Eric Bursley |
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Windows 2000 Professional:
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I recently had the pleasure of installing Windows 2000 Professional beta 3. I actually performed a clean installation of Windows 2000 which went relatively smoothly. The only hitch so far has been with my network card. For some reason, Windows 2000 didn't detect my NIC at all. After manually configuring my NIC, the OS picked it up just fine.
Overall, the changes from Windows NT to Windows 2000 are quite dramatic. Microsoft has chosen to use the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) for control over just about everything in Win2k. This makes controlling the operating system much easier because everything is in one easy-to-use device. If you are familiar with IIS4, Proxy Server2, or Exchange Server 5.5, then you have seen the MMC.
Since I've installed Windows 2000, I've noticed that a lot of the old programs that NT users are familiar with have been moved into the MMC. Microsoft has made very good use of the MMC for managing the computer system. Having just one console for all administrative tools is a big plus. You can add user accounts and add hard drive partitions without closing and opening two different programs. You can also see at a glance which hardware has malfunctioned by using the device manager.
The device manager is similar to the one that is in Windows 9x. It shows you what devices are installed, and which IRQ they are on. This is much easier to read than trying to find out what is what in the NT diagnostics.
To manage your computer under Windows 2000, just right click on the My Computer icon, and click manage. This opens up the MMC console showing you the System Tools, Storage and Server Applications and Services.
Each of these tools is similar to the tools that you would find normally on the control panel under Windows NT4 / Windows 98.
Something else I've noticed that is new in Windows 2000 is the ability to have auto logon available. This feature was not available in Windows NT without a third party application. With my installation, this was enabled by default. By using the control panel's User Passwords, program, I was able to change the features of the login to be more suiTABLE for network situations, and more like the normal Windows NT. This will be a nice feature for the home user.
Networking is also totally reconfigured in Windows 2000. No longer do you have a single interface for controlling the services, protocols, and adapters. To configure the network installation now, you need to use the system property sheet. This will change your network type from either a Workgroup or Domain. In addition, you have My Network Places on the desktop to control each of your network properties, including various LAN and RAS settings, such as which protocols you will need and where you map network drives. From here you can also add favorite FTP sites, and web folders.
Overall, I'm quite impressed with the changes made by Microsoft on Windows 2000, changes which make the operating system more user-friendly and more sTABLE. Since so much has changed in Windows 2000, I will be writing more about it in future articles in this series here on InfiniSource.
Eric Bursley, MCSE
Network Engineer / Analyst
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