Submitted by Alex Vovk

Password Expiration Notifier periodically checks all users in the specified Active Directory domain to detect  whose passwords are about to expire in a specified number of days, and then sends customizable notification e-mails to the account owners. The tool also sends summary reports to system administrators by e-mail. Armed with this tool, administrators can proactively resolve password expiration issues for end-users and service accounts.

NetWrix Password Expiration Notifier

Rate this tool: (4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

AdapterWatch is a standalone tool that can help troubleshoot network problems. It displays all the information you can think of about network adapters.

There are four tabs: Network Adapters, TCP/UDP Statistics, IP Statistics, ICMP Statistics and General. I tested AdapterWatch v1.04.

The Network Adapters’ tab mostly displays configuration settings such as: the GUID, MAC address, DHCP lease, interface speed or MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit). You will also find some statistical information including: received/sent data, calculated speed and discarded packets. The list is quite comprehensive. Please check out the screenshot for other parameters. What I like about AdapterWatch is that it displays all network adapters in a table. This makes it easy to compare all settings. That’s not possible with the network settings tools in Windows because you can’t open the controls of different network adapters, simultaneously.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (2 votes, average: 2.5 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

Submitted by Jeffrey Botts

I have found this tool to be invaluable for troubleshooting Exchange issues. Here is a description from the website:

ExInsight is a monitoring and statistics tool that provides a real-time view of the internals of Exchange Server transactions and allows you to evaluate individual user’s usage of Exchange Server.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

3d Traceroute does what its name implies. It displays traceroute responses in a three dimensional representation: X-axis represents the hops (routers); the y-axis, the response time of the routers; and the z-axis stands for successive probes in time.

While this seems to be just some kind of gimmick, it might turn out to be useful, if you have to track down certain kinds of network problems. For example, if you experience erratic network transfer delays, you can find out easily where the bottleneck is. All you have to do is to probe your destination for some time. The router that causes the delays will stand out in the graphic representation sooner or later.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

Submitted by Josh Stephens - Blog: Geek Speak

Download SolarWinds FREE Real-time NetFlow Analyzer to Get Deep Visibility into Network Traffic & Slowdowns!

Our new free tool unlocks the power of NetFlow on your network: SolarWinds Real-time NetFlow Analyzer! This free desktop tool captures and analyzes NetFlow data in real time to show you exactly what types of traffic are on your network, where that traffic is coming from, and where it is going. With Real-time NetFlow Analyzer, you can take the guesswork out of diagnosing traffic spikes and troubleshooting bandwidth issues.

If you are new to NetFlow, you’re going to love this powerful protocol. If you haven’t already, it is easy to turn on flows on your existing Cisco routers. We even have a free tool – NetFlow Configurator – to help you remotely configure NetFlow v5 via SNMP on supported Cisco® devices. We’ve bundled this tool with the Real-time NetFlow Analyzer download, so that you can get started with monitoring network traffic immediately.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

The NT EventLog Explorer was developed to simplify manual retrieving and creating of event log related information for Microsoft Operations Manager. However, this tool can also replace Windows Event Viewer in some situations. In particular, if you want to access the event logs of a certain application or service, you will accomplish this faster using NT Event Log Explorer.

The Explorer-like user interface lets you navigate easily to specific sources. In Event Viewer, you would use the filter or the search function to list the event log entries of a certain source. If you don’t know the exact name of the source, this can be difficult. Thus, clicking through the “Event log tree” of NT EventLog Explorer will be faster in many cases.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

In former times, making note of passwords was the worst sin for a sys admin. It turned out that many were tempted to use passwords that were easy to remember and therefore often too weak. There are ways to create passwords that are easy to memorize and difficult to crack by brute force attacks. However, the more passwords you have to manage the more difficult it gets to keep track of them. Thus I usually use random passwords and store them in a safe place. Of course, this is not 100% secure either, because if someone gets access to your password store, you will have a serious problem.

The minimum one should do is to encrypt the passwords. There are countless free password management tools for Windows. My favorite is Locknote, because it is allows me to encrypt all kinds of confidential data in a simple text editor. Another way is to store your passwords on your Smartphone or Pocket PC. This way, you will always have your passwords with you. There are many commercial password management tools for Windows Mobile, but I’ve only found one that is free.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (3 votes, average: 2.67 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

PlacesBar Editor is a simple tool that allows you to add shortcuts to all Windows dialogs. Whenever you open or save a file from a Windows application, you will see these shortcuts on the left side of the dialog box in the so-called dialog places bar. Under Windows XP, the shortcuts for My Recent Documents, My Documents, Desktop, My Computer, and My Network are found in this sidebar by default. You can change the links by hacking the Registry. With PlacesBar Editor, it is easier to customize the dialog places bar. It also allows you to add five additional shortcuts for Microsoft Office.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

SSH is not really popular in the Windows world. Nevertheless it is a very useful protocol to manage Windows servers remotely. All you have to do is install OpenSSH for Windows on your server. This allows you to remotely connect to a command line interface through a secure connection.

You know me, I am not a CLI fan, but if I have to manage a server using my Windows Mobile toy it is often the easiest way. The small screen of a Pocket PC is big enough for simple commands. It is no secret that most problems under Windows can be solved with a reboot. If you have a problematic server, it can be quite comforting to know that you can restart the server wherever you are.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools

Submitted by Maks

AnVir Task Manager Free provides full set of Windows enhancements that help in every-day work.

Security & Performance

• Full information about processes, services, Internet connections, drivers, DLLs
• Detects Trojans with security analysis and get alerts on new startups
• Speed up boot time (Delayed Startup), balance CPU usage, optimize memory
• Run programs as services on Windows startup before user login

(more…)

Rate this tool: (4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit favorite free admin tool | Free tools ranking list | Descriptions of all tools