What are the minimal preinstalled “tools” for XP, Vista, Win 7 and so on

Question

Is there somewhere a place that lists all preinstalled tools for a Windows OS?

Skimming some question/answers here on superuser pertaining to Windows (especially cmd.exe), I find there are a lot of answers that say "you need to do it with %X%". Then someone else responds with %X% comes with the ressource kit, or with the sysinternals tools or somewhere else.

Now, such a list would help me because I might find 'tools' that I am not aware of and because I would not count of the existance of a tool for an OS.

Thanks / Rene

Answer 1

WINDOWS XP HIDDEN APPLICATIONS:

1. Character Map = charmap.exe (very useful for finding unusual characters)

2. Disk Cleanup = cleanmgr.exe

3. Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd.exe (views contents of Windows clipboard)

4. Dr Watson = drwtsn32.exe (Troubleshooting tool)

5. DirectX diagnosis = dxdiag.exe (Diagnose & test DirectX, video & sound cards)

6. Private character editor = eudcedit.exe (allows creation or modification of characters)

7. IExpress Wizard = iexpress.exe (Create self-extracting / self-installing package)

8. Mcft Synchronization Manager = mobsync.exe (appears to allow synchronization of files on the network for when working offline. Apparently undocumented).

9. Windows Media Player 5.1 = mplay32.exe (Retro version of Media Player, very basic).

10. ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32.exe (something to do with databases)

11. Object Packager = packager.exe (to do with packaging objects for insertion in files, appears to have comprehensive help files).

12. System Monitor = perfmon.exe (very useful, highly configurable tool, tells you everything you ever wanted to know about any aspect of PC performance, for uber-geeks only )

13. Program Manager = progman.exe (Legacy Windows 3.x desktop shell).

14. Remote Access phone book = rasphone.exe (documentation is virtually non-existant).

15. Registry Editor = regedt32.exe [also regedit.exe] (for hacking the Windows Registry).

16. Network shared folder wizard = shrpubw.exe (creates shared folders on network).

17. File siganture verification tool = sigverif.exe

18. Volume Contro = sndvol32.exe (I've included this for those people that lose it from the System Notification area).

19. System Configuration Editor = sysedit.exe (modify System.ini & Win.ini just like in Win98! ).

20. Syskey = syskey.exe (Secures XP Account database - use with care, it's virtually undocumented but it appears to encrypt all passwords, I'm not sure of the full implications).

21. Mcft Telnet Client = telnet.exe

22. Driver Verifier Manager = verifier.exe (seems to be a utility for monitoring the actions of drivers, might be useful for people having driver problems. Undocumented).

23. Windows for Workgroups Chat = winchat.exe (appears to be an old NT utility to allow chat sessions over a LAN, help files available).

24. System configuration = msconfig.exe (can use to control starup programs)

25. gpedit.msc used to manage group policies, and permissions

Source

Answer 2

http://ss64.com/nt/ is a pretty good list of cli tools. For gui tools, for most part digging should find the,

Answer 3

There is SysInternals which has a host of different tools for different jobs. If you are more looking for a suite of tools that are suited for the command line, then perhaps the Windows Resource Kit may be of use to you, combined with SysInternals and Powershell, you have the ultimate set of tools that you can use to put together for scripting useful command line scripts.

Hope this helps, Best regards, Tom.

Answer 4

Many "preinstalled tools" that you have installed, depend on whom you bought the computer from, and are basically only useless trial versions intended to incite you to buy. Others are useful.

There is no such list. But just go into the Start menu, select All programs, and try them out. Most programs are either self-evident, or have a Help menu, or can be found via googling.

Pay special attention to program in Control Panel and Administrative Tools.