Category: SysInternals

Awesome Tool and Diagnostic Util

I just found this very useful tool, especially if you are dealing with Azure VMs.

AzureTools

This is the tool used by the Azure Developer Support Team. You can install it while on a VM using Powershell by running the following in a Powershell command window:

md c:\tools; Import-Module bitstransfer; Start-BitsTransfer http://dsazure.blob.core.windows.net/azuretools/AzureTools.exe c:\tools\AzureTools.exe; c:\tools\AzureTools.exe

For more info see https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/kwill/2013/08/26/azuretools-the-diagnostic-utility-used-by-the-windows-azure-developer-support-team/

 

 

How to bulk unblock files in Windows 7 or Server 2008

In Windows 7 (actually any of the latest Windows releases) you will find that files copied to your local drives are not trusted until you right-click on them and in the properties click the ‘Unblock’ button. This is all very well for one or two files, but gets extremely tedious with more. It turns out to be related to NTFS’s ability to allow alternate data streams.

So here is a simple method of mass or bulk unblocking files.

  1. Download the Sysinternals Streams.exe from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897440.aspx
  2. I find Sysinternals so useful I create a ‘SysInternals’ folder on my C: drive and then put this into my ‘path’ environment variable so that I can run them from anywhere. However, if this is too much then the easiest is to copy the streams.exe to the root folder you wish to have files unblocked.
  3. In a command windows (with Admin privileges), use ‘cd’ to navigate to your folder.
  4. Type the command ‘streams –s –d subfoldername’ and press enter.