Lesson 2: Windows 2000 Professional

Windows 2000 Professional is easier to use and manage and provides greater compatibility, file management capabilities, and security than previous versions of Windows. This lesson discusses how Windows 2000 Professional improves the capabilities of previous versions of Windows in five areas: ease of use, simplified management, increased hardware support, enhanced file management, and enhanced security features.

Windows 2000 Professional includes changes to the look and functionality of the desktop, windows, and the Start menu, making it easier to use than previous versions of Windows. Besides these user interface enhancements, Windows 2000 Professional also contains features that improve support for mobile users and make printing easier and more flexible.

The enhancements and features that improve the Windows 2000 Professional user interface include the following:

• Customized Start menu. Personalized Menus can be activated to keep track of the programs you use and to update the Programs menu so that it presents only the programs that you use most often. Applications that you use less frequently are hidden from normal view, making the Start menu easier to use.

• Logon and shutdown dialog boxes. Logon and shutdown dialog boxes are easier to use with fewer, better organized choices.
• Task Scheduler. The enhanced Task Scheduler allows users to schedule scripts and programs to run at specific times.

Windows 2000 Professional supports the latest laptop technologies based on the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), which allows you to change or remove devices without turning off the computer. ACPI also lengthens battery life with power management and suspend or resume capabilities.

Features in Windows 2000 Professional that provide support for mobile users include the following:

• Network Connections wizard. Consolidates all of the processes for creating network connections. Users can now set up the following networking features from one wizard:

• Dial-up connections
• Virtual private networks (VPNs)
• Incoming calls
• Direct connections to another computer

• Virtual private network (VPN) support. Provides secure access to corporate networks from off-site locations by using a local Internet service provider (ISP) rather than using a long distance, dial-up connection.
• Offline folders. Allows you to copy documents that are stored on the network onto your local computer, making it easier to access data when you are not connected to the network.
• Synchronization Manager. Compares items on the network to items that you opened or updated while working offline. Synchronization occurs when you log on, and any changes made offline to files and folders, Web pages, and e-mail messages are saved to the network.

Printing in Windows 2000 Professional has been improved to assist you in providing a more flexible network of printers. Windows 2000 Professional includes the following printing features and enhancements:

• Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). Allows users to send documents to any printer in a Microsoft Windows 2000 network that is connected to the Internet. Internet printing enables users to do the following:

• Print to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) over an intranet or the Internet.
• View printer and job-related information in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format from any browser.
• Download and install printer drivers over the Internet.

• Add Printer wizard. Simplifies the process of connecting to local and network printers from within a program. You no longer need to open the Printers system folder or specify driver models, printer languages, or ports when you add printers.
• Image Color Management (ICM) 2.0. Allows you to send high-quality color documents to a printer or another computer with greater speed and reliability than ever before. ICM 2.0 is an operating system API that helps ensure that the colors you see on your monitor match those on your scanner and printer.

Windows 2000 Professional includes many features that help reduce the overall cost of managing the computing environment, from installation of the operating system and applications to day-to-day desktop management and support.

Windows 2000 simplifies the process of setting up a computer by allowing disk duplication. Disk duplication allows you to use the Windows 2000 System Preparation tool to create an image of a computer's hard disk. You can then use a third-party tool to duplicate the hard disk on similarly configured computers.

The configuration management capabilities in Windows 2000 create a more consistent environment for the end user and help ensure that users have any data, applications, and operating system settings that they need.

Windows 2000 includes the following configuration management enhancements:

• Add/Remove Programs wizard. Simplifies the process of installing and removing programs. Users can install applications by pointing directly to a location on the corporate network or Internet. The user interface provides additional feedback and sort options to view installed or available applications by size, frequency of use, and time of last use.
• Windows Installer service. Manages application installation, modification, repairs, and removal. It provides a standard format for managing the components of a software package, and an application programming interface (API) for managing applications and tools.

Windows 2000 Professional includes diagnostic and troubleshooting tools that make it easier to support the operating system. Troubleshooting tools in Windows 2000 Professional include the following:

• Upgrade Compatibility Verification tool. Detects and warns the user if certain installed applications or components will cause an upgrade to fail or if the components will not work after an upgrade is complete. When you run the Winnt32 command with the /checkupgradeonly switch, the Report System Compatibility screen appears and lists any items found that are not compatible with Windows 2000. For more information on the /checkupgradeonly switch see Chapter 2, "Installing Windows 2000."
• Troubleshooters. Troubleshooting wizards that can be used to solve many common computer problems are included in Windows 2000's online Help.

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional now supports more than 7,000 hardware devices, such as infrared devices, scanners, digital cameras, and advanced multimedia devices that Windows NT Workstation 4.0 did not support. Some of the enhancements to hardware support in Windows 2000 Professional are shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Enhancements to hardware support

• Add/Remove Hardware wizard. Allows you to add, remove, troubleshoot, and upgrade computer peripherals. When a device is not working properly, you can use the wizard to stop operation and safely remove the device.
• Win32 Driver Model (WDM). Provides a common model for device drivers across Windows 98 and Windows 2000. Drivers that are written to the WDM will work in both Windows 98 and Windows 2000.
• Plug and Play support. Enhances previous Plug and Play functionality and allows the following:

• Automatic and dynamic reconfiguration of installed hardware
• Loading of appropriate drivers
• Registration for device notification events
• Changeable and removable devices

• Power options. Prevent unnecessary power drains on your system by directing power to devices as they need it. The options available to you depend on your hardware. These options include the following:

• Standby. While on standby, your monitor and hard disks turn off and your computer uses less power.
• Hibernation. The hibernate feature turns off your monitor and hard disk, saves everything in memory on disk, and turns off your computer. When you restart your computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it.

Windows 2000 is a multiprocessing operating system capable of running on computers containing more than one processor. Windows 2000 Professional provides symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) system capabilities and supports two processors. It assumes that all of the processors are equal and that they all have access to the same physical memory. Therefore, Windows 2000 can run any thread on any available processor regardless of which process, user or executive, owns the thread.

The design of Windows 2000 also supports processor affinity, whereby a process or thread can specify that it is to run on a particular set of processors. As with previous versions of Windows NT, Windows 2000 includes Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that a process can use for processor affinity. These APIs must be defined in the application to make use of processor affinity.

Windows 2000 uses the same rules for scheduling on a multiprocessor system as it does on a single-processor system. Therefore, at any given time, the threads that are ready and have the highest priorities are actually running.

There are also asymmetric multiprocessing (ASMP) systems in which processors are different. They may address different physical memory spaces, or they may have other differences. These operating systems only run certain processes on certain processors. For example, the kernel might always execute on a particular processor. Windows 2000 does not support ASMP.

Windows 2000 Professional provides significant enhancements to file management capabilities. Features that enhance file management in Windows 2000 Professional include the following:

• NTFS file system. Supports file encryption and enables you to add disk space to an NTFS volume without having to restart the computer. It also supports distributed link tracking, and per-user disk quotas to monitor and limit disk space use.
• FAT32 file system. Supports FAT32 file system for compatibility with Windows 95 Operating System Release (OSR) 2 systems and later. FAT32 is an enhanced version of the FAT file system for use on disk volumes larger than 2 GB.
• Disk Defragmenter utility. Rearranges files, programs, and unused space on your computer's hard disk so that programs run faster and files open more quickly.
• Backup utility. Helps to protect data from accidental loss due to hardware or storage media failure. The backup utility in Windows 2000 allows you to schedule backups to occur automatically. You can back up data to a wide variety of storage media, such as the following:

• Tape drives
• External hard disks
• Zip disks
• Recordable CD-ROMs
• Logical drives

• Volume Mount Points. Allows you to connect, or mount, a local drive at any empty folder on a local NTFS-formatted volume.

Windows 2000 Professional is the most secure Windows desktop operating system for either a stand-alone computer or any type of public or private network. Security features and enhancements in Windows 2000 Professional include the following:

• Kerberos 5. Supports single logon, allowing faster authentication and faster network response. Kerberos 5 is the primary security protocol for domains in Windows 2000.
• Encrypting File System (EFS). Strengthens security by encrypting files on your hard disk so that no one can access them without using the correct password.
• Internet Protocol Security (IPSec). Encrypts Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) traffic to secure communications within an intranet and provides the highest levels of security for virtual private network (VPN) traffic across the Internet.
• Smart card support. Enables portability of credentials and other private information between computers at work, home, or on the road. This eliminates the need to transmit sensitive information, such as authentication tickets and private keys, over networks.

Windows 2000 Professional improves the capabilities of previous versions of Windows in five main areas: ease of use, simplified management, increased hardware support, enhanced file management, and enhanced security features.

Some of the ease of use improvements include enhancements to the user interface, such as a customized Start menu that presents only the programs that you use most often, and improved logon and shutdown dialog boxes. Windows 2000 Professional includes support for the latest laptop technologies based on ACPI and provides a Network Connections wizard and VPN support. It provides offline folders that allow you to copy documents stored on the network to your local computer for access when you are offline, and it provides a Synchronization Manager that compares items on the network to items that you opened or updated while working offline and synchronizes them.

Printing in Windows 2000 Professional has also been improved. Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) allows users to print to a URL over an intranet or the Internet, view printer and job-related information in HTML format from any browser, and download and install printer drivers over the Internet. The Windows 2000 Add Printer wizard simplifies the process of connecting to local and network printers from within a program, and Image Color Management 2.0 allows you to send high-quality color documents to a printer or another computer with greater speed and reliability than ever before.

Windows 2000 also simplifies the process of setting up a computer. The Windows 2000 System Preparation Tool allows you to create an image of a computer's hard disk so that you can use a third-party tool to duplicate the hard disk on similarly configured computers. The Setup Manager wizard guides you through the process of creating answer files for unattended installation scripts.

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional now supports more than 7,000 hardware devices, such as infrared devices, scanners, digital cameras, and advanced multimedia devices. Other enhancements to hardware support include an Add/Remove Hardware wizard that allows you to add, remove, troubleshoot, and upgrade computer peripherals; a Win32 Driver Model that allows device drivers written to the WDM to work in both Windows 98 and Windows 2000; enhanced Plug and Play support; power options that prevent unnecessary power drains on your system by directing power to devices as they need it; and support for Direct-X 7.0

Windows 2000 Professional enhancements to file management capabilities include a disk defragmenter utility and an NTFS file system that supports file encryption, distributed link tracking, and per-user disk quotas to monitor and limit disk space use. There is a backup utility that allows you to back up data to a wide variety of storage media: tape drives, external hard disks, zip disks, recordable CD-ROMs, and logical drives.

Windows 2000 Professional is the most secure Windows desktop operating system for either a stand-alone computer or any type of public or private network. Security features and enhancements in Windows 2000 Professional include support for Kerberos 5; EFS, which strengthens security by encrypting files on your hard disk; and IPSec, which encrypts TCP/IP traffic and provides the highest levels of security for VPN traffic across the Internet.