Windows Administration Modes

Windows offers three modes of administration: GUI, command-line, and scripting. Two forms of administration scripting are supported: basic-batch scripting, which extends command-line administration, and Windows Script Host (WSH) scripts.

Command line. The command line provides direct communication between the user and the OS. Administrators use the command line to invoke OS commands or utility programs and see the output of the command on a console. Administrators particularly like the command line for performing quick one-time administration tasks. For example, when an administrator needs to see if a computer is responding on the network, he can use the ping command to send packets to the computer and watch for the response. Another popular troubleshooting command, ipconfig, shows the configuration of the network interface and allows the renewal or release of an address provided by the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. A more obscure command-line utility is cipher, which, when used with a /W parameter, will write random bits over unused disk space to make any files that were deleted from the space unrecoverable by undelete utilities. As powerful as the command line is, it can be cumbersome for administrators to remember the commands and the parameters or flags that control their execution.