Windows Information

Windows 2000 can be deployed to a site via various methods. It can be installed onto servers via traditional media (such as CD) or via distribution folders that reside on a shared folder. Installations can be attended or unattended. During a manual installation, the administrator must specify configuration options. Unattended installations are scripted via an answer file, or a predefined script in the form of an INI file that has all the options filled in. An answer file can be created manually or using the graphical Setup manager. The Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe program then uses that answer file to automate the installation. Unattended installations can be performed via a bootable CD, using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) , via the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep), via the Winnt32.exe program using the /syspart switch or via Remote Installation Services (RIS). The ability to slipstream a service pack into the original operating system setup files is also introduced in Windows 2000.

The Sysprep method is started on a standardized reference computer — though the hardware need not be similar — and it copies the required installation files from the reference computer to the target computers. The hard drive does not need to be in the target computer and may be swapped out to it at any time, with the hardware configured later. The Winnt.exe program must also be passed a /unattend switch that points to a valid answer file and a /s file that points to one or more valid installation sources.

Sysprep allows the duplication of a disk image on an existing Windows 2000 Server installation to multiple servers. This means that all applications and system configuration settings will be copied across to the new installations, and thus, the reference and target computers must have the same HALs, ACPI support, and mass storage devices — though Windows 2000 automatically detects Plug and Play devices. The primary reason for using Sysprep is to quickly deploy Windows 2000 to a site that has multiple computers with standard hardware. (If a system had different HALs, mass storage devices or ACPI support, then multiple images would need to be maintained.)

Along with support for simple, spanned and striped volumes, the server family of Windows 2000 also supports fault-tolerant volume types. The types supported are mirrored volumes and RAID-5 volumes:

* Mirrored volumes: the volume contains several disks, and when data is written to one it is also written to the other disks. This means that if one disk fails, the data can be totally recovered from the other disk. Mirrored volumes are also known as RAID-1.
* RAID-5 volumes: a RAID-5 volume consists of multiple disks, and it uses block-level striping with parity data distributed across all member disks. Should a disk fail in the array, the parity blocks from the surviving disks are combined mathematically with the data blocks from the surviving disks to reconstruct the data on the failed drive “on-the-fly”.

A new way of organizing Windows network domains, or groups of resources, called Active Directory, is introduced with Windows 2000 to replace Windows NT’s earlier domain model. Active Directory’s hierarchical nature allowed administrators a built-in way to manage user and computer policies and user accounts, and to automatically deploy programs and updates with a greater degree of scalability and centralization than provided in previous Windows versions. It is one of the main reasons many corporations migrated to Windows 2000.[citation needed] User information stored in Active Directory also provided a convenient phone book-like function to end users. Active Directory domains can vary from small installations with a few hundred objects, to large installations with millions. Active Directory can organise and link groups of domains into a contiguous domain name space to form trees. Groups of trees outside of the same namespace can be linked together to form forests.

Active Directory services could only be installed on a Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, or Datacenter Server computer, and cannot be installed on a Windows 2000 Professional computer. However, Windows 2000 Professional is the first client operating system able to exploit Active Directory’s new features. As part of an organization’s migration, Windows NT clients continued to function until all clients were upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional, at which point the Active Directory domain could be switched to native mode and maximum functionality achieved.

Active Directory requires a DNS server that supports SRV resource records, or that an organization’s existing DNS infrastructure be upgraded to support this. There must be one or more domain controllers to hold the Active Directory database and provide Active Directory directory services.

The Distributed File System (DFS) allows shares in multiple different locations to be logically grouped under one folder, or DFS root. When users try to access a network share off the DFS root, the user is really looking at a DFS link and the DFS server transparently redirects them to the correct file server and share. A DFS root can only exist on a Windows 2000 version that is part of the server family, and only one DFS root can exist on that server.

There can be two ways of implementing a DFS namespace on Windows 2000: either through a standalone DFS root or a domain-based DFS root. Standalone DFS allows for only DFS roots on the local computer, and thus does not use Active Directory. Domain-based DFS roots exist within Active Directory and can have their information distributed to other domain controllers within the domain — this provides fault tolerance to DFS. DFS roots that exist on a domain must be hosted on a domain controller or on a domain member server. The file and root information is replicated via the Microsoft File Replication Service (FRS).

The Windows 2000 server family consists of Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.

All editions of Windows 2000 Server have the following services and features built in:

* Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) support, facilitating dial-up and VPN connections, support for RADIUS authentication, network connection sharing, Network Address Translation, unicast and multicast routing schemes.
* DNS server, including support for Dynamic DNS. Active Directory relies heavily on DNS.
* IPsec support and TCP/IP filtering
* Smart card support
* Microsoft Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK) and Connection Point Services
* Support for distributed file systems (DFS)
* Hierarchical Storage Management support including remote storage, a service that runs with NTFS and automatically transfers files that are not used for some time to less expensive storage media
* Fault tolerant volumes, namely Mirrored and RAID-5
* Group Policy (part of Active Directory)
* IntelliMirror, a collection of technologies for fine-grained management of Windows 2000 Professional clients that duplicates users’ data, applications, files, and settings in a centralized location on the network. IntelliMirror employs technologies such as Group Policy, Windows Installer, Roaming profiles, Folder Redirection, Offline Files (also known as Client Side Caching or CSC), File Replication Service (FRS), Remote Installation Services (RIS) to address desktop management scenarios such as user data management, user settings management, software installation and maintenance.
* COM+ and MTS
* MSMQ 2.0
* TAPI 3.0
* Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI)
* Integrated Windows Authentication (including Kerberos and SPNEGO authentication).
* MS-CHAP v2 protocol
* Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Enterprise Certificate Authority support
* Terminal Services and support for the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
* Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0

The Server editions include more features and components, including the Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) , Active Directory support and fault-tolerant storage.

feasibly be run from another computer or copy of Windows 2000. It is usually used to recover the system from problems that cause booting to fail, which would render other tools useless.

It has a simple command line interface, used to check and repair the hard drive(s) , repair boot information (including NTLDR) , replace corrupted system files with fresh copies from the CD, or enable/disable services and drivers for the next boot.

The console can be accessed in either of the two ways:

1. Booting from the Windows 2000 CD, and choosing to start the Recovery Console from the CD itself instead of continuing with setup. The Recovery Console is accessible as long as the installation CD is available.
2. Preinstalling the Recovery Console on the hard disk as a startup option in Boot.ini, via WinNT32.exe, with the /cmdcons switch. In this case, it can only be started as long as NTLDR can boot from the system partition.

Windows 2000 introduced the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which is used to create, save, and open administrative tools. Each of these is called a console, and most allow an administrator to administer other Windows 2000 computers from one centralised computer. Each console can contain one or many specific administrative tools, called snap-ins. These can be either standalone (with one function), or an extension (adding functions to an existing snap-in). In order to provide the ability to control what snap-ins can be seen in a console, the MMC allows consoles to be created in author mode or user mode. Author mode allows snap-ins to be added, new windows to be created, all portions of the console tree to be displayed and consoles to be saved. User mode allows consoles to be distributed with restrictions applied. User mode consoles can grant full access to the user for any change, or they can grant limited access, preventing users from adding snapins to the console though they can view multiple windows in a console. Alternatively users can be granted limited access, preventing them from adding to the console and stopping them from viewing multiple windows in a single console.

Windows 2000 included version 7.0 of the DirectX API, commonly used by game developers on Windows 98. The last version of DirectX that Windows 2000 supports is DirectX 9.0c (Shader Model 3.0), that shipped with Windows XP Service Pack 2. Currently, Microsoft publishes quarterly updates to DirectX 9.0c; these updates contain bug fixes to the core runtime and some additional libraries such as D3DX, XAudio 2, XInput and Managed DirectX components. The majority of games written for recent versions of DirectX can therefore run on Windows 2000, in contrast to Windows NT 4.0, which only provides support for DirectX 3.0.

Microsoft increased the usability of Windows 2000 over Windows NT 4.0 for people with visual and auditory impairments and other disabilities. They included several utilities designed to make the system more accessible, although many of these features were already available with previous versions of Windows:

* FilterKeys: a group of keyboard-related features for people with typing issues, including:
o SlowKeys: Ignore any keystroke not held down for a certain period.
o BounceKeys: Ignore repeated keystrokes pressed in quick succession.
o RepeatKeys: lets users slow down the rate at which keys are repeated via the keyboard’s key-repeat feature.
* ToggleKeys: when turned on, Windows will play a sound when the CAPS LOCK, NUM LOCK or SCROLL LOCK key is pressed.
* MouseKeys: lets users move the cursor around the screen via the numeric keypad.
* On-screen keyboard: displays a virtual keyboard on the screen and allows users to press its keys using a mouse or a joystick.
* SerialKeys: lets Windows 2000 support speech augmentation devices.
* StickyKeys: makes modifier keys (ALT, CTRL and SHIFT) become “sticky”: a user can press the modifier key, and then release it before pressing the combination key. (Activated by pressing Shift five times quickly.)
* Microsoft Magnifier: A screen magnifier that enlarges a part of the screen the cursor is over.
* Microsoft Narrator: Introduced in Windows 2000, this is a screen reader that utilizes the Speech API.
* High contrast theme: to assist users with visual impairments.
* SoundSentry: designed to help users with auditory impairments, Windows 2000 shows a visual effect when a sound is played through the sound system.

Windows 2000 introduced the Logical Disk Manager for dynamic storage. All versions of Windows 2000 support three types of dynamic disk volumes (along with basic disks) : simple volumes, spanned volumes and striped volumes:

* Simple volume, a volume with disk space from one disk.
* Spanned volumes, where up to 32 disks show up as one, increasing it in size but not enhancing performance. When one disk fails, the array is destroyed. Some data may be recoverable. This corresponds to JBOD and not to RAID-1.
* Striped volumes, also known as RAID-0, store all their data across several disks in stripes. This allows better performance because disk reads and writes are balanced across multiple disks.