Portable Freeware Ideas

[appsuser]

As an IT Administrator, there are certain tasks that Windows doesn't do well, still, after all this time. It is irritating to have go to the internet each time, look up various steps, and perform these manually, over and over again. Isn't this what programming was supposed to be for in the first place? These common administrative tasks would make great portable programs.

First, changing a user account name. Easy to do, but just renaming an account doesn't change all the instances of that account name. This can be irritating if you're using SAMBA sharing with platforms other than Microsoft, as they will continue to use the old credentials, which are no longer readily visible.

Second, deleting printers from the system. I mean, totally, getting rid of them, so if I reinstall, I'm not getting printer(2), printer(3) and so forth. Even after uninstalling program software and removing printers from devices settings, I'll still sometimes see every printer ever installed in some applications drop-down selection. This also gets irritating fast, working in buildings with over a hundred rooms, each with their own shared printers, and Microsoft's printer service trying to install each and every one (I realize you can turn this off, but sometimes...)

I realize that Microsoft has their own reasons to leave these implementations as-is (mainly, to work with their own systems), but Microsoft's reasons for keeping things difficult doesn't always jive with the user experience issues IT administrators have to go through daily. Would love to see portable software making these and other related tasks easier.

[Midas]

Can't offer much in terms of help, just my 2 cents...

Sadly, Microsoft has stopped caring about Joe Little User long ago, IMHO.

Even before Windows XP, I have delayed upgrading Windows for as long as I possibly could because doing so not only meant growing and more cumbersome sysadmin work, but also having to fully relearn from scratch how to do the simple tasks you have been doing for years.

Mind you, other platforms don't look much better from where I stand -- Apple invented the trend that computers should be regarded as domestic appliances you have no power whatsoever to customize to your needs, Linux requires endless fiddling with obscure settings to avoid death by a thousand papercuts...

[thepiney]

Linux requires endless fiddling with obscure settings to avoid death by a thousand papercuts...

That's not necessarily true as I've put Linux Mint 17is to 19ish on several PCs for friends that constantly had issues with Windows XP to 7 getting virus' or refusing to update and had very little to no issues with most of them. I have had occasional issues but they were no worse than dealing with windows issues and sometimes were easier to find fixes for.

Back on topic... to OP...

Seems like something Nir Sofer would work on, maybe post at his site and see if he comes up with something.

https://www.nirsoft.net/

If the printer(s) are USB maybe this will work --> https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

Not from Nir Sofer but in the TPFC db ---> USB Oblivion --> https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=2287

[Midas]

That's not necessarily true as I've put Linux Mint 17is to 19ish on several PCs for friends that constantly had issues with Windows XP to 7 getting virus' or refusing to update and had very little to no issues with most of them. I have had occasional issues but they were no worse than dealing with windows issues and sometimes were easier to find fixes for.

That is solely based on my own personal experience: the first distro I tried many, many years ago was Yggdrasil, a long forgotten Slackware based spin I had to order (and wait for) from the USA on a CD.

I've been meaning to switch to Linux for almost as long -- and Mint is in fact one of my favorites, although the ones I've dabbled with the most recently were Peppermint, Q4OS and Sparky.

I can easily get them running most of the time but one way or the other something always gets in the way.

Recently I installed Sparky to a fast Sandisk USB3, only to see it silently fail to boot on my Lenovo, while it run perfectly on my Dell and every other computer I tried it on. Yeah, I know, I should have troubleshooted it, but life is too short...

And let's not start on portability on Linux.

Did I mention I haven't had to re-install Windows (7 x64) since 2015 on that Lenovo?

[Specular]

It is irritating to have go to the internet each time, look up various steps, and perform these manually, over and over again. Isn't this what programming was supposed to be for in the first place?

Have you seen if scripting can achieve what you're after? As repetitive and multi-step tasks are what Powershell scripting and to a lesser degree (though much easier) batch scripting were made for (I say lesser degree for batch simply as Powershell has far more integrated abilities with the OS without the same reliance on external programs).

[appsuser]

Thanks for the suggestions. Nir Sofer does make many good GUI and command-line software administrative tools, and PowerShell has gone through a lot of changes recently, with Windows 10, justifying a re-look at its progress. Like everyone else, I usually barrel through these tasks on a case-by-case basis, though any time that can be regained is golden. It's ironic how people don't understand why some tasks so long when you answer, "I'm waiting on the computer." Common sense states that faster computers should have made tasks quicker to accomplish, not so much when you have to make changes in so many different locations to accomplish one goal.

I was merely suggesting an administrative tool(s), maybe like d7 (FoolishIT, https://www.d7xtech.com/) first aspired to be, a GUI running these administrative scripts, or something like Revo Uninstaller, which searches and removes settings in multiple locations for you. There seems to be a lot of these type of programs for network settings changes (DNS server, MAC Address), but not so many for other Windows setting changes, such as printer removal or account name change.

[thepiney]

@ Midas

When you mentioned a problem with your Lenovo system I recalled reading something about GPT not playing nice on some of those systems and couldn't remember where.

Found it ---> https://distrowatch.com/ ---> Check out the entry for NomadBSD.

The GPT layout has been changed to MBR. This prevents problems with Lenovo systems that refuse to boot from GPT if lenovofix is not set, and systems that hang on boot if lenovofix is set.

Not sure if that's your issue but damn what a coincidence.

[Midas]

The GPT layout has been changed to MBR. This prevents problems with Lenovo systems that refuse to boot from GPT if lenovofix is not set, and systems that hang on boot if lenovofix is set.

Not sure if that's your issue but damn what a coincidence.

Thanks a lot.

I'll have to look into it to make sure, but it's always good to be aware of such niggles.