Getting started with WinXP SP2 Support Tools

Windows support tools are a tool set provided by Microsoft to support staff and experienced users for diagnosing and solving computer problems. They can be used to adjust settings, clean the system, troubleshoot faults, and recover system information, it also has more features. With the release of WinXP SP2 (SP2 in this article), Microsoft has also updated Windows support tools.

Software: WindowsXP-KB838079-SupportTools-ENU.exe

Software Version: WinXP SP2

Authorization method: Free Software

Software size: 4819KB

: Http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/8/d38066aa-4e37-4ae8-bce3-a4ce662b2024/WindowsXP-KB838079-SupportTools-ENU.exe

Tip: before installing the SP2 support tool, remove all old versions of the support tool. Some tools of SP2 have not been partially optimized. They are all tested in the English environment. For non-English Version WinXP, some tools may not run.

Which of the following tools can only be used by network administrators and system administrators? In fact, many small functions in the support tool are also suitable for common users. They are small and useful, and can improve the daily system maintenance work.

　　Install

If the installation package is downloaded from the website, run the installation file directly and a graphical Installation Wizard will appear. The installation process includes "Typical" (Typical) or "Complete" (Complete) two installation types are available. The "Complete" installation method is suitable for servers or network administrators. General users are advised to select "Typical. In addition to downloading the installer from the Internet, you can also directly install the installer through the SP2 installation disk. Find supporttoolsdirectory on the CD, double-click setup.exe, and run it according to the installation wizard.

After the installation is complete, the Support Tools Folder will be added to the Program Files directory. After you open it, you can see Support tools such as vfi.exe?windiff.exe=activate.exe=gflags.exe. (There are more tools obtained by using the "full installation" method than the "typical installation method". More tools are mainly used to diagnose networks or servers .)

　　

Figure 1 different installation types are copied to html "target = _ blank> the files on the hard disk are different.

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　Entry-level experience

The support tool is actually a collection of gadgets, each of which has its own functions, many of which are useful to common users.

Experience 1. easily search for duplicate files

Everyone knows that duplicate files are inevitable in the use of the system. These files are often not easy to find, and they steal a lot of hard disk space. If you compress the file in the system, checking dupfinder.exe will be a good assistant.

“Dupfinder.exe has a bright graphic user interface. After starting, enter a directory name (default C :) in the Search in input box, and then click "Start Search. After the search is complete, the results are displayed in the list below the window. The duplicate files in the specified position are clearly listed here. Right-click an object to delete, move, rename, and view information. I think this is very easy for any common user. Note that if you find files in a Windows system folder (and its subfolders), you must be careful when renaming duplicate files first, try again after a period of time to confirm that the system functions are not affected.

　　

Figure 2 easily process duplicate files

Experience 2 full control of File Information

Right-click a file and view the information, which is almost everyone knows. But I want to tell you that the information is incomplete and you cannot modify it, for example, the original creation date cannot be changed.

Double-click support tool vfi.exe in the folder. In this graphic interface tool, click "File"> "Add a file" (or "Add a directory") to Add a File or directory, the program displays its attributes in the table, including the file name, extension, creation date, modification date, version, language, and code page. To modify the original file creation date, you only need to click the "Touch" button on the toolbar, set the date and time information on the calendar and clock displayed and click "OK.

　　

Figure 3 powerful File Information Viewer

Experience 3 Comparison of file/directory Similarities and Differences

For beginners who like to install various new software (especially some gadgets), they often install it when they get a new software, and do not pay attention to the installation directory, which causes multiple versions of a software to exist at the same time, if a directory name is similar or the same directory name (different partitions) exists, you do not know the differences between these directories when organizing the disk. In this case, we need to compare the two directories to find out their differences. If they are the same, they will be repeated. If they are different, from different parts, you can determine which one is useful.

Run “windiff.exe, select "File"> "Compare Directories" on the interface, and enter the directory location to be compared. If you select the "Include subdirectories" option, the subdirectories will be compared. After you press "OK", the comparison result is displayed in the main window. Different colors indicate the differences between files. Red indicates the differences between the two. Black indicates multiple situations. You need to check the following description to identify the differences. "Identical" indicates that the two files are the same; "different" indicates that the two files are different; "only in" indicates that the file exists only in a directory. You can also adjust the settings in "Options" to display Different content, such as "Show Identical Files" to display the same file and "Show Different Files" to display Different Files. Of course, you can also edit the file during the comparison. Select related options in "Edit" of the main menu to Edit the comparison content of the file.

　　

Figure 4 Comparison and identification of differences between files and directories

　　Summary

There are many Windows support tools, and the above introduction is not only exclusive to the SP2 support tool. the upgrade of the SP2 support tool only adds some network tools, some tools of earlier versions have been upgraded and improved. The support tool is very useful for maintaining the system, but it is not installed by default. Therefore, if you are interested, you can find a very useful tool without installing it yourself. We will introduce more in the future. Note that you must be cautious when using the Support Tools tool. Misuse of the tool may compromise the security of the system. This is also one of the reasons why Microsoft uses it as the administrator by default.