Lab A

LAB ACOMMAND PROMPT & INSTALLING WIN 7Download this Lab instruction file for this class from Blackboard under assignments. Save your Lab worksheet to your USB drive. When your assignment is complete, you must submit the Lab worksheet to Blackboard under Project Submission by the due date listed on your syllabus for full credit.

The steps in this lab are NOT in the textbook or in the Lab manual.Exercise 1a Navigating in the Command Prompt Overview In this exercise, you will learn some of the basics of navigating in a

command prompt. You will learn to create, delete and modify direc-tories and view information about files and directories. The command prompt can be a powerful way of managing and using the file structure in a computer. You can use directory commands to manage and see the same information that you do with the Windows Explorer.

Complete this activity on the HOST in the classroom. (It can also be completed on a windows computer at home)

Completion time 50 minutes

The steps in this lab are NOT in the textbook or in the Lab manual.

VocabularyFile Block of information stored on a computer. It must have a unique name

within a folder.

Folder A collection of related files used to help organize the file system

Directory Same as folder

Subdirec-tory

A folder (directory) inside of another folder (directory)

1. Click on Start, in the search box, type in cmd and press <Enter>. A window will open like the printscreen below.

2. Take a look at what you see on the screen currently. On the lab computer, the default directory is C:\Users\student (your computer may have a different default directory.)

cd

3. The cd command allows you to change directories.4. When you are using the command prompt everything must be spelled cor-

rectly or a command will not work. Spaces are important too. If you have extra spaces or are missing spaces, you may not get the results that you are looking for.

5. Type cd\windows\system32 and press <Enter>. This will change your cur-rent directory to the c:\windows\system32 directory.

6. You can traverse to a folder inside of the current directory by typing cd <space> folder. This will change to a subdirectory immediately inside of the cur-rent directory. Try this by typing cd speech and press <Enter>. Notice how the current directory displayed is now the c:\windows\system32\speech directory.

7. Now type in cd\ and press <Enter>

8. This changes you to the root directory. The root directory is very important for you to be familiar with. The root is considered to be the beginning of the drive.

9. You can change to a directory 1 folder at a time OR you can change to direc-tories with 1 command.

a. Type in cd windows and press <Enter>b. Type in cd system32 and press <Enter>c. Type in cd speech and press <Enter>

Steps when you start at the root of the drive, steps a-c above are the same as d below.

d. To make the directory change with 1 command, type in cd\windows\sys-tem32\speech and press <Enter>

10. Try both of the above directory changes.11. After changing to the c:\windows\system32\speech directory, to move back 1

folder, type in cd .. and press <Enter> (see the picture below)

dir

12. Now we will look at the files within a directory.13. Type in cd\users\student and press <Enter>. Then type in dir and press

<Enter> (My results are below, your results may be different than mine. Also, this assumes that you are on the computers on campus. If you are in another lo-cation, type cd\users then type dir to see the usernames listed and then type cd yourusername.)

14. This is showing us the files and folders that are in the current directory of C:\Users\student

15. You can see the same files and folder information with the Windows Explorer. Click on Start, then Computer,

16. Double click on the C drive, Double click on the Users folder, then double click on student

17. You can see the same folders in the command prompt that you can see in the Windows Explorer. (NOTE: the AppData folder and the ntuser.dat.LOG1

& 2 files are hidden. The HOST computer is configured to see hid-den files, so they are displayed in the Windows explorer.)

help screens for command line utilities

18. The dir command can do more than just display a list of files and folders. There are switches that you can use with the command to see the information in a different way. To get help for most command line utilities, type in the com-mand, then /? after the command. In the command prompt, type in dir /? and press <Enter>, then read the help screen.

Ex 1a Question 1

List 3 ways you can sort a directory listing? by name, size, and date/time

19. Change to the c:\windows\system32 directory and then compare the next 2 directory listings.

a. Type dir /o:d and press <Enter>b. Type dir /o:-d and press <Enter>

Ex 1a Question 2

Explain how the 2 directory listings are different? second is in reverse or-der

Ex 1a Question 3

What are the results when you do a directory listing with the /p switch? stop information each time screen is full

Ex 1a Question 4

What are the results when you do a directory listing with the /s switch? display files in specifide directory and all subdirectories

Ex 1a Question 5

Are Command Line Utilities in DOS case sensitive? no

Ex 1a Question 6

What is the wildcard that can be used to replace 1 character? ?

Repeat commands

20. The computer remembers several of the previous commands. To see the pre-vious command, you can press the <up arrow>. Each time you press the <up

arrow>, you can see the previous command. To change the command, you can then press the <left arrow> and insert or delete text from the command.

21. Try pressing the <up arrow> now. You should see the dir /o:-d command. Redirect output to a file

22. Sometimes it is helpful to get a directory listing into a document. You can take the output that is displayed on the screen and redirect it into a file on your computer. Then you could copy and paste that information to a document.

23. Start in the c:\users\student directory. (NOTE: if you are on a different com-puter, you need to change this to the directory for the user that you are cur-rently logged in as. If you are unsure, change to the users folder first, then do a directory listing, then change to the directory that corresponds with the name you are logged in as.)

24. Type dir and press <Enter> to view the contents of this folder on the com-puter screen.

25. To redirect the output from the computer screen to, use the greater than symbol. Type dir > list.txt and press <Enter>. This will create a file called “list.txt”. The file will be located in the current directory which is c:\windows. (See the printscreen below for help)

26. Now run a directory listing again. You should see a new file, list.txt, in your directory listing.

27. To view the file, type in notepad list.txt and press <Enter>28. The notepad program should open up a text document that contains the re-

sults of the list.txt document.29. Take a screen shot of the notepad program with the list.txt file open, and

then paste it below by pressing Ctrl+V.

PastePrintscreenHere 30. Close out of the notepad program.31. You can redirect any output from other commands in the command prompt

by using the redirect. Copy or paste text inside of a command prompt

32. Sometimes you want to copy and paste text, such as a filename from inside of a command prompt .

33. On the far left of the command prompt window’s title bar, click the Com-mand Prompt icon. (See the red circle in the picture below)

34. From the menu, click on Edit and then Mark. A blinking cursor then appears at the top of the command prompt window.

35. Click and drag the cursor over the text you would like to copy to the clip-board; the information will be highlighted. For this lab, I would like you to high-light the line that contains the list.txt file that you created in the redirect por-tion of this lab. See the printscreen below. (If you can’t see it at this time, from the c:\users\student folder run a directory listing again. )

36. After you have highlighted all the information you want to copy, press <En-ter> This will place the highlighted text into the clipboard.

Ex 1a Question 7

Paste the text you copied above in this box? TypeAnswerHere

Creating, deleting and copying directories and files

37. From the command prompt, type cd\ and press <Enter>. This should change us to the root of the drive.

38. To make a new directory called new, type md new and press <Enter> (NOTE: this will create the new directory in the current directory which is the root of the drive)

39. Create these other directories using the md command.i. c:\new\softwareii. c:\new\stuffiii. c:\new\classiv. c:\new\class\assignmentsv. c:\new\class\letters

40. Change to the c:\new directory41. Use the cd command to change directories and see what you have created.42. If you make a mistake, you can delete a directory by using the rd command.43. For example, to delete the c:\new\class\letters directory, you can type rd c:\

new\class\letters and press <Enter> (NOTE: this will keep the folder, c:\new\class and remove only the letters folder. The folder must be empty in order to delete it.)

44. If you deleted the c:\new\class\letters folder, please create the folder again now.

45. Change to the c:\new\class\assignments directory46. Type notepad lab.txt and press <Enter>. Click Yes to create a new file.

Type in any text in the file then close and save the notepad program.47. Type copy lab.txt c:\new\stuff and press <Enter> (this should keep the

lab.txt file in the c:\new\class\assignments AND put another copy of the same file in c:\new\stuff)

48. Change to the c:\new folder, then type dir /s > new.txt and press <Enter>49. Type notepad new.txt and press <Enter>50. Copy the entire contents of the new.txt file from notepad and paste it into

this document here:PasteContentsHere51. Close out of the notepad program.

USE YOUR LAB MANUAL ALONG WITH THESE DIRECTIONS TO COMPLETE THE REMAINING LABS.Follow the steps for each exercise in your “Windows 7 Configuration Lab Man-ual”. The steps listed below are the changes from the steps in the printed lab man-ual. You must complete ALL Exercises, Lab Review questions, and Lab Challenge Ex-ercises that are listed in this lab worksheet.

Exercise 1.1 Running Upgrade Advisor Overview In Exercise 1.1, you run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advi-

sor program on the HOST computer to determine whether it is capable of running Windows 7.

Complete this activity on the HOST machine in the classroom. The “Upgrade Advi-sor” is should be downloaded to c:\dl on the HOST machine. If it is not, you can download it from Blackboard. You may also need to install the .NET Framework. Feel free to do this on the lab machines (they are refreshed when you reboot the HOST computer)


Complete this lab on the HOST pc in class (Not your VM)Skip steps 1-7 in the bookEx 1.1 Question 1

According to Upgrade Advisor, is your workstation capable of running Windows 7? Yes

Ex 1.1 Question 2

Is your workstation capable of running Windows Aero? If not, why not? Yes

Ex 1.1 Question 3

Are there any devices in the computer for which Upgrade Advisor could not find information? Yes If so, which ones? PCI Serial Port PCI Simple Communications Controller

Ex 1.1 Question 4

Are there any applications (programs) on the computer that might cause compatibility issues with Windows 7? No

12. Take a screen shot of the page that shows the report when you run Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, and then paste it below by pressing Ctrl+V.

PastePrintscreenHere Skip Exercise 1.2

LAB 3INSTALLING WINDOWS 7Exercise 3.1 Installing Windows 7 from a DVD

Overview In Exercise 3.1, you install Windows 7 on a workstation, us-ing a standard installation DVD.

Complete in a new VM. Do this during class with your instructor.Completion time 50 minutes

NOTE: You will complete this lab DURING class. Do NOT complete this on your own. The InstallationNotes.doc in Blackboard under Course Documents will assist you with the install.

Ex 3.1 Question 1

What types of partitions did the system create? Divided

The system created a 100 MB System Reserved partition, and the larger partition is a Primary partition.

LAB 7CONFIGURING NET-WORK CONNECTIONSBefore starting Lab 7 in the Lab manual, we need to set up network adapters in VMware so that they will connect to the RWDC01 server. At this time, it will disable inter-net connectivity for our VM.1. Open VMware(but do not start up your VM). Select your NYC-CLa VM.

Click on VM, Settings, highlight the current Network Adapter

2. On the right side of the page, select Custom VMNet2 (This network adapter will allow your VM to connect to the RWDC01 server.)

3. When it boots up, the network adapter will take a few minutes to configure. Click on Work.

Exercise 3.2 Joining a Workstation to a Domain

Overview In Exercise 3.2, you join your newly installed Windows 7 workstation to your network’s Active Directory Domain Ser-vices domain.

Complete this on the VM you created NYC-CLa. BEFORE starting this lab, turn on the WinServer2008_RWDC01 VM that you downloaded from the Z drive.Completion time 5 minutes

NOTE: Turn on your Win 2008 server RWDC01 before starting this lab.1. After turning on your Win 2008 server, start up the VM of Win 7 (NYC-CLa)

that you just installed. Complete the steps listed in the lab manual on NYC-CLa.

6. After following step 6 in the lab manual, if you do not get a message box welcoming you to the contoso domain, please see your instructor. They will help you troubleshoot the domain issues.

7. Take a screen shot of the message box by pressing Alt+Prt Scr and paste it into your below by pressing Ctrl+V.

PastePrintscreenHere

Exercise 7.1 Using the Network and Sharing CenterOverview On a Windows 7 computer, the Network and Sharing Center

provides access to most of the operating system’s network-ing tools and configuration parameters. In Exercise 7.1, you examine the current Sharing and Discovery settings on one of the computers that will become part of the lab net-work.

Complete this on the VM you created NYC-CLa. BEFORE starting this lab, turn on the WinServer2008_RWDC01 VM that you downloaded from the Z drive.Completion time 10 minutes

NOTE: Turn on your Win 2008 server RWDC01 before starting this lab.

Ex 7.1 Question

1Why did the network map fail to appear?

the network is publicEx 7.1

Question 2

Could the current state of the advanced sharing settings be the reason why the network map fails to appear?

yes

Exercise 7.2 Enabling Network MapOverview In Exercise 7.2, you use local Group Policy to enable Net-

work Map to display a diagram of the network, so you can plan the software deployments for the lab network at a later time.

Complete this on the VM you created NYC-CLa, NYC-CLb, and WinServer2008_RWDC01 Completion time 10 minutes

12. Take a screen shot of the Network Map window by pressing Alt+Prt Scr, and then paste the resulting image below by pressing Ctrl+V.


Ex 7.2 Question

3Why does the RWDC01 computer not appear on the Network Map display?

Because it is not set up to be on the same netwrok

Exercise 7.3 Manually Configuring TCP/IPOverview Because the lab network you are constructing for Contoso,

Ltd. must be isolated from the production network, you do not want the lab computers to obtain their TCP/IP settings from the DHCP servers on the production network. There-fore, in Exercise 7.3 you manually configure the TCP/IP client to use static IP addresses.

Complete this on the VM you created NYC-CLa, NYC-CLb, and WinServer2008_RWDC01Completion time 15 minutes

3. Using the information in the Ipconfig.exe display, note your worksta-tion’s current TCP/IP configuration settings in Table 7-4.

Table 7-4TCP/IP Setting ValueIPv4 Address 10.10.0.112Subnet Mask 255.0.0.0Default Gateway 10.10.0.2DNS Servers 10.10.0.2

Ex 7.3 Question

4 How did the computer obtain these settings? How can you determine this?

these are the defalt setting when the coputer cannot find a networkEx 7.3

Question 5

What is the result of this command?

release the ipconfig for a specific adaptor

Ex 7.3 Question

6

Which of the parameters in the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties sheet would you have to omit for your computer to be unable to resolve a computer name into its IP address?

You would have to omit the Preferred DNS Server parameter.

12. Take a screen shot of the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Proper-ties sheet by pressing Alt+Prt Scr, and then paste the resulting image below by pressing Ctrl+V.


Ex 7.3 Question

7

How does the Ipconfig display differ from the first time you ran the ipcon-fig /all command?

Except for the IP address, the TCP/IP settings are the same as they were in the first instance, but the display now shows that DHCP is not enabled and does not specify a DHCP server address.

Exercise 7.4 Testing Network ConnectionsOverview After manually configuring the Windows 7 TCP/IP client,

you must test it by trying to connect to the other comput-ers on the network. In Exercise 7.4, you use the Ping utility to test the computer’s communications capabilities.

Complete this on the VM you created NYC-CLa, NYC-CLb, and WinServer2008_RWDC01Completion time 10 minutes

Ex 7.4 Question

8What is the result?

The computer successfully pings the specified address.Ex 7.4

Question 9

What does this result prove about the computer’s network connectivity?

it proves nothing. Pinging the loopback address (127.0.0.1) proves only that the computer’s TCP/IP client is configured correctly.

Ex 7.4 Question

10

What would be the result if you unplugged your computer’s network cable before executing the ping 127.0.0.1 command?

The ping test would still be successful because pinging the loopback ad-dress only tests the validity of the computer’s TCP/IP configuration. No packets actually leave the computer during the loopback test.

Ex 7.4 Question

11

What is the result of the ping test, and what does it prove?

an ARP request and a responce from the server this proves they are both on the same network

Ex 7.4 Question

12What is the IP address of RWDC01?

10.10.0.2

Ex 7.4 Question

13

How was the computer able to resolve the name RWDC01 into its IP ad-dress?

The computer sent a name resolution request to the DNS server it is con-figured to use.

Ex 7.4 Question

14 What was the result of the test, and what does this result prove?

ping of an ip address proves your on a seperated network

Ex 7.4 Question

15 What was the result of the test, and what does this result prove?

succesful ping and your both connected to the networkEx 7.4

Question 13

Was it necessary to perform this last test? Why or why not?

no because you have already set the nework up your self and know you put them on the same network

ADDED STEPS – return your network adapter configura-tion to obtain address from DHCP on both NYC-CLa & NYC-CLb1. Click on Start, Control Panel, Network and Internet, Network and

Sharing Center, Manage Network Connections, Right click on Local Area Connection and click on Properties, continue. Highlight Internet Protocol v4 (TCP/IP v4) and click on Properties.

2. Select Obtain an IP address automatically and select Obtain DNA server address automatically and then click on OK.

MORE COMMAND PROMPT AND BATCH FILES

Exercise NNetworking Command Line Utilities (5 pts)Overview In this exercise, you will explore the use networking and other useful

utilities to expand your knowledge using the command prompt.

Complete this activity on the HOST machine in the classroom (Your VM does not have internet connectivity at this time..




Run command prompt as administrator

3. Several of the utilities used for networking in the command prompt require administrative privileges. to use. Click on Start, in the search box, type in cmd. When the command prompt is listed under programs, then Right Click on the command prompt and click on Run as administrator.

ipconfig

4. You used the ipconfig command already this semester to display IP address information. The utility gathers information from the network interface card(s) on your computer. It also gathers some information from the host machine that your computer connects with.

5. At the command prompt, enter ipconfig and press <Enter>. The screen will show the return IP address information. (NOTE: you may have to use the scroll bar on the right of the command prompt window to scroll up and see some perti-nent information.

6. To get more detailed IP address information, type in ipconfig /all and press <Enter>

7. You can see additional information about whether the address is obtained au-tomatically (from DHCP), the lease dates, Physical Address (MAC address) infor-mation and DNS servers.

Ex N Question 1

What computer are you using? M103-C13 Is the address on your computer obtained from DHCP? Yes

8. To get help for the ipconfig command, type in ipconfig /? and press <Enter>. Review the help screens.

NOTE: The next few steps will only work on a network that is configured with DHCP. If you are at home or somewhere else where the address is statically assigned, you will need to skip this section and come back to campus to complete it.

9. To terminate an IP address, type in ipconfig /release and press <Enter>.

NOTE: If you get the message above. You need to open your command prompt with administrative privileges. Follow the steps to “Run command prompt as administra-tor”, then repeat step 8.

10. You should see that all DHCP IP addresses are cleared out or blank.11. To re-establish your IP address, type ipconfig /renew and press <Enter>.

When you renew, sometimes you get the same IP address and sometimes you get a different IP address.

Ex N Question 2

What is your default gateway? 172.19.103.254

ping

12. The ping utility uses an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) ECHO re-quest/reply feature to see if the device is reachable on the IP network. It sends packets across the network to a destination device that you specify. It will mea-sure the time that it takes for a request to and back from the device. Administra-tors use it as a quick way to determine if the connection to the other piece of equipment that they are trying to connect to is reachable.

13. Sometimes you can connect to a device, but you cannot ping the device. For this lab, if you get the response Request timed out, just try another site. If you get it for all sites you try, then make sure that you have an IP address assigned using the ipconfig command.

14. Type ping www.matcmadison.edu and press <Enter> 15. There are 2 different ways that you can type in the device that you are trying

to ping. Ping IPaddress OR ping hostname. For the hostname, you can use some sites such as: www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.matcmadison.edu. To use the IP Address, type in the IP address that you are trying to ping.

16. Use ping to measure the round-trip times to the default gateway of your com-puter and to 2 other devices/sites.

Device/site to pingExpect different results from students

Round Trip Mini-mum Time (ms)

Round Trip Maxi-mum Time(ms)

Round Trip Aver-age Time (ms)

1)default gateway 172.19.103.254

0ms 2ms 0ms

2) www.yahoo.com 44ms 54ms 47ms

3) www.google.com 31ms 66ms 52ms

Ex N Question 3

What is the default size packet for ping? 32 bytes

17. Type ping /? To get some help.18. To change the size of the packet that you are testing, type in ping –l 200

www.matcmadison.edu and press <Enter>. Test some other packet sizes to the same destinations above, and then answer the question below.

Ex N Question 4

When you have a larger packet size, is the ping average response slower or faster? slower

tracert

19. Now you will run a tracert (traceroute) to see the route that the IP packets take from your computer to a destination on the internet.

20. You can run a tracert on either an IPaddress OR hostname.21. Type tracert www.matcmadison.edu and press <Enter>22. Use tracert to measure the number of hops for the 2 other devices/sites that

you tested in the ping section of this lab.Device/site to tracert Number of hops

1) M103-C13 14 Hops

2) TypeAnswerHere TypeAnswerHere

Ex N Question 5

Compare the average round trip times for ping and the number of hops for tracert for the 3 devices that are not your gateway. Do you see a re-lationship between longer delay and higher hop count? TypeAnswerHere

nslookup

23. Now you will run a nslookup command to get the IP Address(es) of a host-name.

24. Type nslookup www.matcmadison.edu and press <Enter>. This will give you the IP Address of the www.matcmadison.edu host.

25. The first 2 lines are about the name server that is giving the response. The next 2 lines are about the host machine that you are looking up.

26. Use nslookup to obtain the IP Addresses for the 2 other devices/sites that you tested in the ping section of this lab.

Site/domain IP Address (there may be more than 1 address listed)

1) www.yahoo.com 209.191.93.52 & 69.147.76.15

2) www.google.com 74.125.95.105 & 74.125.95.106 & 74.125.95.147 & 74.125.95.99 & 74.125.95.103 & 74.125.95.104

netsh

27. Now you will run a netsh command to assign an IP address from the com-mand prompt.

28. So that we are sure to assign an IP address that will work for the computer you are using now, run a netsh command to document before we start changing the configuration.

29. Type in netsh interface ip show config and press <Enter>. Then docu-ment the information listed below. (The printscreen below shows the results on the open lab computer used in this example.)

Example for below to help under-stand the commands below

Your configuration

Interface name

Local Area Connection Local Area Connection

IP Address 172.19.103.4 172.19.103.5

Subnet Mask 172.19.103.0/24 (mask 255.255.255.0)

172.19.103.0/24 (255.255.255.0)

Default Gate-way

172.19.103.254 172.19.103.254

DNS Server 172.18.0.13 172.18.0.13

30. The netsh command can be both a command line utility and an interactive command. Start the interactive command mode by typing netsh and pressing <Enter>.

31. Type ? and press <Enter> to see the help information. (NOTE: Read the com-mands that are available for netsh. Please note that we will only look at a few commands. You may use this command more extensively in future classes.)

32. To enter the interface context where you can make changes to the IP Address type interface and pressing <Enter>.

33. From the netsh interface> prompt, type ? and press <Enter> again. (NOTE: This will give you additional commands that you can run in the interface context of the netsh command.)

34. Type in ip set address “Interface Name From Table Above” static IpAddressFromTableAbove SubnetMaskFromTableAbove DefaultGate-wayFromTableAbove

35. An example using my IP Address info from the table above is: ip set address “Local Area Connection” static 172.19.103.4 255.255.255.0 172.19.103.254 and press <Enter>.

36. When you change an IP Address, you might also need to change the IP Ad-dress of the DNS server.

37. While you are still in the netsh interface> context, , type ip set dns “Inter-face Name From Table Above” static DNSServeAddressFromTableAbove and press <Enter>

38. Example using above settings: ip set dns “Local Area Connection” static 172.18.0.13 and press <Enter>.

39. Take a screen shot of the netsh interface> context after typing the command to change the dns server by pressing Alt+Prt Scr, and then paste it below by pressing Ctrl+V.


40. Click on Start, Control Panel, Network and Internet, Network and Sharing Center, Manage Network Connections, Right click on Local Area Connection and click on Properties, continue. Highlight Internet Protocol v4 (TCP/IP v4) and click on Properties. You should see that the IP Address is now statically assigned and contains the values that you configured above.

41. Take a screen shot of the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties by pressing Alt+Prt Scr, and then paste it below by pressing Ctrl+V.


42. Close out of the network connections and properties windows.43. Open up another command prompt and run ipconfig /all to see the setting

change. The most noticeable change should be that DHCP is NOT enabled and there is not a lease for the IP Address.

44. To change the IP Address back to a DHCP assigned address, from the netsh interface> context type ip set address “interface name from table above” dhcp and press <Enter>

45. An example using my IP Address info from the table above is: ip set address “Local Area Connection” dhcp and press <Enter>.

46. To change the IP Address of the DNS server, make sure you are still in the netsh interface> context, , type ip set dns “Interface Name From Table Above” dhcp and press <Enter>

47. Example using above settings: ip set dns “Local Area Connection” dhcp and press <Enter>.

48. When you are finished making changes using the netsh command, type exit and press <Enter>.

Exercise M Batch Files Overview In this exercise, you will combine together a few command line utili-

ties to create a batch file. Batch files are used by administrators to execute a list of commands sequentially on a computer. They are often put into scripts so that they will run automatically when a user logs into a computer so that settings can be changed or docu-mented. Batch files help to automate a list of commands that needs to be run on several computers.

Complete this activity on the HOST machine in the classroom (Your VM does not have internet connectivity at this time..



An example batch file

1. Before looking at a batch file example, there are some tips that could be helpful.

a. Use a test folder to try out your commands in (so you don’t mess up the actual data).

b. Batch files have a file extension of .bat Try to name a batch file something unique, but meaningful. I could make a batch file that displays the letters

of the alphabet and call it alphabet.bat . To run the alphabet.bat batch file, I need to change to the directory where alphabet.bat is stored and type alphabet and press <Enter>.

c. Edit batch files in notepad. (DO NOT USE WORD or WORKS or WORDPERFECT)

d. Pause – the pause command is helpful in creating a batch file because it will temporarily stop the processing of the batch file so that you can see each step run. When I start creating a batch file, I sometimes type pause for every other line so that it will stop often & I can see the results on the screen slowly.

e. Comment – make sure that you type in comments about what a batch file purpose is and what each line is doing in your batch files. To comment an entire line, you can type REM or :: (double colon) as the first characters in the line.

f. The TYPE command will type the words following it on the screen.g. When debugging your batch file, make only 1 change at a time.h. If your batch file hangs, you can stop it by pressing <Ctrl-C>

i. If you create a folder in a batch file and have to run the batch file again, it will give you an error that it already exists. When testing, delete the re-sults from the first test before testing again.

j. Wildcard charactersi. * is a substitute for all possible characters. For example: b*.* is for

all files that start with the letter b and have any character after it.ii. ? is a substitute for 1 character.

k. @ECHO OFF -usually placed at the beginning of a batch file so that when you run the batch files, you cannot see all of the commands on the screen. (NOTE: many people comment out this line so they see the com-mands show up on the screen while working on their batch files, then un-comment it when they are finished. This helps with troubleshooting.)

2. There is a sample batch file below. Before you test and work with the sample file, I want you to create a place to work with the files. Go to the command prompt.

3. Type in md c:\lab and press <Enter>

4. Type in cd c:\lab and press <Enter>

5. Type notepad CopyFiles.bat and press <Enter>. Click on Yes to create a new file. (NOTE: this will create a new file called copyfiles.bat in the current di-rectory and open it with notepad.)

6. Copy the text between the lines below and paste them into the copyfiles.bat file inside of notepad.

@ECHO OFF

REM CopyFiles.batREM REM Creates a test directory and copies files starting with t into it

md c:\lab\testcd c:\lab\testREM creates a directory called c:\lab\test, then changes to that directory

copy c:\windows\t*.* c:\lab\testREM copies files that start with the letter t from the windows folder to the c:\lab\test folder

dir c:\lab\test > c:\lab\test\dirlist.txtREM runs a directory listing then redirects the output to a file named c:\lab\test\dirlist.txt

ECHO copyfiles.bat has finished

7. Close out of notepad and save the changes.8. You should still be in the c:\lab directory. Type copyfiles and press <Enter>.

This should run the batch file.9. Browse the directories while looking at the commands above and see if the

results make sense. You will need to understand what each line of code is doing in order to be able to create your own batch file.

Creating your own batch file

10. Create a directory called c:\mybat11. Change to the directory c:\mybat12. Type notepad mybat.bat and press <Enter>. Click on Yes to create a new

file.13. Between the lines below is a list of commands/statements that need to be in-

cluded in your batch file.

· Show the text on the screen “MyBat.bat has started. It may take a minute to complete. Please be patient.”

· Make a directory c:\mybat\test· Change to the directory c:\mybat\test

· Document the IP Address configuration from the ipconfig command (make sure that you can see all details) and redirect the output to a file named c:\mybat\test\IPAddr.txt

· Run a traceroute to the host www.matcmadison.edu and redirect the output to a file named c:\mybat\test\trace.txt

· Show the text on the screen “MyBat.bat has completed”14. Close out of notepad and save the changes.15. You should still be in the c:\mybat directory. Type mybat and press

<Enter>. This should run the batch file.16. Look at the results of your mybat.bat batch file. If there is something that

isn’t working, edit the mybat.bat file with notepad and make changes and try to run again. Before you run it again, delete the c:\mybat\test directory and all files inside of it.

17. Make sure that you try some lines in the command prompt before typing them into the batch file. In this lab, you learned how to copy and paste from the command prompt to the clipboard. You could use this as a way to get the exact command that you typed that worked into the batch file so that everything is spelled correctly.

18. Don’t forget to put comments into your file. You will not get all of the points if comments are missing even if the batch file works.

19. Copy the entire contents of the mybat.bat file from notepad and paste it into this document here:

PasteContentsHere20. After your batch file works, run a directory listing of the c:\mybat\test folder.21. Take a screen shot of the directory listing by pressing Alt+Prt Scr, and then

paste it below by pressing Ctrl+V.PastePrintscreenHere

Make snapshot of VM

Close out of your VM.

Click on VM, Snapshot and Take Snapshot…

Type in the name: After LabA with a description of LabA activities complete & click on OK.

Submit assignment to blackboard

When your assignment is complete, you must submit the LabA (this file) to Black-board under Project Submission by the due date listed on your syllabus for full credit.

After you have submitted, from inside blackboard, click on Tools, My Grades

Submitted, but not graded

NOT submitted. This shows that either your computer locked up or you lost

connection to the internet OR you clicked on Save instead of Submit. Your in-structor can clear this indicator if you email them.