Whether it's monitoring the performance of the system or exploring the cause of the failure, the real key is to find the right tool. Open XP's "All Programs" menu, under "System Tools" there are a bunch of tools for you to choose. However, if you are an experienced user, Windows XP also has another big package for you: there are more than 100 tools hidden on the installation CD. They cover every aspect of the operating system, from network and Internet connections to folder and disk management. This is a collection of tools called Windows Support Tools that are designed for users who don't want to stay on Windows. Before I officially dig this treasure, I want to warn you that misuse of certain tools may endanger the security of the system itself. Don't use tools in order to use tools. Before running each tool, you must have clear goals and be careful. The default installation of Windows XP does not include Support Tools. These tools must be manually installed using the Windows installation CD. During installation, the wizard asks if you want to perform a typical or full installation, with a typical installation that will install 57 tools and a full installation with 103 tools. After the installation is finished, a new folder Support Tools will be added to the Program Files directory. The tools obtained by the full installation method are naturally more, and the extra tools are mainly used to diagnose network and server related problems. We can take a look at a few examples to see the rich features of Support Tools: application monitor Apimon.exe, counting and timing all function calls, able to monitor page failure errors; disk probe Dskprobe.exe, direct access, editing, Save and copy areas of your hard drive that may be difficult to access in the usual way, such as replacing the hard drive's master boot record (MBR), repairing corrupted partition tables, and Windiff.exe, which analyzes two Files or folders, compare the differences between the two. First, the general use process
If you want to understand the general use of a program, the best way is to read the Help Tools help documentation, it is under the "All Programs" menu. In this help file, you'll find an alphabetical list of tools that contain most of the Tools and their functional descriptions. Some tools are separate. Hlp help file, open the \\\\Program Files\\\\Support Tools folder and double click on one. The hlp file can view its contents. Most of the tools can be double-clicked in the Program Files\\\\Support Tools folder. The exe file is started, but not every tool has a graphical user interface. Some tools must be run from the command line. The way these tools are run is usually controlled by command line parameters. Enter the name of a tool and add "/" The "" parameter gives a list of command line arguments and their usage descriptions. Second, from the command line installation Sometimes Windows XP can not start, you need Support Tools to help find out the cause of the failure. However, if you have not installed Support Tools on your system, you will not be able to use Support Tools. Don't worry, Msiexec can help. MsIExec can perform installation, modification, and other operations of the Windows Installer from the command line. The command to perform a typical installation of Support Tools on the command line is: msiexec /i x :\\\\support\\\\tools\\\\suptools.msi /q, where x is the letter of the CD drive. The fully installed command is: msIExec /i x:\\\\support\\\\tools\\\\suptools.msi /q ADDLOCAL=ALL, where ADDLOCAL=ALL means that all tools are installed. Third, the processing software uninstallation failure
After using a certain software, you may want to delete it. However, sometimes it should be easy to delete the operation, the system is inexplicably dead, or there are strange information. There are many reasons for the failure to delete, either the software itself has not been fully tested, or the registry configuration may be corrupted or invalid. Don't worry, Support Tools can help you. In fact, you can find two Windows Installer removal tools: msicuu.exe, msizap.exe. The latter English name is Windows Installer Zapper and can only be run from the command line. Msicuu.exe: This tool cleans up files, folders, and registry information that was added to the system when you installed the program in Windows Explorer. If "Add or Remove Programs" in Control Panel is not working for a certain software, msicuu.exe is worth a try. Msicuu.exe provides an easy-to-use dialog window to help you clean up problematic software. Note that you must log in to Windows XP as an administrator when using msicuu.exe, otherwise the system will prompt an error message. All actions performed with msicuu.exe are recorded in a log file, which is the msicu.log file saved in the Windows\\temp directory. The contents of this log file are constantly accumulated. Each time you delete a piece of software, the details of the operation are recorded in the log. Msizap.exe: The main function is similar to msicuu.exe. The biggest difference between the two is that msizap.exe runs from the command line and does not provide a window interface. In addition, it must be noted that msizap.exe may delete the necessary system files, so only when "add or remove programs" and msicuu.exe are invalid, you can consider using msizap.exe to start msizap.exe. Yes: Click on Start - All Programs - Windows Support Tools - Command Prompt, type msizap.exe and press Enter. Msizap.exe will display the available command line parameters in the command window. To clear an installed software with msizap.exe, you must specify the identifier of the software in the registry on the command line. The software identification can be found under the HKEY_LOCAL_MacHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall key in the registry. For example, if you want to use msizap.exe to clear all the contents related to Acme AntiVirus software, execute the command: msizap T {66Ch7520-B423-4BD1-A7E4-75BB8B44740E}. 4. Manage files and directories Directory Disk Usage is diruse.exe. It is also a command line tool. You can use it to view the size of the directory, detailed compression information (only for NTFS partitions). In addition to the disk space occupied by the folder, it is also able to set the maximum space limit for the specified folder, and an alert occurs when the space occupied by the folder exceeds the limit. Diruse.exe is the ideal tool for managing public PCs, and it can be used to closely monitor all user accounts by using the disk management features of Windows. Users with administrator privileges can check the usage of all directories, including those that are not part of the current account. When Windows can't start, it can only enter the recovery console, Support Tools is a rare life-saving magic weapon. For example, you can use the file version tool (filever.exe) to view the executable file information stored in the directory, including a detailed description that can only be seen when Windows is running normally, especially if it is obtained. The exact version number of the exe file. V. File Information The Visual File Information Tool (vfi.exe) can be launched with the Run dialog, which is a tool with a graphical interface. You can use it to display a detailed description of the file. For example, click on the menu "File" - "Add a file" (or Add a directory), and then add the file or directory to view the details, vfi.exe will display the file's properties in a table, including the file name, extension Name, creation date, modification date, version, language, code page, and more. If you want to compare files from different locations, vfi.exe is an ideal tool. Vfi.exe also has a commendable function, which can modify the original creation date of the file. Click the Touch button to display a calendar and clock. Just set the date and time information and click OK. Finding Duplicate Files The Duplicate File Finder (dupfinder.exe) is perhaps one of the most useful tools in Support Tools. If you plan to clean up the extra files in the system, dupfinder.exe is definitely worth a try. Dupfinder.exe provides a graphical user interface that is easy to use. Even so, you should be careful when using it, do not delete it immediately after finding duplicate files. A more secure approach is to rename the duplicate file to see if the system is working properly. After testing for a period of time to confirm that the system function is not affected, delete the duplicate file. After starting dupfinder.exe, enter a directory name in the Search in input box (default C:\\\\) and click the Start Search button to start the search. Searching the entire C: drive may take a while. The search results are displayed in the list below the window. Right-click on a file to delete, move, rename, view information, and so on. Files that delete Windows system folders (and their subfolders) must be cautious. If there are duplicate files in other folders, you should give priority to the files in the Windows system folder.