Windows Xp Professional

Notes:	Hide Notes

Slide 1: 1 YEAR UPGRADE BUYER PROTECTION PLAN Configuring and Troubleshooting WINDOWS XP • Step-by-Step Instructions for Performing a Network Installation of Windows XP Professional • Complete Coverage of Upgrading Legacy Systems to Windows XP • Determine a Complete Security Policy for Windows XP Using Internet Connection Firewall, Encrypting File System, and NTFS Professional Everything You Need to Install and Configure Windows XP Professional Martin Grasdal Brian Barber Chad Todd Technical Editor Norris L. Johnson, Jr. Robert Shimonski Slide 2: solutions@syngress.com With more than 1,500,000 copies of our MCSE, MCSD, CompTIA, and Cisco study guides in print, we continue to look for ways we can better serve the information needs of our readers. One way we do that is by listening. Readers like yourself have been telling us they want an Internet-based service that would extend and enhance the value of our books. Based on reader feedback and our own strategic plan, we have created a Web site that we hope will exceed your expectations. Solutions@syngress.com is an interactive treasure trove of useful information focusing on our book topics and related technologies. The site offers the following features: s One-year warranty against content obsolescence due to vendor product upgrades. You can access online updates for any affected chapters. s “Ask the Author” customer query forms that enable you to post questions to our authors and editors. s Exclusive monthly mailings in which our experts provide answers to reader queries and clear explanations of complex material. s Regularly updated links to sites specially selected by our editors for readers desiring additional reliable information on key topics. Best of all, the book you’re now holding is your key to this amazing site. Just go to www.syngress.com/solutions, and keep this book handy when you register to verify your purchase. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve your needs. And be sure to let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help you get the maximum value from your investment. We’re listening. www.syngress.com/solutions Slide 4: 1 YEAR UPGRADE BUYER PROTECTION PLAN Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows XP Professional Brian Barber Chad Todd Norris L. Johnson, Jr. Robert J. Shimonski Martin Grasdal Technical Editor Slide 5: Syngress Publishing, Inc., the author(s), and any person or ﬁrm involved in the writing, editing, or production (collectively “Makers”) of this book (“the Work”) do not guarantee or warrant the results to be obtained from the Work. There is no guarantee of any kind, expressed or implied, regarding the Work or its contents.The Work is sold AS IS and WITHOUT WARRANTY. You may have other legal rights, which vary from state to state. In no event will Makers be liable to you for damages, including any loss of proﬁts, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out from the Work or its contents. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. You should always use reasonable care, including backup and other appropriate precautions, when working with computers, networks, data, and ﬁles. Syngress Media®, Syngress®, “Career Advancement Through Skill Enhancement®,” and “Ask the Author UPDATE®,” are registered trademarks of Syngress Publishing, Inc. “Mission Critical™,”“Hack Prooﬁng™,” and “The Only Way to Stop a Hacker is to Think Like One™” are trademarks of Syngress Publishing, Inc. Brands and product names mentioned in this book are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. KEY 001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 SERIAL NUMBER MM99BX6YDF AHDH9W8RAT 2BSKFJF4TG DNDU75TA39 KQSER5R789 7GDATRZ575 86NHGHK8Y6 7GBFSE45LU SVT5H7KER8 LVX23F35HY PUBLISHED BY Syngress Publishing, Inc. 800 Hingham Street Rockland, MA 02370 Conﬁguring and Troubleshooting Windows XP Professional Copyright © 2001 by Syngress Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication. Printed in the United States of America 1234567890 ISBN: 1-928994-80-6 Technical Editors: Martin Grasdal Freelance Editorial Manager: Maribeth Corona-Evans and John M. Gunson II Technical Reviewer:Will Schmied Cover Designer: Michael Kavish Co-Publisher: Richard Kristof Page Layout and Art by: Shannon Tozier Acquisitions Editor: Catherine B. Nolan Copy Editor: Darren Meiss Developmental Editor: Jonathan Babcock Indexer: Jennifer Coker Distributed by Publishers Group West in the United States and Jaguar Book Group in Canada. Slide 6: Acknowledgments We would like to acknowledge the following people for their kindness and support in making this book possible. Richard Kristof and Duncan Anderson of Global Knowledge, for their generous access to the IT industry’s best courses, instructors, and training facilities. Ralph Troupe, Rhonda St. John, and the team at Callisma for their invaluable insight into the challenges of designing, deploying and supporting world-class enterprise networks. Karen Cross, Lance Tilford, Meaghan Cunningham, Kim Wylie, Harry Kirchner, Kevin Votel, Kent Anderson, and Frida Yara of Publishers Group West for sharing their incredible marketing experience and expertise. Mary Ging, Caroline Hird, Simon Beale, Caroline Wheeler,Victoria Fuller, Jonathan Bunkell, and Klaus Beran of Harcourt International for making certain that our vision remains worldwide in scope. Annabel Dent of Harcourt Australia for all her help. David Buckland,Wendi Wong, Daniel Loh, Marie Chieng, Lucy Chong, Leslie Lim, Audrey Gan, and Joseph Chan of Transquest Publishers for the enthusiasm with which they receive our books. Kwon Sung June at Acorn Publishing for his support. Ethan Atkin at Cranbury International for his help in expanding the Syngress program. v Slide 8: Technical Editors and Contributors Martin Grasdal (BA, MCSE+I on Windows NT 4.0, MCSE on Windows 2000, MCT, CNE, CNI, CTT, A+) is Director of Cramsession Content at BrainBuzz.com and is a co-founder of Eutechnia Solutions, a computer consulting and training ﬁrm based in Edmonton, Canada. Martin has been an MCT since 1995 and an MCSE since 1996. His training and network experience covers a broad range of products, including NetWare, Lotus Notes,Windows NT and 2000, Exchange Server, IIS, Proxy Server, and ISA Server 2000. Martin was the Technical Editor for the bestselling Syngress Publishing’s Conﬁguring ISA Server 2000: Building Firewalls for Windows 2000 (ISBN: 1-928994-29-6) by Thomas and Deb Shinder. Martin also works actively as a consultant. His recent consulting experience includes contract work for Microsoft as a Technical Contributor to the MCP Program on projects related to server technologies. Martin lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, with his wife Cathy and their two sons. John M. Gunson II (MCSE, MCT, Master CNE, CCNA) is an infrastructure consultant, trainer, author, and speaker. He has worked in the Information Technology ﬁeld for nearly 13 years, designing and deploying complex solutions utilizing Microsoft, Novell, and Cisco products for corporations in the Philadelphia and New York areas. John has written and contributed to several Syngress Publishing titles, including Deploying Windows 2000 with Support Tools, and PC Maintenance & Repair DVD Kit (ISBN: 1-928994-41-5). He has also written several articles on Microsoft and Cisco technologies for Windows 2000 Magazine and Microsoft Certiﬁed Professional Magazine. John lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his family and ever growing collection of computer and network equipment. vii Slide 9: Contributors David L. Hopper (MCSE, MCP+I, CCNP, NNCSS) is a Senior Network Support Engineer with SBC Datacomm. David currently provides multivendor network support to internal network engineers and contract clients. His areas of expertise include Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP, Cisco and Nortel routers, Symantec Enterprise Firewall (formerly Raptor Firewall), and general network design, implementation, and optimization. David’s background includes positions as a Senior Infrastructure Engineer with the Anixter Inc. networking division, an Enterprise LAN Engineer at Anixter Inc., and a Support Engineer with Reeves Data Corporation. David resides in Waukegan, IL with his ﬁancée Valerie. Mark Horninger (A+, MCSE+I, MCSD, MCDBA) is President and founder of Haverford Consultants Inc. (www.haverford-consultants.com), located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. He develops custom applications and system engineering solutions, specializing primarily in Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft BackOfﬁce products. He has over 10 years of computer consulting experience and has passed 29 Microsoft Certiﬁed exams. During his career, Mark has worked on many extensive projects including database development, application development, training, embedded systems development, and Windows NT and 2000 project rollout planning and implementations. Mark lives with his wife Debbie and two children in Havertown, PA. Robert J. Shimonski (Cisco CCDP, CCNP, Nortel NNCSS, MCSE, MCP+I, Master CNE, CIP, CIBS, CWP, CIW, GSEC, GCIH, Server+, Network+, Inet+, A+) is a Lead Network and Security Engineer for Thomson Industries Inc.Thomson Industries is the leading manufacturer and provider of linear motion products and engineering. Robert’s specialties include network infrastructure design with the Cisco and Nortel product line, network security design and management with CiscoSecure viii Slide 10: and PIX Firewalls, network management and troubleshooting with CiscoWorks and Sniffer-based technologies, systems engineering and administration with Microsoft NT/2000/XP, UNIX, Linux, Apple, and Novell Netware technologies, and developing a host of Web-based solutions for companies securing their market on the Web. He has also contributed to hundreds of articles, study guides, and certiﬁcation preparation software for Web sites and organizations worldwide, including Brainbuzz.com and SANS.Org. Robert’s background includes positions as a Network Architect at Avis Rent A Car and Cendant Information Technology. Robert holds a bachelor’s degree from SUNY, NY and is a part-time Licensed Technical Instructor for Computer Career Center in Garden City, NY teaching Windows-based and Networking Technologies. Brian Barber (MCSE, MCP+I, MCNE, CNE-5, CNE-4, CNA-3, CNA-GW), co-author of Syngress Publishing’s Conﬁguring Exchange 2000 Server (ISBN: 1-928994-25-3) is a Senior Technology Consultant with Sierra Systems Consultants Inc. in Ottawa, Canada. As such, he provides technical architecture consulting and analysis to public and private sector clients. Brian specializes in technical and network architecture, focusing on Web-enabled service delivery through directory services and messaging. His background includes positions as Senior Technical Analyst at MetLife and Senior Technical Coordinator at the LGS Group Inc. (now a part of IBM Global Services). He would like to thank his family for all of their help, love, and support, and Glen Donegan at Microsoft Canada for providing the software he needed to set up a test environment. Chad Todd (MCSE, MCT, CNE, CAN, A+, Network+, I-Net+) is a Systems Trainer for Ikon Education Services, a global provider of technology training. He currently teaches Windows 2000 and Windows XP courses. In addition to training for Ikon, Chad also provides private consulting for small- to medium-sized companies. Chad is the author of Syngress Publishing’s Hack Prooﬁng Windows 2000 Server (ISBN: 1-931836-49-3). Chad ﬁrst earned his MCSE on Windows NT 4.0 and has been working with Windows 2000 and Windows XP since their ﬁrst beta releases. He was awarded Microsoft Charter Member 2000 for being ix Slide 11: one of the ﬁrst 2000 engineers to attain Windows 2000 MCSE certiﬁcation. Chad would like to thank his wife Sarah for her caring support and encouragement. Norris L. Johnson, Jr. (MCSE, MCT, CTT, A+, Network +) is a Technology Trainer and owner of a consulting company in the SeattleTacoma area. His consultancies have included deployments and security planning for local ﬁrms and public agencies, as well as providing services to other local computer ﬁrms in need of problem solving and solutions for their clients. He specializes in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 issues, providing planning and implementation and integration services. In addition to consulting work, Norris trains extensively in the AATP program at Highline Community College’s Federal Way,WA campus, and has taught in the vocational education arena at Bates Technical College in Tacoma,WA. Norris holds a bachelor’s degree from Washington State University. He is deeply appreciative of the guidance and support offered by his parents and wife Cindy during the years of transition and education to make the career change that has been so wonderful to be involved in. Henk-Evert Sonder (CCNA) has over 15 years of experience as an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) professional, building and maintaining ICT infrastructures. In recent years, he has specialized in integrating ICT infrastructures with secure business applications. Henk’s company, IT Selective, works with small businesses to help them develop high-quality, low cost solutions. Henk has contributed to several Syngress Publishing titles, including the E-Mail Virus Protection Handbook (ISBN: 1-928994-23-7), Designing SQL Server 2000 Databases for .NET Enterprise Servers (ISBN: 1-928994-19-9), VB.NET Developer’s Guide (ISBN: 1-928994-48-2), and the forthcoming BizTalk Server 2000 Developer’s Guide for .NET (ISBN: 1-928994-40-7). Henk lives in Hingham, MA with his wife Jude and daughter Lily. John Godfrey (MCSE, MCP+I, CNA) is currently a freelance consultant who has a wide range of experience gained from over 12 years in the IT industry. John mainly specializes in Microsoft Technologies providing x Slide 12: design, automation, process management, implementation, and development. He has provided consultancy for many leading companies in the UK including leading ﬁnancial institutions and IBM. In addition, he has worked on many other technical publications as a reviewer and technical editor more recently focusing on .NET technologies. John lives in the Shrophsire Hills in the United Kingdom with his wife Rosalind and three children Sophie, Jacob, and Polly. xi Slide 13: Technical Reviewer Will Schmied (MCSE) is a featured writer on Windows 2000 and Windows XP technologies for CramSession.com. He has also authored several works for various Microsoft certiﬁcation exams.Will provides consulting and training on Microsoft products to small- and medium-sized organizations in the Hampton Roads,VA area. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Old Dominion University and is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the National Society of Professional Engineers.Will currently resides in Newport News,VA with his family Allison, Christopher, Austin, Andrea, and Hannah. xii Slide 14: Contents Foreword Exploring Windows XP Professional Windows XP Professional takes the product to the next level: s xxvii 1 2 2 3 3 5 6 6 7 8 8 9 9 12 13 13 13 14 15 16 16 17 IntelliMirror Technologies Group Policy Functionality Encrypting File System Support Multiprocessor Support s s s Chapter 1 Next Generation Windows Introduction Introducing the Windows XP Family Windows XP Home Edition Multimedia Capabilities Improved User Interface Security Enhancements Switching between User Sessions Hardware and Software Compatibility Windows XP Professional The Future of Windows 2000 Server: Windows .NET Servers Introducing the Major Features of Windows XP Professional User Interface Networking Better Performance Internet Features Remote Assistance Reliability Features Multimedia Features Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions xiii Slide 15: xiv Contents Answers to Your Frequently Asked Questions Q: FAT or NTFS? Which file system should you choose during the installation of Windows XP Professional? A: In order to take advantage of all of the features of Windows XP, such as Encrypting File System, you need to choose NTFS. Chapter 2 Installing Windows XP Professional 19 Introduction 20 Clean Installation of Windows XP Professional 23 Setup Issues 36 Performing an Upgrade to Windows XP Professional 38 Upgrading from Windows 98/Me 40 Upgrading from Windows NT/2000 41 Starting the Upgrade 41 Network Installation of Windows XP Professional 47 Automating the Windows XP Professional Setup 48 Preparing for Setup 49 Command-Line Setup 49 Network Distribution Point 52 Distribution Point Directory Structure 52 Customizing Windows XP Professional Setup 54 Answer Files 54 Setup Manager 3.0 55 Further Customization with UDB 73 Preparing the Destination Computer 75 Using Sysprep 77 Overview of Sysprep 77 Sysprep Requirements 77 Sysprep Step by Step 78 Running Sysprep during Automated Installation 81 Automating Setup of a Target Computer 81 Creating an Answer File Using Setup Manager 82 Running Additional Programs After Mini-Setup 84 Summary 86 Solutions Fast Track 86 Frequently Asked Questions 88 Slide 16: Contents xv Chapter 3 Exploring the Windows XP User Interface Introduction Configuring the Desktop Desktop Settings Accessing the Desktop Accessing the Desktop Settings Settings Desktop Settings Modifications Themes You can access the Backgrounds desktop settings several ways: Appearance s Using the Control Panel Screen Saver Overview of the Start Menu and the Taskbar s Right-Clicking and Selecting from the The Start Menu Pop-Up Menu The Taskbar s Via a Command Line Configuring the Standard Desktop Programs My Computer My Network Places My Documents Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions Chapter 4 Managing Windows XP Professional Introduction Creating Users and Groups What Are User Accounts? Local User Accounts Exercise 4.1 Creating Local User Accounts with the Computer Management Console Exercise 4.2 Creating Local User Accounts by Using the Command Line Exercise 4.3 Deleting Local User Accounts by Using the Command Line 91 92 93 93 93 98 102 103 108 110 111 111 122 124 125 126 126 128 128 130 133 134 134 134 135 136 140 141 Slide 17: xvi Contents NOTE A profile is a set of configurations that you can create, or the machine creates by default (usually ending with a .DAT extension) that defines your environment when logging on. The environment can contain (among other things) window size and position settings, program items, icons, and screen colors. Exercise 4.4 Creating Local User Accounts with the Control Panel User Accounts Applet Domain User Accounts Exercise 4.5 Joining a Domain What Are Groups? Local Groups Exercise 4.6 Creating Local Groups Exercise 4.7 Creating and Deleting Local Groups from the Command Prompt Global Groups New Functionality in XP for User Accounts Password Hinting Picture Uploading Sharing Folders Other Sharing Techniques Managing Storage Configuring Hard Drives Converting a Drive to NTFS via the Command Line File Systems and NTFS versus FAT32 Exercise 4.8 Enabling Disk Quotas on an NTFS Drive Basic versus Dynamic Disks Working with Removable Storage Creating a Media Pool Managing Devices Enabling, Disabling, or Removing Hardware and Changing and Updating the Current Drivers Using the Event Viewer Event Logs Navigating to the Event Viewer Application Log System Log Security Log 141 145 146 147 147 148 150 150 151 151 151 152 158 161 163 165 165 167 169 171 172 173 175 177 177 177 178 178 178 Slide 18: Contents xvii Transferring Files and Settings between Computers The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard allows you to migrate files and settings from any Windows system to a Windows XP system. The advantage of this System tool is not so much in the transfer of files, which can also be achieved by the Backup Utility, but the fact that (nearly) all personal settings can be reinstated on the Windows XP system, which saves a lot of time and annoyance. How to Work with and Troubleshoot the Logs Adjusting the Size of and Saving Event Logs Understanding Performance Logs Monitoring and Logging Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting Baselining The Performance Logs and Alerts Console Creating a New Counter Log Creating a New Trace Log Alerts Creating an Alert Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 179 180 182 182 182 183 183 184 186 187 187 189 189 192 Chapter 5 Working with System Tools Introduction Defragmenting Your Hard Disk How Disk Defragmenter Works The Limitations of Disk Defragmenter Using Disk Defragmenter Controlling Fragmentation of the Pagefile and MFT Cleaning Up Files Transferring Files and Settings between Computers The Basics of the Files and Settings Transfer Selecting and Transferring the Files and Settings Receiving the Transferable Files and Settings Scheduling Tasks Working with the Task Scheduler 195 196 196 198 199 201 210 215 220 221 222 228 231 232 Slide 19: xviii Contents Using the QoS Packet Scheduler The QoS Packet Scheduler is installed by default. QoS has been enhanced in Windows XP to automatically optimize TCP/IP for transmission across different interfaces that operate at different rates. This is typically the situation if you have turned on Internet Connection Sharing. Managing Scheduled Tasks Using the Scheduled Task Wizard Changing a Scheduled Task Backing Up Your Files Backup Functionalities Working with the Backup Tool Using the Advanced Mode Backup Utility The Backup Utility’s Menu Bar Setting the Options in the Backup Utility Using the Welcome Tab Functions Using the Backup Tab Function Using the Schedule Jobs Tab Function Using the Backup or Restore Wizard Restoring Your System Using the Restore Wizard (Advanced) Using the Restore and Manage Media Tab of the Backup Utility Using the Restore Portion of the Backup or Restore Wizard Using the Automated System Recovery Using the System Restore Tool Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 239 240 242 250 250 253 256 257 259 264 273 276 277 282 282 285 286 286 287 292 293 297 Chapter 6 Windows XP Networking Introduction Overview of Networking Technologies Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model Department of Defense Model Windows XP Networking Architecture Configuring Network Interfaces The Local Area Connection Using Loopback Adapters Bridging Network Connections 299 300 301 304 306 308 309 309 312 313 Slide 20: Contents xix Network Client and Protocol Considerations Configuring Microsoft and Novell Clients Working with Network Protocols Working with TCP/IP Working with IPX/SPX Working with RAS and VPN Configuring a RAS Connection Tunneling with a VPN Connection Sharing Your Internet Connection Configuring Internet Connection Sharing Filtering and Firewalls Using IP Packet Filtering Configuring the Internet Connection Firewall Wireless Connectivity Wireless Standards Microsoft’s Implementation of IEEE 802.11 and 802.1x Standards Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions Configuring Internet Explorer 6 You can easily customize Internet Explorer 6 to suit business requirements and individual tastes. Microsoft has built-in features that embrace Web standards, guard the user’s privacy, protect the user from malicious sites, and make browsing the Web more convenient and efficient. 316 317 319 320 329 330 330 337 341 344 347 348 348 351 352 354 357 358 362 Chapter 7 Configuring Internet Technologies Introduction Configuring Internet Explorer 6 What’s New in Internet Explorer 6? Configuring the Browser The General Tab The Security Tab The Privacy Tab The Content Tab The Connections Tab The Programs Tab The Advanced Tab Using Internet Explorer 6 Advanced Configuration for the Corporate Environment 367 368 368 368 370 371 374 377 380 382 383 384 385 392 Slide 21: xx Contents Configuring Outlook Express 6 Using Outlook Express 6 Corporate Considerations Configuring Instant Messaging Using Windows Messenger Corporate Considerations Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 394 400 401 402 407 410 411 412 413 Chapter 8 Adding New Hardware and Software Introduction Adding New Hardware to Your System Using the Add Hardware Wizard Installing Software Adding Software Connecting to Other Removing Software Windows XP Machines Working with Windows Installer You do not have to be Summary running Windows XP to Solutions Fast Track set up a connection to a Frequently Asked Questions Windows XP client. These other versions of Windows are supported: s s s s s 417 418 418 419 428 428 430 432 439 439 441 443 444 445 446 453 454 457 459 462 473 479 Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows Me Windows NT 4.0 Windows 2000 Chapter 9 Using the Communication Tools Introduction Using Remote Desktop Sharing Connecting to Other Windows XP Machines Connecting to Windows 2000 Terminal Servers Configuring Windows XP for Faxing Sending Faxes Using XP Connecting to the Internet Collaborating with NetMeeting Working with HyperTerminal Summary Slide 22: Contents xxi Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 480 482 Answers to Your Frequently Asked Questions Q: My machine is ACPIcompliant. When I look at Power Management Options, I do not see an APM tab. Is this OK? How do I configure Advance Power Management? A: On ACPI-compliant machines, APM is not installed because it is not required. ACPI improves upon APM as a power management standard, and it provides greater control over devices that are subject to power saving measures. You can configure power management by using the remaining tabs. The actual power management that goes on behind the scenes is executed using the ACPI standard, not the APM standard. Chapter 10 Using the Control Panel Introduction Setting Power Management Options Windows XP Accessibility Options Keyboard Settings Sound Settings Display Settings Mouse Settings General Settings Other Accessibility Applications Changing Mouse and Keyboard Settings Configuring Regional and Language Settings Working with System Properties Computer Name and Domain Configuration Automatic Updates Remote Use Configuration System Restore Settings Advanced Settings Performance Settings User Profiles Settings Startup and Recovery Settings Environment Variables Error Reporting Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions Chapter 11 Understanding Windows XP Security Introduction File System Security NTFS Modifying or Adding Standard File and Folder Permissions 483 484 486 493 494 495 496 498 498 499 500 507 511 511 513 514 515 516 517 520 520 522 523 525 526 529 531 532 532 532 534 Slide 23: xxii Contents Utilizing Network Security Several tools are included with Windows XP to secure network access: s The Internet Connection Firewall TCP/IP Filtering Smart cards EAP 802.1x s s s s Modifying or Adding Advanced File or Folder Permissions Modifying File and Folder Permissions Inheritance Encrypting File System Creating an Encrypted File or Folder Decrypting Files or Folders Account Security Security Groups Creating Groups Adding or Removing Group Members Deleting Groups that Are No Longer Needed Security Policies Account Policy Local Policies Public Key Policies Software Restriction Policies IP Security Policies Network Security Using the Internet Connection Firewall TCP/IP Filtering Enabling and Configuring TCP/IP Filtering Disabling TCP/IP Filtering Smart Cards Extensible Authentication Protocol Configuring EAP with VPN and Dial-Up Networking 802.1x Authentication Configuring Network Access Control using 802.1x and EAP Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 537 539 546 548 550 550 551 555 557 558 558 559 561 568 570 571 573 573 577 578 579 579 580 581 585 585 586 586 588 Slide 24: Contents xxiii Planning for IntelliMirror It is important to have Active Directory installed and configured properly prior to using IntelliMirror for software deployment and configuration management. Be sure to test Active Directory completely before relying on the IntelliMirror functions. Chapter 12 Using IntelliMirror Technologies Introduction Group Policies Group Policy Order Group Policy Scenario How Group Policies Are Applied Troubleshooting Group Policies Using Group Policy to Replace System Policy Resultant Set of Policy Software Installation and Maintenance Using Group Policy to Install Software Changing Software Group Policy Options MSIEXEC.EXE Software Installation Properties Updating Software Packages Offline Files and Synchronization Working with Offline Files Synchronizing Your Data with the Network Remote Installation Services Installing Windows XP with RIS Customizing RIS Prestaging a Client for RIS Operation Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions Chapter 13 Working with Printers Introduction Adding a Local Printer Printer Drivers Exercise 13.1 Installing a Local Printer Printing to a Local Printer from a Remote Session Sharing Your Local Printer 589 590 590 592 592 601 601 603 603 608 609 613 618 619 620 620 623 623 624 625 626 629 631 631 632 635 636 637 637 638 645 645 Slide 25: xxiv Contents Troubleshooting Hardware Troubleshooting hardware issues generally requires good, basic troubleshooting methodology. Before you begin, remember the following caveats: s Troubleshooting requires reproducible events; it is rarely effective in cases of intermittent failure. Troubleshooting tools in Windows XP are designed to operate with hardware that is in the Hardware Compatibility List. Follow your complete troubleshooting path; repair of symptoms may not repair the cause. Configuring Print Drivers for Network Clients Exercise 13.2 Sharing a Local Printer Connecting to a Network Printer Exercise 13.3 Mapping to a Shared Local Printer Configuring Your Printer The Properties of a Logical Printer General Tab Ports Tab Advanced Tab Security Tab Device Settings Tab Web-Based Printing Exercise 13.4 Connecting to a Printer via the Web Browser The Print Queue Troubleshooting Printer Problems Exercise 13.5 Redirecting Printers Printer Auditing Exercise 13.6 Enabling Printer Auditing Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 646 646 649 650 653 654 654 656 658 661 663 663 663 664 665 666 667 667 671 671 673 s s Chapter 14 Troubleshooting Windows XP Introduction Troubleshooting Resources Knowledge Base TechNet Help and Support Center Page Pick a Help Topic Ask for Assistance Pick a Task Did You Know? and Options Remote Assistance Microsoft.com 675 676 676 677 677 678 678 679 681 685 686 696 Slide 26: Contents xxv Using the Recovery Console Windows XP includes the Recovery Console, which was introduced in Windows 2000. The Recovery Console is a textbased command interpreter, which is different from the normal Windows XP cmd.exe command interpreter in that it has a different set of commands and it allows you to access a Windows XP system that is not booting normally or is otherwise inaccessible. Troubleshooting the Logon Process Troubleshooting Network/ Internet Connectivity Troubleshooting System Performance Task Manager The Application Tab The Processes Tab The Performance Tab The Networking Tab Performance MMC Troubleshooting Applications Troubleshooting Hardware Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 697 702 704 704 705 705 706 707 709 715 716 721 721 724 Chapter 15 Best Practice Disaster Recovery and Prevention Introduction Booting in Safe Mode and Last Known Good Using System Restore to Create Restore Points and Recover from Failures Creating a Manual Restore Point Restoring a Previously Created Restore Point Using the Recovery Console Installing the Recovery Console Running the Recovery Console from CD Using Recover Console Commands Backing Up Your System Recovering Your System with Automated System Recovery Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions Index 725 726 726 727 728 729 731 732 734 734 736 746 748 748 750 753 Slide 28: Foreword As I write this foreword, the ofﬁcial release of Windows XP is only weeks away. Already,Windows XP is proving to be an extremely popular operating system among those fortunate enough to have access to prior beta releases or the Release to Manufacture (RTM) version. Most of the Windows XP users I have talked to are enthusiastic about Windows XP, and I have no doubt future users will be as well. There is already a huge amount of Internet activity, in newsgroups and Web sites, dedicated to the advent of this latest operating system from Microsoft. For many home and corporate users, the replacement of Windows 98 and Windows Me, in particular, with a stable operating system based on a 32-bit NT kernel will likely be welcome news. Users who use NT Workstation or Windows 2000 Professional and already experience the beneﬁts of a stable 32-bit NT kernel will also likely be impressed by the many new and useful features of Windows XP and will be strongly motivated to upgrade. Time will tell what the ultimate success of Windows XP will be. However, early indications are that its release will be comparable in some of its effects to the release of Windows 95. Although Windows XP is unlikely to have the large impact on sales of computer hardware that Windows 95 did,Windows XP may prove to be just as popular. Many corporate and home consumers will ﬁnd its features attractive enough to warrant purchasing it, especially if they are running an operating system based on the Windows 9x code base. For those users running products such as Windows 95, 98, or Me, the better stability of Windows XP is probably sufﬁcient reason alone to upgrade. With XP, the chances that poorly written code will cause the entire system to fail, an event otherwise known as a stop error or “the blue screen of death (BSOD)”, are greatly reduced. Stop errors may still occur because of faulty hardware. However, software-related stop errors will only occur if the software in question is a poorly written device driver (a program that provides the means of allowing the operating system to communicate with a piece of hardware, such as a modem or sound card, xxvii Slide 29: xxviii Foreword attached to the computer). A system-wide failure of Windows XP will not occur because of a poorly written application, such as a game. If the application fails, only the application stops, not Windows XP. This kind of stability has long been available with Windows NT and Windows 2000. However, that stability has come at somewhat of a price: the inability to run as many programs as the Win 9x code base can. As a result, NT Workstation and Windows 2000 Professional have not been the ﬁrst choice of many knowledgeable home computer hobbyists, in particular those who like computer games.That issue should no longer be a factor in the decision to use Windows XP.Windows XP is able to a run wide range of legacy applications and to run them, if necessary, in an environment that emulates that of an earlier operating system, such as Windows 95.This feature, known as the Program Compatibility Mode, ensures that a program speciﬁcally written for an earlier operating system will most likely run on Windows XP. Because Windows XP is less prone to stopping and requiring a reboot, there is less chance of ﬁle corruption and other related problems occurring that were beyond the skills of many users to troubleshoot and correct without assistance.Windows XP is also as easy to set up as Windows 98 or Me. For the home user, there are many wizards and simpliﬁed interfaces that will make even hitherto advanced conﬁgurations relatively easy. In particular, home users will ﬁnd that Windows XP offers superb functionality for connecting the computer to the Internet and for making the Internet available through Internet Connection Sharing to other computers in the household.Windows XP is also potentially much more secure than the earlier consumer operating systems. For example,Windows XP includes an Internet Connection Firewall, which will go a long way towards helping protect the computer from malicious users on the Internet. Home and corporate users will be able to leverage the security and stability of the NTFS ﬁle system. Users and administrators will be able to control access to individual ﬁles and folders based on permission, something not possible with the Windows 9x operating systems. Furthermore, even if the computer stops or is turned off unexpectedly, NTFS will make it far less likely that ﬁles are damaged. Among the other beneﬁts provided by NTFS in Windows XP are the Encrypting File System (EFS) and compression. Users will be better able to secure sensitive ﬁles on their computer by encrypting them with EFS.This is an especially desirable feature for laptop users whose computers may contain sensitive information. Unfortunately, EFS is not available in XP Home, the edition that is targeted for the mass consumer market. www.syngress.com Slide 30: Foreword xxix Corporate administrators will also ﬁnd that Windows XP offers a number of signiﬁcant advantages over other operating systems. If the corporate network comprises computers running the Windows 9x code base, administrators will ﬁnd many reasons to advocate upgrading to Windows XP.The most signiﬁcant reason is probably the reduction in time administrators will spend responding to help desk calls from users, due to the superior stability of Windows XP and its other many improvements. For companies that already use NT Workstation or Windows 2000 Professional as their desktop standard, the beneﬁts that result from a more stable operating system should already be clear. In these cases,Windows XP represents an incremental upgrade and provides fewer reasons for upgrading. However, one new feature of Windows XP will turn many administrators into advocates for Windows XP: the Remote Assistant.With the Remote Assistant feature, administrators will be able to take control of a user’s desktop to correct a problem or to provide a teaching demonstration to the user.The administrator will be able to do this from his workstation and will not have to be physically present at the user’s workstation. The Remote Assistant uses the same technology as another tool in XP that will help productivity: Remote Desktop.With Remote Desktop, which is available on XP Pro but not XP Home, users can connect to their computers from a remote computer using the Remote Desktop Connection client, which was previously called the Terminal Services client. Upon connection, users are able to gain access to a session running on the remote Windows XP computer.This means that they will be see the desktop of the remote computer within a window on the local computer and be able to work within that window as if they were sitting down at the remote computer. A user working from home could connect to her computer on the corporate network and be able to use it as if she were physically sitting down at it.The bulk of the trafﬁc that occurs between the two computers would mainly comprise information about the desktop display on the remote computer, a very small amount of trafﬁc. Even over relatively slow links, such as 28.8 Kbps dial-up connections, performance is excellent. Help and Support in Windows XP features a completely new design that improves greatly on the Help found in prior operating systems.The Help and Support search engine not only searches its own local ﬁles for information, but will also search the Microsoft Knowledge Base, if the computer has a connection to the Internet.The Help and Support utility, like many of the tools on Windows XP, offers a lot of conﬁguration options. Users can turn off the ability to search the Knowledge Base, or they can change the focus of the Knowledge Base search on the Microsoft Web site to some other category.The Help and Support utility also provides useful tips and advice in a “Did You Know?” section of the interface.The headlines in the www.syngress.com Slide 31: xxx Foreword “Did You Know?” section are refreshed with content from the Web whenever users launch the utility.This ensures that up-to-date and relevant information, such as security bulletins, is displayed here. These are only a limited sample of some of the new and desirable features of Windows XP that will help to drive its popularity.There are many other features of Windows XP that administrators and users alike will ﬁnd desirable and useful. Windows XP, for all its ease of conﬁguration and use, is a large and complex product. To provide expert support for it and to make the most of it in the corporate or home environment requires signiﬁcant knowledge. In creating this book on Windows XP, we were always mindful of the need for the content of the book to provide an accurate reﬂection of the depth and complexity of the product itself.That is why this book is relatively large. Given the size and complexity of the product and the enormous number of useful features included in it, the book has to provide a lot of information to do justice to the product itself. This book contains 15 chapters that together provide comprehensive information on Windows XP. Chapter 1 establishes the foundation for the book and provides an introduction to the new Windows XP and .NET family of products from Microsoft. This chapter provides the larger overall context in which we can see where Windows XP is positioned and how it ﬁts into the strategic goals of the next generation of Microsoft operating systems.The chapter also provides a discussion of the notable new features that set it apart from Microsoft’s prior operating systems. Chapter 2 provides information on the various methods for installing Windows XP. Here, you will ﬁnd information on how to install Windows XP from a CD or from the network.You will also ﬁnd information on how to use Setup Manager and how to perform scripted, unattended installations of the product.We also discuss installing Windows XP using Remote Installation Services (RIS), but we place this discussion in Chapter 12, where we provide information on other IntelliMirror technologies. The user interface of Windows XP has undergone signiﬁcant changes from prior versions of Windows. Chapter 3 guides you through the complexities of using both the Windows XP and the Classic interface view.You will ﬁnd advice and instruction for conﬁguring the interface so that you can use it productively, whatever your particular needs may be.You will ﬁnd information on conﬁguring the desktop, Start menu, and taskbar. In Windows XP, Control Panel now provides two different views: the Category and Classic views.This chapter will show you how to conﬁgure Control Panel for your preferred view. We next look at managing Windows XP in Chapter 4.This chapter covers a wide range of topics that are central to the management of Windows XP.These www.syngress.com Slide 32: Foreword xxxi topics include creating Users and Groups, sharing folders, managing devices and storage, in addition to using tools such as Event Viewer and Trace and Performance Logs.You will learn, for example, how to create Alerts to notify you when the computer encounters some critical event that you deﬁne, such as running out of disk space or excessive CPU use.You will also ﬁnd an explanation of the differences between ﬁle systems such as NTFS and FAT32, as well as explanations of Basic Disks and Dynamic Volumes. System tools that will assist you in the maintenance of Windows XP are the subject of Chapter 5. If you haven’t looked at the System Tools in Windows XP, you will be pleasantly surprised by the new additions and the functionality of these tools. For example, you will ﬁnd the new Disk Cleanup and System Restore tools in addition to the tools you would normally expect to see, such as the Backup,Task Scheduler, and Disk Defragmenter utility.You will ﬁnd thorough information on the use of these tools. Chapter 6 provides a comprehensive examination of networking in Windows XP. Because this book is intended for both new and experienced users and administrators, you will ﬁnd a summary explanation of the basic concepts of computer networking. After this introduction to networking, the chapter takes you through the details of conﬁguring TCP/IP, IPS/SPX (NWLink), RAS and Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections.We also look at how to conﬁgure Bridging, Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), and the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF). Chapter Six also provides information on the new Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) standard, which is more a networking standard than a hardware standard, in spite of its name. The chapter ends with a discussion of the new features for wireless networking in Windows XP. Internet Explorer is no longer integrated with the operating system to the same extent it was in Windows 9x or Windows 2000. However, because Internet Explorer 6.0 introduces a number of new and useful features and because it will be the browser of choice for the majority of users, this book would not be complete without a separate chapter that provides in-depth information on IE 6.0, along with Outlook Express. One of the exciting new features of IE 6 that we examine in Chapter 7 is the privacy settings that allow you to control whether your computer will receive cookies, based on whether the Web site has a machine-readable privacy policy.This is very recent and emerging technology, and we have striven to provide you with the latest information on it. Of course, you will also ﬁnd lots of good information for conﬁguring the familiar features of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express for both the home and corporate environment. www.syngress.com Slide 33: xxxii Foreword Windows 95 introduced the world to a Plug and Play operating system and was revolutionary in providing consumers with an easy way to add hardware devices to their computers, hence the enormous boom in computer peripheral devices in recent years. However, compared to the Plug and Play capability of Windows XP, that ﬁrst attempt at Plug and Play in Windows 95 seems crude.Windows XP will put to rest the tired and clichéd joke of “Plug and Pray.” Plug and Play in Windows XP is much more reliable than in previous operating systems.That said, you will still have to know how Plug and Play works and how to add and remove hardware devices to the computer running Windows XP. Chapter 8 covers the topic of adding new and legacy hardware.The primary tool for this is the Add Hardware Wizard, which makes it possible for novice and experienced users alike to install and conﬁgure hardware with relative ease. Chapter 8 also covers installing new software through the use of the Add And Remove Programs tool. Additionally, the chapter provides information on the use of Windows Installer for managing the installation and removal of programs on your computer.Together the tools for hardware and software addition and removal provides mechanisms that enable Windows XP to repair itself to some degree and to eliminate much of the frustration associated with troubleshooting and correcting failed software or hardware components. Windows XP provides a wide range of tools to enable communication with other people and computers. Included among these tools is the new Remote Desktop tool, which enables you to view the desktop on your Windows XP computer from another, remote computer. Chapter 9 begins with coverage of this tool and then explores other tools that you can use for communication.These tools include HyperTerminal and NetMeeting, which appears to be headed for replacement by Windows Messenger.The chapter also provides detailed information on conﬁguring Windows XP for faxing and conﬁguring connections to the Internet. Power management on Windows XP has been improved and offers better functionality and greater conﬁgurability than prior operating systems. Chapter 10 discusses the power management features that will allow you to minimize the power you consume on both your laptop and desktop computer. Making computers easier to use for persons with disabilities has been one of Microsoft’s laudable goals for some time now.You will ﬁnd a great deal of information in Chapter 10 regarding the accessibility features Microsoft has built into Windows XP, which again improves on the accessibility features of Windows 9x and 2000. Windows XP is designed to be used in many geographic locales. Chapter 10 also includes an in-depth look at the available regional and languages settings. www.syngress.com Slide 34: Foreword xxxiii Chapter 10 ends with a thorough examination of the System Properties, one of the most important interfaces in Windows XP.Through System Properties, you can conﬁgure settings for Automatic Updates, System Restore settings, performance, login, user proﬁles, remote desktop, and others. Security is an important concern for anyone who uses computers.Windows XP has many features that, if properly conﬁgured, will go a long way towards making your system more secure. For example, one of the new features that Windows XP provides is the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF).With ICF, you can block any unsolicited trafﬁc from the Internet. If you have ICF enabled and conﬁgured with the most restrictive settings, your computer will be invisible to other computers on the Internet (unless you initiate the trafﬁc to a remote host by, for example, using your browser) and will drop any trafﬁc, including pings, from any host.This is an especially useful feature if you are connected to the Internet with a permanent connection. ICF is only one feature of Windows XP that can enhance the security of your system.There are many others, such as Encrypting File System and NTFS. Chapter 11 examines these features and also provides information and advice on conﬁguring ﬁle security, account security, network security, and other security-related topics. If you are using Windows XP Pro, as opposed to Windows XP Home, you can take advantage of the IntelliMirror technologies that Microsoft has developed for use in Windows. IntelliMirror technologies, of which Group Policy is a core element, allow you to control and manage all aspects of the Windows 2000 or Windows XP desktop environments.These include Registry settings, software installation, logon and logoff scripts, and so on. For example, with IntelliMirror you can control the automatic installation (or deinstallation) of software through Group Policy settings. Chapter 12 provides information on this topic, Group Policy, Resultant Set of Policy (RSOP), Remote Installation Services (RIS), and other topics related to the use of IntelliMirror. Chapter 13 looks at printing from beginning to end, from installing a printer to conﬁguring auditing for it. In spite of the improvements in Windows XP over other operating systems and advances in computer hardware and computer hardware standards, users and administrator will still need to troubleshoot problems that may arise from any number of causes.Windows XP includes a large number of useful tools to help you troubleshoot problems that you may experience. One such tool is the new Network Diagnostics tool, which provides a very detailed report on the status of your network connection and system. Chapter 14 shows you how to locate and use the many tools that will prove invaluable for troubleshooting.You will also ﬁnd a detailed explanation of www.syngress.com Slide 35: xxxiv Foreword Remote Assistance, which will prove to be a boon for many administrators and help desk personnel. Chapter 14 also includes some solid advice on how to approach troubleshooting to help ensure success. Finally, Chapter 15 looks at best practices for disaster recovery and prevention. Windows XP includes an impressive array of new improvements that will help to ensure you can recover your system in the case of a serious failure.You will ﬁnd detailed information on Automatic System Recovery (ASR), the Recovery Console, the System Restore utility, and the Backup and Restore utility.The chapter discusses when it is appropriate to use a particular disaster recovery method. Working on this book has been a pleasure.When I ﬁrst saw Windows XP in the early beta versions, I was astonished by the number of additions and improvements that Microsoft had incorporated into it.Windows XP is the most feature-rich and useful desktop operating system yet. Because Windows XP includes so many new and useful features, the prospect of mastering it may appear daunting. However, many users will ﬁnd that using Windows XP will make using a computer more enjoyable, and that mastering XP is more a matter of play, rather than work.To put it simply: XP rocks. I found both myself and the other contributors with whom I worked on this book sharing a common enthusiasm for the product. It is our hope that we also communicate this enthusiasm to you, and that you will ﬁnd this book both informative and enjoyable. —Martin Grasdal,Technical Editor and Contributor MCSE + I on Windows NT 4.0, MCSE on Windows 2000, MCT, CNE, CNI, CTT, A+ Director of Cramsession Content, Brainbuzz.com www.syngress.com Slide 36: Chapter 1 Next Generation Windows Solutions in this chapter: s s Introducing the Windows XP Family Introducing the Major Features of Windows XP Professional Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 1 Slide 37: 2 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Introduction Welcome to the next generation of Windows operating systems.Windows XP (WinXP) represents the latest version released by Microsoft, and quite possibly, the most comprehensive. Users have long requested an operating system that would run both business and home applications equally well, and Windows XP is the OS that will allow just that type of interoperability to take place. This book provides a detailed look into the conﬁguration and operation of Windows XP Professional, which is the successor to Windows 2000 Professional. We start off by talking about the various ﬂavors of Windows XP—Home Edition and Professional—and also discuss the next generation of server-class operating systems, which will be named Windows .NET Server. Next, we provide a quick overview of the features of Windows XP Professional. The remaining chapters provide a detailed look into the conﬁguration of the components of Windows XP, such as networking, user conﬁguration, and many others.The Windows XP operating system takes the user experience to an exciting new level, and we hope that this book will be your guide to all of the features and functionality of Windows XP Professional. Introducing the Windows XP Family As mentioned earlier,Windows XP represents the combination of the best aspects of several versions of Windows.Windows 9x and Me were known for their Plug and Play (PnP) capabilities, their multimedia capabilities, and their home user “friendliness.”Windows 2000 is known for its security features, its robustness, and its business-class performance.Windows XP takes the best from both of these operating systems. You can choose from two different ﬂavors of Windows XP:Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional.The two versions have a large number of similarities. All versions of Windows XP (including the .NET servers) are built on the Windows 2000 code base. However, each has a place in the market—Windows XP Home Edition is designed to replace Windows 98 and Me in the home environment, and Windows XP Professional is meant to succeed Windows 2000 in the ofﬁce. Let’s take a closer look at what each of these versions brings to the table. www.syngress.com Slide 38: Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 3 Windows XP Home Edition Windows XP Home Edition is the next release of Windows destined for the consumer market. Although XP Home Edition and Professional are very similar, XP Home Edition contains only a subset of the functionality of XP Professional. Microsoft is expecting Home Edition to appeal to customers in a home environment, as well as to business customers who lack a formal IT staff.The key difference is that Home Edition is not meant to operate in a managed environment. The best way to describe the features included in Home Edition is to compare the product to its predecessor.Windows XP Home Edition offers the following improvements over Windows 2000 Professional: s s s s s Improved multimedia capabilities An improved user interface A simpliﬁed security model The ability to quickly switch between user sessions Better hardware and software compatibility Multimedia Capabilities Microsoft added a number of new multimedia and Internet features to Windows XP Home Edition, including the following: s s s Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) Windows Media Player 8 (WMP8) MSN Explorer browser IE6 is the next version of the popular browser from Microsoft. In its newest release, it contains a couple of interesting features, which are contained in the Personal Bar.The Personal Bar contains a Search applet, an MSNBC News/ Stock/Weather applet, and a Media Player applet in a resizable window. However, for the most part, IE6 acts like IE5. From the outside, it has been refreshed to match the new interface, with redesigned icons and rounded edges.You can see some of these changes in Figure 1.1. Another addition to the Windows XP platform is Windows Media Player 8. WMP8 builds upon the successful Windows Media Player 7 by adding new interface changes, improvements in copying from audio CD to hard disk (otherwise www.syngress.com Slide 39: 4 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows known as ripping), and more skins for customizing the look of the player. Figure 1.2 displays a screenshot of WMP8.WMP8 now supports burning of audio CDs from within the WMP itself.The following ﬁles types can be burned to audio CD: .wma, .mp3 and .wav. Figure 1.1 Internet Explorer 6 with Personal Bar Figure 1.2 Windows Media Player 8 www.syngress.com Slide 40: Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 5 Improved User Interface The user interface in Windows XP Home Edition has been completely remodeled. For starters, the Start menu button has changed, as well as the taskbar. A neat feature of the new taskbar is the option to group similar programs together on a single taskbar button.When you click on the button to restore the program, you see a small menu listing the instances of the program, and you can choose which to restore. Figure 1.3 shows Taskbar and Start Menu Properties. Figure 1.3 Taskbar and Start Menu Properties The Start menu has also been transformed into a panel of links to the various features within the OS. Figure 1.4 shows an example of the new Start menu with most of the options enabled. Figure 1.4 New Start Menu www.syngress.com Slide 41: 6 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Security Enhancements In terms of security, Microsoft has attempted to provide the beneﬁts of the Windows NT/2000 security model, while still making the system easy to operate and administer. XP Home Edition has two account types: Computer Administrator and Limited (refer to Figure 1.5).The Computer Administrator can add, remove, and change user accounts, make universal changes to the system, and install applications. A Limited user only has the capability to change his/her password. Figure 1.5 Windows XP User Account Types Users of XP Home Edition or XP Professional can log on using a “Welcome” screen that lists the names of the user accounts, as shown in Figure 1.6. A user simply needs to click on her name and provide the password, and she is authenticated onto the system. (A wise Administrator would be quick to turn off the Welcome screen and Fast User Switching functions in a workgroup environment as they present an additional security risk that far outweighs the beneﬁts of this new nicety. It is important to note that turning off the Welcome screen automatically turns off Fast User Switching.) Switching between User Sessions Microsoft has introduced a concept called Fast User Switching that will allow users to switch between user accounts while leaving applications running in the background. For instance, let’s say that User1 is logged into the system. User2 would like to check his e-mail. So, User2 will perform a “switch user,” log in as himself, and check his mail. All of the applications that User1 was working on will stay running in User1’s context.When User2 is ﬁnished, User1 can “switch user” back to herself, and she can continue working on the applications that were open when User2 logged on. Figure 1.7 shows the Switch User option dialog box. www.syngress.com Slide 42: Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 7 Figure 1.6 Welcome Screen Figure 1.7 Logoff Screen with Switch User Option Hardware and Software Compatibility Lastly,Windows XP Home Edition has been designed to run many of the legacy applications that are on the market today. Microsoft achieved this by adding a compatibility mode to the operating system.This allows you to run an application in Windows XP and emulate an older OS, such as Windows 95.Windows XP will try to provide the hardware-level access that is requested by the application without sacriﬁcing the integrity of the kernel. In terms of hardware compatibility,Windows XP has the most advanced Plug and Play features of any Windows operating system. For the end user, this means that many of the older ﬁrst-generation PnP devices, as well as a number of nonPnP devices, will work with WinXP.WinXP also has an improved driver set. www.syngress.com Slide 43: 8 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Microsoft made the decision to leave out much of the enterprise features from the Home Edition, choosing to include them in the Professional edition. For example, if you need to add your PC to a Windows 2000 or Windows NT domain, you must use Windows XP Professional. Windows XP Professional While Windows XP Home Edition adds a great deal to the feature set of Windows 2000,Windows XP Professional takes the product to the next level. Many of the neat things that are part of Windows 2000 Professional are excluded from the Home Edition, but they are included in WinXP Professional.These features include the following: s s s s IntelliMirror technologies Group Policy functionality Encrypting ﬁle system support Multiprocessor support As we mentioned in the preceding section,You can join XP Professional to a Windows 2000 or Windows NT domain. In a Windows 2000 Active Directory environment, XP Professional can take full advantage of those features that are dependent on the domain login.These include the neat features described in the preceding list, as well as roaming proﬁles and Remote Installation Services (RIS). We delve into the feature list in much more detail shortly, but rest assured, Windows XP Professional offers many advantages compared to Windows 2000 Professional. The Future of Windows 2000 Server: Windows .NET Servers What should you expect from the next version of Microsoft’s server product? Well, the ﬁrst thing will be another name change. Departing quickly from the year-based name, the next edition will be named Windows .NET Server, signifying the tight cooperation with the .NET Framework on the development side. However, once you get past the name, you should be pleasantly surprised to see a number of improvements over Windows 2000 Server under the hood of .NET Server. Here are a few of the features that Microsoft has listed for the next generation of Windows Server: www.syngress.com Slide 44: Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 s 9 You should expect to see even more improvement in the reliability of the Server product. Windows 2000 was quite a leap over Windows NT 4, and you will see another level of reliability in the .NET Server line. Microsoft is trying to achieve a consistent Five 9s in reliability, and the .NET server might be close to achieving this level. Windows .NET Server will be faster than Windows 2000 Server. This will be important for those customers who are using .NET Server to host SQL Server 2000 or other transaction-based products.The next release of Windows will also include support for 64-bit processors. The next version will be easier to manage. This will be thanks to features such as “headless” server support (no need for a monitor, keyboard, or mouse), remote administration, and Windows Management Interface (WMI). s s Introducing the Major Features of Windows XP Professional This section brieﬂy shows you why you should choose WinXP Professional for your environment.The decision should become fairly obvious, once you see the impressive list of upgraded features over Windows 2000 Professional. User Interface We start with the new user interface. Microsoft performed many tests with consumers and used the test results to make signiﬁcant changes to the Windows 2000 user interface. Most notably, they redesigned the Start menu and changed the appearance of the standard Windows interface to reﬂect better usability. Here’s a tour of what you can expect to see when you start using Windows XP. Starting with the desktop,WinXP has a new look, as you can see in Figure 1.8. By default, all of the desktop icons are turned off.Yes, that’s right, you can enable/disable the standard desktop icons, such as My Computer and My Documents via the Control Panel. Microsoft claims that users preferred to start off with a clean desktop. Figure 1.9 shows the conﬁguration options for the desktop. You’ll also notice the color scheme of the taskbar and Start button. Throughout Windows XP’s user interface, Microsoft made a conscious effort to use green buttons to represent events that opened or maximized windows, and they used red buttons to represent events that closed or minimized windows.The new Start button is the ﬁrst example of this. www.syngress.com Slide 45: 10 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Figure 1.8 The Windows XP Desktop Figure 1.9 Conﬁguring the Desktop Other new features that you’ll ﬁnd here are improvements to the taskbar. If you’ve ever opened a number of applications at one time before, you’ve experienced shrinking taskbar icons when the OS tried to represent a dozen applications at one time with miniscule buttons on the taskbar.Windows XP will automatically group multiple sessions of the same application under one button. For instance, if you are working on ﬁve Word documents at the same time, www.syngress.com Slide 46: Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 11 Windows XP will consolidate all of the Word sessions under a single button on the taskbar.To access a particular document, you simply click on the Word button, choose the appropriate session from a small menu, and your session will maximize. Not to be left out, the tray notiﬁcation area (the area on the taskbar next to the clock) has been improved.You have probably experienced a user who seemed to have at least a dozen applications running in the tray, and this row of icons consumed half of the taskbar by itself.You can now hide these icons by clicking on an arrow next to the tray. Figure 1.10 shows the new Start menu. Although it takes awhile to get used to, the new design actually grows on you. By default, the menu will be conﬁgured as shown in Figure 1.9, with practically all options enabled.The good news is that you can reduce this menu to only one or two items if you desire. On the left-hand side of the menu are links to Internet Explorer and your e-mail program (Outlook Express is conﬁgured by default—you can also have Outlook XP or even Hotmail on the menu). Below these two links are links to your recently used programs.You can conﬁgure the Start menu to display between zero and nine of your most recently used applications to appear on the menu. Below these links is a “catch-all” link to All Programs, which gives you a menu that looks much like the legacy Start menu from Windows 2000. Figure 1.10 The New Start Menu On the right-side of the menu are links to My Documents, My Recent Documents, My Pictures, My Music, and My Computer.The middle of the right-hand panel has links to the Control Panel and Printers and Faxes.To round www.syngress.com Slide 47: 12 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows out the new Start menu are links to Help and Support, Search, and the Run command.You can enable the Start menu to automatically expand the contents of My Documents, My Computer, and the Control Panel. Continuing on our tour of the new features of the user interface, we look at the Control Panel. As you can see in Figure 1.11, the Control Panel now groups related applets under a single icon, which makes ﬁnding the appropriate Control Panel applet easier. Figure 1.11 The New Look of the Control Panel As you can see, Microsoft made a number of improvements to the user interface in Windows XP.They have done a lot of work to make it more useable and friendly, but there will always be those users who like the old way.Thus, you can conﬁgure every one of the new features we just discussed to look and act just like they did in Windows 2000 Professional. Networking You’ll ﬁnd support for 802.11b wireless networking in Windows XP, as well as a number of other networking features. One new feature is the Internet Connection Firewall, which provides ﬁrewall functionality for individual computers and small networks. Internet Connection Sharing has been enhanced as well. What does this mean to the average Windows XP user? If you’re working in a corporate environment, you are probably already protected by a ﬁrewall in the www.syngress.com Slide 48: Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 13 data center.The Internet Connection Firewall wasn’t designed to provide the level of protection that a hardware-based ﬁrewall can provide. Internet Connection Sharing will probably not be much of a value-add in the corporate world either.The environments where these features will shine will be in the small ofﬁce/home ofﬁce (SOHO) market and in the home market.These are places where you will probably not ﬁnd a $15,000 hardware ﬁrewall or an expensive T-1 connection for the entire LAN to share. However, if you have a cable modem or DSL connection, you could easily share this connection with a small ofﬁce or with other machines in your home with these new networking features. Better Performance Windows XP Professional offers incredible gains in performance over previous versions of Windows.You’ll experience this performance ﬁrst-hand from the moment you boot the system—startup times have been reduced to nearly a minute, as opposed to many minutes for older versions of Windows.This time savings translates directly into increased productivity for both you and your clients and customers.WinXP has also been designed to reduce the number of reboots. Multiple processor and large memory support (up to 4GB) will allow for increased workstation performance. Internet Features You’ll ﬁnd the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP Professional. Other Internet features include WebDAV support for publishing directly to the Web, Internet Explorer 6 Administration Kit (IEAK) for managing the deployment of IE, and Windows Messenger. Windows Messenger is an instant messenger application that you can integrate into Outlook XP or Hotmail/Passport to provide simple communications between users on the local network or across the Internet. For the IT professional, Microsoft has included the IEAK for IE6 to help in customizing the deployments of IE6 in a managed environment. Finally,WebDAV, which has been around for a few years, allows users to publish content directly from Word XP to their intranet.This will help users to share their documents and information more efﬁciently in the workplace. Remote Assistance Remote Assistance is certainly one of the neater features of Windows XP.This allows users to request help from other users or the help desk via the Remote www.syngress.com Slide 49: 14 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Desktop Protocol, whereby the supporting user can interface directly with the user on her desktop or via a chat session. Here’s an example of how you can use Remote Assistance in the ofﬁce place. Let’s say a user has a problem with adding a local printer to her system. Normally, this would generate a help desk call, and depending on the circumstances, a technician may have to visit the user’s desk to assist her with this task. Using Remote Assistance, the user could send an “invitation” to the help desk for someone to remotely connect to her machine to help out.The user generates this invitation from the Help and Support link on the Start menu. Figure 1.12 shows this page. Figure 1.12 Generating a Remote Assistance Invitation From here, the user can send the invitation via Windows Messenger or e-mail to the help desk.This invitation will have a description of the problem (the user types this in the body), and it can also have a time window for the help desk to connect.This is a security feature that limits the ability of another user to connect without permission. Once the help desk gets the request, they make a connection back to the user, and then they can remotely control the user’s session and provide assistance. Remote Assistance is based on Terminal Services technology. Reliability Features Windows XP improves upon the reliability features of Windows 2000 by providing support for side-by-side DLL support, improved Windows File Protection, improved code protection, and enhanced device driver signing. www.syngress.com Slide 50: Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 15 For average users, this means that they should experience less issues with applications crashing or causing conﬂicts with other applications. For IT professionals, this means that they should get less support calls for application errors, and building managed desktops with compatible applications will be much easier. Multimedia Features A proliferation of new multimedia devices are in the marketplace, including digital cameras, DVD players, MP3 players, and so on.Windows XP keeps the pace by providing a rich multimedia experience that allows you to fully take advantage of these new devices.WinXP supports CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD-RAM drives directly in Windows Explorer.The Windows Media Player will play most common media formats, such as MP3s and DVDs (with third-party decoders). You can access digital cameras just like an external drive over a USB interface, making the transfer of digital images to your hard drive as easy as copying a ﬁle from a CD-ROM. www.syngress.com Slide 51: 16 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Summary Windows XP, in both the Home Edition and Professional versions, represents the next generation of operating systems from Microsoft.These two products continue to build on the success of Windows NT and Windows 2000, and they add a rich and diverse feature set that raises the user experience to a new level. Windows XP Home Edition is being marketed towards the home and small business user.The dividing line between the Home Edition and Professional rests on the need for manageability. Users who desire the management of a domain environment are going to choose Windows XP Professional.Those users who are looking for the performance, reliability, and security of the Windows engine, but aren’t interested in the advanced features, are going to choose the Home Edition. Windows XP Professional takes Windows 2000 Professional and adds a number of new features to make it a compelling choice for businesses and enterprises looking to upgrade from earlier versions of Windows. XP Professional adds improved performance, improved reliability, multimedia capabilities, and improved networking support. In addition, features such as Remote Assistance and improved power management extend the beneﬁts gained from Windows 2000 Professional. Finally,Windows .NET Server is gearing up to be the successor to Windows 2000 Server. Upon its release, it will build upon the success of Windows 2000 and add additional performance, reliability, and manageability. Solutions Fast Track Introducing the Windows XP Family You can choose from two different ﬂavors of Windows XP: Home Edition and Professional.The two versions have a large number of similarities. All versions of Windows XP (including the .NET servers) are built on the Windows 2000 code base. Windows XP Home Edition is designed to replace Windows 9x and Windows Me in the home and SOHO markets. Windows XP Professional is designed to replace all Windows client versions in the corporate world. www.syngress.com Slide 52: Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 17 Windows .NET server is the replacement for the Windows 2000 server products (Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server). It can be used interchangeably with Windows 2000 Server. Introducing to the Major Features of Windows XP Professional Windows XP Professional sports a new user interface, including a new Start menu, redesigned Control Panel, and improved task bar. Some of the new Networking features include the Internet Connection Firewall and support for 802.11b wireless networking. Internet Explorer 6,Windows Media Player 8, and Windows Messenger are some of the Internet and Multimedia improvements that you will ﬁnd in Windows XP Professional. Frequently Asked Questions The following Frequently Asked Questions, answered by the authors of this book, are designed to both measure your understanding of the concepts presented in this chapter and to assist you with real-life implementation of these concepts. To have your questions about this chapter answered by the author, browse to www.syngress.com/solutions and click on the “Ask the Author” form. Q: If I choose to upgrade my company’s desktop systems to Windows XP Professional, will I have to also upgrade to Windows .NET Server on the back end? A: No. Microsoft recommends that you continue to deploy Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server when Windows XP Professional is released.The release date for Windows .NET server is still unknown. Q: I really dislike the new Windows XP user interface. Can I choose to use the old Windows 2000 interface? A: Yes.You can mix and match whatever components of the new interface that you would like to use. www.syngress.com Slide 53: 18 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Q: I am currently running Windows 2000 Professional on a dual processor system. Which version of Windows XP should I use to support this conﬁguration? A: You will need to upgrade to Windows XP Professional. It will support up to two processors.Windows XP Home Edition will only support a single processor. Q: I understand that Windows XP supports DVDs and DVD-RAMs. Do I need anything else to play movies from my computer? A: You will need to install a third-party DVD decoder software in order to play DVDs from within Windows XP. Although it supports DVDs, it doesn’t provide a decoder application, which is necessary to watch movies. www.syngress.com Slide 54: Chapter 2 Installing Windows XP Professional Solutions in this chapter: s Clean Installation of Windows XP Professional Performing an Upgrade to Windows XP Professional Network Installation of Windows XP Professional Automating the Windows XP Professional Setup Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 19 s s s Slide 55: 20 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Introduction In this chapter, we take a look at the installation of Windows XP Professional.We walk through a clean install on a new PC, an upgrade from Windows 2000 Professional, and ﬁnally, we look at a few methods for automating the installation of Windows XP Professional. First, let’s take a look at the requirements for installing Windows XP Professional.Table 2.1 lists the requirements that Microsoft speciﬁes. Table 2.1 Requirements for Windows XP Professional Component Processor Memory Hard Disk Video Recommendation 233 MHz minimum 300 MHz recommended 64MB minimum 128MB recommended 1.5GB available space Super VGA (800x600) or higher As you can see from the table, Microsoft has taken the additional steps to provide both minimum and recommended hardware requirements for the new OS. You will obviously need a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive if you plan to install from CD, or a network adapter if you plan to install from a network distribution point. An important feature to note about Windows XP Professional that isn’t mentioned in the table is its support for multiple processors.WinXP Pro will support up to two processors, whereas WinXP Home Edition only supports one processor. If you were in the position to purchase new computers for a Windows XP deployment, the best advice would be to buy the fastest you could afford.This should (hopefully) protect you from needing to turn over your PC inventory every two years. In fact, many major corporations try to plan for new PCs sticking around for a minimum of three years. Now that you’ve seen the requirements for Windows XP Professional, let’s move on to the basics of installation. Microsoft supports two methods of installing Windows XP Professional on target workstations: either an upgrade or a clean installation. Upgrading to Windows XP Professional implies that the target workstation already has an existing operating system that may have its own settings and conﬁguration. If the target workstation is conﬁgured with an operating system www.syngress.com Slide 56: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 21 that is supported for upgrading, you can instruct the setup program to upgrade in place, migrating all user settings and applications available. If, however, the target workstation is a new machine, requires reinstallation, or is conﬁgured with a nonsupported operating system, you must apply a clean installation to the workstation.You can then install the primary drive of the target workstation with Windows XP Professional without searching for existing data (though you can preserve data), applications, or conﬁguration settings. Administrators and support engineers should take the time to perform the upgrade and installation process numerous times to be aware of potential problems. Identifying show-stopping problems (such as the application not working) may be a great deal easier than handling issues (such as the proﬁle directory changing to the Documents and Settings folder) that manifest much more subtly. Several factors will inﬂuence your decision whether to upgrade or to apply a clean installation of Windows XP Professional.These include the following: s Current workstation management levels If modiﬁcations to the workstation’s operating system and applications have followed strict change controls, the current state of the workstation will be well known. An upgrade would best suit a well-managed environment, preserving the investment in your conﬁguration information. If the state of the workstations is indeterminate, a clean install of Windows XP Professional would allow you to revert the conﬁguration of the workstations back to a known state. User preferences and settings If your users have a level of control over their workstation, they may have personalized certain settings and preferences. Determining what settings exist can be difﬁcult.To preserve these settings, the best option would be to perform an upgrade. Applications and data Some users may store data on their local workstations, or install applications locally. An upgrade would be the best choice to prevent inadvertently deleting data, and it would also ensure that applications would still function (if compatible with Windows XP Professional). Many businesses store data centrally for backup and management purposes, and as a result, you could consider a clean install. Existing operating systems on client workstations The installation type you choose will also be dictated by the operating system of the client prior to deployment. If, for example, you are using Windows 3.1, the only option available would be to perform a clean installation. www.syngress.com s s s Slide 57: 22 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Upgrading from previous versions of Windows NT (version 4.0) is inherently easier than upgrading from Windows 9x.This is due to the commonality between the operating system kernel architecture, device driver models, registry database, security architecture, and ﬁle systems. Upgrading from existing Windows 98/Me installations can present additional issues that you would need to resolve. s Operating system history If your client workstations have been through a regular cycle of upgrades, the preferred option would be to perform a clean install, thus resolving possible legacy issues. Migrating the workstation to Windows XP Professional from a platform that has been repeatedly upgraded could negate some of the advantages (such as stability) of deploying Windows XP Professional in the ﬁrst place. You can start the Windows XP Professional setup process in a number of ways.You can initiate the setup or upgrade process by executing Winnt32.exe from a command line on a host operating system that is compliant with the upgrade paths discussed earlier.You can ﬁnd the setup executable,Winnt32.exe, in the i386 directory on the Windows XP Professional CD-ROM.You can also execute setup from a bootable CD-ROM containing the relevant installation ﬁles. Other solutions include using a network management application such as Microsoft’s Systems Management Server (SMS), or a bootable ﬂoppy disk with network drivers and a connection to the Windows XP Professional installation source. NOTE Microsoft recommends a clean install of Windows XP Professional rather than an upgrade. The upgrade process has been extensively tested but cannot take into account every scenario. In addition, problems that existed before an upgrade may just be transferred to the new operating system. When using the Winnt32.exe setup program to install Windows XP Professional, you can use a number of command line parameters to modify the installation.When attempting to install Windows XP from a bootable ﬂoppy disk, you would use the Winnt.exe setup program.These bullets summarize the usage for each of the setup programs: www.syngress.com Slide 58: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 s 23 To clean install Windows XP Professional on DOS,Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11,Windows for Workgroups,Windows 95, or Windows NT 3.51 Workstation, run Winnt.exe from a DOS prompt. To clean install or upgrade from Windows 98,Windows ME, or Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, use Winnt32.exe. s Clean Installation of Windows XP Professional The process of installing Windows XP on a workstation whose hard drive can be formatted (thus erasing all data), or on a workstation that will be booting between two operating systems is known as a clean install. In order to proceed with a clean installation, the only requirements are that the workstation should meet the minimum hardware speciﬁcations for Windows XP Professional and that the hardware be present on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). A clean install will not have any settings other than those entered during setup, and they may require individual customization. To speed up the installation process, you can run Winnt32 with the Syspart switch.The Syspart switch causes all of the installation ﬁles to be copied to a formatted hard drive on the preparation machine.When the drive is then removed and placed in another workstation, it will continue with the next stage of setup. This option is particularly useful for reducing deployment time in environments with dissimilar hardware, or for use with disk imaging software.You must perform a clean install in the following situations: s Target workstations are running Windows 3.1,Windows 3.11, and Windows for Workgroups,Windows 95, and Windows 3.51 workstation Target workstations are running a non-Microsoft operating system Target workstations do not have an operating system installed Target workstation must be built from CD-ROM s s s Let’s begin by walking through a clean installation of Windows XP from CD. This installation method assumes that you have a new PC (one without an operating system), or a PC that already has an operating system, but you do not www.syngress.com Slide 59: 24 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional intend to preserve the existing OS. In each of the installation examples that you’ll see in this chapter, we take the installation step-by-step, using screen shots to illustrate the decision points of the process. 1. Power-on your system and insert the Windows XP Professional CDROM in the tray.You will need to verify that your system is conﬁgured to boot from the CD-ROM prior to performing this step. 2. After the system completes the POST, the setup routine for WinXP will begin.This is also known as the text-based setup.The installation of Windows XP involves four major steps: s s s s Text-based setup GUI-based setup Installing the network components Completing the setup Figure 2.1 shows the initial ﬁle copy of the setup process. During this process, the setup program is loading a minimal version of Windows XP to support the setup process. Speciﬁcally, it is loading the drivers for the common mass storage devices, as well as drivers for other common hardware devices.This is done to allow WinXP to detect the correct hardware in your system. Some manufacturers provide new drivers that you need to load during this stage of the process. At one point in the initial ﬁle copy,Windows XP will display a message prompting you to press F6 to install third-party drivers. At this point, you can insert the disk with the new driver, and the setup process will copy the driver to hard disk. Figure 2.1 Initial File Copy for the Windows XP Setup www.syngress.com Slide 60: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 25 3. Once the setup program has loaded the initial ﬁles and drivers, you will have the ability to specify an installation partition, or if there are no partitions on the system, you will have the chance to create new partitions. Note: If your system has existing partitions, you can delete those partitions during this stage of the setup.This is the point where you can erase an existing operating system from your computer.You can also create multiple partitions from this utility. 4. In Figure 2.2, you will notice that there aren’t any existing partitions.To create a new partition, press C. Figure 2.2 Preparing to Create a New Partition 5. Figure 2.3 shows the Partition creation screen. It will show the minimum and maximum possible size for the new partition, and ask for you to type in the size partition you wish to create. Once you have typed in a value that falls between the minimum and maximum, press Enter to continue. Note that you will need to create a partition that is at least 1.5GB in size to meet the requirements of Windows XP Professional. 6. Your next decision is to choose how to format the new partition.Your choices are NTFS (Quick), FAT (Quick), NTFS, and FAT (see Figure 2.4). Using the keyboard arrow keys, highlight the ﬁle system you want to use, and then press Enter to continue. 7. The setup program will begin the format process on the new partition that you created, as shown in Figure 2.5. Depending on the size of the partition and the ﬁle system you have chosen, this may take anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes to complete. www.syngress.com Slide 61: 26 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.3 Creating a New Partition Figure 2.4 Choosing the File System for the New Partition Figure 2.5 Formatting the New Partition www.syngress.com Slide 62: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 27 Conﬁguring & Implementing… FAT or NTFS? Which ﬁle system should you choose during the installation of Windows XP Professional? In order to take advantage of all of the features of Windows XP, such as Encrypting File System, you need to choose NTFS. Table 2.2 compares FAT32 with NTFS. Table 2.2 FAT32 and NTFS Comparison Feature Minimum volume size Maximum volume size File size limitations Floppy disk use FAT32 512MB is recommended 2TB 4GB maximum ﬁle size Can be used on ﬂoppy disks NTFS Microsoft recommends a minimum of 10MB 2TB optimally, but larger sizes possible Size limited by size of volume Cannot be used on ﬂoppy disks The following is a partial list of features in Windows XP that are dependent on NTFS: s s s s Encrypting File System File- and folder-level security File compression (native) Disk quotas (mainly on server volumes) Microsoft strongly recommends the use of NTFS on Windows XP volumes in order to take advantage of these features. 8. As shown in Figure 2.6, the next step in the setup process is to copy the Windows XP source ﬁles from the CD to the new partition.This process will take a few minutes. Once the ﬁle copy has completed, the system will reboot, and the setup process will transition into the GUI mode. www.syngress.com Slide 63: 28 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.6 Windows XP Setup Copying Files to the New Partition 9. Upon reboot, you will see the new GUI screen (see Figure 2.7).This screen displays the status of the installation on the left-hand side.You will also see an estimate of the remaining time left. Figure 2.7 Initial Windows XP GUI Setup Screen 10. The next step is to discover and install the devices on your PC (see Figure 2.8).This process may cause the screen to ﬂicker as Windows XP attempts to determine what video card your system is using.This step will also generate the estimated time of completion. 11. Once the installation discovers all of your devices, you will be asked to verify your Regional and Language Options, as shown in Figure 2.9. From this dialog box, you can set the Regional settings, such as the www.syngress.com Slide 64: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 29 Standards and Location, and also the text input language. Click Next to continue. Figure 2.8 Installing Devices Figure 2.9 Choosing the Regional and Language Settings 12. Figure 2.10 shows the dialog box for typing your name and organization information that will now appear. Once you have entered this information, click Next. 13. You now need to enter the Windows XP Product Key (see Figure 2.11). This 25-character key is located on the Windows XP CD. Once you have typed the key, click Next. www.syngress.com Slide 65: 30 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.10 Entering the Name and Organization Information Figure 2.11 Entering the Windows XP Product Key 14. Type the computer name in the ﬁrst box of the dialog box that appears (see Figure 2.12). Next, enter the password for the local Administrator’s account, and then re-enter the password for conﬁrmation. Once this has been done, click Next. 15. Next, you will set the correct date and time for your computer (see Figure 2.13). Once this is complete, click Next. www.syngress.com Slide 66: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 31 Figure 2.12 Entering the Computer Name and Administrator Password Figure 2.13 Entering the Date and Time Settings 16. As Figure 2.14 shows, you now must set the network settings for the system.You have two choices:Typical and Custom. If you choose the Typical settings option, the following options will be installed: s s s s Client for Microsoft Networks QoS Packet Scheduler File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks TCP/IP, conﬁgured for DHCP www.syngress.com Slide 67: 32 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional If you choose Custom settings, you will be given the opportunity to add and conﬁgure any of the network options that are available. Of course, if you make a mistake at this step of the installation, you can also go back once the system is ready and make necessary changes. For a detailed examination of the networking options that are available in Windows XP Professional after setup has completed, please refer to Chapter 6. Once you have made your selection, click Next. Figure 2.14 Conﬁguring the Network Settings 17. You are now asked to provide either the workgroup or domain name for the new system. Figure 2.15 shows the system being conﬁgured for joining a workgroup named Workgroup. If you decide to join a domain at this point, you will also need the username and password for an account that is authorized to add computers to the domain. Click Next. Figure 2.15 Specifying the Workgroup or Domain www.syngress.com Slide 68: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 33 18. Now, the Windows XP installation will begin copying ﬁles to support the options you chose earlier (see Figures 2.16 and 2.17). Figure 2.16 Setup Continues by Copying Files Figure 2.17 File Copy Completes 19. At the completion of the ﬁle copy, the setup program will begin installing the Start menu items.This is shown in Figure 2.18. 20. After the Start menu items have been installed, Setup will register the Windows components, as shown in Figure 2.19. Next, Figure 2.20 shows the routine saving settings. Finally, the Setup program will remove the temporary ﬁles from the hard drive that were used to support the installation (see Figure 2.21). www.syngress.com Slide 69: 34 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.18 The Setup Routine Conﬁgures the Start Menu Figure 2.19 Setup Registers the Windows XP Components 21. Once the temporary ﬁles have been removed, the setup will be complete.Windows XP will reboot the system. Once this has ﬁnished, you are ready to go. As you can see, the installation of Windows XP Professional is very simple. You’ll notice an obvious change to the installation graphics as compared to the Windows 2000 Professional setup, but for the most part, these installation routines perform the same steps. A CD-based clean installation will take anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes, depending on the processor speed and memory in your system. www.syngress.com Slide 70: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 35 Figure 2.20 Setup Nears Completion Figure 2.21 Windows XP Setup Removes the Temporary Files Prior to Completion Conﬁguring & Implementing… Windows XP Command-Line Tools Windows XP Professional ships with a few handy command-line tools that are located in the \Support\Tools folder in the Deploy.cab ﬁle. These Continued www.syngress.com Slide 71: 36 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional tools, used for viewing information about the hard disk as well as performing actions on the hard disk, are described here: s s Cvtarea.exe Used for viewing free space on FAT volumes. Oformat.exe Used for creating a FAT32 volume on a hard disk (combines Fdisk and Format). Can also be used to optimally align the clusters in preparation for a later conversion to the NTFS ﬁle system. Convert.exe Used to convert a FAT or FAT32 volume to NTFS. Diskpart.exe A command interpreter that is used for performing a number of actions on hard disks and volumes. You can also script Diskpart for a more automated experience. s s Setup Issues In a perfect world, the upgrade and installation process would be a seamless activity that worked right every time.The fact that support engineers have such productive careers is evidence enough that information technology is all but perfect.What can be done, however, is to provide proactive troubleshooting and fault resolution. Discussing all of the problems that can arise during the setup process is not possible, but a brief summary of some of the major generic issues may provide insight on where to begin: s Dependency service does not start Verify that settings and drivers used during the setup process are correct.This is commonly an indication that you may be having problems with one of your network components. Stop messages One of the ﬁrst actions after receiving a Stop message (also known as the “Blue Screen of Death”) should be to consult the HCL. Document the error carefully and search the TechNet and Microsoft Web site for information on the error code.Try removing exotic hardware from the workstation conﬁguration. If you are doing disk imaging, it may be related to having different HALs on the source and target machines. Insufﬁcient disk space This could be an issue, due to the size of Windows XP Professional.You will need to clear off unwanted ﬁles from your system to make room for the upgrade.You may even need to temporarily remove some of the programs that you have installed. s s www.syngress.com Slide 72: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 s 37 Setup stops in text mode Verify that the BIOS is up to date and compatible with Windows XP Professional. In particular check Advanced Conﬁguration and Power Interface (ACPI) compliance and settings and any IRQ assignments. ACPI is responsible for the interface between the operating system and the workstation’s power management and Plug and Play features. Setup stops in GUI mode During the GUI portion of setup, device detection takes place.With some hardware, this can prove problematic. Check the vendors and the HCL for information. Cannot contact a domain controller Check the network settings— that is, did you specify an incorrect IP address on a previous screen or did you specify a correct DNS server for the domain? s s NOTE After setup has completed, a number of log ﬁles are available for troubleshooting and general support information. %Windir%\Setupact.log contains a description of the actions performed during setup in chronological order. %Windir%\Setuperr.log contains a detailed list of errors that occurred during setup. %Windir%\Setupapi.log contains information on the use of INF ﬁles. Windows XP will generate a number of logﬁles to help troubleshoot installation and startup problems. Here is a list of the logﬁles, where they are located, and what information they contain: s Setupact.log Logs all activity during setup, if you use Winnt32 with the /debug switch.This logﬁle is located at the root of the drive. Setuperr.log Logs all errors during setup, if you use Winnt32 with the /debug switch.This logﬁle is located at the root of the drive. Comsetup.log Contains information about component manager and COM+ component installation. Located in c:\winnt. Mmdet.log Contains detection information for multimedia devices. Located in c:\winnt. Setupapi.log Logs information each time a line in an INF ﬁle is parsed during startup. Located in c:\winnt. www.syngress.com s s s s Slide 73: 38 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional s Netsetup.log Logs information about the joining or disjoining of workgroups or domains. Located in c:\winnt\debug. The next section details the upgrade of a Windows operating system to Windows XP Professional. Performing an Upgrade to Windows XP Professional For many customers, their circumstances will dictate that they need to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, rather than perform a clean installation on their systems.You might want to perform an upgrade to preserve applications and their settings.Table 2.3 lists the eligibility of Windows legacy operating systems to upgrade to Windows XP Professional. Table 2.3 Legacy Operating Systems Eligible for a Windows XP Upgrade Operating System Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows 3.1 95 98 Me NT 3.51 NT 4.0 Workstation SP 6 2000 Professional XP Home Edition Upgrade to Windows XP Professional? No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Windows XP Professional supports the upgrade of the most recent of the Windows-based family; this includes Windows 98 (and service packs),Windows 98 Second Edition,Windows Me, and Windows NT 4.0. Upgrading from Windows 3.1,Windows 3.11,Windows for Workgroups,Windows 95 (OSR 1, OSR 2, OSR 2.5),Windows NT 3.1, or Windows NT 3.5/3.51 is not supported and will require a clean install. Other points to remember are that during the upgrade process Windows XP Professional searches the workstation’s hard drive for other installations of Windows and will fail if multiple operating systems are installed on the installation partition. You cannot upgrade from Windows 9x to Windows XP Professional if another Microsoft Windows-based operating system is installed simultaneously.You must remove the other operating system before proceeding with the upgrade. www.syngress.com Slide 74: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 39 The setup program can also provide a pre-upgrade check that interrogates hardware and software for compatibility with Windows XP Professional before installation takes place.This check may indicate that you have to uninstall certain applications or replace hardware or device drivers before proceeding. Particular information generated may include reference to DOS conﬁguration, Plug and Play hardware,Windows Messaging Services, and software compatibility.The check upgrade command generates a clear text report which includes all the relevant information generated and additional data, such as the amount of memory on the workstation, free disk space on the target drive, and a breakdown of the Start menu.You can also view the report during manual setup.You can initiate the pre-upgrade check, which works for both Windows NT/2000 and Windows 98/Me, from the i386 directory on the Windows XP Professional CD as follows: Winnt32 /checkupgradeonly The Windows NT/2000 pre-upgrade check stores its report in the Winnt32.log ﬁle in the %windir% directory; you could use it in a batch ﬁle similar to this: winnt32.exe /CheckUpgradeOnlyQ copy %windir%\winnt32.log \\srv1\ntupgrades\%computername%.txt To automate the pre-upgrade check of Windows NT and 2000 workstations, use Winnt32.exe /CheckUpgradeOnlyQ instead of Winnt32.exe /CheckUpgradeOnly. Appending the Q to CheckUpgradeOnly forces setup to create the Winnt32.log ﬁle without requiring user input. NOTE You can manually run the pre-upgrade check at any time, the results of which will be saved to %windir%\upgrade.txt for Windows 98/Me and %windir%\winnt32.log for Windows NT/2000. This will detail the applications that may not work, what device drivers may require upgrading, and which hardware is incompatible. You can also run this report from the automated setup process, login script, or other management utilities, and you may save it to a network share for later perusal. You can uniquely save each report in the central location as the computer name of the machine where the pre-upgrade check ran. To minimize issues during the upgrade process, we recommend that you visit your vendors’Web sites for compatibility information, updated drivers, and other www.syngress.com Slide 75: 40 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional information. During the setup of a test lab, you will be able to run the upgrade process on production-type machines to gain an understanding of what issues may need to be resolved. As a general rule, you should remove custom powermanagement tools and custom Plug and Play solutions before upgrading Windows NT/2000 and Windows 98/Me. Upgrading from Windows 98/Me Microsoft has invested a great deal of effort to ensure that the upgrade from Windows 98/ME to Windows XP Professional is as smooth as possible.That said, upgrading from Windows 98/ME is the least optimal of the upgrade paths available. Most administrators will be aware that distinct differences exist between Windows NT/2000 and Windows 98, notably with the Registry, the accounts database, and operating system structures.This implies that some applications designed speciﬁcally for Windows 98 may not work under Windows XP Professional, and that some hardware that functions under Windows 98/ME may not function with Windows XP. Several system utilities are not migrated during the upgrade process, such as Scandisk, Defragger, and DriveSpace, because they are replaced with equivalent functionality within Windows XP Professional. Compressed drives will also not be upgraded and must be decompressed before upgrading. Certain legacy speciﬁc binaries, called VxDs, will not migrate during the upgrade to Windows XP Professional along with .386 drivers.The [386Enh] section of the system.ini ﬁle on legacy workstations details the VxDs that are loaded. Windows 98 and Windows ME are supported for upgrade.The upgrade process will preserve the system and user state, that is, the ﬁle system, drive letters, and user accounts.Windows XP Professional supports a wide range of ﬁle systems, including FAT32 introduced with Windows 95.The upgrade process supports FAT32, though no changes are made to the ﬁle system during the migration.You can instruct the setup process to convert partitions to NTFS v5 or to leave the ﬁle system alone. Additional considerations when upgrading include the following: s Specifying the installation directory You cannot change this from the current Windows directory. Machine accounts Windows 98/Me machines do not require machine accounts in the domain, but Windows XP Professional workstations do. User accounts and proﬁles During the migration process, the setup program will attempt to migrate proﬁles and user accounts. s s www.syngress.com Slide 76: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 41 Upgrading from Windows NT/2000 Windows NT 4.0,Windows 2000, and Windows XP share a common architecture in many key areas—such as the Registry, ﬁle system, security, and operating system kernel structures—which eases the upgrade path. Applications also have common compatibility requirements for Windows NT/2000 and Windows XP. When upgrading,Windows XP Professional supports a great deal of the Windows NT 4.0 and 2000 legacy hardware, though this does not necessarily imply that the same hardware is supported for clean installs. The main software incompatibility culprits include antivirus programs, ﬁle system ﬁlters (as used by backup programs and even storage devices such as CDROMs), and disk quota software. Ensuring that the machines BIOS revisions are up to date is always a good idea. Starting the Upgrade If you have determined that your operating system is eligible to upgrade, here are the steps for performing the upgrade to Windows XP Professional: 1. Insert the Windows XP Professional CD. Auto-run will start the setup program.To begin, choose Install Windows XP, as shown in Figure 2.22. Figure 2.22 Starting the Windows XP Upgrade www.syngress.com Slide 77: 42 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional 2. Windows Setup will begin.Your ﬁrst decision is to choose whether this is an Upgrade Installation or a Clean Installation (see Figure 2.23). Choose Upgrade Installation and click Next. Figure 2.23 Choosing the Installation Type 3. You must agree to the license agreement, as shown in Figure 2.24.To agree to the terms of the license agreement, choose I accept this agreement and then click Next. Figure 2.24 Accepting the License Agreement www.syngress.com Slide 78: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 43 4. Figure 2.25 shows the process of entering the Windows XP product key, which is a 25-character key that is attached to the Windows CD folder. After you type the product key, click Next. Figure 2.25 Entering the Product Key 5. The Windows XP setup routine adds a new feature called Dynamic Update (see Figure 2.26).This allows you to check Microsoft’s Web site for updated ﬁles prior to beginning the installation.The idea is that you should have the most up-to-date program ﬁles if you choose to use Dynamic Update. If you choose to skip this step, you can always use Windows Update to get new ﬁles after Windows XP has been installed. Make your selection, and then click Next. 6. After you proceed through the Dynamic Update screen (by either choosing to download new ﬁles or skipping the procedure), your computer will be restarted, as shown in Figure 2.27. 7. Upon restarting, you will see that the boot menu has been modiﬁed to include a listing for Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup (see Figure 2.28).This will be the default option. Once the time elapses, the GUI setup will begin. www.syngress.com Slide 79: 44 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.26 Using Dynamic Update to Get Updated Setup Files Figure 2.27 Restarting the Computer after Dynamic Update www.syngress.com Slide 80: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 45 Figure 2.28 Boot Menu Defaults to Windows XP Professional Setup 8. The next step is to copy ﬁles from the CD to the hard drive, as shown in Figure 2.29.When this is complete, the system will reboot again. Figure 2.29 Preparing the Installation 9. When the system reboots, as shown in Figure 2.30, you will notice that the startup screen has changed to the new Windows XP Professional logo. 10. The remaining steps of the installation are the same for both the clean installation and the upgrade installation.Windows XP will discover and install the devices in the system, conﬁgure the Start menu items, register components, and remove the temporary ﬁles that were used for the installation.These steps will look very similar to those that made up the end of the clean install. Figure 2.31 shows one of these steps. www.syngress.com Slide 81: 46 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.30 System Reboot Indicates New Operating System Figure 2.31 Beginning the File Copy 11. After the setup routine has completed the items speciﬁed in Step 10, the system will reboot, and the upgrade will be complete. We’ve now illustrated both the clean installation and upgrade installation of Windows XP Professional from CD-ROM.You can also install the product from a network share point.The next section discusses the network installation of Windows XP Professional, as well as the command-line switches that you can use with both the CD installation as well as the network installation. www.syngress.com Slide 82: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 47 Network Installation of Windows XP Professional In the two previous sections, we discussed the clean and upgrade installations of Windows XP.You can also perform these types of installations from a network share point.The network installation of Windows XP Professional works just like the CD installation, and the installation steps will parallel those of the clean or upgrade installation. For example, if you run the setup program (Winnt32.exe) from within an operating system that can be upgraded, the network installation will follow the same screen prompts as the CD-based upgrade. If you run the DOS setup program (Winnt.exe) from a network boot disk, the installation will mimic a CD-based clean installation.We won’t go through the screen shots for these types of installations—you can simply refer to the earlier sections in the chapter to see the steps. Installing Windows XP from the network has some beneﬁts. First, you don’t need to run around to all of your machines with a CD-ROM.You can simply execute the setup program from the network share. Secondly, you can instruct Winnt32.exe to pull its setup ﬁles from multiple locations on the network simultaneously.This is a means of speeding up the ﬁle copy stage of the process without putting all of the burden on a single share point.Third, you can easily run the setup process and have it use an answer ﬁle that is stored on the network, without having to tote around a ﬂoppy disk. Using a network installation does have some drawbacks, however, especially for those machines that are receiving a clean installation.You will need to build a network boot disk that is conﬁgured for the network card drivers on the target machine. Unfortunately, Microsoft discontinued the network boot disk generator after Windows NT 4.0.You can, however, ﬁnd a number of sites on the Internet that offer boot disk images for download.You will just need to customize the disk with your network information. The simplest way to prepare for a network installation of Windows XP Professional is to create a network share and copy the i386 folder from the Windows XP Professional CD to the share.You can also use the Setup Manager to create the folder and share, copy the ﬁles, and create the unattend.txt ﬁles for performing unattended installations.This is discussed shortly. Nonetheless, you will, at a minimum, need that i386 folder. Often, the network installation process includes automating the setup routine. The next section discusses automating the setup of Windows XP Professional to include using the Setup Manager to create answer ﬁles and UDB ﬁles. Remote www.syngress.com Slide 83: 48 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Installation Services is not discussed in this chapter because it is discussed in detail in Chapter 12. Conﬁguring & Implementing… Network Installation to a New Hard Drive If you are going to install Windows XP on a machine with a new or newlyformatted hard drive over the network, you will need to create a formatted partition on the disk that is large enough to accommodate Windows XP. You can do this with the DOS fdisk and format commands. Automating the Windows XP Professional Setup One of the techniques available for automating the installation of Windows XP Professional is using unattended installation scripts.Think of an installation script just as you would a script for a play. Each actor has lines to say, and those lines are spoken at certain points during the play. An installation script provides answers (the lines of the play) to the questions asked by the setup process when they are needed, without the need for someone to sit at the console and provide the answers. Unattended installation scripts have a number of beneﬁts, including the following: s s s s Most ﬂexible option for large-scale deployments of Windows XP Creates consistent installs Reduces overall deployment time Reduces user interaction On the ﬂip side of these beneﬁts, one of the shortcomings is that the percomputer install time is longer than other automated installation methods, such as disk imaging.The average install time using unattended installation scripts is about 60 to 75 minutes, depending on system and network resources. You must take several steps to use unattended installation scripts. (The terms installation script and answer ﬁle are used interchangeably throughout this chapter.) www.syngress.com Slide 84: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 49 First, the source ﬁles for completing the installation must be made available.You can do this via a network share or by using the source CD-ROM. Next, you must properly prepare the target computer, including backing up any required existing data. Last, you manually initiate the install process or use a batch ﬁle or systems management software. Preparing for Setup As with most projects in life, one of your ﬁrst steps is preparation.With respect to automated installations, preparation involves making sure that the setup process has all the ﬁles and settings it needs to complete the installation of Windows XP. All of us who have been in this industry for more than a few weeks realize that most software, including operating systems, require a setup or installation procedure. Windows XP’s installation is initiated much as it was with previous versions of Windows 2000 and NT—you launch the installation by typing in Winnt32.exe or Winnt.exe from a command line (use Winnt.exe only when upgrading 16-bit operating systems, such as Windows 3.x and DOS).The following sections look at the number of options you have when running these programs Command-Line Setup Windows XP Professional has two installation programs that you can manipulate using command-line options.These programs are Winnt.exe and Winnt32.exe. The ﬁrst of these programs is meant for use in 16-bit operating systems.The second is designed for use in a 32-bit environment, such as Windows 98, Windows Me,Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000. Let’s take a look at the syntax for using each of these programs. Winnt.exe The syntax for running the Winnt.exe program from a DOS command prompt is as follows: winnt [/s:SourcePath] [/t:TempDrive] [/u:answer ﬁle][/udf:ID [,UDB_ﬁle]] [/r:folder][/rx:folder][/e:command][/a] Table 2.4 shows the some of the common parameters that may be used to modify the operation of Winnt.exe. www.syngress.com Slide 85: 50 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Table 2.4 Common Parameters that You May Use to Modify the Operation of Winnt.exe Parameter /s:SourcePath Description This parameter speciﬁes the source location of the Windows XP ﬁles. The location must be a full path of the form x:\[Path] or \\server\share[\Path]. The /u parameter performs an unattended setup using an answer ﬁle. The answer ﬁle provides answers to some or all of the prompts that the end user normally responds to during setup. If you use /u, you must also use /s. Indicates an identiﬁer (ID) that setup uses to specify how a Uniqueness Database (UDB) ﬁle modiﬁes an answer ﬁle (see /u). The UDB overrides values in the answer ﬁle, and the identiﬁer determines which values in the UDB ﬁle are used. If you don’t specify a UDB_ﬁle, setup prompts you to insert a disk that contains the $Unique$.udb ﬁle. Running Winnt.exe with the /? displays help at the command prompt. This will show the entire list of attributes available for this program. /u:answer ﬁle /udf:ID [,UDB_ﬁle] /? Winnt32.exe The syntax for running the Winnt32.exe program from the Windows command prompt is as follows: winnt32 [/checkupgradeonly] [/cmd:command_line] [/cmdcons] [/copydir:i386\folder_name] [/copysource:folder_name] [/debug[level]:[ﬁlename]] [/dudisable] [/duprepare:pathname] [/dushare:pathname] [/m:folder_name] [/makelocalsource] [/noreboot] [/s:sourcepath] [/syspart:drive_letter] [/tempdrive:drive_letter] [/udf:id [,UDB_ﬁle]] [/unattend[num]:[answer_ﬁle]] The following section displays some of the common parameters that you can use with the Winnt32.exe program to change its behavior during the installation. Running Winnt32.exe with the /checkupgradeonly parameter allows you to check your computer for upgrade compatibility with Windows XP. If you use this www.syngress.com Slide 86: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 51 option with /unattend, no user input is required. Otherwise, the results are displayed on the screen, and you can save them under the ﬁlename you specify.The default ﬁlename is Upgrade.txt in the systemroot folder.You can run the setup program with this parameter from a login script ahead of your migration to Windows XP to gather the compatibility information prior to starting the upgrade. The /makelocalsource option instructs setup to copy all source ﬁles to the local hard disk.You usually use this when performing a CD-ROM installation if the CD-ROM drive becomes unavailable during the installation process. The /s:sourcepath option points setup to the location of the Windows XP ﬁles. You have the option of specifying additional /s:sourcepath (up to eight) as part of Winnt32.exe to indicate multiple source locations. Setup can then copy ﬁles from multiple locations, thereby speeding the installation process and taking the load off a single server. If you are using multiple source paths, make sure that the ﬁrst source path listed is available when the installation starts, or setup will fail. The /tempdrive:drive_letter option instructs setup to copy setup ﬁles to the speciﬁed drive letter and to install Windows XP to that drive. The /unattend[:answer_ﬁle]option runs setup in unattended mode.Without the answer_ﬁle speciﬁed, the existing operating system is upgraded, and all users’ settings are preserved. If you specify an answer ﬁle, you can customize information during the setup process. The /unattend [num] [:answer_ﬁle] option is similar to the previous one with the exception of the num setting. Num speciﬁes the number of seconds setup should pause after copying ﬁles to the destination computer and rebooting the computer. The /udf:[id,[udf_ﬁle]] option provides additional customization to the unattended answer ﬁle for each computer being upgraded (UDF stands for uniqueness database ﬁle). By indicating an id and a UDB ﬁle, setup will override information provided in the answer ﬁle with the speciﬁc info provided in the UDB ﬁle for the id speciﬁed. For instance, you can provide unique computer names for each computer by using a UDB ﬁle. Here is an example of a complete Winnt32.exe command for an unattended installation (this example assumes that drive h: is mapped to the share for the distribution ﬁles): h:\winnt32.exe /s:h:\ /unattend:h:\unattend.txt /udf:comp1,unattend.udb www.syngress.com Slide 87: 52 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Network Distribution Point Now that you are comfortable with the Winnt32.exe command, let’s see what is required to be in place prior to typing in that command. At the most basic level, a distribution point is a network share that includes the contents of the \i386 folder from the distribution CD-ROM for Windows XP. Instead of placing the CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive and starting the installation, you point Winnt32.exe to the network share and launch setup from there.The distribution folder also includes the unattended answer ﬁle, named unattend.txt by default. If you are using a UDB ﬁle, that too will reside in the distribution folder. Distribution Point Directory Structure At the most basic level, a distribution point is a network share that includes the contents of the /i386 folder.Taking a deeper look, we see that the network distribution point is made up of a number of subdirectories, each of which plays an important role during an unattended installation. The distribution point is a folder on a ﬁle server.You can name this folder with any name you want.This folder is shared, and the share is the focus of the \s command option for Winnt32.exe discussed previously.You place the contents of the \i386 directory in the root of this folder. In addition to the folders of the \i386 directory, there is an $OEM$ folder and a number of subfolders.This section concentrates on the $OEM$ folder and its subfolders. As part of an unattended installation, you may need to provide additional ﬁles required by setup that are not included with the Windows XP distribution.These ﬁles include computer HALs, mass-storage device drivers, and Plug and Play drivers. $OEM$ acts as the root for ﬁles and folders that are required during the setup process. The \$OEM$\$$ folder includes system ﬁles that are copied to the Windows XP installation folder on the computer being upgraded.The $$ is equivalent to \%windir%. So, if your install directory is \winnt, $$ is equal to \winnt. \$OEM$\$$ can include subfolders that represent the subfolders in the system folder, such as \system32. The \$OEM$\$1 folder contains ﬁles that are copied to the system drive. $1 is equivalent to the %systemdrive% environment variable. For instance, if you are installing Windows XP Professional to the C: drive, $1 is equal to C. $OEM$\drive_letter equals $OEM$\C.This folder contains additional ﬁles and folders that should be copied to the corresponding drive on the computer.This www.syngress.com Slide 88: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 53 differs from the $1 folder in that the drive letter is hardcoded for this folder. This allows you to copy ﬁles and folders to additional drives if they exist on the computer. Conﬁguring & Implementing… Automated Installs from a Bootable CD-ROM This section focuses primarily on performing an automated install from a network share. You can also install Windows XP in an automated fashion locally on a workstation using a bootable CD-ROM. Prior to initiating a CD-ROM-based install, you must make sure these preliminary requirements are met: 1. Place the answer ﬁle onto a ﬂoppy disk and name it Winnt.sif. 2. Ensure that the destination computer supports booting from a CD-ROM and supports the El-Torito non-emulation speciﬁcation. 3. The answer ﬁle needs to contain a valid [Data] section. The [Data] section needs to include the following parameters: s s s UnattendedInstall=Yes MSDosInitiated=No AutoPartition=1; if this value is set to 0, the end user is prompted to select the installation partition during setup. 4. Create the answer ﬁle by using Setup Manager as discussed in detail in the following section on Setup Manager 3.0. Modify the answer ﬁle with the [Data] information from the previous step. Boot the destination computer using the Windows XP CD-ROM and place the ﬂoppy disk containing the Winnt.sif ﬁle into the ﬂoppy drive. Here’s the kicker—Windows 98/Me does not support upgrading Windows 9x or Windows NT 4.0 systems when booting from CD-ROM. Booting from CD-ROM supports only a fresh installation of Windows XP. If that didn’t hurt enough, installing from a CD-ROM doesn’t support the $OEM$ directory structure discussed in the “Network Distribution Point” section of this chapter. Needless to say, much of the ﬂexibility of automated installations is stripped away when using a bootable CD-ROM. www.syngress.com Slide 89: 54 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional The $OEM$\Textmode folder is very important when dealing with installations on computers with dissimilar hardware. In it, you can place ﬁles that support different HALs and mass storage device drivers that are not included with the distribution ﬁles. All this information is good to know, but it can seem very complicated. Luckily,Windows XP provides a tool called Setup Manager to help automate the creation of a distribution folder.The next section brieﬂy discusses this tool. Customizing Windows XP Professional Setup If you decide to launch a Windows XP installation from an existing Windows NT or Windows 98/Me install using the /unattend command option without specifying an answer ﬁle, the system will be upgraded using all the existing user settings. If you want to customize the upgrade, you will need to use an answer ﬁle and the $OEM$ directory structure discussed in the “Distribution Point Directory Structure” section.The answer ﬁle provides answers to the questions asked by the setup process and instructs setup on what to do with the distribution folders and ﬁles contained under $OEM$.This section provides some insight into the answer ﬁle and then walks you through using Setup Manager to create an answer ﬁle and the $OEM$ structure. Answer Files An unattended answer ﬁle is simply a text ﬁle that is formatted similar to an INI ﬁle. Its role is to provide the setup process with the data it needs to complete the installation of Windows XP Professional without having a user type in the information. An answer ﬁle is made up of a number of headings, and under each heading are pairs of parameters and their assigned values.The format looks like this: [Heading1] Parameter1=value1 Parameter2=value2 [Heading 2] Parameter3=value3 You are welcome to create the answer ﬁle manually by using a text editor such as Notepad, but we recommend that you allow Setup Manager to automate this process. After the answer ﬁle has been created, you can then go back and add additional values or edit the answer ﬁle to further customize the installation. www.syngress.com Slide 90: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 55 Setup Manager 3.0 Setup Manager has been mentioned a number of times so far, but what is it and what does it do? Setup Manager is a wizard-driven program that queries the user on a number of topics in order to prepare an unattended answer ﬁle and construct the distribution folder.You can run through the wizard any number of times to prepare additional answer ﬁles to address all of your installation needs. In this section, we walk through the Setup Manager wizard, providing thorough descriptions of each screen and suggestions as to what information to provide. 1. First, you need to start Setup Manager.The ﬁles needed to run Setup Manager are available on the Windows XP distribution CD-ROM in the deploy.cab ﬁle under \support\tools.You need to extract the Setupmgr.exe and Setupmgr.chm ﬁles to your local hard drive and run the Setupmgr.exe. Once you launch Setup Manager, the wizard walks you through a number of dialog boxes, extracting the information it needs to prepare the answer ﬁle and $OEM$ directory. 2. The ﬁrst screen you see is the Welcome screen (see Figure 2.32). Click Next to continue. Figure 2.32 Setup Manager Welcome Screen 3. The next window asks whether you want to create a new answer ﬁle or modify an existing one (see Figure 2.33).The ﬁrst time through Setup Manager you will select Create a new answer ﬁle. If you are creating an additional answer ﬁle for a unique unattended installation, you can choose Modify an existing answer ﬁle.This choice takes an existing answer ﬁle you specify and places the data from that ﬁle as defaults throughout the Setup Manager wizard, allowing you to make changes www.syngress.com Slide 91: 56 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional along the way.The second selection is fairly self-explanatory in that each wizard screen defaults to the current settings of the computer on which Setup Manager is being run. For our example, we are creating a new answer ﬁle. Make your selection and click Next. Figure 2.33 Create a New Answer File or Modify an Existing One 4. The dialog box shown in Figure 2.34 asks you which type of answer ﬁle to create—Windows Unattended Installation, Sysprep, or Remote Installation Service. Setup Manager will display select screens based on your choice. Remote Installation Services is discussed in Chapter 12. Select Windows Unattended Installation and click Next to continue. Figure 2.34 Indicate Which Type of Answer File to Create 5. You must indicate which platform is to be installed:Windows XP Home Edition,Windows XP Professional, or Windows 2002 Server, Advanced Server, or Data Center (shown in Figure 2.35.) Select Windows XP Professional and click Next. www.syngress.com Slide 92: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 57 Figure 2.35 Select the Appropriate Windows XP Product 6. In the window shown in Figure 2.36, you must decide what level of user interaction you want to take place during the installation.The choices and descriptions are as follows: s Provide defaults The answers you select during Setup Manager are displayed as the defaults during Windows XP installation.The user has the opportunity to change any setting.This does not result in a fully automated installation. Fully automated As its name implies, by selecting this option the installation will proceed without any user interaction—the answer ﬁle must supply all answers. Hide pages Selecting this option results in a partially automated installation. If the answer ﬁle supplies answers, the relevant installation pages are not displayed to the user performing the installation. If no answer is available, the page is displayed, and the user must provide an answer manually. Read only This setting includes the settings for Hide Pages and Provide Defaults with an additional twist. If the page is not hidden, it is displayed to the user in read-only mode restricting the user from making any changes. GUI attended By making this selection, you automate the text mode portion of setup, but leave the GUI portion requiring user input. For our example, choose Fully automated. s s s s www.syngress.com Slide 93: 58 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.36 Select the Level of User Interaction 7. You can instruct Setup Manager to create the distribution folder or modify an existing distribution folder. By selecting Yes, create or modify a distribution folder (see Figure 2.37), Setup Manager will next prompt you for a folder name and share name for the distribution folder. Setup Manager also creates the $OEM$ ﬁle structure under the distribution folder. Also, Setup Manager will copy the Windows XP source ﬁles to the root of the distribution folder to be used during the unattended installation. If you are installing from the CD-ROM, select No, this answer ﬁle will be used to install from a CD. Figure 2.37 Provide a Name and Location for the Distribution Folder and a Name for the Share 8. You are given the opportunity to specify the location of the Windows XP setup ﬁles.You can choose either the CD-ROM drive on your www.syngress.com Slide 94: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 59 system, or you can choose a speciﬁc network location. Once you have made this choice, as shown in Figure 2.38, click Next. Figure 2.38 Specifying the Location of the Setup Files 9. You are now asked if you would like to create a new distribution folder on your server or if you’d like to modify an existing distribution folder (see Figure 2.39).You are also given the opportunity to provide a share name for the folder.The wizard will provide a default name for both the folder and the share.You can change this if you’d like. Once you have named the folder and the share, click Next. Figure 2.39 Naming the Distribution Folder 10. The next dialog box (Figure 2.40) asks you to enter a Name and Organization. Keep in mind that this information is applied to all computers that use this answer ﬁle.You can create additional answer ﬁles if different settings need to be applied, or use a UDB ﬁle, which is discussed later in this chapter. Simply put, a UDB ﬁle provides additional, www.syngress.com Slide 95: 60 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional per-computer customization during an unattended install. Enter the information and click Next to continue. Figure 2.40 Specify the Name and Organization to Be Applied to the Installation 11. Figure 2.41 shows the wizard screen prompting you to customize the display settings. As the window shows, you have the ability to select values for colors, screen area, and refresh frequency. If you decide to change these settings, and the settings you wish to use are not available in the pull-down menus, you can customize your settings by clicking Custom…. Figure 2.42 is then displayed allowing you to enter speciﬁc data. Click OK when you are ﬁnished. Figure 2.41 Select Display Settings www.syngress.com Slide 96: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 61 Figure 2.42 Customizing the Display Settings 12. You can select the time zone setting for the destination computers. Our ﬁctitious corporation is in New York City, so select Eastern Time (shown in Figure 2.43). Click Next to continue. Figure 2.43 Make the Appropriate Time Zone Selection 13. A new feature in the Windows Setup Manager is the ability to insert the Product Key into the unattend.txt and sysprep.inf ﬁles directly from the wizard (see Figure 2.44). In earlier versions, you had to manually edit the unattend.txt ﬁle created by the wizard to add the Product Key. Once you have entered the Product Key, click Next. 14. Figure 2.45 displays the next wizard screen, which asks you to specify how you want to create computer names.You have a few options:You can manually enter the list of computer names for the machines that are being installed; you can import a text ﬁle that includes a list of computer names, one per line with carriage returns; or you can have the answer ﬁle generate random names based on the organization name you provided in Step 10. If you already have your Active Directory installed, you www.syngress.com Slide 97: 62 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional can add the computers into Active Directory and export the listing using the tools available in Active Directory Users and Computers.The ﬁle can then be imported into this dialog box. In this example, a list of names was imported from a text ﬁle. Click Next to continue. Figure 2.44 Typing the Windows XP Product Key Figure 2.45 Enter the Names of Destination Computers or Allow the Answer File to Generate Them Automatically 15. Next, you are asked to enter the administrative password for the destination computer, as shown in Figure 2.46. A new feature in this version of the Setup Manager is the ability to encrypt the Administrator’s password in the unattend.txt ﬁle.You can also specify whether the Administrator account should be automatically logged on after the computer reboots and, if so, how many times.This feature is useful if you are going to www.syngress.com Slide 98: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 63 perform automated application installations after setup completes, and the installations require an admin account. Figure 2.46 Supply Administrator Account Information WARNING All-numeric computer names are not supported in Windows XP; however, Windows NT did support this feature. For instance, in Windows NT you could name a computer 100. This name is invalid in Windows XP because all-numeric names can be interpreted incorrectly during name resolution. Instead of a computer name, the number is treated as an IP address. If you are upgrading a Windows NT system that has an all-numeric name, Windows XP will perform the upgrade and retain the name. Any changes to that name are then restricted by the naming conventions of Windows XP. 16. The next window, shown in Figure 2.47, prompts you to choose the typical settings for the network conﬁguration or to customize these settings. For most, the default settings are adequate, providing TCP/IP and DHCP with the Client for Microsoft Networks. By selecting Customize settings, you can include additional network interface cards and additional network components. In our example, the typical settings are ﬁne. Click Next to continue. 17. Figure 2.48 displays the window asking whether the destination computer will be part of a workgroup or part of a domain.When joining the www.syngress.com Slide 99: 64 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional destination computer to a domain, you must select Create a computer account in the domain and specify the appropriate credentials, even if the computer account has already been created.The reason for this is that Windows XP uses Kerberos authentication, which requires that you provide a valid domain account.When you specify this information, the following lines are added to the answer ﬁle: [Identiﬁcation] JoinDomain=<domain name> DomainAdmin=<domain account> DomainAdminPassword=<account password> Figure 2.47 Accept Typical Network Settings or Choose to Customize These Settings Figure 2.48 Specify Whether the Destination Computer Will Join a Workgroup or Domain www.syngress.com Slide 100: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 65 18. At this point, you have the option to further customize the unattended installation or accept the defaults for the remaining settings.The additional advanced settings include telephony, regional, language, browser, installation folder, printer installation, run once, and additional command conﬁguration. If you decide not to customize these settings, you can simply proceed through each of the following screens. Each of these additional settings is prefaced by the word Advanced in the following steps. 19. Advanced Figure 2.49 displays the telephony settings window.The settings you specify here will apply only to destination computers that have modems installed. Figure 2.49 Select Telephony Settings for the Destination Computers 20. Advanced Next, you can specify any additional regional settings that may be required on the end-user systems (see Figure 2.50). If you don’t require any additional regional settings aside from those on the Windows version currently installed, select to use the default. By specifying additional regional settings, you give end users the ability to use regionally speciﬁc currency, keyboard layout, and measurement settings. For each additional regional selection you make, the necessary ﬁles are copied to a \lang folder under \$OEM$. Make your selection and click Next to continue. 21. Advanced Figure 2.51 shows the languages settings screen. By specifying additional languages, you allow the end users to create and read documents in the languages that are made available on the system. Click Next to continue. www.syngress.com Slide 101: 66 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.50 If Necessary, Specify Any Additional Regional Settings Figure 2.51 Include Support for Additional Languages 22. Advanced In the window shown in Figure 2.52, you have the option of customizing the behavior of Internet Explorer.Your options include the self-explanatory Use default Internet Explorer settings. In addition, you can select Use an autoconﬁguration script created by the Internet Explorer Administration Kit to conﬁgure your browser. If you select this setting, you must specify an INS ﬁle, which is copied to the \$OEM$ folder. An INS ﬁle is an Internet settings ﬁle that allows you to preconﬁgure and lock down Internet Explorer.The third option allows you to specify proxy and default home page settings for IE. Because this isn’t a book about customizing IE, we’ll accept the default settings. Click Next to continue. www.syngress.com Slide 102: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 67 Figure 2.52 Specify Browser and Shell Settings 23. Advanced Figure 2.53 prompts you to enter information about the folder to which Windows XP should be installed.The default selection is to install Windows XP into a folder named winnt. By choosing to generate a uniquely named folder, setup will name the install folder \winnt.x (x being 0,1…999) if a folder named winnt already exists on the disk.You also have the option of specifying the name of the folder to which Windows XP should be installed.The format for this entry is the path name without a drive letter (windowsXP). If you want to specify the drive letter, use the /tempdrive parameter with Winnt32.exe. For our example, we are going to leave any existing winnt folders and allow setup to create a new folder. Click Next to continue. Figure 2.53 Select the Folder to Which Windows XP Should Be Installed www.syngress.com Slide 103: 68 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional 24. Advanced If you need to preconﬁgure printers on your destination computers, you can do this by using the dialog box shown in Figure 2.54. Enter the UNC name of the printer share when specifying a printer to be installed the ﬁrst time a user logs on after setup completes. Note that the user logging on must have the appropriate permissions to add the printer, in order for this feature to work. Click Next to continue. Figure 2.54 Conﬁgure Network Printers to Be Installed on Destination Computers 25. Advanced If you want to run any programs automatically after the ﬁrst user has logged on, you can set this up by using the dialog box shown in Figure 2.55.You can combine this with automatically logging on the Administrator account x number of times after setup completes, as is discussed in Step 15. In Figure 2.55, we’ve entered a command to run notepad.exe with the readme.txt ﬁle.This launches the readme.txt ﬁle, which includes some introductory material for the end user.This program would run only once. In this case, we would not want the Administrator account logged on automatically. Click Next to continue. 26. Previously, you were given the opportunity to enter commands to be run once after the ﬁrst user logged on the system after setup. Figure 2.56 displays a dialog box that prepares commands to be run immediately after setup, but prior to the system restarting. Each command you enter here is included in a cmdlines.txt ﬁle placed in the $OEM$ folder. www.syngress.com Slide 104: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 69 Figure 2.55 Enter Commands to Run after the First User Logs on the System after Setup Completes Figure 2.56 Enter Commands to Be Run Immediately after Setup 27. The last few steps ﬁnalize the Setup Manager process, asking you to name the answer ﬁle and then copying the setup ﬁles to the server. These screens are shown in Figures 2.57 and 2.58.You can name the answer ﬁle anything you want; you do not need to accept the default (unattend.txt). Setup Manager also creates a uniqueness database ﬁle (UDB ﬁle) if multiple computer names are provided. In addition, a BAT ﬁle is created, which is listed in Figure 2.59.This is a sample ﬁle that is executed by entering UNATTEND at the command line, followed by a computer name or ID that matches a computer name in the UDB ﬁle. More information on UDB ﬁles is provided in the next section. www.syngress.com Slide 105: 70 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Figure 2.57 Providing a Name and Location for the Answer File Figure 2.58 Setup Manager Copies the Windows XP Files to the Distribution Folder Figure 2.59 An Example of unattend.bat Created by Setup Manager @rem SetupMgrTag @echo off rem rem This is a SAMPLE batch script generated by the Setup Manager Wizard. rem If this script is moved from the location where it was generated, it may have to be modiﬁed. rem set AnswerFile=.\unattend.txt set UdfFile=.\unattend.udb set ComputerName=%1 set SetupFiles=\\fp2000\winXPdist\I386 if "%ComputerName%" == "" goto USAGE Continued www.syngress.com Slide 106: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 71 Figure 2.59 Continued \\fp2000\winXPdist\I386\winnt32 /s:%SetupFiles% /unattend:%AnswerFile%/udf:%ComputerName%,%UdfFile% /makelocalsource goto DONE :USAGE echo. echo Usage: unattend ^<computername^> echo. :DONE NOTE When you name your answer ﬁle, that same name is applied to the UDB and BAT ﬁles. For example, if you name your answer ﬁle myanswerﬁle.txt, you also end up with myanswerﬁle.udb and myanswerﬁle.bat. 28. The last window in the Setup Manager wizard requires you to click Finish so that Setup Manager can complete its work. In addition to copying the Windows source ﬁles to the distribution folder and any other ﬁles you indicated, Setup Manager generates an answer ﬁle and places it at the root of the distribution folder. Here is a sample of an answer ﬁle that was generated by the responses provided during this Setup Manager walkthrough: ;SetupMgrTag [Data] AutoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [Unattended] www.syngress.com Slide 107: 72 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional UnattendMode=ProvideDefault OemPreinstall=Yes TargetPath=\WINDOWS [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=44efce164ab921caaad3b435b51404ee32ed87bdb5fdc5e9cb a88547376818d4 EncryptedAdminPassword=Yes OEMSkipRegional=1 [UserData] FullName="" OrgName="" ComputerName=* [SetupMgr] ComputerName0=ﬂoor-a-01 ComputerName1=ﬂoor-a-02 ComputerName2=ﬂoor-a-03 ComputerName3=ﬂoor-a-04 ComputerName4=ﬂoor-a-05 DistFolder=D:\winXPdist DistShare=winXPdist [GuiRunOnce] Command0="rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\fp2000\lj8050a" Command1=notepad.exe c:\readme.txt [Identiﬁcation] JoinDomain=bigcorp.com DomainAdmin=installer DomainAdminPassword=123456 www.syngress.com Slide 108: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=Yes 73 You should be able to disseminate what each heading means and where the data comes from by going back through the Setup Manager steps. For a thorough discussion of all the available parameters for an answer ﬁle, refer to the unattend.doc ﬁle, which is included in the \support\tools\deploy.cab folder on the Windows XP distribution CD-ROM. Further Customization with UDB One answer ﬁle usually does not cut it for most deployments because it only provides a single source of answers for the setup process.You could create multiple answer ﬁles for each destination computer, but that can become quite tedious. A better approach is to utilize a uniqueness database ﬁle (this has a UDB extension). One way to think about the purpose of a UDB ﬁle is that the answer ﬁle speciﬁes the defaults and the UDB ﬁle speciﬁes the exceptions. Any settings included in the UDB ﬁle for a computer override the settings provided in the answer ﬁle. The UDB ﬁle generated by Setup Manager provides only unique computer names for the destination computer.You need to add additional information if necessary to further customize setup on individual systems. Here is a sample of the unattend.udb ﬁle created by Setup Manager: ;SetupMgrTag [UniqueIds] ﬂoor-a-01=UserData ﬂoor-a-02=UserData ﬂoor-a-03=UserData ﬂoor-a-04=UserData ﬂoor-a-05=UserData [ﬂoor-a-01:UserData] ComputerName=ﬂoor-a-01 [ﬂoor-a-02:UserData] ComputerName=ﬂoor-a-02 www.syngress.com Slide 109: 74 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional [ﬂoor-a-03:UserData] ComputerName=ﬂoor-a-03 [ﬂoor-a-04:UserData] ComputerName=ﬂoor-a-04 [ﬂoor-a-05:UserData] ComputerName=ﬂoor-a-05 As you can see, the ﬁrst heading, [UniqueIds], correlates with subsequent headings which include the ComputerName parameter.These subsequent headings are prefaced with the UniqueId (such as ﬂoor-a-01) followed by a colon and UserData. UserData is an answer ﬁle heading that is included in the unattend.txt ﬁle listed earlier in the chapter.You can provide additional parameters under this heading or add additional headings for each computer as long as the UniqueId of the computer prefaces them. Let’s take a look at some examples. Suppose you want to include unique user and organization names to each computer. In order to do this, you need to add additional parameters to the UserData portion of the UDB ﬁle for each machine. Here’s an example: [ﬂoor-a-01:UserData] ComputerName=ﬂoor-a-01 FullName=John Doe OrgName=XYZ Afﬁliates If you want to add additional headings, you can do that as well.The following is an example that illustrates how to join computers to different domains using parameters under the Identiﬁcation heading. [ﬂoor-a-03:Identiﬁcation] JoinDomain=sub01.xyz.com DomainAdmin=installer DomainAdminPassword=mypassword [ﬂoor-a-04:Identiﬁcation] JoinDomain=sub02.xyz.com DomainAdmin=installer DomainAdminPassword=mypassword The command line to launch setup with a UDB ﬁle is: www.syngress.com Slide 110: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 Winnt32.exe /s:<location of setup ﬁles> /unattend:<unattend ﬁle> /udf:<UniqueID>, <udb ﬁle> 75 You can launch this command a number of ways.You can use the batch ﬁle that was created by Setup Manager and provide the computer name.You can include similar batch ﬁle commands in a logon script that is launched when the user logs on the system. A word of caution about this method: It could overwhelm your distribution servers if a large number of users log on at the same time and receive the same logon script. A third install option is to use a system’s management application, such as Microsoft Systems Management Server, to deploy Windows XP Professional. Preparing the Destination Computer You have an answer ﬁle and a UDB ﬁle and are ready to start your automated installations.The ﬁnal step is to prepare the destination computers for upgrade. This involves ensuring that existing applications and utilities are supported under Windows XP, that data on the disk is backed up, and that the drives to which Windows XP is to be installed are healthy and have adequate space for the larger footprint of Windows XP. Looking Out for Incompatibilities When upgrading a computer to Windows XP, you need to watch out for some issues.What those issues are depends on whether you are upgrading from Windows NT or from Windows 9x.When upgrading from Windows NT, look out for the following incompatibility issues: s Antivirus applications and disk management applications that rely on system ﬁlters to operate Due to changes in how Windows XP handles these processes, you should uninstall legacy applications prior to the upgrade. Custom Plug and Play utilities Because Windows NT did not natively support Plug and Play, some third parties develop tools to emulate this functionality that was so convenient for laptop users.Windows XP fully supports Plug and Play, so you should remove these custom utilities. Custom power management utilities (usually for laptop systems) Windows XP uses ACPI and Advanced Power Management (APM) to address power management.You must remove any existing power management utilities on the Windows NT system prior to the upgrade. www.syngress.com s s Slide 111: 76 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional s Networking protocols and clients that are not automatically updated during the Windows XP installation When upgrading from Windows 98/Me systems, watch out for these incompatibilities in addition to the ones mentioned under Window NT: s Any applications or utilities that make use of virtual device drivers and .386 drivers Any Control Panel applications installed by third parties These often include network interface card utilities or display adapter utilities. s You also want to check the HCL maintained by Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/hcl. Please, Back Up Your Data Once you are sure that your system and software is free of any known incompatibilities, and you have tested your automated installation in a lab and in pilots, you need to back up the data on the destination computer in case the automated installation fails.This is deﬁnitely one of the most often “shoulda dones” spoken by IT professionals—“I shoulda backed up the data!” Don’t make the same mistake so many of your contemporaries have made. Although it extends the deployment time frame and can be an unglamorous job, backups are essential to prevent disasters. When backing up Windows NT systems, also be sure to back up the Registry. If your backup software doesn’t support this function, you can use the Regback.exe utility available in the Windows NT Resource Kit. Do a Disk Checkup If you perform an upgrade on a sick disk drive or one with inadequate space, your installation will fail.Take some steps to repair any disk problems and provide adequate disk space prior to the upgrade to Windows XP. Use disk utilities that are available on the current operating system, such as ScanDisk and Defrag (Windows 98 systems) to check your disks and repair any problems. Next, make sure that you have enough room for Windows XP to be installed.Windows XP is a much larger product than either Windows NT, 2000, or Windows 9x.The minimum available free space needed for a Windows XP Professional installation that takes place over a network is over 1GB. By taking these simple precautionary steps you afford yourself a greater chance of experiencing a problem-free automated installation. www.syngress.com Slide 112: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 77 Using Sysprep You’ve purchased your imaging tool of choice, and you are ready to start imaging your computer. Before you jump right into creating images, it is best to understand what features the Sysprep tool includes and the correct sequence of steps to take when preparing a system to be imaged. Overview of Sysprep Simply stated, the Sysprep tool prepares a computer disk to be imaged and copied to another disk. First, the Sysprep tool generates a unique SID for the target machine when the target system ﬁrst reboots. Second, it runs a modiﬁed version of the GUI setup that takes only ﬁve to ten minutes and can be fully automated. Third, Sysprep will run Plug and Play detection to detect any hardware devices that exist on the target, but may not have existed on the source machine. Sysprep Requirements One limitation of using imaging to deploy Windows XP is the requirement that some of the system hardware of the source be identical to that of the target. Because Windows XP supports Plug and Play, certain hardware components can be different on the target than those that existed on the source install. In order to take advantage of Sysprep disk duplication using imaging, the following components must be the same on both the source and target: s s s HALs ACPI support Mass storage device controllers Also, the size of the target disk must be equal to or larger than the source. Any Plug and Play devices, such as sound cards, network interface cards, and modems do not have to be identical on the source and target. If different Plug and Play devices exist on the target machines, you must make sure that drivers are available from the Windows XP distribution or added to the distribution location in order for these devices to be installed correctly during Plug and Play detection. How to do this is discussed in more detail later in this chapter. www.syngress.com Slide 113: 78 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Designing & Planning… HAL and ACPI Explained In order to use the Sysprep for imaging disks, the source and target must have identical HAL and ACPI support. The question is, “What the heck are these things?” The HAL is just what its name implies: It is software that abstracts the hardware from the operating system so that all hardware looks the same to the operating system itself. One example is that the HAL enables Windows XP Professional to run on both single processor and multiprocessor systems without having to change the operating system. Some companies, such as Compaq and Dell, have developed their own HALs that can be installed so that the operating system makes use of the hardware architectures used on some of their systems. The ACPI speciﬁcation provides additional enhancements to the Plug and Play speciﬁcation. It includes system board and BIOS interfaces that extend Plug and Play to include power management. Windows 2000’s Plug and Play support is optimized for systems that include ACPI system boards. Developers utilize the ACPI speciﬁcation to integrate power management features throughout the system. By utilizing the ACPI speciﬁcation, Windows 2000 is better able to manage which applications are active when evaluating the system for power management. You can ﬁnd more information about ACPI at www.teleport.com/~acpi/. Sysprep Step by Step The Sysprep installation process usually involves three or more devices.The ﬁrst machine is your source machine.The source machine is the computer on which you install the operation system and applications and customize the conﬁguration. Sysprep is run on this machine to prepare for disk imaging.The disk image is created using a third-party application and stored on a network share or on external media, such as CD-ROM, tape, or Jaz.The image is then loaded onto one or more target devices. The steps necessary to create and load a disk image using Sysprep and a third-party imaging tool are enumerated in the upcoming list.The tasks that require more discussion are explained in detail later in this section. Install Windows XP Professional on the source machine.When setup prompts you as to whether you want to join a workgroup or domain, select workgroup. www.syngress.com Slide 114: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 79 Do not choose to join a domain. Additionally, leave the administrator account password blank. If you do not leave the password ﬁeld blank, you will not be able to change it during the setup process on the target. 1. Once the computer has rebooted, log on as Administrator and install and conﬁgure additional applications and services. Be aware that some applications, like Microsoft Ofﬁce, will create user-speciﬁc settings for the currently logged on user.These settings might not be available to users logging on to the target system after imaging takes place.You can ﬁnd instructions on Microsoft’s Web site that help make this process easier. 2. Test the operating system and applications to ensure that they are functioning correctly. 3. Create a folder in the system root called Sysprep. 4. Open deploy.cab from the \support\tools folder of the Windows XP distribution CD and extract Sysprep.exe and setupcl.exe to the \Sysprep folder on the system drive. 5. If you want full or partial automation, run Setup Manager to prepare the Sysprep.inf answer ﬁle.You can save the Sysprep.inf ﬁle in the \Sysprep folder or onto a ﬂoppy disk. 6. Run Sysprep with any optional parameters and shut down the system. Do not reboot the system. If you reboot the system, Sysprep will launch the mini–Setup Wizard on the source computer. 7. Create an image of the disk according to the imaging product’s instructions. 8. Transfer the image to the target machine according to the imaging product’s instructions. 9. Reboot the target machine, which initiates Plug and Play detection and runs the mini–Setup Wizard. If you are using a Sysprep.inf ﬁle that is stored on a ﬂoppy disk, insert it during the Windows startup process. 10. The Sysprep folder is deleted automatically and the system reboots prompting for the ﬁrst logon. Steps 1 through 5 are fairly straightforward and don’t require much additional explanation. An important point is that the \Sysprep folder must exist on the system drive and Setupcl.exe must be present in that folder to run Sysprep. Setupcl.exe is responsible for generating a unique SID and for running the mini–Setup Wizard on the target machine. www.syngress.com Slide 115: 80 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Step 6 is optional, but if you want to use Setup Manager to create a Sysprep.inf ﬁle, you can ﬁnd more information in the section “Automating Setup of a Target Computer” later in this chapter. Step 7 instructs you to run Sysprep.exe with any optional switches.To do this, open up a command prompt and change the directory to point to the \Sysprep folder you created in Step 4 by typing cd Sysprep. At this point you type in Sysprep.exe and one or more optional switches.The options available with the Sysprep command include the following: s s /QUIET This switch runs Sysprep without displaying onscreen messages. /NOSIDGEN This switch runs Sysprep without creating a unique SID for the computer. /PNP This switch forces Plug and Play to initiate after the target system reboots. /REBOOT This switch will automatically restart the computer after Sysprep has done its work. Do not use this switch if you will be creating an image from this disk because mini–Setup Wizard will launch after reboot. s s Once you run Sysprep, a message window will pop up warning you that some security parameters will be changed on the system. Click OK to continue. Sysprep then conﬁgures the system to prepare it for imaging and shuts down. You then need to use the tools available from your imaging software vendor to create an image of the disk and store it to the proper media, as indicated in Step 8. NOTE Most imaging tools allow you to view and modify the contents of an image ﬁle. In order to further reduce the size of an image ﬁle prepared using Sysprep, you can delete the hyberﬁl.sys (hibernation ﬁle, if it exists), pageﬁle.sys, and setupapi.log ﬁles from the image. Each of these ﬁles is re-created during the mini–Setup Wizard. Step 9 involves transferring the disk image to the target machine.You can do this a number of ways, and you need to refer to your imaging software vendor’s documentation to see what methods are supported by their product. Step 10 indicates that after the image is transferred to the target machine, the machine needs to be rebooted.The machine starts up and displays the normal www.syngress.com Slide 116: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 81 Windows XP boot information and proceeds through the boot process.The GUI phase of the boot process initiates Plug and Play detection.Then the mini–Setup Wizard starts by displaying its Welcome screen. After clicking Next at the Welcome screen, you are presented with a series of dialog boxes prompting you for conﬁguration information speciﬁc to this computer.The type of information you are required to enter includes the following: s s s s s s s s End-user license agreement Product ID Key Regional settings Name and company Network conﬁguration Workgroup or domain selection Server licensing, if this is a server install Time zone Once you have completed the mini-setup, the wizard displays a summary screen and requires you to click Finish.The system will then restart, and the ﬁrst user is prompted to log on. Running Sysprep during Automated Installation You may want to run Sysprep as part of an automated installation on a computer. In order to do this, you need to create a special Sysprep folder as part of the distribution folder hierarchy.This folder is located at \I386\$OEM$\$1\SYSPREP. The $1 is equivalent to the system drive letter.Type in $1, not the actual drive letter.You then need to place the Sysprep.exe and Setupcl.exe ﬁles into this folder along with the optional Sysprep.inf answer ﬁle. To run Sysprep automatically after the automated installation completes, you need to modify the automated installation answer ﬁle, which is usually named unattend.txt. Open this ﬁle in a text editor, such as Notepad, and locate the [GUIRUNONCE] section. Add the Sysprep command by typing %SYSTEMDRIVE%\SYSPREP\SYSPREP.EXE –QUIET.This runs Sysprep in quiet mode and will not display message windows. www.syngress.com Slide 117: 82 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Automating Setup of a Target Computer You eliminate a great deal of the time required to deploy Windows XP by running Sysprep and creating an image of the disk.What if you could even automate the mini–Setup Wizard discussed earlier? This would eliminate the need for someone to be sitting at the console when the target is rebooted the ﬁrst time and the mini–Setup Wizard runs.You can use a Sysprep answer ﬁle, called Sysprep.inf, to provide—you guessed it—answers to the questions posed by minisetup.This section covers the elements that make up Sysprep.inf and how to create this ﬁle using Setup Manager. Creating an Answer File Using Setup Manager Creating a Sysprep.inf answer ﬁle using Setup Manager is an optional step when preparing a system using Sysprep.When a target system ﬁrst boots with an image prepared by Sysprep, a mini–Setup Wizard runs and asks the user for user- and machine-speciﬁc information.The information required by the mini–Setup Wizard includes the following: s s s s s s End-user license agreement Name and organization Whether the computer should join a domain or workgroup Regional settings TAPI info (if the computer has a modem) Network protocol and services conﬁguration In order to fully or partially automate this wizard, you can use a Sysprep.inf answer ﬁle.You can manually create the Sysprep.inf ﬁle (it is in a text-ﬁle format), or you can create it using the Setup Manager tool.The Sysprep.inf ﬁle is very similar to the answer ﬁle created for unattended installs, but contains only a subset of the values.The following sections and keys are supported in the Sysprep.inf answer ﬁle: [Unattended] OemSkipEula OemPnPDriversPath InstallFilesPath ExtendOEMPartition www.syngress.com Slide 118: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword AutoLogon TimeZone OEMDuplicatorString OEMSkipWelcome 83 [UserData] ComputerName FullName OrgName ProductID [LicenseFilePrintData] AutoMode AutoUsers [GuiRunOnce] [Display] BitsPerPel Vrefresh Xresolution Yresolution [Regional Settings] Note: These ﬁles must exist on the disk prior to setup InputLocale Language LanguageGroup SystemLocale UserLocale [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents www.syngress.com Slide 119: 84 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional [Identiﬁcation] DomainAdmin DomainAdminPassword JoinDomain JoinWorkgroup MachineObjectOU [NetClients] [<MS_MSClient parameters>] BrowseDomains NameServiceNetworkAddress NameServiceProtocol [<MS_NWClient parameters>] DefaultTree DefaultContext LogonScript PreferredServer [TapiLocation] Note: These keys only apply when the target system has a modem installed AreaCode CountryCode Dialing LongDistanceAccess NOTE If your deployment requires different information to be entered during the mini–Setup Wizard for different machines, you can create multiple Sysprep.inf ﬁles. Each Sysprep.inf ﬁle contains machine-speciﬁc information. In order to accomplish this, you will need to remove any copies of Sysprep.inf from the \Sysprep folder on the system drive and supply a ﬂoppy with the appropriate Sysprep.inf ﬁle during the Windows XP startup. www.syngress.com Slide 120: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 85 Running Additional Programs After Mini-Setup You can use the cmdlines.txt ﬁle to run additional programs after the mini-setup process is complete. If you used Setup Manager to create an answer ﬁle, you were able to enter the commands for cmdlines.txt (see Step 26).To manually conﬁgure this functionality, you must create a \i386\$OEM$ folder in the \Sysprep folder created for Sysprep.exe and Setupcl.exe. All ﬁles that are needed to run the application launched by cmdlines.txt must be placed in the \$OEM$ subfolder.The syntax for the cmdlines.txt ﬁle is as follows: [Commands] "<command1>" "<command2>" Note that these are required quotation marks surrounding the command lines that launch the applications. After editing cmdlines.txt in a text editor, place the ﬁle in the \$OEM$ folder and add the following line to the Sysprep.inf ﬁle: [Unattended] InstallFilesPath = %systemdrive%\Sysprep\i386 The commands listed in the cmdlines.txt ﬁle are executed under the system account and do not support multiple-user conﬁgurations. Any application-speciﬁc user settings are applied to the default user registry area and will be used by all future users created on the computer. www.syngress.com Slide 121: 86 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional Summary This chapter covered the clean and upgrade installations of Windows XP Professional from CD-ROM, the network installation, and the steps to prepare and execute a fully automated installation of Windows XP using unattended installation scripts.Windows XP Professional requires a 300 MHz Pentium II processor and 128MB of RAM for a recommended installation.The operating system needs approximately 1.5GB of disk space. If you are upgrading from an older operating system, you need to make sure your OS is supported for an upgrade. Preparing for setup involves understanding the various command-line options available with Winnt32.exe and how to use them.You also should understand what the network distribution point is and the ﬁles and folders that compose it. In order to customize the automated installation, it is necessary to use an answer ﬁle. Although it is possible to manually create the answer ﬁle, it is much easier to use the wizard-driven dialogs provided by Setup Manager. Because a single answer ﬁle might not be ﬂexible enough for a diverse user population, uniqueness database ﬁles (UDB) give you the means to further customize settings applied to individual systems—the answer ﬁles are the default, the UDB is the exception. In order for your automated installation to run as smoothly as possible, take the time to prepare the destination computers. Check for hardware and software incompatibilities and back up the drives prior to upgrading to Windows XP. To further wear out a well-worn cliché—there are no free lunches. It takes a great deal of testing and trial and error to get an unattended installation to run correctly. Once you’ve nailed down and mastered the process, the time and money saved are very gratifying. Solutions Fast Track Clean Installation of Windows XP Professional Windows XP will work best with at least a 300 MHz Pentium II processor and 128MB of RAM to operate, as well as 1.5GB of available space. A clean installation of Windows XP Professional will take between 60 and 90 minutes, depending on the hardware. www.syngress.com Slide 122: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 87 Performing an Upgrade to Windows XP Professional The following operating systems are supported for an upgrade installation:Windows 98,Windows NT 4.0,Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP Home Edition.Windows 3.x,Windows 95,Windows NT 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, and Windows for Workstations are not supported for an update, so a clean install will be required for these systems. You can use the Dynamic Update feature during the setup process to update your setup ﬁles from Microsoft’s Web site. Network Installation of Windows XP Professional The network installation of Windows XP Professional works just like the CD installation, and the installation steps will parallel those of the clean or upgrade installation. The simplest way to prepare for a network installation of Windows XP Professional is to create a network share and copy the i386 folder from the Windows XP Professional CD to the share. Automating the Windows XP Professional Setup The Winnt.exe and Winnt32.exe programs are used to run setup from DOS and Windows command prompts, respectively. A network distribution point is required for the automated setup.The distribution point is a network share that includes the contents of the /i386 folder, as well as a number of optional subfolders that can contain additional ﬁles needed for the setup process. An unattended answer ﬁle is simply a text ﬁle that is formatted similar to an INI ﬁle. Its role is to provide the setup process with the data it needs to complete the installation of Windows XP Professional without having a user type in the information. The Sysprep tool prepares a computer disk to be imaged and copied to another disk. It is responsible for assigning a new SID to the target computer once the new image has been applied. www.syngress.com Slide 123: 88 Chapter 2 • Installing Windows XP Professional You can use a Sysprep answer ﬁle, called Sysprep.inf, to provide answers to the questions posed by the mini-setup after deploying a Sysprep image. Frequently Asked Questions The following Frequently Asked Questions, answered by the authors of this book, are designed to both measure your understanding of the concepts presented in this chapter and to assist you with real-life implementation of these concepts. To have your questions about this chapter answered by the author, browse to www.syngress.com/solutions and click on the “Ask the Author” form. Q: Which command-line setup program should I use from my network boot disk? A: If you are trying to set up Windows XP Professional from a DOS command prompt (as from a network boot disk), you need to run Winnt.exe, which is located in the \i386 folder on the CD or on the network share point.You should run Winnt32.exe if you are trying to run setup from a Windows command prompt. Q: When undecided whether to upgrade or clean install, which should I choose? A: If the advantages and disadvantages are of equal weight, go for a clean install. It allows you to know exactly what is present on target workstations while ensuring that you do not inherit legacy issues. Q: The computers on which we are installing Windows XP have a couple of Plug and Play devices for which Windows XP does not ship drivers.Where can we put the drivers so that they are available during setup? A: You will want to copy your Plug and Play drivers to the $OEM$\$1\PnPDrivers folder in your network distribution point and make some modiﬁcations to your answer ﬁle. Name the PnPDrivers folder anything you wish, up to eight characters long.This folder is copied to the %systemdrive% folder on the destination computer during setup. Next, you need to tell setup where to look for these ﬁles by modifying the answer ﬁle. Add the OemPnPDriversPath parameter under the [Unattended] heading of the answer ﬁle specifying the folder in which you placed the drivers. For www.syngress.com Slide 124: Installing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 2 89 example, if you named your PnPDrivers folder PNPSource, you would edit your answer ﬁle to include the following: [Unattended] OEMPnPDriversPath="PNPSource" Q: I am trying to install Windows XP Professional from a bootable CD-ROM. I know my machine supports this, but the computer is not booting from CD-ROM.What can I do? A: If you are sure that your machine’s CD-ROM drive and BIOS support this feature, you need to check your system’s BIOS setup. Follow your machine’s manual to enter your system’s BIOS setup (this usually involves pressing a key or key sequence during system startup to enter this conﬁguration mode). Once there, make sure that the CD-ROM is available as a boot drive. www.syngress.com Slide 126: Chapter 3 Exploring the Windows XP User Interface Solutions in this chapter: s s Conﬁguring the Desktop Overview of the Start Menu and the Taskbar Conﬁguring the Standard Desktop Programs Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions s 91 Slide 127: 92 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface Introduction The user interface is the ﬁrst experience people get when seeing a new operating system release, especially when the default out-of-the-box look and feel appears to be as radically different as Windows XP does. Emotions tend to run high and the initial impressions that a new interface design can create can be quite important to the acceptance of a new product. I remember when I ﬁrst installed Windows 95—that was quite a departure in terms of interface than anything previously released by Microsoft.When the installation screen was installing, there were sarcastic comments such as “Animated bitmaps, that’s really clever!” I suppose that this statement shows that some people aren’t adaptable to change, so when a change occurs, hopefully it is for the better. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that the user interface is how we interact with our operating environment and the applications that run from within it. In fact, Microsoft spends millions of dollars each year on usability labs to deliver an environment that helps you carry out this interaction in the most easy and efﬁcient way. Some of you may remember, perhaps fondly as I do, of CLI (Command Line Interface) to the operating system. In fact, to automate tasks and quickly carry out a process such as starting and stopping services, for example, sometimes there is no substitute. However, for the majority of everyday users the graphical element of the environment is something that they will have to deal with day-by-day. My task in this chapter is to show you how to understand and manipulate the desktop environment of Windows XP and to take advantage of the features it provides.This will not only help you to carry out your tasks efﬁciently, but depending on your role within the organization, it may help you to help others. Windows XP has again evolved the Windows GUI (graphical user interface). Some of you may remember the ﬁrst attempt that Microsoft made at presenting a graphical front-end to our operating system and applications back in the days of Windows 3.0.This was of course something that Apple Mac users had had for quite a while. Since then we have had the progression from what was known as Program Manager in Windows 3.x and NT 3.x to the taskbar-orientated desktop of Windows 9x/Millenium and NT4/Windows 2000.Windows XP still sticks with the taskbar, but it includes some other subtle differences, such as the taskorientated approach that users can take to accomplish results and an unfamiliar look and feel to this latest release of Windows that we explore in this chapter. In this chapter, I show you how to do the following: www.syngress.com Slide 128: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 s s s s s s s s 93 Explore and conﬁgure the desktop settings Change your desktop theme Change the desktop background Modify the appearance of the desktop Conﬁgure and modify the Start menu and taskbar Conﬁgure My Computer Conﬁgure My Network Places Conﬁgure My Documents Conﬁguring the Desktop Everyone is an individual and Microsoft obviously recognizes that fact by allowing you to customize the environment in a multitude of ways to suit our individual tastes. For some having the “lunar” background with the default mouse pointer, font, and so on may be to our liking, whereas others may want to download the desktop theme of the movie they went to see on the weekend. For others, being able to change the video settings to 640x480 may be necessary so that they can see the writing on the screen more clearly because of bad eyesight. The more security conscious may want to invoke security on their screen savers by requiring a password to unlock it.The environmental friendly amongst us would perhaps want to change the power management options.This option also enables laptop users to get a longer battery life, allowing them to work longer when traveling. Of course, all of these settings are easily modiﬁed and are discussed in this section. Also note that you can centrally manage the complete desktop environment through the use of Group Policies. Desktop Settings The following sections show you how to access the desktop settings, as well as the actual modiﬁcations that you can make to suit a particular user’s tastes. Accessing the Desktop Settings You can access the desktop settings several ways, and these apply to the majority of functions that we cover in this chapter.These include the following: www.syngress.com Slide 129: 94 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface s s s Using the Control Panel Right-clicking and selecting from the pop-up menu Via a command line To change the desktop settings via Control Panel, click Start \| Control Panel \| Appearance and Themes, and you will be brought to the screen shown in Figure 3.1.This and all subsequent examples make the assumption that you have carried out a standard default installation of XP and have not made changes to its appearance before reading this book. Figure 3.1 Appearance and Themes Window You now have two different ways to get to where you want to go, either by choosing Change the screen resolution in the top task pane or by choosing the traditional Control Panel Display applet and then selecting the Settings tab. Either way you end up seeing the Display Properties screen shown in Figure 3.2. As you can see, Microsoft took two main approaches with this release of Windows. If you know exactly where you want to go, you can use the more traditional Control Panel approach. If you want to carry out a task but don’t know how to get there, you can use the more task-orientated approach. Alternatively, you could have reached the same screen via the desktop by right-clicking anywhere on the desktop and selecting Properties, and again www.syngress.com Slide 130: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 95 selecting the Settings tab, or you could have achieved the same result via the command line.To get to the Display Properties screen via the command line, click Start \| Command Prompt to bring up a command window and type control desk.cpl, as shown in Figure 3.3. Figure 3.2 Display Properties Figure 3.3 Command Line for Accessing Control Panel Applets There isn’t really any reason, however, for the average user to use the command line to carry out any of the tasks that they require. www.syngress.com Slide 131: 96 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface From an administrator’s perspective, it is always useful to know what tricks users can employ to circumvent any restrictions that you may have put in place. Let me give you a real-life example. At one of the companies I did some consultancy for, the Control Panel had been rendered unavailable by use of the System Policies. However, some clever users had obviously been doing some reading up and were using the command line to invoke the desk.cpl ﬁle to allow them to take off the standard background and disable the standard screen-saver settings to lockout their workstation. It was amazing at how fast this knowledge was transferred around the company.The point I’m trying to make here is that there are various methods that you can employ to prevent this type of action such as tighter permission control, and so on. Remember though, you can’t prevent something that you don’t know about. You can ﬁnd all of the cpl ﬁles listed in Table 3.1 in the %systemroot%\ system32 directory. If you haven’t come across %systemroot% before, it is an environmental variable. In the majority of cases, your %systemroot% directory will be c:\winnt. Table 3.1 Control Panel Applet Filenames Control Panel Applet Accessibility Wizard Add/Remove Programs Display Internet Settings Regional & Language Options Gaming Options Mouse Sounds & Audio Options Network Connections Administrative Tools\Data Sources (ODBC) Power Options System Phone & Modem Options Date & Time CPL File Access.cpl Appwiz.cpl Desk.cpl Inetcpl.cpl Intl.cpl Joy.cpl Main.cpl Mmsys.cpl Ncpa.cpl Odbc32.cpl Powercfg.cpl Sysdm.cpl Telephon.cpl Timedate.cpl www.syngress.com Slide 132: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 97 Conﬁguring & Implementing… Environment Variables If you come from a programming background, you will already be quite familiar with variables. For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, a variable is a placeholder for a value that is held in memory. Environment variables are similar except that they operate only within the environmental concerns of the operating system. An example of this is the path variable which stores a list of directories on your computer. For example, if you were in a command window and typed a program name, it will use the path variable as a search path by looking for the program in each of the individual directories speciﬁed in that variable. The advantage of using environment variables is that because they are stored in memory, they are very fast. Windows has three different types of environment variables: s System environment variables, created for the operating system User environment variables Those that have been speciﬁed in an autoexec.bat statement s s You can view the environment variables that are available on the system by either clicking the Environment Variables button in the Control Panel system applet or by typing the command set from a command window. In the day-to-day use of Windows, you may not have to worry much about them, but it is useful to know that they exist and how they work. You can also create your own via the Control Panel or again via the command line; this can be especially useful for scripting purposes, for example, if you need to hold a value temporarily. To create a variable from the command line type the command set variableName=variableValue, where variableName is the name that you wish to call the variable and variableValue is its value. For example, Set test=5 assigns the value 5 to the variable named test. To test that the variable has been stored, just type set, and you will see a list of all variables on your system, including the one you have just created. Another way is to type the command echo %test% (remember, all variables need to be referred to with the % delimiters), and the output should be 5. Continued www.syngress.com Slide 133: 98 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface You will notice that there are more .cpl ﬁles shown here than are listed in Table 3.1. This is because not all Control Panel applets can be manipulated through the command line in the way that we have described. Also, speciﬁcally in the Administrative Tools folder in the Control Panel, only the Data Sources applet has a corresponding .cpl ﬁle because all the rest point to executables. Desktop Settings Modiﬁcations Now that you know the various ways that you can access the desktop settings, we can discuss the actual modiﬁcations that you can make. If you refer back to Figure 3.2, you can see the main display options that you can change.The dialog box shows what monitor and video card you have installed on the system.You can increase or decrease the resolution by dragging the slider, and the monitor window will give a dynamic preview of how the screen will appear.You can change the amount of colors displayed by clicking the drop-down list box.The color options are displayed by quality and the number of bits.The Medium (16 bit) setting will provide a display of 65,536 (216) colors on the screen.The hardware in your computer, speciﬁcally the video card and the monitor, determine what the maximum settings are for your display. A common occurrence in the pre–Windows 95 days was for incorrect settings to be applied, resulting in a problem with the system not being able to display them.This would lead to a lot of unhappy users and the potentially difﬁcult task for someone in the support department to get that system working again. However, now Microsoft allows you to get around these problems by giving you a chance to revert back to the previous settings if newly chosen ones aren’t working correctly: 1. If you change your settings and click OK or Apply, you will receive the warning box shown in Figure 3.4. 2. Click OK, and you will then get the message shown in Figure 3.5. 3. If you click Yes, you keep the new settings; if you click No, the previous settings will be restored. If you choose neither option the system will automatically revert back to the original settings in 15 seconds. Remember, if the settings you chose are outside of the range that your hardware can support, you probably won’t be able to see the message! www.syngress.com Slide 134: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 99 Figure 3.4 Desktop Settings Change Settings Dialog Box Figure 3.5 Desktop Settings Change Conﬁrmation Dialog Box When you experience difﬁculties and display problems, the Troubleshoot button on the Display Properties window (shown back in Figure 3.2) comes in handy. Clicking this will invoke the Help and Support Center, as shown in Figure 3.6.This type of help has been around for a while now in Microsoft products, and it gets better with each new release.We don’t go into too much detail here, but the Help and Support Center will attempt to answer any problems that you have by leading you through a series of potential questions and answers to help you to resolve the problem yourself. Figure 3.6 Help and Support Center www.syngress.com Slide 135: 100 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface Clicking Advanced in the Display Properties screen (shown back in Figure 3.2) allows you to conﬁgure the monitor and video card settings as shown in Figure 3.7. Figure 3.7 Display Advanced Settings The General tab is selected by default, and it allows you to change the font size displayed on the system and how the system responds to changes made to the display settings. The Adapter tab gives general hardware information about the installed video adapter, such as the amount of memory, chip type, and so on. Clicking List Modes allows you to see all the available modes that the adapter supports.This covers the screen resolution, color depth, and refresh rate. If you click Properties, you see a subdialog box that covers the adapter properties, as shown in Figure 3.8. As you can see, the General tab shows the status of the device (if it is working correctly or not) and again has a Troubleshoot button that invokes the Help and Support Services wizard.The Driver tab allows you to carry out driver maintenance, such as obtaining information about the system ﬁles used by the driver via the Driver Details button; updating to a newer version via the Update Driver button; rolling back to a previous driver version if an update to the current driver fails via the Rollback Driver button; and ﬁnally the ability to uninstall the current driver via the Uninstall button.The Resources tab shows the different hardware settings used by the driver, such as memory range, I/O www.syngress.com Slide 136: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 101 range, and IRQ. It also shows whether any of these settings are in conﬂict with another device installed on the system. Figure 3.8 Video Adapter Properties Going back again to the monitor and video card settings shown in Figure 3.7 and selecting the Monitor tab allows you to change the monitor settings.The monitor type is shown along with the current refresh rate, which you can change via the drop-down list box. Increasing the refresh rate is useful if you need to eliminate screen ﬂicker; however, choosing a rate higher than your monitor can support may result in damage to the monitor itself. Clicking Properties allows you to see and conﬁgure more detailed information about the hardware in the same way as shown in the earlier paragraph for the video adapter.We don’t look at these options—they are exactly the same as shown previously. Selecting the Troubleshoot tab allows you to decrease the hardware acceleration; however, you shouldn’t change these options unless you are experiencing difﬁculties. As you decrease the hardware acceleration level, certain features that may be causing system problems are turned off.The checkbox for Write Combining is turned on by default.This option speeds up the way that information is displayed on the screen. However, this function can cause screen corruption; therefore, we have the option of turning it off. Finally, selecting the Color Management tab enables you to associate a color proﬁle with the monitor. Some monitors come with proﬁles that optimize the way colors are displayed on-screen to best suit the monitor. www.syngress.com Slide 137: 102 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface While we are on the subject, it is probably prudent to explain what exactly color management is and why it is important. For example, you may scan in an image for a company brochure that is made available both over the Internet and in a printed catalog for your customers. As you can imagine, this image will more than likely go through several different processes depending on what it is being used for, and if the image you see on the Internet, the brochure, and the original are exactly the same then you would be extremely lucky.The goal of color management is to attempt to make this a reality through the use of standards that allow colors to look the same no matter what devices and applications are used as part of the process. Microsoft ﬁrst implemented a color management system (CMS) in Windows 95 as the Image Color Management (ICM) API to which third parties can write. ICM supports International Color Consortium (ICC) proﬁle speciﬁcation that categorizes devices such as scanners, monitors, and printers, which are the devices commonly used within a design process in Windows. Microsoft has now brought ICM to the Windows 98, 2000, and XP platforms with ICM 2.0.You can ﬁnd further information on color management at www.microsoft.com/hwdev/devdes/icmwp.htm. Themes The default theme for XP is the Windows XP theme, but at some stage you may want to change this. To gain access to the property sheet for Desktop Themes, right-click anywhere on the empty desktop and select Properties. If it isn’t already selected, select the Themes tab.The resulting dialog box looks like the one shown in Figure 3.9. Figure 3.9 Themes Tab of Display Properties www.syngress.com Slide 138: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 103 The drop-down list box allows you to choose another theme—a preview of this will then be shown in the sample pane.You will notice that you have the options Browse… and More Themes….These options either allow you to browse for another installed theme that is not in the default location or take you to the Microsoft Web page that allows you to install additional themes respectively.You can also download additional themes from many different sites for your collection.You can also ﬁnd utilities such as Desktop Architect, which allows you to schedule automatic theme changes.You can also use the Save As button to save the current theme under a different name.You can modify any of the desktop settings, such as mouse pointers, backgrounds, and so on. If this dialog box is then chosen, it will display Modiﬁed Theme as the selected choice.You can then use this button to save the newly modiﬁed theme to the name of your choice.We go more into the options of changing backgrounds and the like in the following sections. If you haven’t yet changed any of the theme options, you will notice that the Delete button is grayed out.The reason for this is that you cannot delete any of the themes that are installed as part of the operating system install; you can only delete other themes that you have installed or those that you have created yourself by modifying an existing theme. Backgrounds Let’s now take a look at what we can do with our backgrounds, or wallpaper as it’s commonly known.To access the dialog box where we can look at the different settings that we can apply, right-click the desktop, select Properties, and then select the Desktop tab.The resulting screen looks like the one shown in Figure 3.10. A list box is displayed showing all the default background images, which are located in %SystemRoot%, with a preview of the selected background image above. Clicking Browse… allows you to choose a background image from another location, such as My Pictures.Valid image types are those with an extension of .bmp, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .dib, .png, .htm, and .html. However, you will need to change the drop-down Files of Type list box to show some of these.You will notice that you have a Position drop-down list box with available options of Tile, Center, and Stretch. To see how these options work in practice, select any background image and change the position to Center, and you will see that it takes up only a portion of the screen. Changing the position to Tile means that the image is repeated in a tile format as many times as necessary to take up the size of the screen, whereas Stretch will stretch the single image to the full size of the screen.There is also an option to change the color, but this takes effect only if www.syngress.com Slide 139: 104 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface you have no background image selected, and then you are free to change the color of the background to any that you choose. Clicking Customize Desktop… will present you with the screen shown in Figure 3.11. Figure 3.10 Display Properties Dialog Box Figure 3.11 Desktop Items Dialog Box www.syngress.com Slide 140: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 105 The options available here don’t really ﬁt into the category of backgrounds as you would perhaps think of them, but they will allow you to control which items will appear on your background, as well as customize how they look. Placing a checkmark next to the any of the items in the Desktop icons frame dictates whether these system icons will appear on the desktop. Below this you have the option of customizing how each icon appears. Let’s walk through customizing an icon to see how this is done: 1. Click on the My Documents icon. 2. Click Change Icon… and you will see the two default icons available for the this object called from the DLL ﬁle MyDocs.dll. 3. In the ﬁeld Look for icons in this ﬁle, change the path to %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll and click OK. 4. Highlight any icon you like and click OK. 5. Ensure that My Documents has a checkmark next to it in the Desktop Items pane and click OK. 6. Once back in the Display Properties screen, click Apply. 7. If the desktop isn’t visible because it’s hidden by other screens, click the Desktop Icon (see Figure 3.12) next to the Start button. Figure 3.12 Taskbar Showing Desktop Shortcut You will now see that the icon for the My Documents folder has changed to the new icon that you chose. Now that you have changed it, let’s put it back to the way it was: 1. Press Alt+Tab to get back to the Display Properties dialog box. 2. Click Customize Desktop…. 3. Click the My Documents folder and then click the Restore Default button. As long as you hit OK or Apply when back in the Display Properties dialog box all will be back to normal. The other option in this dialog is the Desktop Cleanup Wizard. By default, the wizard will run every 60 days and automatically remove unused icons from the www.syngress.com Slide 141: 106 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface desktop.To prevent this from happening, just clear the checkbox. Alternatively, you have the option of running the wizard at any time you choose, just click on the Clean Desktop Now….This will walk through and allow you to deselect any items that you don’t want removed. It’s worth noting that you don’t lose these items forever.The ﬁrst time the wizard runs it creates an unused desktop shortcuts folder on the desktop and will store any removed icons in here. For those of you who are of a more traditional mindset, you can always gain access to the older style of icons by using moreicons.dll in place of shell32.dll. All of these options are accessed by the General tab, which is selected by default.The other tab is the Web tab; clicking on this, you see the screen shown in Figure 3.13. Figure 3.13 Desktop Items Web Tab This dialog box gives you the same kind of functionality as what is generally known as Active Desktop in that it allows dynamic content to be available, as per a Web page for example, on your desktop.The default option is My Current Home Page, which corresponds to your home page in Internet Explorer (IE). Using and conﬁguring IE is covered in detail in Chapter 7.You can add any dynamic Web content by clicking New…, which gives you the option of typing in a valid URL to a Web site, choosing content from the Microsoft Gallery on the Internet by clicking Visit Gallery… or clicking Browse… to use a .htm or .html ﬁle from your computer.There is also the checkbox to Lock Desktop, which allows you to prevent your Web content on the desktop from being www.syngress.com Slide 142: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 107 moved. Highlighting any of the available Web sites and clicking Properties presents the screen shown in Figure 3.14. Figure 3.14 Web Properties This dialog box has three tabs, Web Document, Schedule, and Download, with the default being Web Document. On this page you can see general statistical information, such as the URL, number of times visited, and so on.You will also ﬁnd a checkbox that makes the Web page available ofﬂine. If you deselect this box, the other tabs will disappear—this is because they contain options that are relevant only to ofﬂine content. However, if for example you have your home page set to my.yahoo.com, and you deselect this checkbox, then your desktop will only display the page once you connect to the Internet.The Synchronize button allows you to immediately synchronize the selected Web site with your desktop content. For example, say that you have your background set to a Web site that displays industry news. If you don’t have a 24-hour connection to the Internet, the content on your desktop will become out of synch with what is displayed on the live Web site. Clicking Synchronization synchronizes your desktop with the live content. If you click the Schedule tab, you can then decide how to control when your desktop Web content is synchronized.The default option is for you to synchronize your content as described in the preceding paragraph, but if you select Use the Following Options, you can click the Add… button and deﬁne a www.syngress.com Slide 143: 108 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface schedule for automatic updates to your desktop content.The ﬁnal tab is Download, which give options for specifying how many pages deep that you want from your external content. For example one page deep equates to the Web site home page, whereas you can specify up to three pages deep and select the checkbox to allow for links outside the chosen Web site. Be warned though, having several layers can take up an awful lot of disk space. For this reason, there is a checkbox that allows you to select and specify how much disk space is taken up by the ofﬂine content.This dialog box has a couple more options, one is to ﬁll in your e-mail details, and then Internet Explorer will notify you by e-mail when the Web page changes. Chapter 7 covers e-mail settings in more detail. Some sites may require that you log on, and for this reason there is the Login… button that allows you to enter a username and password. Appearance Appearance covers the general style of the dialog boxes and the color schemes used.To access the dialog box where you change these settings, click Start \| Control Panel \| Appearance and Themes \| Display and click the Appearance tab.You may not have noticed yet, but dialog boxes remember their last-used tabs. For example, if you were in the Screen Saver tab previously, this time it will be the default tab. Anyway, the resulting dialog box looks like the one shown in Figure 3.15. Figure 3.15 Display Properties Appearance Tab www.syngress.com Slide 144: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 109 As you can see from Figure 3.15 the Windows and buttons drop-down list box is set to Windows XP style as default.This is the new modern look GUI rather than the older Windows Classic look that is the other available option. You can use the Advanced option to further customize your Appearance settings, but you will have slightly less control over them than if you were using Windows Classic style. Clicking Effects… enables you to change the same options no matter whether you are in Windows XP or Classic mode. It covers various options, such as the transition method for menus and tool tips; the method for smoothing the edge of screen fonts (standard or ClearType, which we discuss further in a moment); whether to use large or small icons; whether menus have shadows underneath; whether the windows contents are shown while dragging them across the screen; and, ﬁnally, whether the underline that signiﬁes the letter for the keyboard shortcut is shown or hidden until the Alt key is pressed. If you come out of the Effects options and return to the Display Properties dialog box and change the Windows and buttons to Classic style, all the different color schemes that were available in previous versions of Windows are available. Note that the different options for the Font Size are only available with certain color schemes. It is now possible to click the Advanced… button and tweak your color schemes to your hearts content— changing the color, font, size, and style of virtually every aspect of your Windows. If you get your Windows classic look in a real mess, you can easily get it back to the default setting by changing back to Windows XP style and then changing back to Classic style again. It will now show the classic look in its original format before you modiﬁed it. We brieﬂy mentioned the screen font options of both standard and ClearType earlier in this section, but we look at these a bit more closely now. ClearType is a Microsoft patented technology that was ﬁrst used with Microsoft Reader on Windows PocketPC devices, also known as CE 3.0. Although using ClearType will have no apparent effect to a standard desktop user, it dramatically improve the readability of your screen if you use either a CE- or laptop device. In fact, a research study undertaken by Clemson University found that using ClearType improved readability judgment and produced lower levels of mental fatigue. If you use a CE device, you don’t get the choice of whether this is enabled, but for a standard XP installation the choice is optional. For those of you using laptops, you should change it straight away—you will be amazed at the difference. www.syngress.com Slide 145: 110 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface Microsoft touted the advantages of better power management features as one of the primary reasons for laptop users to upgrade to Windows 2000. My guess is that ClearType will more than likely be the marketing hook for upgrading to XP. If you want more technical details on ClearType, have a look at http://research .microsoft.com/~jplatt/cleartype/. Screen Saver The good old screen saver options haven’t changed at all.To access the screen saver options, click Start \| Appearance and Themes \| Choose a Screen Saver and select the Screen Saver tab. I’ll brieﬂy go through the different options in this dialog box for the beneﬁt of those of you who have never set screen saver options before. You can choose among a variety of built-in screen savers from the Screen Saver drop-down listbox, and of course, as we discussed earlier, you can get others just as easily as you can ﬁnd themes. In fact, all themes usually come with their own screen saver. Clicking Settings allows you to customize the screen saver with regards to such options as how often it changes, number of objects displayed, and so on. However, each one is different and dependant on the features provided by the selected screen saver.The selected screen saver is automatically previewed in the monitor image within the dialog box. If you want to see it fully in action, click the Preview button to see what it’s like in full monitor size. Selecting the On resume, password protect checkbox will lock the computer, requiring the entry of your logon username and password to unlock the computer once the screen saver has been activated.The Wait option allows you to specify the number of minutes that the computer is inactive (this means that the keyboard or mouse isn’t touched) before the screen saver is activated. Notice the Energy symbol and the button labeled Power…. This is another way to access the power management options; we cover them in detail in Chapter 10. Finally, just to point out something a bit different for the “old hands” amongst you, there is a new screen saver. It’s the My Pictures Slideshow screen saver. This picks up any images that you have in your My Pictures folder and presents them as a slideshow for your screen saver. www.syngress.com Slide 146: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 111 Overview of the Start Menu and the Taskbar If you look at Figure 3.16, you will see that—apart from some cosmetic changes—there doesn’t appear to be any radical changes to the way you access your programs.The only major difference that is noticeable is that the programs appear to be accessed on the left-hand side, and there is also easy access from the menu to My Computer, My Documents, and so on. Figure 3.16 Windows XP Style Start Menu The new Start menu looks a bit funkier now, and if you don’t like it, you can always change it to look more like the older version, which we look at shortly. You still get the right-click functionality to manipulate items that came with Windows 95. Underneath it all is some changes, and it’s a lot easier to manipulate than previous versions and appears to give you a quicker and easier way to run your programs. The Start Menu If you open the Start menu and look at the top, you will see the logged on username next to an image. In Windows XP, you can have digital photographs or images associated with user accounts. In Figure 3.16, you will notice a couple of programs, which in this instance are Internet Explorer and Outlook, above a dividing line with more programs underneath.The ones above the line are pinned www.syngress.com Slide 147: 112 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface programs. Programs that can be pinned are those that are built-in Windows programs such as Internet Explorer, MSN, command prompt, and so on. All you need to do to pin them is to right-click the icon and select Pin to Start menu—this command is available no matter where you are, be it in More Programs, Windows Explorer, and so on.When you start a program for the ﬁrst time, the associated program icon will automatically be added to the Start menu underneath the dividing line. However, you can easily remove any program by right-clicking it and selecting Remove from list. Selecting More Programs from the Start menu takes you into the more traditional classic style Start menu, where you can see all the installed programs. Programs that you have never been used before are highlighted in a different color. Easy access is now provided on the right-hand side to personal folders such as My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Network Places, and My Computer. Previously, to gain access to these you had to go back to the desktop to open them or select them in an Explorer window. Each icon has context-sensitive help. If you hover the mouse over an icon for a couple of seconds, you will see a text box description of what that icon does. This is a fully conﬁgurable property of the majority of icons on the Start menu. The only ones that do not have this are those that carry out built-in functions, such as Search, Control Panel, and so on.To look at the options available, right-click on any program icon, such as Windows Media Player, and click Properties.The resulting screen looks like Figure 3.17. Figure 3.17 Windows Media Player Properties The Target ﬁeld is conﬁgurable and points to the location of the executable to run the application, in this case it is wmplayer.exe for the Windows Media www.syngress.com Slide 148: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 113 Player.The next three options are no different than in previous versions of Windows. Start in allows you to specify a folder for the application to use to ﬁnd any required ﬁles not in the path or directory in which it is installed. For example, if you had a custom DLL for an in-house application stored on the network to allow it to be easily maintained and managed, you would use the Start in ﬁeld to specify that location.The Shortcut ﬁeld allows you to specify keystrokes that will launch the application. For example, if you decided that you wanted to launch the media player with Ctrl+Alt+M, you would enter that key combination in this ﬁeld. Note that you do not have to type in each letter, in fact, it won’t let you. In this example, you just need to have the cursor in the Shortcut ﬁeld and then press the keys that you want to use. In the case of this example, simply pressing M would create the keystroke combination.The Run ﬁeld gives three options: running the program maximized, minimized, or in a window.Your choice of these options depends on a combination of personal choice and the requirements of the program.The ﬁnal ﬁeld is the Comment. This is the text that you see when the mouse hovers over the icon in the Start menu. However, 9 times out of 10 you probably have no need whatsoever to modify any of these settings. Clicking the Find Target… button allows you to browse to the target application that the shortcut is pointing to.The Change Icon… button allows you to change the icon that is used, although your choices may be limited in their variety.This is because the default choices are extracted from the executable ﬁle itself. However, as we saw earlier, you can choose from many more by browsing to moricons.dll or shell32.dll. If you click on the Advanced… button, you will see the screen shown in Figure 3.18.This option is a very useful feature because it allows you to run applications under a different username with different permissions.When you launch a shortcut to a ﬁle that has this checkbox selected, you will be prompted for authentication.You may have noticed that if you right-click on a shortcut in the Start menu, for example, you can set this option from there. This feature is very useful for administrators. If you are a systems administrator, you will be aware that good practice dictates that you should run two separate user accounts. One should be for general everyday use with permissions as per a regular user and the other should be your Administrator account that has the necessary rights to carry out your administration functions. Being able to run a program with different credentials allows you to work with your regular account and still be able to run the programs that require administrator rights without you having to log off and back on again. www.syngress.com Slide 149: 114 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface Figure 3.18 Windows Media Advanced Properties While we are looking at the properties dialog box, just click on the General tab and let’s have a look at some other information that is available.The majority of this dialog box is taken up with summary information that is fairly self-explanatory. At the bottom of the dialog box are a couple of checkboxes to make the icon read-only so that it cannot be changed and also the option of making it hidden. You are probably thinking, why would you want to hide an icon that starts your program? If you can’t see it, how can you run it? The answer to this is that you wouldn’t want to, but there is a fairly straightforward explanation for this option being available: In this instance, an icon is basically a ﬁle in its own right that just acts as a pointer—or shortcut as it’s known—to the program that you run. Because of this, it inherits the properties of a ﬁle, which aren’t really relevant to it in this situation. Properties such as hidden are much more relevant to system ﬁles. Finally, click on the Compatibility tab. Certain programs may experience problems running under Windows XP due to compatibility problems; if you select the checkbox to Run this program in compatibility mode for, you can designate any of four different versions of Windows to help alleviate problems such as this. Also, there are other checkboxes that allow you to modify the display settings that are used. Clicking the Advanced… button gives you access to some other properties that you can modify. These properties are relevant to both ﬁles and folders: s File is ready for archiving This property is generally used by backup programs and normally referred to as the archive bit.When this is set, the ﬁle will be backed up by the program, depending on how the backup is set to run. For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this ﬁle If you select this option, the Indexing Service allows you faster access, and it also means that you can search on the properties, such as date. s www.syngress.com Slide 150: Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 s 115 Compress contents to save space Basically this means that a compression algorithm is used to reduce the size of the ﬁle. Note that if a ﬁle is compressed it cannot be encrypted. Encrypt contents to secure data The ﬁle is encrypted to prevent unwanted access.This is covered in detail in Chapter 11. s That about wraps it up for the properties, so click on Start \| Control Panel to look at some other aspects of the Start menu. Bits and pieces of this have been covered previously, so we won’t spend too long looking at this. Check out Figure 3.9 again and on the left-hand side you will see Control Panel and See Also.You can use these new menu options to either change the Control Panel view back to a classic look (see Figure 3.19) or access Help and Support or Windows Update (which was on the Start Menu in previous versions) respectively.You can hide the menu options by clicking the double inverted chevrons next to each menu. Figure 3.19 Control Panel Classic View If you aren’t in Category View, switch to it by clicking Switch to Category View on the left-hand side of the Control Panel. Doing so categorizes everything on the right-hand main window, and all related tasks that correspond to that category are grouped together. Depending on what type of function you want to carry out, you can just click the relevant option. Some functions, such as Add or www.syngress.com