phil's blog

This is an ongoing collection of dos command line tips and tricks I've run across over the years. I tend to forget what I did 5 min ago, let alone a bunch of DOS commands, so I'm collecting the stuff I've found here as a place of reference. Much of what you will find here is probably posted on the internet somewhere (which is where I got it from) or, I've created a few little tricks myself to help me along the way.

Append to New File - This will create OR overwrite the existing file.

dos-program.exe > file.txt

I recently had the need to create a local user account on an XP Pro machine that would need local administrative permissions for performing scheduled tasks on a machine. I wanted an automated approach to the setup so I set out and decided to make a little batch file that would utilize the various command line options of Windows XP. I don't really have anything to compare it to, such as a .vbs script so I can't say whether it's crude or polished, but it gets the job done and that's all I really care about.

If you are running Windows XP and the shutdown button is missing from the login screen, the first thing to check is whether or not the local security policy has it disabled. If you are working in a company environment, this might be a policy that is pushed down from the system administrators through a Group Policy and you might not have access to change the local setting.

If you are receiving an error that the "polstore.dll" file is missing or corrupt, go to the Error Fix section first and follow the steps to attempt fixing it.

I searched all over the place for about an hour before finally running across the EASIEST solution to setting a local user account "Password Never Expires" checkbox for Windows XP. If you've tried NET USER (user) /EXPIRES:NEVER You will find that this does not work... the reason is because that is applied to the account never expiring, not the password...

So, for the easy fix to setting "Password Never Expires" on a local account in XP, open the trusty ol' command prompt and enter:

WMIC USERACCOUNT WHERE "Name='username_here'" SET PasswordExpires=FALSE

My purpose in this is to give a decent example of how to use vBulletin's registration options: "Illegal User Names" along with its "Username Regular Expression" and allow comments to help build a working page dedicated to setting up a robust registration username process.

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Upon receiving a distress call for AutoCAD 2010 not connecting to the license server on a computer, I investigated the issue only to come up with: Error -5.412.0

I recently had the enjoyment of setting up the network license HASP key and server software for Chief Architect X1 Full. While there are no direct instructions in the manual for a network setup (that I could find) I WAS able to find the instructions on the Chief Architect website on How do I install a network hardware lock?.

I hope this to become a more through blog down the road, but for now it is simply a collection of thoughts and info...

http://blogs.breezetraining.com.au/mickb/2009/05/08/CreatingAWindows7Win...

Mount wim image for editing:
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:winpe.wim /index:1 /mountdir:c:\[windowspe build dir]\mount

Unmount WIM image:

Microsoft has enabled a lot of great features with the maintenance side of Windows 7, including the installation of Windows 7. There are guides coming out the wazoo on how to create a Windows 7 bootable USB Drive and a Windows 7 Restore CD, but we want to create a Windows 7 Restore USB... right?

I can't take any credit for any of the following steps but hopefully this will provide you with some x-mouse capability. (credits are below) I mainly am posting this because I hate reloading windows, then waste time digging through a bunch of sites until I find the "right" x-mouse feature I want: Focus follows mouse, but doesn't raise window... ever... I am purely blogging this for my own records.