Chapter

4

Configuring
the Windows 2000
Environment

MICROSOFT EXAM OBJECTIVES COVERED
IN THIS CHAPTER


Implement, manage, and troubleshoot disk devices.


Install, configure, and manage DVD and CD-ROM devices.


Monitor and configure removable media, such as tape
devices.


Implement, manage, and troubleshoot display devices.


Configure multiple-display support.


Install, configure, and troubleshoot a video adapter.


Install, configure, and manage wireless devices.


Install, configure, and manage USB devices.


Update drivers.


Manage and troubleshoot driver signing.


Monitor and configure multiple processing units.


Configure and troubleshoot fax support.
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A

fter you’ve installed Windows 2000 Professional, you will
need to install and configure your hardware. The easiest hardware devices to
install are those that follow the Plug-and-Play standard. However, it’s not
that difficult to install non-Plug-and-Play hardware through the Add/
Remove Hardware utility in Control Panel.
To configure your hardware, you generally use the Computer Manage-
ment utility or Control Panel. You can also create custom administrative
consoles through the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
In this chapter, you will learn how to configure the Windows 2000 envi-

puter’s services.


The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) provides a common
environment for administrative tools.


The Registry Editor allows you to edit the Registry for advanced sys-
tem configuration.
Each of these utilities is covered in detail in the following sections.

Control Panel

Control Panel

is the main utility for configuring your computer’s setup. You
can access Control Panel by selecting Start 

Settings 

Control Panel or by
opening My Computer and selecting Control Panel. The Control Panel win-
dow contains icons for its options, as shown in Figure 4.1. Table 4.1 pro-
vides brief descriptions of the Control Panel options.

FIGURE 4.1

The Control Panel window
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for your computer
Display Allows you to configure your computer’s dis-
play, including background, screen saver, ap-
pearance, Active Desktop, and visual effects
Folder Options Allows you to configure folder options, such as
general folder properties, file associations, and
offline files and folders
Fonts Allows you to manage the fonts installed on
your computer
Game Controllers Allows you to add, remove, and configure game
controllers, including joysticks and game pads
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128

Chapter 4


Configuring the Windows 2000 Environment
Internet Options Allows you to configure Internet connection
properties, including security, content settings,
and Internet programs
Keyboard Allows you to configure keyboard settings, in-
cluding speed, input locales (language and key-
board layout), and the keyboard driver
Mouse Allows you to configure mouse settings, includ-
ing button configuration, mouse pointers, mo-
tion settings, and the mouse driver
Network and Dial-up

Windows 2000 Management Utilities

129

The Control Panel options for configuring hardware devices are described
in this chapter. The other options are covered throughout this book. For
example, you will learn how to use Accessibility Options, Regional Options,
and Display settings in Chapter 5, “Managing the Desktop.”

Computer Management

Computer Management

provides a single, consolidated tool for managing
common management tasks. The interface is organized into three main
areas:


System Tools

provides access to utilities for managing the computer,
such as Event Viewer and System Information.


Storage provides access to utilities for managing the computer’s stor-
age, such as Disk Management and Disk Defragmenter.


Services and Applications provides access to utilities for managing the
computer’s services, such as WMI (Windows Management Instrumen-

FIGURE 4.2

The Computer Management window

The following sections provide an overview of the utilities that can be
accessed through Computer Management.

System Tools

System Tools includes six utilities that are used to manage common system
functions:


Event Viewer


System Information


Performance Logs and Alerts


Shared Folders


Device Manager


Local Users and Groups
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The Event Viewer window

Using the Event Viewer utility is discussed in detail in Chapter 15, “Per-
forming System Recovery Functions.”
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132

Chapter 4


Configuring the Windows 2000 Environment

System Information

The

System Information

utility is used to collect and display information
about the computer’s current configuration. This information can be used to
troubleshoot your computer’s configuration. It can also be printed and kept
for reference.
In System Information, the information is organized into five categories
by default: System Summary, Hardware Resources, Components, Software
Environment, and Internet Explorer 5. Figure 4.4 shows an example of the
System Summary information.


Shared Folders

Through the

Shared Folders

utility, you can create and manage shared fold-
ers on the computer. This utility displays the following information:


All of the shares that have been created on the computer


The user sessions that are open on each share

The files that are currently open, listed by user
Figure 4.6 shows an example of shares listed in the Shared Folders utility.
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134 Chapter 4

Configuring the Windows 2000 Environment
FIGURE 4.6 The Shared Folders window
Using Shared Folders is covered in more detail in Chapter 10, “Accessing
Files and Folders.”
Device Manager
The Device Manager utility provides information about all of the devices
that your computer currently recognizes. For each device, Device Manager
shows the following information:


Storage
Storage contains four utilities that are used to manage the computer’s stor-
age facilities: Disk Management, Disk Defragmenter, Logical Drives, and
Removable Storage.
Disk Management
Disk Management is the Windows 2000 graphical interface for managing
disks, volumes, partitions, logical drives, and dynamic volumes. Figure 4.9
shows an example of the Disk Management window displaying information
about a dynamic disk with three volumes.
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Windows 2000 Management Utilities 137
FIGURE 4.9 The Disk Management window
Using the Disk Management utility is discussed in detail in Chapter 9,
“Managing Disks.”
Disk Defragmenter
The Disk Defragmenter utility is used to analyze and defragment your disk. The
purpose of disk defragmentation is to optimize disk access by rearranging exist-
ing files so that they are stored contiguously. Figure 4.10 shows an example of
an analysis display in this utility.
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138 Chapter 4

Configuring the Windows 2000 Environment
FIGURE 4.10 The Disk Defragmenter window
Using the Disk Defragmenter utility is discussed in detail in Chapter 9.
Logical Drives
The Logical Drives utility lists all of the logical drives that exist on your com-
puter, as shown in Figure 4.11. Through this utility, you can manage the

FIGURE 4.13 The Services window
Using the Services utility is covered in more detail in the “Managing Win-
dows 2000 Services” section later in this chapter.
Indexing Service
The Indexing Service is used to create an index based on the contents and
properties of files stored on your local hard drive. A user can then use the
Windows 2000 Search function to search through or query the index for
specific keywords. Figure 4.14 shows an example of an Indexing Service
Query Form.
By default, the Indexing Service is not started on a Windows 2000 Profes-
sional computer. This service is required for successful indexing and query
support.
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Windows 2000 Management Utilities 141
FIGURE 4.14 A query in the Indexing Service
Using the Indexing Service is covered in more detail in Chapter 10,
“Accessing Files and Folders.”
Microsoft Management Console
The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is the console framework for
management applications. The MMC provides a common environment for
snap-ins, which are administrative tools developed by Microsoft or third-
party vendors.
The MMC offers many benefits, including the following:

The MMC is highly customizable—you add only the snap-ins you need.

Snap-ins use a standard, intuitive interface, so they are easier to use
than previous versions of administrative utilities.


You can configure the MMC to run in author mode, for full access to the
MMC functions, or in one of three user modes, which have more limited
access to the MMC functions. To set a console mode, select Console 
Options to open the Options dialog box. In this dialog box, you can select
from the console modes listed in Table 4.2.
Adding Snap-Ins
To add snap-ins to MMC and save your console, take the following steps:
1. From the main console window, select Console  Add/Remove Snap-in
to open the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box.
2. Click the Add button to open the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box.
3. Highlight the snap-in you wish to add and click the Add button.
4. If prompted, specify whether the snap-in will be used to manage the
local computer or a remote computer. Then click the Finish button.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add each snap-in you want to include in your
console.
TABLE 4.2 MMC Console Modes
Console Mode Description
Author mode Allows use of all the MMC functions
User mode–full
access
Allows users full access to window management
commands, but they cannot add or remove snap-ins
User mode–
limited access,
multiple window
Allows users to create new windows, but they can
access only the areas of the console tree that were
visible when the console was last saved
User mode–
limited access,

can cause the computer to fail to boot. You should use the Registry Editor with
extreme caution.
Windows 2000 ships with two Registry Editor utilities:

The REGEDT32 program is the primary utility that you should use
in Windows 2000. It supports full editing of the Registry. To use
REGEDT32, select Start  Run and type REGEDT32 in the Run dia-
log box.

The REGEDIT program is included with Windows 2000 because it
has better search capabilities than REGEDT32. However, it is lacking
some of the options that are available with REGEDT32. For example,
you can’t set security for Registry keys through REGEDIT, and
REGEDIT does not offer the option of using the utility in read-only
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Windows 2000 Management Utilities 145
mode. To use REGEDIT, select Start  Run and type REGEDIT in the
Run dialog box.
The Registry is organized in a hierarchical tree format of keys and subkeys
that represent logical areas of computer configuration. By default, when you
open the Registry Editor, you see five Registry key windows, as shown in
Figure 14.17. The five Registry keys are listed in Table 4.3.
FIGURE 4.17 The Registry Editor windows
TABLE 4.3 Registry Keys
Registry Key Description
HKEY_CURRENT_USER Contains the configuration information for the
user who is currently logged on to the computer.
This key is a subkey of the HKEY_USERS key.
HKEY_USERS Contains the configuration information for all

computer, upgraded my CD-ROM drive, and added a Zip drive. Each time I
added a device, Windows 2000 Professional automatically recognized it, and
I did not need to set any configuration options.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Contains configuration information that is used
by Windows Explorer to properly associate file
types with applications.
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG Contains the configuration of the hardware pro-
file that is used during system startup.
TABLE 4.3 Registry Keys (continued)
Registry Key Description
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Installing Hardware 147
Installing Non-Plug-and-Play Hardware
Legacy or older hardware is also supported by Windows 2000 Professional.
When you install this type of hardware, you need to configure it in the same
manner you did before Plug-and-Play technology was introduced.
First, you need to configure the hardware device’s resources manually on
the device or through a software configuration program. Hardware resources
include the device’s interrupt request (IRQ), I/O port address, memory
address, and Direct Memory Access (DMA) settings. Before you configure the
resources for the new device, you should determine which resources are avail-
able. You can view a listing of the currently allocated resources in the Device
Manager utility, as follows:
1. Right-click My Computer and select Manage. In the Computer Man-
agement window, select System Tools, then select Device Manager.
2. Select View  Resources by Connection.
3. Device Manager displays a list of the current resources. Click a
resource to see all of the resources of that type that have been allo-
cated. Figure 4.18 shows an example of an IRQ listing in Device