How to Install the Windows Recovery Console (Q216417) To install the Windows Recovery Console after Windows is already installed on your computer:
Click Start, click Run, and then type CD-ROM drive letter:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons in the Open box, where CD-ROM drive letter is the drive letter assigned to your CD-ROM drive.

Using REGEDIT to add, remove, and edit registry entries

REGEDIT.EXE [ /L:system ¦ /R:user ] [ /S ] importfile.REG

Export to a (.REG) file:
REGEDIT.EXE [ /L:system ¦ /R:user ] /E exportfile "registry_key"

Compress the registry (Windows 98 only):
REGEDIT.EXE [ /L:system ¦ /R:user ] /C

Parameters:
importfile.REG .REG file to be imported (or "merged")
exportfile File name the information should be written to
"registry_key" Registry key to be exported
e.g. "HKEY_CLASSES\ROOT\*\shell"
/S Silent, i.e. hide confirmation box when importing files
/E Export registry file
/L:system Specify the location of the system.dat to use
/R:user Specify the location of the user.dat to use
/C Compress [filename] (Windows 98 only)

REGEDIT is usually known as a GUI tool to search or edit the Windows registry.
I would not have mentioned it here, however, if it couldn't be used in unattended mode as well.
This page focuses on reading and editing the registry in unattended mode only.
(Microsoft's NT Workstation Resource Kit and NT Server Resource Kit come with REG.EXE, a utility that makes reading (or editing) NT's registry easier
It can read a single key and value directly, without the need for a temporary file.)

Adding and editing (importing) registry entries
Adding items to the registry requires a *.REG file:

REGEDIT /S addsome.REG
The /S switch is optional, it skips the message dialogs before and after the import of the *.REG file.

Removing registry entries
To remove an entire "tree" from the registry using REGEDIT and a .REG file, just add a minus sign before the tree name:

REGEDIT4

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\DummyTree]

will remove the entire tree "DummyTree".

To remove an individual item from the registry, place the minus sign after the equal sign:
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\DummyTree]
"ValueToBeRemoved"=-

will remove the individual value "ValueToBeRemoved" from "DummyTree".

More info can be found at Regedit.com's Registry FAQ. How to remove an individual registry key or value using *.INF files and RUNDLL is explained here by Bill James.

Reading (exporting) from the registry
REGEDIT's /E switch can be used to export a registry key:

REGEDIT /E d:\path\filename.REG "HKEY_XXXX\Whatever Key"

This will write the registry key "HKEY_XXXX\Whatever Key" and its subkeys to a file named d:\path\filename.REG

NOTES
TIP: Export a registry key to get an example of the exact required format.
"REGEDIT4" must be at the top followed by a blank line.
A blank line must be at the end of the file.
Multiple keys must be separated by a blank line (not the values, just new keys)

Woodstone bvba Servers Alive
Current version: v3.0.995
Servers Alive is an end-to-end network monitor program. Among the many checks it can do: it can monitor any Winsock service, ping a host, check if an NT service/process is running, check the available disk space on a server, retrieve an URL, check your database engine, and more. When it detects a down condition it can warn you in various ways, including sending you an email (SMTP) saying what is down, or paging you with a numeric or alphanumeric warning. It's also the first monitoring program to support WAP pages viewable with wireless devices. Servers Alive also supports host dependency and can be easily interrogated using a telnet client and/or a web browser.
The program can monitor up to 10 hosts/services in the unregistered version and up to 1000 in the registered version. If your organization only needs monitoring for 10 or less services then use Servers Alive for FREE as long as you want!

NTFS5 vs. FAT32 One somewhat dated argument for using FAT (or FAT32, in the case of Win2K) on server volumes relates to the boot partition. Before Win2K's release, many administrators used FAT on boot partitions because a DOS or Win9x boot disk can easily access and recover FAT volumes in the event of disaster. However, the addition of the Win2K Recovery Console (RC) invalidates this argument. The RC is a special alternative boot selection that you can install on a Win2K system. (To install this option, run winnt32/cmdcons from the Win2K CD-ROM.) You can use the RC to carry out several recovery-related operations on NTFS volumes, such as file copying and renaming. Now that Win2K includes the RC, your best choice of file systems for all Win2K server volumes is NTFS.

Q253912 - "Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large Amounts of RAM Installed The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena.

On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine).

High-Tech Dictionary File Types File Types
These extensions at the end of a filename refer to the type of file it is.