ITCNA1-12

Chapter 11
Managing Windows
Windows Management:
Objectives
• Use management consoles.
• Use performance and troubleshooting tools.
• Use command-line tools.
Use management consoles:
Device Manager
• Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) allows you to view and edit the
properties of installed hardware. You can change hardware
configuration settings, update drivers, or remove/disable devices.
Updating and Troubleshooting Devices
• Sometimes Windows can determine a device’s type and function but
cannot locate a driver for the device (perhaps there is no driver
included on the Windows setup media or in Windows Update).
• In this case, you may find an “Unknown Device,” or device of a
“generic” type listed in the Device Manager with a yellow exclamation
mark indicating a problem.
• If the device has never worked, check that it (or the driver installed) is
compatible with the OS.
• Manufacturers often release updated drivers to fix known problems.
Use management consoles:
Updating and Troubleshooting Devices
• The update can normally be obtained as a download from the
support area of the manufacturer’s website.
• Once downloaded, the driver may come with a setup program to
install it or may need to be installed manually.
• To update or troubleshoot a device manually, in the Device
Manager hardware tree, locate the device, right-click it, and select
Properties to display the device settings.
• The General tab displays status information for the device.
• Use the Update Driver button on the Drivers tab to install a new
driver.
Use management consoles:
Removing, Uninstalling, and Disabling Devices
• If a device supports Plug and Play and is hot swappable, you can
remove it from the computer without having to uninstall it.
• Before removing a storage device, close any applications that might be
using it, then select the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the
notification area on the taskbar, and choose the option to stop or
eject the device.
• Physically removing a device leaves the driver installed so that it will
be detected if the device is reconnected.
• To remove the driver, before physically unplugging the device, right-
click it and select Uninstall device.
• There is also an option in Device Manager to Disable a device, which
you might use if it is not working with the current driver, and you want
to make it inaccessible to users while you find a replacement.
• Devices that cannot be physically uninstalled easily may also be
disabled to improve system security.
• Disabled devices are shown with a down arrow.
Use management consoles:
Disk Management Console
• The disk subsystem stores all the information generated by
installing the operating system and using software applications to
create data files.
• As the primary store of o much data, ensuring the reliability and
performance of the disk subsystem is a critical management task.
• The Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) console displays a
summary of any fixed and removable disks—hard disk drives
(HDDs), solid state drives (SSDs), and optical drives—attached to
the system.
• HDDs and SSDs can be divided into logical partitions where each
partition is represented as a volume in the top pane.
Use management consoles:
Disk Management Console
The Disk Management console supports the following disk and
partitioning tasks:
• Initializing disks—If you add an unformatted HDD, SSD, or thumb
drive, you will be prompted to initialize it. You can choose whether to
use the master boot record (MBR) or Globally Unique ID (GUID)
Partition Table (GPT) partition style for the new disk. MBR and GPT
refer to the way the partition information is stored on the disk.
• Partitioning—Each disk must be configured with at least one partition.
You can create a new partition by right-clicking on an area of
unpartitioned space. A wizard will prompt you to choose how much of
the unallocated space to use and to select a file system.
• Formatting—A new partition must be written with a file system—
typically NTFS—to allow Windows to write and read files. The simpler
FAT32 file system might be used for small, removable drives. You can
also reformat existing partitions. This will delete all files from the
volume. Along with the file system type, you can choose a volume
label and allocation unit size.
Use management consoles:
Disk Management Console
The Disk Management console supports the following disk and
partitioning tasks:
• Repartitioning—Existing partitions can be expanded if there is
unpartitioned space. Partitions can also be removed or shrunk to
make space available.
• Configuring dynamic disks—If there is more than one disk
available, a new dynamic volume can be configured. Dynamic
volumes use multiple devices to implement some type of software
RAID redundancy, such as mirroring.
Use management consoles:
Disk Maintenance Tools
• Of all the computer’s subsystems, disk drives and the file system probably
require the most attention to keep in optimum working order.
File storage is subject to three main problems:
• Fragmentation—On a hard disk, ideally each file would be saved in contiguous
clusters on the disk. In practice, over time as files grow, they become
fragmented across non-contiguous clusters, reducing read performance.
• Capacity—Typically, much more file creation occurs on a computer than file
deletion. This means that capacity can reduce over time. If the boot volume has
less than 20% free space, performance can be impaired. When space drops
below 200 MB, a Low Disk Space warning is generated.
• Damage—Hard disk operations are physically intensive, and the platters of the
disk are easy to damage, especially if there is a power cut. If the disk does not
recognize that a sector is damaged, files can become corrupted. SSDs can suffer
from degradation of the memory circuitry, resulting in bad blocks, and can be
damaged by impacts, overheating, and electrical issues.
Use management consoles:
Disk Maintenance Tools
Disk Defragmenter
• The Defragment and Optimize Drives tool (dfrgui.exe) runs various operations
to speed up the performance of HDDs and SSDs:
• On an HDD, defragmenting rewrites file data so that it occupies contiguous
clusters, reducing the amount of time the controller has to seek over the disk to
read a file.
• On an SSD, data is stored in units called blocks that are not directly managed by
the OS. The drive controller determines how blocks are used according to wear-
levelling routines to minimize degradation of the solid-state cells. The main
purpose of the optimizer tool is to instruct the controller to run a TRIM
operation. Essentially, TRIM is a process by which the controller identifies data
that the OS has marked as deletable and can then tag corresponding blocks as
writable. The optimizer does perform a type of defragmentation operation on
an SSD if it holds the OS and the system protection feature Volume Shadow
Copy service is enabled.
• Windows automatically schedules the disk optimizer to run using Task
Scheduler. You should check for any issues, such as it not running successfully.
Use management consoles:
Disk Maintenance Tools
Disk Clean-up
• The Disk Clean-up (cleanmgr.exe) tool tracks files that can be
safely erased to reclaim disk space.
• These files include ones deleted but still available in the Recycle
Bin and various temporary files and caches.
• The tool can be run in administrator mode using the Clean up
system files option to reclaim data from caches such as Windows
Update and Defender.
Use management consoles:
Task Scheduler
• The Task Scheduler (tasksch.msc) runs commands and scripts
automatically.
• Many of Windows’s processes come with predefined schedules.
• Tasks can be run once at a future date or time or according to a
recurring schedule.
• A task can be a simple application process (including switches, if
necessary) or a batch file or script.
Other features include:
• A trigger can be an event rather than a calendar date/time.
• For example, a task can be set to run when the user signs in or when
the machine wakes from sleep or hibernation.
• Each task can include multiple actions.
• All activity is logged so that you can investigate failed tasks.
• Tasks can be organized in folders.
Use management consoles:
Local Users and Groups Console
• The Local Users and Groups (lusrmgr.msc) console provides an
advanced interface for creating, modifying, disabling, and deleting
user accounts.
• You can also reset the password for an account.
• Security groups can be used to collect user accounts that need to
be allocated similar permissions, such as the right to edit files in a
shared folder.
• The default groups—such as Administrators, Users, and Guests—
implement the account types that can be selected via the settings
interface.
Use management consoles:
Certificate Manager
• A digital certificate is a means of proving the identity of a subject,
such as a user, computer, or service.
• The validity of each certificate is guaranteed by the issuing
certification authority (CA).
• The Certificate Manager console (certmgr.msc) shows which
certificates have been installed and provides a mechanism for
requesting and importing new certificates.
Use management consoles:
Certificate Manager
The tool displays many subfolders, but the most widely used are:
• The Personal folder stores the certificates that have been issued
to the user account. User certificates can be used for tasks such as
authenticating to a network access server, encrypting data, and
adding a digital signature to a document or message to prove its
authenticity.
• Trusted Root Certification Authorities contains a superset of the
certificates of all issuers that are trusted, including Microsoft’s
own CA root, local enterprise CAs and third-party CAs. Most of
these certificates are managed via Windows Update.
• Third-party Root Certification Authorities contains trusted issuers
from providers other than Microsoft or a local enterprise.
Use management consoles:
Group Policy Editor
• GUI tools such as Settings and Control Panel make changes to user profiles and
the system configuration that are ultimately stored in a database called the
registry.
• However, the registry also contains thousands of other settings that are not
configurable via these tools.
• The Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) provides a more robust means of
configuring many of these Window's settings than editing the registry directly.
• Also, vendors can write administrative templates to make third- party software
configurable via policies.
• On a network with hundreds or thousands of computers, group policy is a much
more efficient way of imposing policy settings than manually configuring each
machine.
• Some policies are configured by inputting a discrete value, but most use an
enabled/disabled/not defined toggle.
• It is important to read each policy carefully when choosing whether it should be
enabled or disabled and to understand the default behaviour of leaving a
setting not defined.
Use management consoles:
Registry Editor
• The Windows registry provides a remotely accessible database for
storing operating system, device, and software application
configuration information.
• You can use the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) to view or edit the
registry.
Registry Keys
• The registry is structured as a set of five root keys that contain
computer and user databases.
• The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM) database governs system-
wide settings.
• The HKEY_USERS database includes settings that apply to
individual user profiles, such as desktop personalization.
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER is a subset of HKEY_USERS with the
settings for logged in user.
Use management consoles:
Registry Editor
Registry Keys
• The registry database is stored in binary files called hives.
• A hive comprises a single file (with no extension), a .LOG file
(containing a transaction log), and a .SAV file (a copy of the key as it
was at the end of setup).
• The system hive also has an .ALT backup file.
• Most of these files are stored in the C:\Windows\System32\Config
folder, but the hive file for each user profile (NTUSER.DAT) is stored in
the folder holding the user’s profile.
Editing the Registry
• Each root key can contain subkeys and data items called value entries.
You can use the Find tool to search for a key or value.
• Subkeys are analogous to folders, and the value entries are analogous
to files.
• A value entry has three parts: the name of the value, the data type of
the value (such as string or binary value), and the value itself.
Use management consoles:
Custom Microsoft Management Consoles
• A Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is a container for one
or more snap- ins.
• For example, Device Manager, Disk Management, Group Policy
Editor, and Certificate Manager are all snap-ins.
• The mmc command allows you to perform MMC customization
and create a console with a personal selection of snap-ins.
• The console can be saved to the Administrative Tools folder as a
file with an MSC extension.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
System Information
• The System Information (msinfo32.exe) tool produces a
comprehensive report about the system’s hardware and software
components.
• Running the tool produces an inventory of system resources,
firmware and OS versions, driver file locations, environment
variables, network status, and so on.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Event Viewer
• When Windows detects a problem, it will usually generate an error
message.
• This makes troubleshooting simpler as you may only need to find out
what the error message means using the Microsoft Knowledge Base
(support.microsoft.com) or third-party support sites and forums.
• The Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc) is a management console snap-in
for viewing and managing logs on a Windows host.
• The default page shows a summary of system status, with recent error
and warning events collected for viewing.
• The left- hand pane groups log files into different categories.
• With a log file selected, the three-part middle pane lets you see the
details of the selected event without having to open a separate dialog.
• The third pane contains useful tools for opening log files, filtering,
creating a task from an event, and so on.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Event Viewer
Default Log Files
The Windows Logs folder contains the four main log files:
• The System log contains information about events that affect the
core OS. These include service load failures, hardware conflicts,
driver load failures, network issues, and so on.
• The Application log contains information regarding non-core
processes and utilities and some third-party apps. For example,
app installers write events to the Application log.
• The Security log holds the audit data for the system.
• The Setup log records events generated during installation.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Event Viewer
Event Sources and Severity Levels
• Each event is generated by a source application and allocated an ID and a severity level.
The different event levels are as follows:
• Critical—An issue that should be treated as the highest priority in the context of the
source application. Critical is often used to report a process that has halted or stopped
responding.
• Error—A less severe issue that should be investigated once critical issues have been
resolved.
• Warning—A state that could potentially lead to an error or critical condition if not
remediated, such as the system running low on disk space.
• Information—Logs an operation or state that is noteworthy but does not require
remediation.
• Audit Success/Failure—Events in the security log are classified as either successful, such
as a user authenticating, or failed, such as a password not being entered correctly.
• More information for each event can be displayed by double-clicking the event in
question. This displays a screen that contains a full description of the event.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Task Manager Process Monitoring
• The Task Manager (taskmgr.exe) tool can be used to monitor the PC’s key
resources. You can open it by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, by right-clicking
the taskbar or Start, or by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL and selecting Task
Manager.
• Task Manager may start in a summary mode; select the Show details
button to expand it.
• On the Processes tab, you can expand each app or background process to
view its sub-processes and view more clearly what resources each is taking
up.
• The shortcut menu for a process allows you to end a task. There is also an
option to search for information about the process online. Another option
is to view more information about a process via the Details tab.
• In some circumstances, you may want to privilege one task over another
or, conversely, set one task to have fewer resources than others. You can
do this by right-clicking the process and choosing an option from the Set
Priority submenu.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Task Manager Performance Monitoring
• The Performance tab provides more information about the CPU, memory, disk,
network, and graphics processing unit (GPU) subsystems, while the App History tab
shows usage information for Windows Store apps.
CPU and GPU Monitoring
• The CPU page shows the number of cores and logical processors (HyperThreading),
whether the system is multi-socket, and whether virtualization is enabled.
• The statistics show overall utilization, system uptime, and a count of the number of
processes, threads, and handles.
• Higher numbers indicate more activity.
• Each process can run operations in multiple threads and can open handles to files,
registry keys, network pipes, and so on.
• High peak values for utilization are nothing to worry about, but sustained periods of
high utilization means that you should consider adding more resources to the system
(or run fewer processes!).
• The GPU page is shown if the system has a dedicated graphics adapter.
• It reports the amount of graphics memory available and utilization statistics.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Task Manager Performance Monitoring
Memory Monitoring
• The Memory page reports which slots have modules installed and the
speed. The usage statistics are broken down as follows:
• In use refers to system (RAM) usage only.
• Committed reports the amount of memory requested and the total of
system plus paged memory available. Paged memory refers to data
that is written to a disk pagefile.
• Cached refers to fetching frequently used files into memory pre-
emptively to speed up access.
• Paged pool and non-paged pool refer to OS kernel and driver usage of
memory. Paged usage is processes that can be moved to the pagefile,
while non-paged is processes that cannot be paged.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Task Manager Performance Monitoring
Disk Monitoring
• The Disk pages report the type and capacity plus statistics for active time,
response time, and read/write speeds.
• High disk utilization and slow response times are a common cause of poor
overall system performance issues.
• This could be a result of slow HDD technology, excessive paging activity,
file/cache corruption, or a faulty device with bad sectors/blocks.
Network Monitoring
• The Ethernet or Wi-Fi tab reports send and receive throughput for the
active network adapter plus the IP address and hardware (MAC) interface
address.
• If a wireless adapter is active, the SSID, connection type (802.11 standard),
and signal strength are also shown.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Task Manager User Monitoring
• The Users tab lets you see the people who are logged on (and allows you
to send them a message or sign them out), the information about the
processes they are running, and the resource utilization associated with
their account.
Startup Processes and Services Console
• The Startup tab lets you disable programs added to the Startup folder
(type shell:startup at the Run dialog to access this) or set to run using the
registry. Right-click the headers and select Startup type to show how the
program is launched. It also shows how much impact each item has on
boot times.
• The Services tab monitors the state of all registered background processes.
A service is a Windows process that does not require any sort of user
interaction and therefore runs in the background (without a window).
Services provide functionality for many parts of the Windows OS, such as
allowing logon, browsing the network, or indexing file details to optimize
searches. Services may be installed by Windows and by other applications,
such as antivirus, database, or backup software.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Startup Processes and Services Console
• From Task Manager, the Open Services button links to the Services
(services.msc) console.
• You can use this to disable nonessential services to improve
performance or security.
• You can prevent a service from running at startup by setting it to
Manual or prevent it from running completely by setting it to
Disabled.
• Note that this may cause problems if other services depend upon it.
• If something is not working properly, you should check that any
services it depends upon are started.
• Restarting a service can be an effective first troubleshooting step.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor
• Task Manager can be used to assess key system statistics quickly, but
there are other tools for more detailed performance monitoring.
Resource Monitor
• Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) shows an enhanced version of the
sort of snapshot monitoring provided by Task Manager.
• You can see graphs of resource performance along with key statistics,
such as threads started by a process or hard page faults/second.
• Continually rising numbers of either of these can indicate a problem.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor
Performance Monitor
• Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon.msc) can be used to provide
real-time charts of system resources or can be used to log information to a
file for long-term analysis.
• By monitoring different resources at different times of the day, you can
detect bottlenecks in a system that are causing problems.
• It may be that a particular application starts freezing for longer and longer
periods.
• This could be caused by a number of things.
• Perhaps the processor is too slow, which would cause the requests to take
longer; perhaps the hard disk is too slow, which would mean that it takes
too long for the computer to open and save files; perhaps the application
uses a network link that has become faulty or congested.
• The performance of the computer could be increased by upgrading any or
all of these components, but Performance Monitor will help you decide
which is critical.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor
Performance Monitor
• In Performance Monitor, you can create log files, referred to as Data Collector Sets,
to record information for viewing later.
• You can generate a library of performance measurements taken at different times of
the day, week, or even year.
• This information can provide a system baseline and then be used to give a longer-
term view of system performance.
There are two types of logs: counter and trace:
• Counter logs allow you to collect statistics about resources, such as memory, disk,
and processor.
• These can be used to determine system health and performance.
• Trace logs can collect statistics about services, providing you with detailed reports
about resource behaviour.
• In essence, trace logs provide extensions to the Event Viewer, logging data that
would otherwise be inaccessible.
• Saved log files can be loaded into Performance Monitor from the Reports folder for
analysis or exported to other programs.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
Performance Counters
• To configure a counter log, you need to select what to monitor in the
report.
• In Performance Monitor, resources such as memory and disk are
collected into objects.
• Objects have counters that represent different performance statistics,
and there can be multiple instances of the same type of object. For
example, disk performance can be measured using the Physical Disk
Object, and a useful counter is the Average Queue Length.
• If there are two disks, three instances of this object can be viewed:
disk 0, disk 1, and disks Total.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
System Configuration Utility
• The System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe) is used to modify
various settings and files that affect the way the computer boots and
loads Windows.
• The General tab allows you to configure the startup mode, choosing
between Normal, Diagnostic, and a Selective startup, where each
portion of the boot sequence can be selected.
• The Boot tab lets you configure basic settings in the Boot
Configuration Data (BCD) store.
• You can change the default OS, add boot options (such as Safe Mode
boot) with minimal drivers and services, and set the timeout value—
the duration for which the boot options menu is displayed.
• To add boot paths, you have to use the bcdedit command.
Use performance and
troubleshooting tools:
System Configuration Utility
• The Services tab lets you choose specifically which services are
configured to run at startup.
• The date that a service was disabled is also shown, to make
troubleshooting easier.
• The Tools tab contains shortcuts to various administrative utilities,
including System Information, Registry Editor, Performance Monitor,
and so on.
Use command-line tools:
Command Prompt
• You can run any command from the Run dialog.
• However, to input a series of commands or to view output from
commands, you need to use the command shell.
• The cmd.exe shell processes the legacy command set that has
been part of Windows since its earliest versions.
Administrative Command Prompt
• You may need to run the command prompt with elevated
privileges to execute a command.
• If a command cannot be run with standard privileges, the error
message “The requested operation requires elevation.” is
displayed.
Use command-line tools:
Command Prompt
Administrative Command Prompt
• You cannot continue within the same window.
• You need to open a new command prompt as administrator.
• Right-click the command prompt shortcut, select Run as
administrator, and then confirm the user access control (UAC)
prompt.
• Alternatively, type cmd in the Instant Search box, and then press
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.
• When run as administrator, the title bar shows “Administrator:
Command Prompt”, and the default folder is
C:\Windows\System32 rather than C:\Users\Username.
Use command-line tools:
Command Prompt
Command Syntax
• To run a command, type it at the prompt (>) using the command
name and any switches and arguments using the proper syntax. When
you have typed the command, press ENTER to execute it.
• The syntax of a command lists which arguments you must use (plus
ones that are optional) and the effect of the different switches.
Switches are usually preceded by the forward slash escape character.
• As you enter commands, the prompt fills up with text. If this is
distracting, you can use the cls command to clear the screen.
• Some commands, such as nslookup or telnet, can operate in
interactive mode. This means that using the command starts that
program, and from that point, the prompt will only accept input
relevant to the program. To exit the program, you use the exit or quit
command (or press CTRL+C). The exit command will close the cmd
window if not used within an interactive command.
Use command-line tools:
Navigation Commands
• The string before > in the command prompt shows the working directory
path.
• Commands will operate on the contents of the working directory unless
a different absolute or relative path is specified as an argument.
• ACTIVITY: Critically discuss, evaluate, and implement the following
during class:
• Listing Files and Directories
• Changing the Current Directory
• Changing the Current Drive
Use command-line tools:
File Management Commands
• The move command and copy command provide the ability to transfer
files contained in a single directory.
• Both commands use a three-part syntax: command Source Destination
where Source is the drive name, path, and name of the files to be
moved/copied and Destination is the drive name and path of the new
location.
• ACTIVITY: Critically discuss and evaluate the following:
• Copying Directory Structures
• Creating a Directory
• Removing a Directory
Use command-line tools:
Disk Management Commands
• The Disk Management snap-in is easy to use, but there are some circumstances
where you may need to manage volumes at a command prompt.
The diskpart Command
• diskpart is the command interface underlying the Disk Management tool.
The basic process of inspecting disks and partitions is as follows:
1. Run the diskpart utility, and then enter select disk 0 at the prompt (or the number of
the disk you want to check).
2. Enter detail disk to display configuration information for the disk. The utility should
report that the partitions (or volumes) are healthy. If diskpart reports that the hard
disk has no partitions, the partition table may have become corrupted.
3. Enter either select partition 0 or select volume 0 at the prompt (or the number of the
partition or volume you want to check).
4. Enter either detail partition or detail volume to view information about the object.
You can now use commands such as assign (change the drive letter), delete (destroy
the volume), or extend.
5. Enter exit to quit diskpart.
Use command-line tools:
Disk Management Commands
The format Command
• The format command writes a new file system to a drive. This
process deletes any data existing on the drive.
• The basic command is format X: /fs:SYS, where X is a drive letter
and SYS is the file system, such as NTFS, FAT32, or EXFAT.
• By default, the command performs a scan for bad sectors first.
• This scan can be suppressed by using the /q switch.
• Use the online help for information about other switches.
Use command-line tools:
Disk Management Commands
The chkdsk Command
• chkdsk scans the file system and/or disk sectors for faults and can
attempt to repair any problems detected. A version of Check Disk
(autochk) will also run automatically if the system detects file system
errors at boot.
• There are three ways to run the tool:
• chkdsk X: (where X is the drive letter but no switch is used) runs the
tool in read-only mode. The scan will report whether errors need to
be repaired.
• chkdsk X: /f attempts to fix file system errors.
• chkdsk X: /r fixes file system errors and attempts recovery of bad
sectors. You are prompted to save any recoverable data, which is
copied to the root directory as filennnn.chk files.
• Check Disk cannot fix open files, so you may be prompted to schedule
the scan for the next system restart.
Use command-line tools:
System Management Commands
• The shutdown command can be used to safely halt the system or log
out:
• Shutdown (shutdown /s)—Close all open programs and services
before powering off the computer. The user should save changes in
any open files first but will be prompted to save any open files during
shutdown. The shutdown /t nn command can be used to specify delay
in seconds before shutdown starts; the default is 30 seconds. If a
shutdown is in progress, shutdown /a aborts it (if used quickly
enough).
• Hibernate (shutdown /h)—Save the current session to disk before
powering off the computer.
• Log off (shutdown /l)—Close all open programs and services started
under the user account but leave the computer running.
• Restart (shutdown /r)—Close all open programs and services before
rebooting without powering down. This is also called a soft reset.
Use command-line tools:
System Management Commands
System File Checker
• The Windows Resource Protection mechanism prevents damage to or
malicious use of system files and registry keys and files.
• The System File Checker utility (sfc) provides a manual interface for
verifying system files and restoring them from cache if they are found to
be corrupt or damaged.
The program can be used from an administrative command prompt in the
following modes:
• sfc /scannow runs a scan immediately.
• sfc /scanonce schedules a scan when the computer is next restarted.
• sfc /scanboot schedules a scan that runs each time the PC boots.
Use command-line tools:
Reporting the Windows Version
• The winver command reports version information.
• You will often need to use this for support.
• Windows 10 or Windows 11 is a “brand” version. Its main purpose is
to identify the OS as a client version because Windows Server versions
use the same codebase.
• Version refers to a feature update via a year/month code representing
the time of release, such as 1607 (July 2016) or 21H1 (first half of
2021).
• OS Build is a two-part numeric value with the first part representing
the brand plus feature update and the second rev part representing
quality update status (patches).
• You can use the rev number to look up changes and known issues
associated with the update in the Microsoft Knowledge Base
(support.microsoft.com).
End of Chapter 11.
• Lecturer to complete group discussions in relation to the
objectives of this chapter.
• It is important to practically do all the management
functions and explore with the command line tools during
your class sessions.