Batch File Utilities

• Execute NT batch files in Windows 95 and 98 with the Win95Cmd shell (now renamed cmd-reactos)
  
  (with thanks to Sture Lingden for mailing me these links after I lost track)
   
• A real FRQ (Frequently Recurring Question) is about sending key strokes to Windows GUI style programs. I'm sorry to tell you it cannot be done in batch language itself!
  But do not despair yet, Jonathan Bennett's AutoIt and Chris Mallett's AutoHotkey to the rescue...
   
• Another FRQ is renaming log files with their date and time.
  Have a look at RenTS by Kees Hiemstra, and RealDate by Gabor Funk.
   
• Next in the FRQ charts is the question "is it possible to hide the batch file's window?"
  Ritchie Lawrence's commandline window utility for manipulating windows, CMDOW, makes it possible.
   
• I don't know in which category this utility would fit, but let's say it will give you command line control over your entire Windows system: Comandiux or CAX.
  More free tools at Scot.sk
   
• DELOLD by Hans-Georg Michna deletes files older than the specified number of days
   
• Or try DELOLD by Kees Hiemstra
   
• Microsoft's DEVCON command line utility alternative to device manager is capable of installing, removing or listing devices and drivers
   
• Eject PnP hardware devices with C'T's DevEject.
  A powerful tool, which can eject devices by their description, device ID or drive letter.
   
• Use CPAU to run commands in an alternate security context. Basically this is a RUNAS replacement.
   
• BATCHMAN: general purpose batch file enhancer, by Michael J. Mefford.
   
• ANSI.COM: ANSI.SYS replacement that can be loaded and unloaded in batch files, by Michael J. Mefford
   
• Make your batch files truly interactive with the Wizard's Apprentice, a flexible tool that can create any type of dialog box you could ever wish for
   
• Several UNIX utilities (cut, du, egrep, sed and many more) are now available for Windows too
   
• SEND.COM is an enhanced ECHO replacement, allowing control characters that could otherwise only be used by redirecting PROMPT commands to temporary batch files
   
• XSET: extended SET instruction, by Marc Stern
  Everything you always wanted to put in an environment variable but were afraid to ask DOS, Windows, NT or OS/2 for . . .
   
• Norman De Forest's Computer Hints, Tips, and Utilities page contains several batch file utilities. Check out EKKO, an ECHO enhancement that can process almost every PROMPT function including coloured text (even without ANSI driver).
   
• Frank Westlake's Miscellaneous Freeware for Windows or Windows NT, with amongst others TEE (both redirect and display standard output simultaneously), PASTE (nice complement to CLIP from the NT Resource Kit), RECYCLE (use the Recycle Bin instead of permanent deletion) and POPUP (display messages in a popup messagebox).
   
• Find the current batch file's Process ID with Daniel Scheibli's GetPIDs.
   
• INI tools at Eric Phelps' INI Tools page.
   
• CLOSE is a utility to gracefully close an NT application, as opposed to KILL from the Microsoft Windows NT Workstation Resource Kit.
  More NT utilities from the same author can be found at Alexander Frink's NT Utilities page
   
• Daniel Lohmann's Homepage has a page with some great Freeware-Tools for NT
   
• Sysinternals.com's PsTools include (amongst others) PsList and PsKill, meant to list and kill processes on any PC in the NT network.
  Extremely useful for killing noisy applications on locked PCs ;-)
   
• Beyond Logic's Shutdown for NT/2000/XP has several useful features that Microsoft's own SHUTDOWN tools lack, like the option to prevent shutdown action occurring on logged-on computers giving your users the flexibly to run lengthy processes overnight without being disturbed
   
• Gibson Research's Wizmo is a collection of tools integrated in a single package.
  Among its functions are shutdown, reboot, hibernate and logoff.
   
• Four batch file compilers: BFC or Batch File Compiler by Brandon Dargo (also available in Professional Edition), Bat2Exec, by Doug Boling, BatLite, by Pieter A. Hintjens, PowerBatch. by Computing Systems Design, Inc., and Quick Batch File Compiler by Abyssmedia.com.
  (Be aware, that compilers may not understand all the magic you are performing in batch files. Use standard commands only, if possible, and forget about undocumented DOS features. BFC and QBFC offer both Win32 and DOS6 compilation and handle NT's extended command switches very well, the others are for "real" DOS only.)
   
• Use ErrorLvl, by OzWoz Software, or SetErLev 1.0, by Jim Elliott, to test batch files that need to check on errorlevels.
   
• John R. Souvestre's SLEEP can be used to wait for a relative or absolute time.
   
• A collection of batch file utilities by Ctrl Computer Systems.
   
• SavillTech's CmdInfo displays system information for Windows 32 systems
   
• Several batch file utilities by Solid Oak Software. From these utilities, WEEKOFYR.COM is used in my week number batch file.
   
• For those who do not want to spend a lot of time making their date or time dependent batch files language independent, there is ErrTime, by Phil Money, Advantig Engineering & Design.
  Separate executables are available for DOS, OS/2, NT and Novell Netware (NLM).
  ErrTime returns an errorlevel for hour, minute, day of week, year, etcetera, depending on the command line parameter specified. You'll have to add Y2K compliance to your batch files by yourself, though, since there aren't enough DOS error levels to make the year a four digit number.
   
• Download several Windows 2000 Resource Kit Tools for free from Microsoft's web site.
   
• My own CapsLock utility returns the CapsLock status as an "errorlevel" (requires the .NET Framework 2.0)
   
• My DEBUG page contains several scripts to create small utilities using DEBUG
   
• On my Rexx page, you can find several OS/2 only batch file utilities, written in Rexx:
  1. 2Console and 2StdErr to write messages directly to the console or to standard error
  2. Cut and Which, as found in Unix
  3. ForD and ForF, partial "ports" of Windows NT's FOR /D and /F command options to OS/2
  4. TrueName (shows a network or SUBSTed drive's UNC)
  
   
• On my UserInput page, you can find UserInPM, an OS/2 PM utility to ask for user input and store the resulting string in an environment variable.
   
• Use VHDMount to mount and access VHD files as virtual disk drives (part of Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1)
   

More links:

• Benny Pedersen's Batch Files & Utilities
• Both (batch file) utilities and Kix scripts are available at scripting@wanadoo.nl
• The Simtel.Net MS-DOS Collection
• Horst Schaeffer's Batch Pages
• Programmers Home Page of Ansis Ataols Berzins:
  Some neat DOS and Windows tools, like a DOS clipboard, a universal SETVER replacement, 10 Clipboards, and more
• Marc Stern's MS-DOS batch files Tips & Tricks
• Ctrl Computer Systems's list of batch file utilities

Other utilities:

• Problems with XP assigning drive letters, that are in use by network drives, to USB drives?
  Use USB Drive Letter Manager to fix them.
• ResHack (RESource HACKer) is a great tool to extract bitmaps from executables and DLLs, remove menu entries, change button captions and much more...
• RegShot, a tool that allows taking registry and file "snapshots" and comparing these.
  Great for automating software installations.
  Do read the tips on the RegShot web page for better results!
• Try Bulk Rename if you need to do some complex renaming
• 12noon.com has several great utilities available for free, like Resolution Changer (change display resolution from the command line) and MouseButtons (swap mouse buttons for left handed use, and back to right handed use again)
• Use Microsoft's TweakUI to change Windows' behaviour without directly "hacking" your registry
• Use Microsoft's Autoplay Repair Wizard to to fix defective AutoPlay settings for CD-ROM drives