Server Fault Stack Exchange
Server Fault Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [windows]

Windows is the brand name for a series of operating systems from Microsoft. Current versions are Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2022. Instead of tagging a post "Windows", try to use a tag for a specific version.

Introduction

Windows is a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft. Originally a graphical add-on for Microsoft DOS, Windows is currently the market leader for operating systems on the desktop.

Today there are several branches of Windows:

  • Windows for desktops, notebooks, and tablets
  • Windows Server, for servers
  • Windows IoT, for embedded devices such as point of sale, kiosks, and signage

Tag recommendations

If your question is version-specific, consider using a version-specific tag.

17405 questions
45
votes
5 answers

How do I install the JRE on a Windows server without Oracle adware?

I would like to install Java on one of our servers, but I am reticent due to Oracle's bundling of an Ask.com toolbar and some virus scanner. I've read that the java updater even installs these for important security fixes if they are missing, and…
Jason Goemaat
  • 661
  • 1
  • 6
  • 14
45
votes
5 answers

Overcoming maximum file path length restrictions in Windows

One of our customers habitually use very long path names (several nested folders, with long names) and we routinely encounter "user education issues" in order to shorten the path to less than 260 characters. Is there a technical solution available,…
Christopher Edwards
  • 718
  • 1
  • 8
  • 19
45
votes
22 answers

PowerShell? Do you use it? Can you show me some cool system administration things I can do with it?

I keep reading everywhere that PowerShell is the way of the future. When it was first released I did a whole bunch of virtual labs, but since then I still haven't used it in a production environment. I know the day will come when I'm dealing with…
Nick Kavadias
  • 10,796
  • 7
  • 37
  • 47
45
votes
7 answers

How to find memory usage of individual Windows services?

Task Manager shows the overall memory usage of svchost.exe. Is there a way to view the memory usage of individual services? Note this is similar to Finegrained performance reporting on svchost.exe
Aidan Ryan
  • 1,273
  • 2
  • 13
  • 16
44
votes
3 answers

Change current directory to the batch file directory

I have a bat file on windows that execute a procdump operation. The issue with the batch file is that I need to cd to the batch file directory first before executing the job, or else the script won't work. How to change to the current batch file…
Graviton
  • 2,865
  • 12
  • 42
  • 64
44
votes
13 answers

How do you handle "CMD does not support UNC paths as current directories"?

I am attempting to change directories to a file server such as: cd \\someServer\\someStuff\ However, I get the following error: CMD does not support UNC paths as current directories What are my options to navigate to that directory?
Ray
  • 720
  • 1
  • 9
  • 13
44
votes
10 answers

keyboard shortcut to quit 'telnet'

on Windows XP/server 2003 When telnet some remote host on a specified port, after connection established, sometimes press ctrl+] doesn't quit. Is there any command can quit instead of just close the command line window? Thanks. EDIT: But sometimes…
Stan
  • 1,387
  • 6
  • 24
  • 40
43
votes
2 answers

Can someone please explain Windows Service Principle Names (SPNs) without oversimplifying?

I have wrestled with service principle names a few times now and the Microsoft explanation is just not sufficient. I am configuring an IIS application to work on our domain and it looks like some of my issues are related to my need to configure http…
Chris Magnuson
  • 3,771
  • 10
  • 42
  • 46
43
votes
5 answers

Why use Kerberos instead of NTLM in IIS?

This is something that I've never really been able to answer as well as I like: What is the real advantage of using Kerberos authentication in IIS instead of NTLM? I've seen a lot of people really struggle to get it set up (myself included) and I…
Infotekka
  • 545
  • 1
  • 5
  • 6
43
votes
7 answers

How can you know what is w3wp.exe doing? (or how to diagnose a performance problem)

I'm having a performance problem in a site we've made, and I'm not exactly sure how to start diagnosing it. The short description is: We have a very small site (http://hearablog.com) with very little traffic, in a crappy dedicated server, CPU is…
Daniel Magliola
  • 1,432
  • 9
  • 20
  • 33
43
votes
13 answers

How to get a list of all IP addresses (and ideally device names) on a LAN?

Our network gave an error that there was an IP address conflict and I'd like to find what all the device IP addresses are. (I've also had need of that before). (update/clarification:I'm looking for a Windows-based too.) Any suggestions? I've read…
Clay Nichols
  • 1,431
  • 6
  • 25
  • 30
42
votes
8 answers

Get a history of CPU/memory usage

Is there someway to record Task Managers info about CPU and memory usage to examine later? Or an equivalent tool?
samoz
  • 2,033
  • 6
  • 19
  • 20
42
votes
3 answers

What tools are available on Windows to simulate/emulate network issues?

I am looking for tools for Windows that can act as a reverse-proxy in front of a server to introduce various networking issues like jitter, delays, or packet loss. My preference is a software solution that will work on Windows. Httpd mod_proxy…
Scott Markwell
  • 742
  • 1
  • 6
  • 13
42
votes
5 answers

What's the difference between .cmd and .bat files?

Just curious. "Cool" people in our company always use *.cmd while no one was able to explain the difference to me.
Artem Tikhomirov
  • 742
  • 3
  • 9
  • 15
42
votes
4 answers

Windows Server unable to synchronize NTP time reliably

Why does Windows Server (2008, in this case, but I've seen the same problem in 2003) seem to have problem synchronizing time? I've seen this error in my System log across a variety of servers: The time service has not synchronized the system time…
Jeff Atwood
  • 13,104
  • 20
  • 75
  • 92
1 2 3
…
99 100