Episode

Defrag Tools: #1 - Building your USB thumbdrive

Welcome to the first episode of Defrag Tools where Andrew Richards and I will be walking you through the tools we use when troubleshooting Windows PC's. Each week we'll dive into the tools from SysInternals, showing you how to use them along with our best tips and tricks.

In this episode we'll be showing you how to get started by creating a thumb drive that you can use to fix PC's and troubleshoot problems.

Resources:
Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4
www.sysinternals.com

Timeline: [00:00] - What is Defrag Tools?
[02:50] - The USB Stick light saber
[03:59] - Download, unblock and extract the Sysinternals Suite
[08:07] - Add c:\my\sysinternals to the PATH
[09:23] - Download and install the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4
[13:30] - What is a Symbol?
[15:10] - Symbols script for environment variables
[18:57] - Symbol Logging (DbgHelp)
[20:45] - Gather the 'Redist' MSI files of Application Verifier, Debugging Tools for Windows, and Windows Performance Toolkit from the SDK
[22:29] - Debugging Tool for Windows - Install both the x64 and x86 versions of the Debugging Tool for Windows (to "c:\debuggers" and "c:\debuggers_x86" respectively)
- Copy the "c:\debuggers" and "c:\debuggers_x86" folders in to the "C:\My\Debugging Tool for Windows" folder for 'xcopy' use on any computer (no installation necessary)
[25:09] - Windows Performance Toolkit
- Install the x64 or x86 version of the Windows Performance Toolkit using the default options
- Copy "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Performance Toolkit" to "C:\My\Windows Performance Toolkit" folder for 'xcopy' use on any computer (no installation necessary)
[25:43] - DbgHelp.dll v6.12
[26:55] - Next episode... Process Explorer

Scripts: Symbols.cmd

md c:\My md c:\My\Src md c:\My\Sym md c:\My\SymCache setx /M _NT_SOURCE_PATH SRVC:\My\Src setx /M _NT_SYMBOL_PATH SRVC:\My\Sym*https://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols setx /M _NT_SYMCACHE_PATH C:\My\SymCache DbgHelp_Logging.cmd

rem msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms680687.aspx md c:\My md c:\My\DbgHelp setx DBGHELP_DBGOUT 1 setx DBGHELP_LOG C:\My\DbgHelp\DbgHelpLog.txt