NT ETC.

The A+ test includes competencies for Windows 2000, NT4.0 and XP. The following information is by no means all you will need to know for the A+ test. However, it does cover many items that have been known to be on the test. A+ wants you to know how to navigate to various setup options – keystrokes and mouse-clicks.

Why New Technology?

No more design by compromise... Windows 95 provides an environment in which 32 bit applications can run, but it is basically still a 16-bit operating system with a few 32-bit extensions.

Windows 9x can concentrate on

• Compatibility
• Size

NT (and up) concentrates on

• Integrity (harder for one program to crash system)
• Security (on a file and user level)
• Reliability (RAID)
• Throughput (32-bit optimized)

Here we have an operating system built from the ground up to be 32-bit. Not a hybrid-backwards compatible-legacy lovin’-consumer creature, but a full blown "professional" acting operating system fit for mission critical business use.

Windows 200 Installation - Very A+

Beware some hardware is not supported by NT-based systems.

• Microsoft offers a hardware compatibility list at: www.microsoft.com/hcl – check there before committing
• Also check with your vender to see if your software is compatible
• One insidious incompatibility culprit may be your BIOS. MS also suggests you flash your BIOS to the newest version before installing

Win2K can use ACPI (Advanced Configuration Power Interface) to manage plug and play. ACPI is a BIOS feature – the reason you may need to flash your BIOS before installing Win2K.

When installing Win2k you should turn off "Plug and Play OS" in CMOS setup.

Before you install or upgrade (or buy the disk for that matter)

• Be prepared
• Check HCL and system requirements
• Decide on partition options
• Decide on a file system or systems*

• Decide on dual boot with existing OS

*You could later use the "convert" program to switch from FAT32 over to NTFS

convert /FS:NTFS

Clean install or upgrade from an existing OS? - Very A+

Methods:

From CDROM or floppies

• Boot to CDROM or to "NT System Boot Disks" (explained later in the Recovery section).

Windows will allow you to use existing partitions or let you modify existing partition structure – note that if you modify partitions, data on those partitions will be lost. Follow onscreen prompts.

From inside Windows

• If AUTORUN is enabled things start by themselves.
• Or open up My Computer and the CDROM drive and double click on setup
• Or Start – Run – D:\Setup (if D: is your CDROM drive)

You will get the message, "This CDROM contains a newer version of Windows than the one that you are using. Do you want to upgrade?"

Follow onscreen prompts.

From a DOS session

• Navigate to the \i386 directory and type: WINNT32 (a different GUI than above)

From a DOS boot disk (DOS mode)

• Make sure that you have CDROM drivers on the disk AND have implemented the SMARTDRV DOS disk-cache driver in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Go into the i386 directory and type: WINNT

NT-based systems are Client / Server

Windows 2000 Professional Requirements - Very A+

• 133 Pentium (586) or better processor
• 64MB of RAM (128 recommended)
• 650MB of available hard disk space – you will of course need more if you want to install any applications
• The usual multi-media components

Windows 2000 Professional Features
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/professional/evaluation/features/default.asp

Windows 2000 Professional Upgrade Path - Very A+

Operating System Upgrade	Upgrade Possible	Upgrade Not Possible
Windows 3.1
Windows 95 or Windows 98
Windows NT Workstation 3.51 or 4.0
Windows Millennium Edition

Windows 2000 Server Features
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/features/default.asp

Windows XP Home and Professional Requirements - Very A+

• 233MHz Pentium (586). 300MHz recommended.
• 64MB of RAM (may limit performance and some features). 128MB recommended.
• 1.5GB of available hard disk space – you will of course need more if you want to install any applications
• The usual multi-media components

Windows XP Home and Professional Features - Very A+
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/choosing2.asp

Windows XP Home and Professional Upgrade Path

Other XPs include: Tablet, Media Center and Server 2003

Lord of the files

With most NT-based installations you get a choice of "file systems" – FAT for backwards compatibility and NTFS for industrial strength power and security. You will need to make your decision on which file system to use early on in the installation process.

• DOS and Win9x use the FAT file system – its components consist of FAT tables, directories and files. This is file system is less secure but has less overhead than NTFS. Is recoverable from a simple DOS boot disk and is backwards compatible with Win9x and DOS
• NTFS (from v3.51) – this file system uses a MFT (Master File Table) as its core component instead of the standard FAT/Directory structure.
  • The MFT is a database of file information.

    This database contains a record for each file consisting of a record header, information about dates and times, filename, data or pointer to where the data is located on the disk and finally security information.

    Recoverability – it contains backup copies of critical system files and will automatically use them if problems are found.

    A journaling file system, NTFS uses several files to store data associated with disk management. These files are known as METADATA files. NTFS reserves the first 16 records of the MFT for metadata files.

    Each file on the system can be secured. NTFS has built in RAID support.

Note that NT 4 can use FAT16 and/or NTFS while Windows 2000 can use FAT16, FAT32 and/or NTFS Historically A+

PAGEFILE.SYS is the NT Virtual memory swap file. I don’t know why I put this here. A+ expects you to know the names of all swap files. This one lives in the root of the boot.

Backassward - Very A+

Forget everything you ever learned about boot and system partitions – NT has a surprise for you.

In NT a System Partition is the partition that contains the MBR – it is where your bootstrap loader looks to start your system (FDISK calls it your active partition).

NT considers your Boot Partition to be the partition that contains the NT system files (\WINNT).

Sure they can be on the same partition, but they don’t have to be. Good, glad we cleared that up!

NT doesn’t mind coexisting with earlier versions of Windows or DOS on the same disk or machine. If an existing Windows version already exists, you can choose to retain it during the NT installation. You will then be presented with a Boot Menu each time you boot that allows you to choose which OS you want to use.

Note that if you choose NTFS as your file system, the version of NTFS used in NT4 is different from the version of NTFS in Windows 2000. These differences may cause you problems. You are then advised against installing NT4 and Windows 2000 NTFS systems on the same machine.

Know your boots - Very A+

Ya gotta know yer boots! Whether it be DOS or Win9x or NT, ya gotta know them! With NT there are a few twists, so let’s take a look at them.

Here are the players (files) in the NT boot process:

In the above example:

Partition (0) = not used by Microsoft
Partition (1) = C: (active partition)
Partition (2) = Extended partition
Partition (3) = D:
Partition (4) = E:
Partition (5) = F:
Etc…

Note: Windows NT must have these 3 files in the root directory of the system partition: NTLDR, BOOT.INI, NTDETECT.COM. These files must be present to make a NT disk bootable. - Very A+

Let’s do it (or at least learn how it’s done)! - Very A+

The loading of Windows NT is controlled by the file NTDLR which is a hidden system file that resides in the root directory of the system partition. NTDLR will load NT in four stages:

1. Initial Boot Loader Phase
2. Operating System selection
3. Hardware Detection
4. Configuration Selection

If you get the message:

BOOT: Couldn’t find NTLDR
Please insert another disk

You may be trying to boot to a floppy disk that has been formatted by NT but does not contain the NTLDR program. There are 3-5 System floppy disks for NT-based systems - they come with the package and/or can be created during installation.

There is not single "Boot" floppy that will work to get you booted, you need all disks or the CDROM.

NT will also allow you to make an ERD (Emergency Repair Disk). This disk contains information about your system and can be used to recover from serious system crashes. The contents of this disk varies between versions of NT. - Very A+

Management - Very A+

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) – This new feature is used to create "consoles" of system utility snap-ins. To load a MMC go to Start/Run and type MMC.

A console can be blank:

Or populated:

To add snap-ins, click on "Console" and then choose "Add snap in". This essentially allows the tech to create individualized toolboxes for system maintenance.

Exercise 2 – THE MMC

The Microsoft Management Console is like a toolbox that we can add our favorite tools to. Let’s create a new MMC.

Click Start / Run and type, MMC

From here just follow along while we populate our toolbox.

Deliverable: Your own personalized toolbox.

A new control panel applet called Administrative Tools opens up a set of cool tech tools, among them, Computer Management.

Computer Management in turn opens up the Computer Management MMC. You can also get here by right-clicking on "My Computer" and choosing "Manage" from the list – Very A+

There are 3 basic groups here: System tools, Storage and Services and applications. - Very A+

Here is where you can basically maintain your entire system. In the above figure we could go from viewing the Device Manager stuff, and then turn around and edit or add Users to our system – pretty slick!

Performance Logs and Alerts

The Event Viewer - Very A+

With this "Tool" you can gather information about hardware, software, and system problems. In addition you can monitor Windows 2000 security events.

The EventLog service starts automatically when you start Windows 2000. All users can view application and system logs however only administrators can gain access to security logs.

By default, security logging is turned off. You can use Group Policy to enable security logging. The administrator can also set auditing policies in the registry that cause the system to halt when the security log is full.

You may monitor 3 categories of events:

Application

• The program developer of a software package decides which events to record here

System

• Events here are logged by the Windows 2000 system components

Security

• The security log can record security events such as valid and invalid logon attempts as well as events related to resource use such as creating, opening, or deleting files

There are 5 types of events recorded

Error

• A significant problem, such as loss of data or loss of functionality. For example, if a service fails to load during startup, an error will be logged.

Warning

• An event that is not necessarily significant, but may indicate a possible future problem. For example, when disk space is low, a warning will be logged.

Information

• An event that describes the successful operation of an application, driver, or service. For example, when a network driver loads successfully, an Information event will be logged.

Success Audit

• An audited security access attempt that succeeds. For example, a user's successful attempt to log on the system will be logged as a Success Audit event.

Failure Audit

• An audited security access attempt that fails. For example, if a user tries to access a network drive and fails, the attempt will be logged as a Failure Audit event.

A technician could use the Software and System Events to track down problems in the system.

Driver Signing - Very A+

The Driver Signing function allows Windows 2000 to notify users whether or not a device driver they are installing has passed the Microsoft certification process.

To modify the way driver signing operates, alternate click on "My computer", click on "Properties", select "Hardware" tab and click on the "Driver signing" button (right next to the new Device Manager button ;-).

Driver signing has three basic modes of operation:

• Ignore - Allows all files to be installed, whether they've been signed or not.
• Warn - Notifies the user if a driver that's being installed hasn't been signed, and gives the user a chance to say "no" to the installation. Warn also gives the user the option to install unsigned versions of a protected driver file.
• Block - Prevents all unsigned drivers from being installed.

Windows 2000 ships with the Warn mode set as the default.

Roaming the System Properties Page

System properties in Win2K and XP offers us some new features and some twists on some old ones.

XPNote that the Windows XP Properties Page has additional features.Let’s take a look at what’s behind them.

Very A+

System Restore (available in ME also)

• Program Files \ Accessories \ System Tools \ System Restore
• Like SCANREG on steroids. We have come a long way…
• This tool allows us to set and restore from backup points in a graphical and intuitive way
• Requires at least 200MB of free disk space
• Requires that the Task Scheduler service be running
• You set the max amount of storage and Windows will fill it for you.
• Not only does it tell you when the backup was created, it tells you why it was created.
• Backups are created each day (during system idle time) or at "significant system events"

Third-party programs (like Norton & CONFIGSAFE) are also available. With Win2K it’s back to basics… no SCANREG or System Restore. Very A+

Also in XP System Properties…

Automatic Updates

• You may set the method and frequency of when Windows "phones home"

Remote Desktop

• Your computer becomes like a server and you may allow a user to "take over" your desktop from a remote location. There are clients written for each version of Windows. Servers are available in Win2K and XP.
• The Client is found at: Program Files \ Accessories \ Communications \ Remote Desktop Connection

NTFS5 - Very A+

This version of the file system included support for compression, encryption, dynamic drives and disk quotas.

• Compression – compress anything: drives, folders or files. For folders and files: Properties/General/Advanced Button and click on Compress contents to save disk space.

  

• Encryption (EFS - Encrypting File System) - on-the-fly encryption. Only the person who creates the encrypted file can read it. Use the Advanced Button, this time click on Encrypt contents to secure data.
  • Use the DOS command, cipher to encrypt from a DOS session.
  • cipher by itself shows your current encryption status (E or U)
  • cipher /E to encrypt directories – files added will be encrypted.

DISK MANAGEMENT

Basic disks – normal primary / extended partition stuff. Default.

• Dynamic disks – Only Win2K and up can directly access dynamic disks. Keeps a 1-4MB database at the end of the physical disk. Once you go dynamic, you can’t go back without losing your data. Not supported on portable computers.
• Dynamic volumes – over single or multiple disks. Advanced disk features like RAID 0, 1 and 5.

  Software RAID – Redundant Array of Inexpensive (independent) Disks. - Very A+

  • Speed
  • Fault tolerance
  • Not quite as cool as hardware RAID

  5 types: simple, spanned (RAID 0), striped (RAID 0), mirrored (RAID 1) and RAID 5

• Simple

  

• Spanned (RAID 0 – two drives appear as one big drive)
• Striped (RAID 0 – same thing but access is interleaved)

  
  Simple and spanned dynamic disks (it’s even color coded)

• Mirrored (RAID 1 – concurrent backup of drive onto another)

  
  Mirrored dynamic disks (two disks acting as your C: drive)

• RAID 5 (striped with parity – for both speed and fault tolerance. Requires 3 or more drives)
  

Disk Quotas – limit the amount of disk space a user can use. Go to drive’s properties and click on Quota tab.

Networking Improvements
Network Neighborhood is replaced with My Network Places and other subtle changes. Add network place wizard.

Registry Issues

Whereas the 9x registry is made up of two files, the NT registry contains at least 6 different files. Each hive in the Windows 2000 registry is associated with a set of standard files. The following table shows the standard hives and files for a computer running Windows 2000.

* By default, most hive files (DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, and SYSTEM) are stored in the systemroot\System32\Config folder.

NT and 2K-based systems also give us another registry editing option, REGEDT32. This program allows us to (among other things) load, edit and unload specific HKEYS. This is an administration feature and can be used to edit the registry portion of a user’s profile (NTUSER.DAT). Very A+

Recovery

Last Known Good

Choosing Last Known Good Configuration provides a way to recover from problems such as a newly added driver that may be incorrect for your hardware. It does not solve problems caused by corrupted or missing drivers or files.

Press the F8 key when booting. - Very A+

When you choose Last Known Good Configuration, Windows 2000 will restore information in the registry key HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet only. Any changes you have made in other registry keys remain.

Boot disks

If you were hoping to boot this beast with a single boot disk, think again. A simple, single boot disk isn’t happening for XP, Win2k or NT. These systems require 3-5 preformatted disks to create special boot disks. These disks either come with the CDROM or you can create them. To create these disks:

• Insert the Win2K CDROM and go to the \BOOTDISK directory
• If you are in Win9x, run the MAKEBOOT program
• If you are Win2K, run the MAKEBT32 program - Very A+
• Follow the onscreen instructions

If you then boot to these floppies and Win2K detects an existing system, it will switch from install mode to repair mode.

Recovery Console

The recovery console is somewhat like the Win9x Safe Mode Command Prompt. This is a non-GUI environment that allows you to deeply manipulate your system folders. It uses some DOS commands and some commands that are unique to it.

Adding the RC to the Boot Menu - Very A+

If you would like access to the Recovery Console you may install it by using the following technique:

• Go to Start/Run and type CMD. This drops you to a DOS prompt.
• Switch over to your CDROM drive (E: <enter> etc.)
• Type: \i386\winnt32 /cmdcons

The top pre-install box is full of great information

So is the post-install box

Now each time you boot, you will have the Recovery Console option. If your system is so sick that the hard drive is unattainable, then the CDROM as well as the boot up disks contain the console. Note that you will need to login as an Administrator to use the RC.

You and your ERD (emergency repair disk) - Very A+

Another tool that help get you back and running after catastrophe is the ERD. Note that the Win2K ERD may put you waaaayyyyyyy back. Back to the registry that was installed when you first installed the system it may "rewind" your system to a point before you installed any software besides Win2K!

First, have a blank, formatted 3.5" disk handy. To create an ERD click on Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools and choose Backup.

Click on the Emergency Repair Disk icon. Insert your floppy.

You need to make a decision here. If you click on "Also…." the system will back up your Registry files to a special folder on your Win2K "boot" partition. This folder is located in \WINTNT\REPAIR. Very A+

Since the registry is too big to be backed up on a floppy, it is saved to the REPAIR folder; the disk just contains additional data to help with the restore.

Some techs do this before they install any software or hardware. Beware - if you never check "Also…" and then use the ERD for repair, you will get rewound to your original Registry settings. Do what you need to do!

To restore your ERD settings, boot to your 4 emergency disks, or to your CDROM. Then choose the option "To repair a Windows installation, press (R)"

Here is a link that may help you create a bootable disk for NTFS:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q119/4/67.ASP

NT4 ERD Notes:
A repair disk is created during Windows NT installation, but you can also create it after the installation using the RDISK utility. Very A+