Jump to content

Resource Kit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 221.128.180.129 (talk) at 11:10, 12 April 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Microsoft Windows Resource Kit is a set of software resources and documentation (technical guidance, compatibility and troubleshooting information, management, support, maintenance and deployment guides and multi-purpose useful administrative tools and utilities) released with or after every major version of Microsoft Windows. It was introduced with Windows NT 3.51 and has since been released for every Windows version (9x and NT versions) with the exception of Windows Me. The tools are mainly to help administrators streamline management tasks such as troubleshooting operating system issues, managing Active Directory, configuring networking and security features and automating application deployment.

Versions

The Windows 95 and Windows 98 resource kit documentation and resource kit tools (RKT) were free of cost and were included on the respective Windows installation CD-ROM. Usually, but not always, for the Windows NT family of operating systems, resource kit documentation is produced for every NT-based OS whereas tools and utilities are released with server OS releases. The resource kit tools are usually free of cost and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center, while the technical guidance and information is released in the form of a Microsoft Press book. A Windows Resource Kit CD-ROM accompanying the book, contains an electronic version of the book and includes all the tools and utilities.

Microsoft also releases resource kits for other products, such as Microsoft Office and other server products. The Office Resource Kit and tools are included on the respective Office CD/DVD. The tools are also downloadable from Microsoft.com.

The Windows NT 4.0 resource kit contained a very large number of tools and utilities. Microsoft even released 4 supplements for the Windows NT Resource Kit. Some of these utilities later shipped as part of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Others were included in their respective resource kits. The Windows NT resource kit has since been retired because of Windows NT reaching the end of life stage.

The Windows 2000 resource kits for various editions contain over 300 utilities in all.[1] For Windows Server 2003 again, over 120 tools and utilities have been updated.[2] The Windows XP resource kit does not include explicit resource kit tools, but includes support and deployment tools, along with extensive documentation. For Windows XP SP2, the resource kit has been updated and includes the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit tools.

In 2007, Microsoft released the Windows Vista Resource Kit.

References

  1. ^ Windows 2000 Resource Kits
  2. ^ Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Resource_Kit&oldid=122192120"