Windows Server 2008 command-line tools

Windows Server 2008 provides command-line tools for managing our Microsoft Windows systems. we can use Icacls to update and back up access control lists, Wbadmin or Robocopy for system backups, and WinRS to open a secure command window with a remote host. Oclist and Ocsetup are tools that work only with Server Core installations. Server Manager Cmd, a command-line version of Windows Server 2008's Server Manager.


User Like every release of the Windows Server oprating systems, Windows Server 2008 includes a set of new command-line tools, some of which come from previous resource kits or support tools and others are new. Although Server 2008 includes Windows PowerShell, none of these new commands are PowerShell commands.


10. Oclist—Microsoft added the command-oriented Server Core as an installation option for Server 2008, and it has its own commands. Oclist queries the installed roles on our Server Core system. we can run the command oclist


9. Ocsetup—The Ocsetup command is used to install and remove roles and features from a our Server Core system.

8. Bcdedit—Like Windows Vista, Server 2008 uses a new boot process that saves the system boot configuration in the Boot Configuration Data store. The primary tool for editing Server 2008’s BCD store is the Bcdedit command, which supports many command-line options. To list the contents of the store, run bcdedit /enum


7. Icacls—The Icacls command replaces the older Cacls and Xacls commands. Icacls lets you list, update, and back up the ACLs for files and directories. The following example shows how we can save the ACLs for the C:\temp directory: icacls c:\temp /save tempacl


6. Mklink—The Mklink command creates a symbolic link in the file system that redirects all requests to a location you specify. Symbolic links are transparent to users, appearing as normal files or directories.

5. Robocopy—A staple in the Windows Resource Kit for years, Robocopy is more capable than the standard Windows Copy and Xcopy commands, and it’s able to resume after network outages as well as correctly copy file attributes, alternate streams, and security information.


4. Wbadmin—Wbadmin is used for Server 2008 backup and restore operations.


3. WinRS—The WinRS command lets you open a secure command window with a remote host. All communications between the client and the host are encrypted using Kerberos or NT LAN Manager (NTLM) keys.


2. Appcmd—Appcmd.exe is a new command-line tool that can be found in the \%WinDir%\System32\InetSrv directory. Appcmd is used to query, create, and configure Microsoft IIS 7.0 server properties, Web sites, and application pools. To list all sites on the system, we can use the following command: appcmd list sites

1. ServerManagerCmd—Without a doubt, the coolest commandline tool in Server 2008 is ServerManagerCmd.exe, which is the command-line version of the new Server Manager.

Source: http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/99119/command-line-tools-in-windows-server-2008.html