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With Windows XP, users no longer need to run a command line tool to check policies on their computer. Now any user can obtain a graphical report directly from the Help and Support Center.

To check policies in effect on your computer

1. Click Start, click Help and Support Center.
2. Under Pick a Task, select Use Tools to view your computer information and diagnose problems. 
3. Click Advanced System Information, then click View Group Policy settings applied. 

When system information is collected, results appear on the screen. This report can be printed, saved as an html file, and sent to a support administrator. In this example, the first few items in the report are shown in the figure below.

You can also use “gpresult” in CLI to verify the GPO applied settings.

Using WMIC install and uninstall software remotely

1. Login CMD with domain admin account.

 Runas /user:DomainAdminAccount@DOMAIN cmd

input password when it prompted.

2. Open a WMIC shell with appropriate permissions by running “WMIC” command.

3. Install MSI software remotely

 > /node:COMPUTERNAME product call install true,”" , “c:\Active Directory Janitor 2.0.msi”

4.  Query installed software first and then uninstall selected software

>/node:COMPUTERNAME product get name,version,vendor

>/node:COMPUTERNAME product where name=”Active Directory Janitor 2.0″ call uninstall

5. Install and uninstall software remotel on multiple computers at one time

>/node:@”c:\computers.txt” product where name=”Active Directory Janitor 2.0.msi” call uninstall

> /node:@”c:\computers.txt” product call install true,”" , “c:\Active Directory Janitor 2.0.msi”

Windows Vista has the built-in ability to automatically reduce the potential of security breaches in the system. It does that by automatically enabling a feature called User Account Control (or UAC for short). The UAC forces users that are part of the local administrators group to run like they were regular users with no administrative privileges.

Some home users might be tempted to disable UAC because of the additional mouse clicking it brings into their system.

Using msconfig you can disable the UAC feature.

1. Launch MSCONFIG by from the Run menu.
2. Click on the Tools tab. Scroll down till you find “Disable UAC” . Click on that line.
3. Press the “Launch” button.
4. A CMD window will open. When the command is done, you can close the window.
5. Close MSCONFIG. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply.

You can re-enable UAC by selecting the “Enable UAC” line and then clicking on the Launch button.

To set an automatic administrator logon for the Recovery Console, complete the following steps while you are logged on with administrative credentials:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Switch to Classic View in the right pane, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Local Security Policy.
3. Expand Security Settings, expand Local Policies, and then click Security Options.
4. Double-click the Recovery Console: Allow automatic administrative logon policy, and then set it to Enable.

   The policy is effective immediately. Make sure that you reopen the Local Security Policy snap-in to make sure that the effective setting for the policy is “Enabled.”

The next time that you start to Recovery Console, you are not prompted for a password.

After you complete this procedure, the SecurityLevel DWORD registry value data is set to 1 in the following registry key:

The Recovery Console gives you limited access to the NTFS file system, FAT, and FAT32 volumes. Recovery Console prevents the familiar Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) from loading in order to repair and recover Windows functionality.

After you start the Windows Recovery Console, you receive the following message: