Reading through the CCNA books I was confused about the difference between a root port and a designated port. An article on Cisco's website about how STP / RSTP works cleared it up for me. I've copied the relevant info below.

Root Port Roles

The port that receives the best BPDU on a bridge is the root port. This is the port that is the closest to the root bridge in terms of path cost. The STA elects a single root bridge in the whole bridged network (per-VLAN). The root bridge sends BPDUs that are more useful than the ones any other bridge sends. The root bridge is the only bridge in the network that does not have a root port. All other bridges receive BPDUs on at least one port.

Designated Port Role

A port is designated if it can send the best BPDU on the segment to which it is connected. 802.1D bridges link together different segments, such as Ethernet segments, to create a bridged domain. On a given segment, there can only be one path toward the root bridge. If there are two, there is a bridging loop in the network. All bridges connected to a given segment listen to the BPDUs of each and agree on the bridge that sends the best BPDU as the designated bridge for the segment. The port on that bridge that corresponds is the designated port for that segment.

Using TFTP 

The recommended way to save and load config files is directly to/from a TFTP or FTP server. First you'll need to install a TFTP server program (like tftpd32 for Windows) on your PC. 

To export config: copy startup-configuration tftp

To import config: copy tftp startup-config

Using PuTTY to save a log file

A quick and dirty way to save the config is to use the logging feature of PuTTY.

First, configure PuTTY to save a log file: Go to Session > Logging, supply a log file name, and change "Session logging" to "All session output".

Then show the running config. To show the running config without having to acknowledge the "MORE" each time, do this:

in EXEC mode:

terminal length 0
show run

Set enable password: enable secret <password>

Set user password with highest privileges: username admin priv 15 secret <password>

BTW, there are two ways to store a password: unencrypted (pass) or encrypted (secret)

If you typed the command username admin pass <password> and got the following message:

ERROR: Can not have both a user password and a user secret

... then just type the same command using "secret" instead, like this: username admin secret <password>

You can use the "VER" command in your scripts to return the version of Windows that is running.

This is useful when different syntax is required depending on the version. For example, you may want to only run certain commands on Vista and above, because the commands did not exist in XP and Server 2003. You could use the following methods to get the version number, and then use a statement like "IF %_version% is greater than or equal to 6, run the following Vista commands".

To view the version number on the command line

For /f "tokens=4 delims=]\ " %G in ('ver') Do echo %G

To set the version number in a batch file

For /f "tokens=4 delims=]\ " %%G in ('ver') Do (set _version=%%G)

Test the Windows version number in a Kaseya script with an IF statement

In Kaseya scripting you can say "run this step on Vista only" by using the "perform step on" feature. You can select Windows XP, Vista, 7, etc. But you can't say "run this step on Vista and above", which would be very handy! The steps below achieve that. (you can also do things like: run these steps on "Everything before Vista")

New Step:

• Step Type: Execute Shell Command - Get Results to Variable
• Shell Command: For /f "tokens=4 delims=]\ " %G in ('ver') Do echo %G
• Execute as system account

New IF:

• Condition Type: Check Variable
• Variable name: #global:cmdresults#
• Is Greater Than or Equal To: 6

New Step:

• <stuff to do on Vista and above>

Toggle Else

New Step: 

• <stuff to do on pre-Vista machines>

VBscript to call another command

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "C:\Windows\System32\wbadmin.exe delete systemstatebackup -keepversions:4 -quiet", 0, True
WshShell.Run "C:\Windows\System32\wbadmin.exe start systemstatebackup -backuptarget:D: -quiet", 0, True
Set WshShell = Nothing

The last argument says to wait until the command completes before continuing execution. To not wait, set it to False:

WshShell.Run "C:\Windows\System32\wbadmin.exe start systemstatebackup -backuptarget:D: -quiet", 0, False

How to add metadata to a folder: http://sharepoint-guru.blogspot.com/2007/06/adding-metadata-to-folder.html

You can also change existing folders, no need to re-create. Just select the folder and on the Documents tab click Edit Properties.

Does anyone actually like the new Windows 7 taskbar? I prefer the old style which 

You can change it back manually by right-clicking on the taskbar, selecting properties, and ticking the following two options:

• Use small icons
• Taskbar buttons: Never combine

What if you want to script it? The change is made in the registry, you can import the registry file by using the following command: reg import settings.reg

Put the following into settings.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"TaskbarSmallIcons"=dword:00000001
"TaskbarGlomLevel"=dword:00000002