Automate tedious admin tasks with these batch files and Windows Task Scheduler

When combined with Windows Task Sceduler, these four batch files can automate regular computer maintenance tasks.

Unix administrators love cron jobs. The power to schedule tasks you would normally run manually is indeed great. Unfortunately, many Windows admins don't do the same, even though the necessary tools are included in Windows. This is perhaps due to the fact that the tool to do this included in the older NT versions of Windows server (the AT scheduler) was difficult to use and often were not reliable. Beginning with Windows 2000, a new, more robust and reliable scheduling tool was available?Windows Task Scheduler. When combined with the command line and batch files, Windows Task Schedule provides admins an effective maintenance automation tool.

This download includes the following four batch files that you can put to use with the Windows Task Scheduler:

• clearbad.bat - empties the C:\Inetpub\mailroot\Badmail\ folder on a local IIS 6 SMTP relay server (You may need to modify the bad e-mail folder before the batch file will properly in your environment.)
• flushdns.bat - clears the DNS cache of the local machine
• shutd.bat - forces open applications to close and then shuts down and restarts the local machine
• smtpreset.bat - stops and restarts the SMTP service on the local machine

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