This document contains important information that is not included in the online Help for the Microsoft® Windows® Support Tools for Microsoft Windows® XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, including information not available from other sources about setting up the Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition. Also included are very important corrections and new information related to the Windows Support Tools and documentation.
Setup for Support Tools Software
Tools Documented But Not Installed In This Release
Installing from the Command Prompt
Bitsadmin.exe (BITS Administration Tool)
Dumpchk.exe (Dump Check Utility)
Rasdiag.exe (RAS Diagnostics Tool)
Activate.exe (Production Activation Tool)
The Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition are intended for use by Microsoft support personnel and experienced users to assist in diagnosing and resolving computer problems. For individual tool descriptions, see the Windows Support Tools online tool documentation (Suptools.chm).
The Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition are located in the \Support\Tools folder on the Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition CDs, respectively. The \Support\Tools folder contains a Windows Installer file (suptools.msi), which installs the Support Tools utilities and tools on your computer's hard drive.
Note
The Application Compatibility Toolkit does not
install with the Support Tools.
Important
These tools have not been localized: they
are written and tested in English only. Using these tools with a different
language version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows XP
64-Bit Edition might produce unpredictable results.
The following tools are documented in the Support Tools help file (Suptools.chm) but are not installed in this release.
The following tools install when the Complete checkbox is selected during setup. However, these tools are not documented in a separate Help file. For most command-line tools, you may type /? (for example, apmstat /?) at the command prompt for syntax help.
The following tools install when the Complete checkbox is selected during setup. However, the Help for these tools contains the Windows 2000 version and is not included in Suptools.chm. The help for these tools can be launched from the help menu option of the tools or it can also be launched from the command line by typing the help file name directly.
The following scripts install when the Complete checkbox is selected during setup. Help is not included for these scripts. For more information, see the Iadstools.doc and Clonepr.doc files.
The Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition can be installed only on a computer running the Windows XP Professional or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition operating system. They cannot be used to upgrade Microsoft® Windows NT® or Windows® 2000 Support Tools installed on Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000, respectively.
To install the Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Support Tools
Important
It is highly recommended that you remove all
previous versions of Support Tools, including beta versions of the Windows
Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows XP
64-Bit Edition, before running the Support Tools installation program.
If
the Setup program finds an older version of Support Tools, it opens a dialog box
with Add/Remove and Remove all (default) options. If you select
Remove all, Setup automatically uninstalls Support Tools. If you select
Add/Remove, you can manually uninstall Support Tools.
Note
In the unlikely event that your computer pauses
for a few minutes during installation while the Setup window is displaying
"publishing product information," please be patient. The Setup program will
continue shortly and will finish installing the Support Tools.
The Setup program installs Windows Support Tools files onto your hard disk. A typical installation requires 4 megabytes (MB) of free space.
As it installs the Support Tools, Setup:
Some tools require separate or additional setup besides the steps described earlier. For more information about each of these tools and others with additional requirements, as well as a complete list of the tools, see the online Help file (Suptools.chm).
Note
On the Windows XP
Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition CDs, most tools are compressed
into cabinet (.cab) files. You cannot run executable files, call other binaries,
or open documentation directly from .cab files. Before you run a tool that you
have not installed by using the Support Tools Setup, you must first extract all
executable files and dependencies for a tool from the .cab file on the CD to
your hard drive.
Be aware also that for some tools, the Support Tools
Setup or the tool's own Setup program performs other installation procedures,
such as making changes in the registry. You might not be able to run these tools
even if you extract all their files from the .cab; first install them with the
Support Tools Setup or the tool's own Setup program.
You can install the Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition from the command prompt. If necessary, you can also use the /qb option to install or uninstall in silent mode, which requires no further interaction from the user.
The following table lists the command-line options for installing from the command prompt.
| Option | Parameters | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| /i | FullPath\suptools.msi [/qb] |
Installs or configures. /qb performs unattended installation (optional). |
| /f | [ReinstallModes] FullPath\suptools.msi | Repairs a previous installation. |
| /a | FullPath\suptools.msi | Admin Installation. Installs on the network. |
| /x | FullPath\suptools.msi | Uninstalls. |
| /l | [i|w|e|f|a|r|u|c|m|p|+]FullPath\LogFile | Specifies path to log file. The flags indicate what information to
log.
i – Status messages. w – Nonfatal warnings. e – All error messages. f – List of replaced files. a – Startup of actions. r – Action-specific records. u – User requests. c – Initial UI parameters. m – Out of memory. p – Terminal properties. + – Append to existing file. |
For example, to install Support Tools in the current directory, insert the Windows XP Professional or Windows Windows XP 64-Bit Edition CD in your CD-ROM drive and type the following at the command prompt:
msiexec /i CDDriveLetter:\support\tools\suptools.msi
where:
CDDriveLetter: is the letter indicating the CD-ROM
drive (for example, d:).
msiexec /i CDDriveLetter:\support\tools\suptools.msi /qb
The following section covers release note information for individual Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition tools. When using a tool, make sure to also check the online Help (Suptools.chm) for more information.
Allows administrators to manage the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), a background file transfer service and queue manager in Windows XP. Requests to BITS are submitted by an application and the files can be transferred in a throttled manner such that the interactive user is not affected by the bandwidth consumed. Requests are placed in a queue until the files are transferred, at which time the requesting application is invoked and notified of the completion.
Note
This tool is not documented in the Help for
Support Tools (Suptools.chm).
Enables administrators to verify that a crash dump (user mode:user.dmp or kernel mode:memory.dmp) has been created correctly. It also provides options for performing some dump file analysis without using a debugger.
Note
This tool is not documented in the Help for
Support Tools (Suptools.chm).
Collects diagnostic information about remote services and places that information in a file. Administrators can use this tool to work with Product Support Services to troubleshoot remote connection issues by taking a snapshot of the configuration data and capturing an attempted remote connection.
Note
This tool is not documented in the Help for
Support Tools (Suptools.chm).
See Activate.doc for more information on the automatic product activation tool.
Note
This tool is not documented in the Help for
Support Tools (Suptools.chm).
The following table describes major online documents available with the Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition.
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Suptools.chm | Documentation for Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, describing the required files, syntax, and other usage issues, along with examples for using these tools. |
The SOFTWARE supplied in the Program Files\Support Tools directory is not supported under any Microsoft standard support program or service. You can, however, report issues and bugs by sending e-mail to stinput@microsoft.com. Microsoft will, at its sole discretion, address issues and bugs reported in this manner, and responses are not guaranteed.
The SOFTWARE (including instructions for its use and all printed and online documentation) is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. Microsoft further disclaims all implied warranties including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the SOFTWARE and documentation remains with you.
In no event shall Microsoft, its authors, or anyone else involved in the creation, production, or delivery of the SOFTWARE be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use the SOFTWARE or documentation, even if Microsoft has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
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