Websites, Resource Kits, Books and Utilities

Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) - Microsoft).
Security Bulletins - Microsoft Security TechCenter.
Microsoft Update Catalog - Search for specific updates by KB#
Windows Command Line Tools For Developers - Microsoft.
Rob van der Woude.com - Batch files, VBS.
CommandLine - Batch File examples and Utilities.
Old New Thing - Raymond Chen, Microsoft.
Windows Commands Help file (Server 2008 R2 / Vista) - Microsoft.

ToolKits

Many resource kit tools and utilities will run successfully on multiple versions of Windows. However Active Directory and NTFS have changed significantly over the years so I recommend you only use the tools supported for your platform.

Windows 10 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) KBase
Windows 2008/2012 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) Built-in feature.
Windows 8.1 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) KBase

RSAT includes Active Directory Domain Services Tools, elements of the RSAT package can be enabled under Control Panel | Programs and Features | Windows features.

Windows 10 Show or hide Windows Updates - Troubleshooter package.
Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) - Manage local account passwords across a domain.

Deployment tools

Windows 10 Update Assistant - update to the latest version, includes hardware check.
Windows 10 - ISO download.
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations - With WinFS
Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 version: 1803, 1809, 1903
Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) - Customize Windows 10 images for large-scale deployment.
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) - Automate desktop and server OS deployments.

Other Windows Toolkits:

Sysinternals Suite - Download the Sysinternals utilities.
ADModify - A GUI tool to facilitate making bulk user attribute modifications.
Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit - Evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues for Vista and Windows 7. Includes the Compatibility Administrator which can be used to set UAC exceptions (Application fix.)
Account Lockout Status (LockoutStatus.exe) - Display lockout information for a particular user account (Aug 2012).
Account Lockout and Management Tools - Includes LockoutStatus, plus tools to troubleshoot account lockouts, and display password ages(Aug 2012).
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer - Scan local and remote systems for missing security updates.
SMB1 How to disable it - Windows 7 up to Windows Server 2016.
Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista + Elevation blog
File, Folder and Share Permission Utility Tool - Enumerate all the permissions, Technet/Monimoy Sanyal.
File Checksum Integrity Verifier (FCIV) - Compute and verify cryptographic hash values for files.
Policy Analyzer from Aaron Margosis - Compare sets of Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Highlight redundant settings or internal inconsistencies.
Group Policy Management Console SP1 & Group Policy Object Settings spreadsheet 2003/2008/2008R2/Win7.
Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) - Manage local account passwords of domain joined computers (howto).
Windows 10 PowerToys - FancyZones / Shortcut Key Guide / Batch file renamer / Process terminate tool / Animated gif screen recorder.
Remote Desktop Connection Manager - RDP to multiple machines.
WMI Diagnosis Utility - Diagnose and repair problems with the WMI service.

Recommended Books.

Batchography: The Art of Batch Files Programming
by Elias Bachaalany, 2016
Discover the lost art of Batch file programming, start with the basics of manipulating numbers, strings and variables and move on to looping operations, recursion, debugging and troubleshooting of your scripts. The final chapter has a number of batch file recipes: parsing .ini files, creating interactive menus and more. Highly recommended.

Troubleshooting with the Windows Sysinternals Tools (2nd Edition)
by Mark E. Russinovich
Guidance and inside insights for the Windows Sysinternals tools. Guided by Sysinternals creator Mark Russinovich and Windows expert Aaron Margosis

Windows Internals, Part 1 (2017) and Part2 (2019)
by Mark E. Russinovich, David A. Solomon and Alex Ionescu
Insider perspectives and hands-on experiments to demonstrate how Windows operates.

Windows 10: The Missing Manual
by David Pogue
An enjoyable but still very detailed read with lot's of good tips and keyboard shortcuts.

Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2
by Mark Minasi.
Comprehensive and understandable guide. Improve the performance and manageability of your network.
minasi.com

Windows NT Shell Scripting
by Tim Hill.
First published in 1998 so no mention of VBS or Powershell, despite this it's still a solid introduction to writing batch files under Windows. Sample chapter.

Also see - Recommended VBScript Books

Utilities - Command line

SysInternals - Microsoft System utilities.

Console 2 - Windows console emulator for CMD and/or PowerShell (review)
ConEmu-Maximus5 - Windows console emulator for CMD and/or PowerShell (review)
CommandLine.co.uk - Useful tools (free Win32 utilities - mostly console)
CryptoPrevent - A Group Policy to block executables from specific paths.
Cygwin - Linux-like environment for Windows, tutorial: 1, 2, 3
FastCopy - An alternative to RoboCopy.
Frank P. Westlake Batch Scripts + mirror of older console utilities.
Gow - Lightweight UNIX utilities compiled as native win32 binaries.
ImageMagick - Edit/Convert bitmap images(PNG, JPEG, GIF) on the command line (scripts)
Jason Hood - Utilities including Search & Replace, Date/Time, ANSI escape recognition for CMD.
Joeware.net - Admin, AD and Exchange tools.
Nirsoft Utilities and NirCMD freeware Command-Line Tool.
Npocmaka - Batch scripts, zipjs.bat + others.
PDFtk - Command-line tool for processing PDFs.
Petter Nordahl-Hagen - Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor.
pretentiousname - Utilities by Leo Davidson.
Repl.bat - FInd and Replace text, JScript/Batch script.
FindRepl.bat - FInd and Replace text, JScript/Batch script.
SetRes - Set screen resolution (Ian Sharpe).
SoX - Sound processing command line utility.
Bill Stewart - Batch script and Windows admin tools (TrueLast LogonTime).
SetACL - Utility to manage permissions, auditing and ownership (free).
System Tools - Dump Event Log, Registry or Security info.
unxutils - Port of unix utilities to run under the CMD shell.
WebP utilities - encode/decode WebP animated images, Google.
Wake On Lan Command Line: Depicus / Gammadyne / Nirsoft

Package Managers

Chocolatey - Package manager for Windows.
Ninite - Automate software installations and updates.
PC Decrapifier - Remove shovelware.

GUI Applications

Agent Ransack - File Search (search all file types).
AIMP3 - Fully featured free music player.
Autohotkey - Automate keystrokes, mouse clicks.
AutoIT - GUI scripting.
CamStudio - Record screen and audio activity on your computer.
Clonezilla - Partition and disk imaging/cloning program.
CPU-Z - gather information on system devices.

Dban - Darik's Boot and Nuke, a boot CD that securely wipes hard disks.
Event Sentry - Event log monitoring.
Everything - Locate files and folders by name instantly.

FTP - Cyberduck - FTP client .
FTP - FileZilla - FTP client [Warning: some official builds contain malware] (also via Ninite)
FTP - WinSCP - Free SFTP, SCP and FTP client for Windows .

Flash uninstall
Firefox Enterprise - with Windows Group Policy support.
foobar2000 - freeware audio player.
Ghost Solution Suite - Disk / Partition Imaging.
Glasswire - Firewall with network monitoring.
Inkscape - Vector Graphics (Illustrator)
imgburn.com - Free CD/DVD/Blu-ray burner (MajorGeeks link to avoid OpenCandy malware).
isoRecorder - Burn iso image to bootable CD.
Krita - Open Source photo/graphics editor.

Lansweeper - Network Monitoring.
Lost NT password
MakeMSI - Build Windows Installer files.
MalwareBytes - Anti Malware, detect and remove worms, Trojans, rootkits, etc.
Metapad - Simple notepad replacement.
Notepad++ - Notepad replacement (n.b. the syntax highlighting for parentheses in CMD/BAT files is faulty.)

Photoshop Elements - Basic photo editing and organisation.
Trinity Rescue Kit - Recovery and repair of Windows machines.
Netikus - Password, Ping, FTP, event log alerts.
PhotoRec - Data recovery software - hard disk, CD-ROM & Memory Cards.
PuTTY - Free Telnet/SSH Client.

Rapid Environment Editor - Edit environment variables, donationware.
Servers Alive - Network monitoring.
Shotcutapp - free, open source, cross-platform video editor.
SoftPerfect - Search, Scan for open file shares and other utils.
Speccy - System information, hardware and software (serial numbers etc).
Sumatra - PDF viewer.
SyncBack - GUI Backup and synchronize files.
SyncToy - Synchronize files and folders.

TeamViewer - Screen sharing/Remote control (Mac/PC/Linux.)
Textadept - cross-platform text editor.
TightVNC - Remote control.
TribbleSoft - Easy Robocopy (GUI).

WinAmp 2.95 - Old but still usable MP3 player.
WinMerge - open source WinDiff
VirtualBox - Open Source virtualisation for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris.
VirtualDub - Process/Edit .AVI files.
Virtual PC - Virtualisation for Windows.
VLC Media Player - Free versatile media player.
VueScan - Scanner Software.
WSUS Offline Update - Microsoft updates without an internet connection.
Wink - Capture screenshots/video, add help text.
Zero Assumption Recovery - data recovery.
Find more utilities, or add you own over in the forum

Related

Usenet - news: alt.msdos.batch.nt
DosTips forum
The Scripting Guys Forum - a mix of VBScript, Batch and PowerShell.
SS64 - Windows CMD discussion Forum

“We have prided ourselves on always being the cheapest guy on the block. We have always told our people we're the high volume, low price guy in the software business" ~ Steve Ballmer (Partnering for Success)