0

Possible Duplicate:
Tools a Windows administrator cannot live without

I just joined a small computer lab which basically uses all Windows boxes and a few Windows Sever 2003. Coming from a *nix background I am missing all the nice tools that we have for diagnosis and troubleshooting. My question is what are the safe, free (not terribly concerned if it is like beer or freedom -both acceptable) tools out there that Windows system admins use for their day to day troubleshooting (network, applications, servers etc).

I am aware of the tools that come with Windows (and their limited capabilites) - so my query is with what do you fill in your arsenal? (may be a list of win versions of tools that come in standard linux distros)

Community
  • 1
Tathagata
  • 183
  • 1
  • 1
  • 9
  • 3
    Pose a few example troubleshooting scenarios where the standard tools are inadequate? – Oskar Duveborn Jan 06 '11 at 20:41
  • http://serverfault.com/search?q=windows+tools – l0c0b0x Jan 06 '11 at 22:16
  • The vagueness was totally intentional to maximize suggestions, and @l0c0b0x your observation is spot on. I was actually looking for such a discussion and finally summarize the contextually what tools are available for the two platforms. – Tathagata Jan 07 '11 at 00:21

2 Answers2

3

They are semi-developer-oriented, but the sysinternals tools are among the best and most useful tools available.

Michael Lowman
  • 3,604
  • 20
  • 36
  • 1
    I don't think that I would characterize them as developer-oriented, to be honest. I'm an admin, and I've been using them for about 8-9 years. Helpful all the time. – mfinni Jan 06 '11 at 21:07
  • 1
    :) fair enough. let's just call them awesome for everyone – Michael Lowman Jan 06 '11 at 21:23
  • +1 Given the vagueness of the question, the Sysinternals Suite is probably the best answer. – Jeff McJunkin Jan 06 '11 at 22:01
  • I use those tools regularly as an admin but can't recall ever having used them as a developer. Perhaps because that's not what they're for. – John Gardeniers Jan 06 '11 at 23:56
  • @Jeff: vagueness was totally intentional to maximize suggestions. But coming to think of it, I'll try to edit the question and make it less vague. – Tathagata Jan 07 '11 at 00:10
0

Besides sysinternals, I would also add Wireshark, Spinrite (not free but worth it), and a live boot CD with various recovery and imaging tools.

Mike
  • 66
  • 5