Websites, Resource Kits, Books and Utilities

Terminal, Command Line and console blog - Microsoft Devblogs.
Rob van der Woude.com - Batch files, VBS.
Security Bulletins - Microsoft Security updates.
Old New Thing - Raymond Chen, Microsoft.
Microsoft Update Catalog - Search for specific updates by KB#
aka.ms search - Permalinks to Microsoft content.

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.

Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), includes Active Directory Domain Services Tools and is a replacement for the Adminpak.msi tookits in older versions of Windows.
In Windows 11 just open Apps > Optional features > RSAT
Windows 10 Download (KBase) and then enable after installation: Settings > "Manage optional features"
or use DISM /Add-Capability.

To add a Security Tab to ADUC to view object permissions:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\EXAdmin]
"ShowSecurityPage"=dword:00000001

Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0 - SetObjectSecurity.exe PolicyAnalyzer and Security Baselines. Release notes.
KB4577586 - Windows Update to remove Adobe Flash (October 2020).

Microsoft PowerToys - Windows 10/11 Including Always on Top, File Locksmith, Keyboard Manager, Power Renamer, Video Conference Mute. [Github]
ColorTool.exe - Select a terminal color scheme.

Windows 10 Show or hide Windows Updates - Troubleshooter package.
IE 11 Enterprise Mode Site List Manager - Create / Edit an Enterprise Mode Site List XML.
Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) - Manage local account passwords across a domain.
Windows 2003 resource Kit (Archive.org 11.8 MB)

Deployment tools

Windows 11 Installation Assistant - update to the latest version or download an ISO.
Windows 10 Update Assistant - update to the latest version, includes hardware check.
WuMgr - Manage Windows 10 updates, fine control to download/install missing updates.
Windows 10 - ISO download.
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations - With WinFS
Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 version: 1909, 2004, 21H2, 22H2
Locale Builder 2.0 - Create custom formats for Windows 10 language and region.
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.
Rufus USB formatting tool - Create install media. Can also bypass Windows 11's Microsoft account requirement for new installs.
Upgrade Windows 7 licence to Windows 10.

Package Managers

Chocolatey - Package manager for Windows.
Ninite - Automate software installations and updates.
Windows Package Manager - WINGET - Scripted Install,update or uninstall, borged from AppGet.
An automatic update via the Microsoft Store for all devices running Windows 10, version 1809 and later.

Other Windows Toolkits:

Sysinternals Suite - Download the Sysinternals utilities.
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 Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0 - Microsoft-recommended security configuration baselines for Windows 10.
How to disable SMB 1 (or 2/3 for testing) - Instructions for all versions of Windows Server & workstation.
File, Folder and Share Permission Utility Tool - Enumerate all the permissions, Technet/Monimoy Sanyal.
File Checksum Integrity Verifier (2015 archive of 2004 utility) - Compute and verify cryptographic hash values for files. This can now be done by CERTUTIL, but FCIV also has options to recurse into subdirectories, exclude files and the ability to save/list/verify checksums in an XML database. Unsupported.
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.

Recommended Books.

[ Full disclosure: I get a finder's fee on stuff you buy from Amazon.com by clicking through this website.
That doesn't cost you anything, but the commissions help to keep the site running ]

Batchography: The Art of Batch Files Programming - Amazon / Biblio / Hive UK
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.

Windows 10: The Missing Manual - Amazon / Biblio / Bookshop.org / Hive UK
by David Pogue
An enjoyable but still very detailed read with lots of good tips and keyboard shortcuts.

Windows Server 2019 & PowerShell All-in-One For Dummies - Amazon / Biblio / Bookshop.org / Hive UK
by Sara Perrott.
Comprehensive and understandable guide.

Troubleshooting with the Windows Sysinternals Tools (2nd Edition) - Amazon / Biblio / Hive UK
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) - Amazon / Biblio /Hive UK and Part2 (2019) - Amazon / Biblio / Hive UK
by Mark E. Russinovich, David A. Solomon and Alex Ionescu
Insider perspectives and hands-on experiments to demonstrate how Windows operates.

Windows NT Shell Scripting by Tim Hill - Sample chapter.
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.

Also see - Recommended VBScript Books

Utilities - Command line

SysInternals - Microsoft System utilities.

bottom - A terminal-based graphical process/system monitor.
Caffeine.exe - Prevent your computer from going to sleep.
Console 2 - Windows console emulator for CMD and/or PowerShell (review)
ConEmu-Maximus5 - Windows console emulator for CMD and/or PowerShell (review)
Ritchie Lawrence - Batch function library, cmdow for manipulating program windows and mtee stream splitter.
CopyTrans Manager - Add music to an iPhone without iTunes.
CryptoPrevent - A Group Policy to block executables from specific paths.
Cygwin - Linux-like environment for Windows, tutorial: 1, 2, 3
DOFF - Print a formatted date and time, with an optional date offset, e.g. -1 prints yesterday, +1 prints tomorrow. (source + BSD licence).
FastCopy - An alternative to RoboCopy.
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.
MParallel - Run multiple tasks in parallel, for multi-processor/multi-core machines.
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.
SetACL - Utility to manage permissions, auditing and ownership (free).
System Tools - Dump Event Log, Registry or Security info.
WebP utilities - encode/decode WebP animated images, Google.
Wake On Lan Command Line: Depicus / Gammadyne / Nirsoft / PowerShell Wake On LAN script
Windows Terminal (App Store) + GitHub

GUI Applications

Agent Ransack - File Search (search all file types).
AIMP3 - Fully featured free music player.
Autohotkey - Automate keystrokes, mouse clicks and more.
AutoIT - GUI scripting.

Beyond Compare - Directory, Registry and file comparison utility (cross platform).
Brackets - Open source HTML/CSS code editor.

Calc.exe - The old Windows calculator from Windows 2003. [Github]
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.
Emby - Media Server.
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 - EOL Date= Dec 2020
Firefox Enterprise - with Windows Group Policy support.
Foobar 2000 - freeware audio player.
FreeCAD - Sketch 2D shapes and create high quality drawings / 3D models.

Glasswire - Firewall with network monitoring.
Greenshot - Screenshot capture and edit.

Inkscape - Vector Graphics (Illustrator).
imgburn - Free CD/DVD/Blu-ray burner (MajorGeeks link to avoid OpenCandy malware).
iTunes 7 - (Old Version) Minimal 32 bit media player, unsupported but still works on Windows 10.
Krita - Photo/graphics editor (open source).

Lansweeper - Network Monitoring.
Lost NT password

MalwareBytes - Anti Malware, detect and remove worms, Trojans, rootkits, etc.
Metapad - Simple notepad replacement.
Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator - Remap keys.
Netikus - Password, Ping, FTP, event log alerts.
Notepad++ - Notepad replacement.

O&O ShutUp10 - Portable app to control Windows 10/11 security & privacy settings.
OBS Studio - Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.

Partition Wizard - GUI Disk Partition Manager.
PDFill - Create, Fill, Edit, Delete and Submit PDF Form Fields.
PDFCreator - Print any document to PDF.
Photoshop Elements - Basic photo editing and organisation.
PhotoRec - Data recovery software - hard disk, CD-ROM & Memory Cards.
Pinboard.in - Bookmarking + app SimplePin
PuTTY - Free Telnet/SSH Client.

Rapid Environment Editor - Edit environment variables, donationware.
RawTherapee - Raw image processing.
Recuva - Recover deleted files.

Servers Alive - Network monitoring.
Shotcut - free, open source, cross-platform video editor.
SoftPerfect - Search, Scan for open file shares and other utils.
Sumatra - PDF viewer.
StartAllBack - Windows 11 utility to restore the classic UI.
SyncBack - GUI Backup and synchronize files.
Syncthing - Sync files between devices.

TeamViewer - Screen sharing/Remote control (Mac/PC/Linux.)
Textadept - cross-platform text editor.
TXTcollector - Free Text File Merging Tool.
TightVNC - Remote control.
Trinity Rescue Kit - Live Linux distribution for recovery and repair operations on Windows machines.

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.
WinAmp 2.95 - Old but still usable MP3 player.
WinMerge - open source WinDiff
VirtualBox - Open Source virtualisation for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris.

XVI32 - Freeware Hex Editor.
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
SS64 Windows CMD - Discussion Forum.
Microsoft Q&A forums

“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)