program file is started?
• Read the title of an unknown MIDI file (Windows NT; requires SysInternals' STRINGS utility)

. . . control everything:

• Display grayscales only
• Kill an NT process by its name
• Remove registry entries in Windows 95
• Shut down and reboot PC's
• Make a computer wait for a number of seconds

. . . manage networks and servers:

• Execute a command once for each member of a global NT group
• Logoff one user's disconnected sessions on NT Terminal Server
• Logoff all user's disconnected sessions on NT Terminal Server
• List specified (NT) or all (NT and OS/2) network printers' UNC path
• Allow only one user at a time access to a program on a network drive
• Restore shares and access control lists of homedirs on NT home and profile servers
• Display the amount of time a system has been up and running
• Display the host name, Mac address and domain or workgroup for a specified IP address
• Display every active NT requester (PC) plus who is logged on, as in OS/2's NET WHO
• Delete corrupted local profiles for the current NT user
• Delete any profile
• Display network characteristics for local or remote users
• Temporarily map a network drive or use an existing mapping in NT, and remove it afterwards (unless an existing mapping was used)
• Display a user account's full name
• Display the user ID and display name for the user logged on to a specified computer
• Recursively display all groups that a user is a member of (Windows Server 2003)
• Display all members of the specified group(s), both users and nested groups (Windows Server 2003)
• Display all members of the specified OU(s), both users and computers (Windows Server 2003)

. . . perform some HTML related tricks:

• Create an HTML help page for all Windows commands available, in your own language for your own Windows version (also available in VBScript)
• Create a set of HTML & plain text help pages for the Windows Server 2003 Directory Services command line tools, in your own language
• Convert IE Favourites to Netscape Bookmarks
• Display all GIF files in your web browser
• Display all GIF and JPG files in your web browser

. . . or any of numerous other tricks:

• Convert Unicode to ASCII
• Create directories named after the current date and/or time or week number
• Send batch generated e-mail messages
• Generate a random number in DOS, NT, OS/2 (Rexx), or KiXtart
• Calculate the date several days ago or several days ahead (link to a post on alt.msdos.batch.nt by Phil Robyn)