Eric Bursley |
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Windows 2000:
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Microsoft recently released Release Candidate 2. Microsoft also offered the same upgrade deal they did with RC1. I received my version of RC2 with my TechNet subscription. I performed the RC2 upgrade on the same computer mentioned above, and the upgrade went fairly smoothly. I noticed just two problems during the upgrade. The default screen was changed to 640x480x16 colors. Since my video card was detected properly, I just modified the screen resolution and colors, and then everything looked fine. The second problem was with my Office 2000 installation. Office 2000 was no longer functional. After performing the Office 2000 repair, I was back in working order.
Some of the changes in RC2 include better support for symmetrical multiprocessing (SMB). Server edition now supports 4 processors, up from 2, and Advanced Server now supports 8 processors, up from 4. This was done because of the fears Microsoft had of losing Alpha platform for its higher end solution.
Networking has also been tweaked in RC2. The computer will now alert the user when the computer has been disconnected from the network. The alert takes the form of a small icon in the system tray alerting the user of the cable disconnect.
Browsing My Network Places has also changed a little bit also. The warning dialog screens that most Windows 98 users have seen are also shown here, as well as in the normal locations of the Winnt, system32, and program files directory. The reasoning behind adding this warning dialog was to reduce network traffic. On a large network this folder could show hundreds and maybe thousands of workstations.
Internet Explorer has been upgraded to version 5.01 build 5.00.2919.3800. This build has been updated with several bug fixes. Internet Explorer will continue to be updated and 5.01 should be shipped with Windows 2000 Gold.
Advanced Power Management has been removed from the Server family of products. Professional will still have it. The Server product will still support ACPI power management. What this means is that servers produced before January 1, 1999 will not have power management support. This could really hinder some software developers. In my opinion, however, a server shouldn't really have full-blown power management. The last thing I would want, as a network engineer is one of my servers going into sleep mode, and not be able to wake up. With the problems that I have seen with Windows 98 power management, I would find it hard to believe the Server product to be any better. So I believe this was a good move by Microsoft to remove it.
The troublesome event log has received a face-lift as well. The description box now shows information on where to get information about the error message present. Nevertheless, I'm sure that you will still have to hunt and peck through the Microsoft Knowledge Base for a few error messages.
Lastly the Microsoft Data Access Components have been updated to version 2.5. This version includes numerous bug fixes, and some new features including the ADO recordset from a standard URL. This feature will be updated even more in the next release of MS SQL server. Windows 2000 also includes basic SQL Server client software allowing Windows 2000 computers to connect via ADO, OLE-DB and ODBC for easy access to SQL Server data on other servers.
In conclusion, Release Candidate 2 has improved the overall product expectations for consumers. Microsoft has scheduled one more beta release candidate before the Gold version is released to manufacturing. I would expect consumers to be able to purchase this product by late December. My guess is that not too many people will dive right into this new networking product until perhaps the middle of next year, at the earliest. Windows 2000 represents a major improvement in the NT networking family, and I suspect that it will go a long way in providing easier network management for everyone.
Eric Bursley, MCSE
Network Engineer / Analyst
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