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 NEWSRobust client offers wide device support By Mark Pace , For InfoWorld Test Center February 4, 2000 IT ADMINISTRATORS choosing a desktop OS have juggled between Windows 9x and Windows NT Workstation. Most users would have preferred NT Workstation, but its hardware requirements and lack of support for lots of laptop-oriented services forced many IT managers to choose Windows 9x.
Professional scored a very good. Its support for more hardware and increased usability on desktops and laptops make it a worthwhile upgrade. The integration with Active Directory (AD) makes it easier to deploy and support than Microsoft's previous OSes. When deploying Professional, the costs of the installation and required hardware upgrades will be the largest deterrent. However, Professional includes features that ease rollout and administration as well as increase users' productivity. Installing Professional is very similar to installing NT Workstation, and the first noticeable difference is the boot screen -- replacing the famous initial blue screen is a colorful splash screen similar to Windows 9x. Initial configuration of the storage controllers is achieved through familiar-looking dialog menus. Then you boot into Professional for the first time to configure your network adapter and network settings. Once that is completed, you are ready to reboot and let Professional detect your plug-and-play adapters. Fortunately, like Windows 9x, it does the job for you. In some cases, the system will be ready for its user, but depending on your hardware, you may need to reboot once more. More importantly, Professional offers a Safe Boot mode that lets you bring your system up with a minimal set of drivers so you can change the configuration of the machine. This can prevent having to restore from a backup or reinstall NT because of a misconfiguration or a bogus driver. Also available either from the boot CDs, boot floppies, or the boot menu is the System Recovery Console. With this I was able to access the files on my NTFS (NT File System) even when the unit was not bootable using the Safe Mode. As a last-ditch effort, you can at least recover files from the drive without having to put the drive in a different NT machine. Professional also offers a slightly altered desktop UI. Certain configuration items such as printers that used to appear under My Computer have been moved to the control panel, and Internet Explorer 5 features, including the Web Folders and My Network Places, have been added. This should make it easier for users to find their data even if they don't know where it is on the network. One of Windows' biggest problems has always been what happens to the system when a DLL (Dynamic Link Library) is corrupted or replaced by a different version. In response, Professional offers Windows File Protection, which keeps backups of the correct versions of important system files and replaces them when they become corrupted or overwritten. To test this, I deleted some important DLL files. Quickly it noticed the problem and restored the files from its backup. This feature could save users and administrators great amounts of time troubleshooting application crashes. In addition, Professional offers new administrative tools to help the rollout, configuration, and maintenance of software on desktops. IntelliMirror lets you install software packages across an enterprise of machines, and Sysprep and the Remote Installation Preparation utilities help prepare machines for local Professional or network rollouts. When they are used with AD and Windows 2000 Server, you can perform desktop maintenance from centralized locations much more easily than with NT Workstation or Windows 9x. Professional also introduces new laptop features, including advanced power management support. This function kept my laptop running almost one-third longer than it ran under NT Workstation. And I was able to use my removable hard drive for the first time without rebooting. I liked also the addition of the synchronization manager, which helped keep offline files up-to-date when I was on the road. Also new is DirectX 7, software which allows video and sound drivers to access these cards directly in memory, rather than through hardware abstraction layer process. NT 4.0 Workstation offers direct access to the video card, but versions of DirectX were always behind and didn't support features such as 3D acceleration cards designed for gaming. To test this feature, I used a few of the latest games running acceleration off an Nvidia GeForce256 accelerated video adapter they worked great. Other improvements include a reduced number of necessary reboots plus enhancements to TCP/IP, which helped speed access to Web sites and increased file and print performance while I was connected to my LAN. Although you still must reboot for some changes, such as adding a video driver, many other devices such as sound cards and removable hard drives can be added and removed without rebooting. Professional is a definite improvement over Windows 9x and NT Workstation. Because of its improvements in usability plus potential for reducing training and administrative overhead, IT administrators should seriously consider making the upgrade. Windows 2000 adds myriad features Each iteration of the most recent Windows release provides different functionality. Windows 2000 professional Professional replaces Windows NT Workstation, while offering the stability and scalability of NT Workstation. Its features include vast improvements that bring it up to par with Windows 98's graphical and sound capabilities. * DirectX 7.0 allows video and sound applications as well as games to perform hardware-and software-based acceleration * Connectivity as a client to Active Directory (AD) services, NT domain services, NetWare file and print services, and Unix NFS and printing services * Supports two-processor SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) * Requires 128MB for optimal performance * Includes enhanced support for USB * Supports mobile device power management and removable storage devices Windows 2000 server Server, which offers enhanced application server performance, is designed for most situations. Its major enhancements allow it to serve as an AD server, making administration tasks much easier across a group of systems. Server also replaces Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server by integrating those services with its native environment. * Acts as an AD server * Supports four-processor SMP * Requires at least 256MB for optimal performance and 512MB if serving AD services * Can act as a Terminal Server or perform minimal Terminal Server services for remote-administration purposes Windows 2000 advanced server Advanced Server offers all that Server does plus enhancements from NT 4.0 Enterprise Edition, including dual server clustering capabilities designed to provide a more robust and scalable around-the-clock architecture. * Adds two server clustering services * Allows for larger memory models (8GB) Windows 2000 data center server Data Center Server will be available in the second quarter of 2000 and will offer as many as four server clusters. With the addition of hardware qualifications and the capability of clustering more servers, Windows 2000 will be more viable in mission-critical situations. * Adds four-server clustering services * Requires certified hardware * Allows for larger memory models (64GB) * Adds the Process Control Manager Making the move Whether or whenever you move to Windows 2000, InfoWorld has an extensive lineup of articles to help you understand and prepare for the latest operating system form Microsoft. Realated article Server enhancements worthy, but costly Mark Pace (pace@frnk.com) is a free-lance writer who has been working in the computer industry for over 15 years.
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