Windows NT/2000/2003/XP

System Administration Software

Hyena is a tool for day-to-day administration of Windows NT and Windows XP/2000/2003 systems.

Hyena brings together all of the administrative tools from Windows NT such as User Manager, Server Manager, and File Manager/Explorer, and many of the MMC components from Windows 2000/2003 into a single, easy-to-use, centralized program. Hyena arranges all system objects, such as users, servers, and groups, in a hierarchical tree for easy and logical system administration. Here's a sample of just a few of Hyena's functions:

Create, modify, delete, and view users, groups, and group membership

Modify single or multiple user properties, including terminal server and Exchange mailbox settings

Automatically create home directory and home shares for users, including full security configuration

Export delimited text files of users, groups, printers, computers, group members, services, scheduled tasks, disk space, registry, and Active Directory information for your entire network.

Browse all server shares, copy and delete files without drive mappings

View events, sessions, shares, processes, and open files for any server

View and control services and drivers for one or more computers

Manage share and file permissions, including creating new shares and viewing all share access rights at the same time

Remotely schedule, delete, and manage jobs for multiple computers at the same time

Remotely shutdown and reboot any single or group of computers

View remaining disk space for multiple computers at the same time

And more...

This help document is organized by system administration function. Use the navigation window at the left to browse the remaining help topics, or visit for more information about Hyena.

If you have questions or problems, or want to check to see if a new version is available, see the Support and Suggestions section. If you need information on purchasing Hyena, see the Licensing and Registration section for pricing and licensing information.

If you want to be kept informed of exciting news and updates to Hyena, find out more about How to Receive Hyena Update Notices.

What's New !

WMI Support

WMI support has been added to Hyena. Hyena can display any WMI property from any WMI class and also provides access to common WMI methods. Hyena also supports modification of most writable WMI instance information on one or multiple instances from one or more computers. To help in understanding WMI and how it is integrated into Hyena, see the WMI topic. WMI exporting options have also been added to Exporter Pro.

Exporting Selected Active Directory Objects

Hyena now supports exporting information on selected Active Directory objects. Previously, only domains, computers, and OUs could be selected for exporting. For example:

  • Display a list of Active Directory objects from an OU, such as users, in Hyena.
  • Select as many objects as needed.
  • Select Tools->Exporter Pro->Export Selected Objects.
  • Select the Directory templates to export and select Start Export.

Tool Grouping

Hyena now allows tools to be grouped into submenus. Hyena will automatically transfer all existing custom tool settings to a file named TOOL_CMDS.DAT, which can be found in the same location as other Hyena configuration files. This new tool command file provides a structure that permits the tools to be grouped and displayed on submenus. To assign tools to groups, see the User-Defined Tools topic.

Microsoft Exchange Public Folders

Support has been added for displaying Microsoft Exchange Public Folders as well as access to the shell Properties dialog for these directory objects.

Access to Microsoft Hotfix Information

The Computer Properties->Hotfix dialog has been modified to support viewing the online Microsoft Hotfix Support database. Either double-clicking on any 'Q' or 'KB' hotfix, or clicking the View Hotfix Information button will access the Microsoft Support web site.

Hyena v5.7

Originally introduced in Hyena v5.5, Exporter Pro has been enhanced with more options for easier administration and customization. Exporter Pro v1.2, included with Hyena, also now supports exporting 'true' last logon information for both Windows NT and Active Directory domains. Hyena also now has tighter integration with Exporter Pro, providing simple and easy selection of objects in Hyena to be immediately sent to Exporter Pro. See the Exporting topic for more information on Hyena's new Exporter Pro integration.

Improved Active Directory Shell Integration - Hyena v5.7 can now display the standard Active Directory shell context menu functions for most objects in addition to the full shell property pages. Need access to a 3rd party shell extension or Exchange Task functions? Click here for more information.

Wake-On-Lantm (WOL) - New integration with industry-standard WOL-enabled computers has been added in Hyena v5.7. What is WOL ? Quite simply, it is a technology that allows a computer that is turned off to be remotely turned on. See the Wake-On-Lan (WOL) topic for more information.

Improved Active Directory 'Find' Integration - Previous versions of Hyena could display the standard Active Directory 'Find' dialog, but were limited to what could be done with the results. Hyena v5.7 supports selecting and returning the resulting objects back into Hyena.

Viewing Share Security - While previous versions of Hyena could display the share security for all shares through the View All Access Rights option or for a single share through the Share Properties dialog, Hyena v5.7 can now display share security information for any range of selected shares through a new View Share Security function.

Service Installation - Hyena can now install services on one or more computers using a simple wizard-based service installation process. For more information, see the Installing Services topic.

Hyena v5.5

Exporting Improvements

Hyena v5.5 now includes a separate and more powerful version of the exporting software, Exporter Pro. All Hyena v5.5 licenses include free Exporter Pro licensing! Exporter Pro provides for many improvements to the previous exporting options found in Hyena, including exporting of Active Directory information, registry, scheduled tasks, and more. See the Exporting topic for more information.

Timeout (Ping) Protection Options

Hyena can now be optionally configured to initiate a ping to any computer before attempting a remote operation, preventing long delays in waiting for a timeout error to be returned. For more information about this feature, see the Ping Options topic.

Support for adding Containers/OUs through Object Manager

Containers and Organizational Units (OUs) can now be added directly in Object Manager. A browse button was also added to assist in creating the paths for Containers/OUs and Windows 2000/2003 domains.

Hyena v5.2

Active Directory Shell Properties

Hyena can now display the standard shell property pages for all Active Directory objects. This provides for 100% full Microsoft functionality for Active Directory objects, while at the same time leveraging Hyena's ease-of-use and easy navigation through Active Directory. Specifically, these changes allow Hyena to:

  • Support security management for all Active Directory objects.
  • Provide fully functional Exchange 2000 mailbox management.
  • Provides access to the exact same property pages as found in MMC for Active Directory objects.

For some objects, such as users and computers, the Account Functions (users) or Directory Functions (computers) menus provide direct access to the Shell Property pages and the Security Property pages. Other objects, such as foreign security principals, contacts, printers, and shares use the Shell Property pages by default when managing object properties.

The default property pages for user and group objects can be changed under Tools->Settings->Active Directory settings. The user and group objects, Hyena can either continue to display its own customized set of property dialogs, or use the standard shell property pages.

Additionally, to force the display of the integrated shell property pages for a user or group object, hold the SHIFT key when using the Properties function (toolbar, or double-click). To force the display of Hyena's internal property pages for a user or group object, hold the ALT key when using the Properties function (toolbar, or double-click).

Active Directory Security

In addition to the standard Security dialog that can be accessed either through the Security tab on any Properties dialog or through the new Security Properties... option, there is also a new List Directory Security option to the context menus for all Active Directory (AD) objects. This option will generate a display of the security settings for any selected AD objects. To view the security for multiple objects, select them from the right window.

For other improvements in this release, see the General Improvements section; for bugs fixed in this release, see the Bug Fixes section.

Hyena v5.0

New Organization Unit (OU) Filtering toolbar

A new toolbar has been added that allows control over object retrieval options when viewing the contents of OUs or containers. This new toolbar is displayed automatically in the lower left corner of Hyena's window when an Active Directory container is selected. See Using the OU Filtering Toolbar for more information.

Registry Management

Registry management has been added to Hyena. To access the registry, expand any computer in Hyena's left window; registry functions are at the bottom of the computer object list. Supported functions include registry navigation, creating new keys/values, key and value deletion, searching, and modification of REG_DWORD and REG_SZ data types. For more information, see Registry Management.

Listing Group Members for Multiple Groups

Hyena can now display the members of multiple Active Directory groups in the list window. To do this, select any number of Active Directory groups (any type) in Hyena's list window, right click and select "View Group Members". Hyena will add the applicable group name as an additional column to the resulting display. This feature can be used to create a complete domain-wide group membership listing.

New XP-style toolbar and menus

Hyena now uses a new full color toolbar and XP-style menus. Also, a large button toolbar is available under Tools->Settings->GUI. Hyena must be restarted to change the toolbar button size.

Add to Group... function for Active Directory Users

A new function, Add To Group, has been added for Active Directory user displays on the Account Functions submenu. This new function will allow any number of select users to be added to any Active Directory group.

Viewing multi-valued Active Directory elements in Tabular Views

Hyena can now display the values for multi-valued Active Directory attributes when used in a Tabular (right window) query. For example, the MemberOf attribute for a user's group memberships and the proxyaddress attribute for Exchange are examples of these attributes.

Since there is only one 'cell' for each attribute for the output of a tabular query, Hyena will append the values for multi-valued attributes together and separate them with the '^' character. Windows is limited to placing a maximum of 255 characters in any cell/field in a list window, so if Hyena detects that this limit has been reached, the characters "...!" will be placed at the end of the attribute data to indicate that more data was available, but could not be displayed.

General Improvements

Hyena v6.0

  • Enabled functionality on the '%G%' symbol in tools and macros when used on Active Directory group members.
  • Added Send Message option to the View Logged On Users dialog.
  • Enabled restoring the previous original window size and position when Hyena is closed when in a minimized state.
  • Added comma separators for file size displays.
  • Added a clipboard copy option for event log entry displays.
  • Added a "Add To Group..." function for Active Directory contacts.
  • Added a registry setting under HKCU\Software\Adkins Resource\Hyena\Advanced named "EnableAdFindOk" (REG_DWORD) that can turn off the option to enable the OK button on the Active Directory 'Find' dialog. Set this value to a '0' to remove the OK button. The default setting is a '1' (enable/show OK).
  • Added the capability to view the contents of REG_BINARY registry keys.
  • Modified event properties dialog to show user field in the "domain\username" format.
  • Added option to save credential information temporarily on the Logon As... function. Credential information is only stored internally in Hyena and will not be restored when Hyena is restarted.
  • Added child domains to the domain UPN suffix listing on the User Properties->Account dialog.
  • Modified the loading of the customized hot fix file location to default to a shared configuration file location by default. If not specified, then the installation directory will be used for the file's location.
  • Enabled deletion of Active Directory computer accounts with sub-objects under their directory entries.
  • Hyena now performs a ping check (if configured) prior to sending messages to computer-type objects.

Hyena v5.7

  • v5.7 'B' - Recalled last setting for "Change Password at Next Logon" when using the Account Functions->Reset Password option.
  • The container selection dialog was changed to only show containers and OUs instead of all objects in a container. This should improve performance in large environments and make it easier to select sub-containers.
  • Added View FSMO Roles option to the menu for Windows 2000/2003 domains.
  • Added Backup Event Log option.
  • Added 'total' last logon, logoff, bad logon, and total logon count fields to the user View Logon Information dialog.
  • Added double-click (Add) option to the schema attributes list on Object Manager->Queries dialog.
  • Moved all Exporting options to the Tools menu.
  • Added a mechanism to control the display of the hotfix information on the Computer Properties - Hotfix dialog. See the Customizing Hot Fix Properties topic for more information.

Hyena v5.5

  • Rev 'C' - Added option to File menu to run the older Exporter software found in Hyena versions prior to v5.5
  • Rev 'C' - Added option to File menu to run Exporter Pro or to export selected objects from either window. See the Exporting topic for more information.
  • Added "Set Inheritance" option to home directory template to control home directory inheritance security options.
  • Secondary property pages for Active Directory objects can now be displayed on Windows XP/Windows 2003 clients. Secondary property pages are available when displaying user and group 'shell' property pages. For users, for example, select the Member Of tab, then double-click any group member to display the 'secondary' group properties dialog.
  • Added option to always show the OU filtering toolbar. Select Tools->Settings->GUI to change this option.
  • Added option to allow changing the Exchange mail alias name when creating Exchange 2000/2003 mailboxes. To enable this option, enable the "Prompt for template and Exchange settings..." option at the bottom of the Tools->Settings->Exchange 2000/2003 configuration dialog.
  • Added option to allow suppressing error messages when shutting down multiple computers
  • Added option to allow suppressing error messages when copying tasks to multiple computers
  • Modified Service->General dialog to display very long service executable paths.
  • Added support for InetOrgPerson Active Directory objects. To enable this support, check the "Enable support for InetOrgPerson objects" under Tools->Settings->Active Directory. This feature only works when used on Windows 2003 domains.
  • Added Browse button to the Local Group Properties dialog.
  • Added "Add To Group..." option to Active Directory computer context menu "Directory Functions"
  • Added history (last 20 previous entries) to the "View Computers" option.
  • Added Print Server Properties function to the main "Printers" object for any computer.
  • Modified the behavior when multiple accounts are disabled/enabled using the Enable/Disable account function.
  • Added browse buttons for finding/constructing Active Directory paths for AD domains and OUs in the Object Manager.

Hyena v5.2

  • Added "Enable/Disable Computer Account" to the directory functions available for computers.
  • Added additional filtering buttons to the OU toolbar for filtering directory shares, printers, GPOs, and foreign security principals.
  • Added option for Active Directory groups "Add To User..." which provides for an easy way to add any number of selected groups to a designated user or contact.
  • Added a Properties menu option for Active Directory domain objects.
  • Worked around problem when a DNS-style name was used for the "Name" of a Windows 2000 domain, resulting in "Unable to determine domain controller" errors for some operations.
  • Allowed viewing and modifying Active Directory user accounts ending with a '$'.
  • Added message when Hyena detects that the Administrative Tools package (Admin Pak) is not installed when Windows 2000 domains are being managed.
  • Added Open and Explore menu options to all shares and folder objects
  • Added View Task Log option to the context menu for Scheduled Jobs
  • Modified the computer properties (General) dialog to disallow entering more than 48 characters for the computer comment due to limitations of the Windows browser service.
  • Sorted the local computer groups when adding local group security to shares.
  • Added the capability to add Local Groups from a Windows 2000 native mode domain to the local groups on member servers/workstations.
  • Disabled the option for a Windows NT 4.0 workstation to initiate synchronization (replication) on a native mode Windows 2000 domain (function is not supported on NT 4.0 resulting in crash of Hyena.exe)

Hyena v5.0