Miscellaneous How To's So I Don't Forget!!

I'm using this blog as much for me as for my readers (which I only have a handful of, but whatever). It's another source of documentation, as far as I'm concerned. So today, I've got some neat tricks that I perform fairly often, and I'm sick of searching the web for them every time I need them.

Disk Cleanup in Windows 2008 R2

Did you know that Windows 2008 R2 doesn't come with the Disk Cleanup app installed? I have NO idea what Microsoft is thinking, but it's still on the system; you just have to copy some files and make a shortcut to use it.

• Move cleanmgr.exe from %systemroot%\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_c9392808773cd7da to%systemroot%\System32
• Move cleanmgr.exe.mui from %systemroot%\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_en-us_b9cb6194b257cc63 to %systemroot%\System32\en-US
• Now go back to %systemroot%\system32 and send-to --> desktop (create shortcut), or you can simply type cleanmgr.exe into the run dialog box since system32 is listed in your system path variable.

Bit and Byte Conversion

I found this handy website to convert bits to bytes and vice-versa

Creating Test Files of a Certain Length

Here's a handy command to create test files for testing copy speeds, for instance. Note that you have to run the command prompt as administrator if you have UAC turned on.
C:\> fsutil file createnew <filename> <filesize_inbytes>

For Example (This creates a 1GB file):
C:\> fsutil file createnew C:\Temp\Test_File_1GB.txt 1073741824

Removing Old Patch Installation Files in Windows 2008 R2

Back in Windows Server 2003, one way to reclaim disk space was to delete hidden folders with the $Uninstall prefix from the C:\Windows folder. This would make it impossible to uninstall updates, so you had to be relatively sure that you wouldn't need to do that. There are ways around that: Build a 2003 Test machine, install the update that you need the uninstall files for, and copy the $Uninstall folder for that patch back to the server.

This process was altered in Windows Server 2008 and again in R2. For Windows Server 2008 R2, the command you need to run (as an administrator) is:
C:\> dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded.