Eric Bursley |
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Windows 2000 Professional:
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In my first article I discussed some of the new changes in Windows 2000, namely the MMC. In this article I'm going to discuss a few major desktop changes, and the use of the new Synchronization Manager.
Something new on the start menu is the ability to customize it. You can enable the Control Panel, My Computer, and many others as a pullout menu. Also you can enable your most-used options. In other words, the start menu items that you use the most will appear first. Then after a short delay, the rest of the menu appears. As you can see by adding these features to the operating system, Microsoft is trying to make the look and feel of the OS more "You" oriented.
Under Windows 98 there's the icon labeled My Documents. This icon will link you to your files that you use under Office programs. The documents list was the same for all users on the system because it was located in a central place. Under Windows 2000 you have that same icon, but with a slight twist. My Documents really are your documents, and no one else's. So, if your system has Sue, Bob, and Jim as users, for example, Sue will have her documents listed, but not Bob's or Jim's. The same will be true for the others. This folder is now stored under the Documents and Settings folder (The old Profiles folder under Windows NT). Since this folder is under the profiles folder, documents can be stored with the user's profile on a network share. With the use of roaming profiles, not only will you get your custom desktop that you created, but also any documents that you may have created.
Microsoft has decided to remove the feature of the Briefcase. You may remember this from Windows 9.x. This program allowed you to synchronize documents that you would need away from your computer. Microsoft has replaced this feature with something called the Synchronization Manager. This program also comes with Internet Explorer 5. Not only does this program allow you to synchronize favorite Websites, but also to synchronize your documents between coworkers on your network. The Synchronization Manager can automatically sync items whenever you choose. No longer will you have to tell it to do so. You can have it trigger when you logon, logoff, or when you establish a connection to your network. This will make it easy for mobile users to disconnect from their home network, and carry their import files with them on the road. When they come back home, and connect to the LAN, the synchronization manager will automatically update any files that have changed between the LAN documents, and the mobile documents.
This will be an added bonus for people with laptops on a domain with roaming profiles. If you normally use one desktop system for daily work, and are headed out on a sales tour for your company, you can sync your profile onto your laptop from the network, then just disconnect from the LAN and head out the door. You can then add, remove, and change anything you want to any of the files located in the My Documents folder, or your profile. When you come back, the Synchronization Manager will automatically update the folder on the network drive, and give you almost instant access to all of your updated documents on your main desktop computer.
You may notice some problems with this. One of the biggest problems would be for example: if Sue on the home-based LAN makes changes to a database in Access 2000. Bob makes a sync of this database before he leaves on his road trip. While on the trip, Bob makes updates to the database. Sue does the same. When Bob reconnects to the LAN, and then syncs the two folders, it could cause anything that Sue has changed to be deleted.
Fortunately Microsoft has thought of this, and has created a wizard for rules to go along with the Sync Manager. When Bob comes back and connects to the office LAN, the Sync Manager will invoke, and find that the Access 2000 database that he has on his mobile computer is not the same as the one that was on the LAN. The Sync Manager will then ask whether or not to:
- Delete your file
- Delete the network file
- Overwrite the network file
- Keep the network file
- Update the mobile file
- Rename the mobile file, and place on the network drive.
As you can see, the Synchronization Manager will really help to keep files up to date when traveling. While on the road you can them update as needed via the Internet and a PPTP connection to your business LAN.
Microsoft has really spent a lot of time making Windows 2000 the premier operating system on the market today. With its many added features, and usability options, I believe it will become the operating system of choice in the near future. With so much to cover on Windows 2000, look for more articles from me on InfiniSource.com.
Eric Bursley, MCSE
Network Engineer / Analyst
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