Using your personal computer

 

Hilton Head Island Computer Club

Windows 2000

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This review of Windows 2000 Professional (Win2KP) has taken longer than I anticipated because although it is similar to the other Windows OSs, there are many different way to use the OS.   First you must know that Win2KP is from the Windows NT (New Technology) family and is what was called the workstation type.  Windows 2000 also has a Server and Enterprise version use as servers.  Because of it’s Windows NT kernel, it has important features such as very few crashes, inherent security approaches, excellent management tools and little leakage of system resources. It’s major difficulty is that it will not work with some software and peripherals hardware that would have worked in even the latest versions of the other Windows OSs.  Win2KP also requires a more powerful computer and loads and shutdown slower then the other Window OSs.

 

As I indicated in my Windows ME review, I have this OS operating in a dual boot computer in our Resource Center.  To spent some time on the OS, I also have a similar dual boot on my own personal computer.  The ability to dual boot is a feature of Win2KP and allows for either OS to be selected at start up as the default and for the time period to automatically select the OS.  This came be set in the System Properties->Advanced tab->Startup and Recovery->System Startup. Win2KP can operate with FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS as the file system.  FAT16 is no longer a good choice and the NTFS is the more efficient and more secure file system.  Although you can write to a FAT32 file system from a NTFS you cannot go the other way.  So in general, in a dual boot you would have all FAT32.  My previous experience with a multiple boot manger required that all OSs be in a Primary partition, and the selected boot OS would be the C drive and all other OSs would be hidden.  This is not the case for the Win2KP OS and it can be in a logical drive.  Win2KP approaches the assigning of drive letters different that the other Windows OSs in that once assigned the drive/partition retains the drive letter but in the other, drive letter are always assigned on boot up.  The advantage of the Win2KP is that you do not lose the relationships to If you use the Win2KP OS in a single computer mode, you will quickly realize it’s strong user tools.  There are six types of Groups and two of these are oriented to use in a sever environment.   Groups allocate various permission in the use of the computer.  The Administrator group has no restrictions and permission are reduced in order for the following groups; Power Users, Users and Guests.   With no intervention on your part, your name (as set up in the original loading of the OS) will be assigned to the administrator group.   I changed that by signing on as the administrator and establishing a password for that sign on.  I then assigned myself as a Power User.  As a Power User, this is a description of my permission, Power Users possess most administrative powers with some restrictions.  Thus, Power Users can run legacy applications in addition to certified applications.  A Power User can not install programs or change any Administrator settings. Administrators also controls the Users and their assignment to any Groups.  Interestingly, you can set up for automatic sign on for a singe person/ID even into a Workgroup.  Networked computers can belong to Domains and Workgroups and the Workgroup is a small number of computers such as the peer network that the club has at the Resource Center.  The advantage of this approach is for one person to control the computer and how it is used.  This would be nice even in a home environment.   As Users are assigned to the computer, they start with a fresh personalized desktop, programs, etc..  In Win2KP there is a folder called Documents and Settings which keep tract of all personalized settings.  In Windows 98 and later there is a User icon in Control Panel which allows Users to be defined but this is much better in Win2KP.  I mentioned security with this OS and if you set it up properly you will quickly find that if you are not signed on or part of the Administrator group you will receive notices that you can not do certain tasks.