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What is Windows 2000? |
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Windows 2000 is Microsoft's latest version of its popular
Windows NT Operating System. (Technically, it's NT 5.0. The name
was changed for marketing reasons.) Both Windows NT and Windows
2000 are extremely well built, robust, secure, and popular
Operating Systems that are designed specifically for businesses
and high end environments. But Windows 2000 is a lot more than
just a simple upgrade. It's almost a total rewrite of the
Windows NT Operating System, with hundreds of new features and
fixes. |
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What
are the differences between
Windows 2000 Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and
DataCenter?
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Windows 2000 comes in several versions. Windows 2000
Professional is a desktop operating system for workstations
designed to replace Windows NT Workstation and Windows 95/98 in
corporate environments. It can support 2 processors, as well as
multiple monitors. Windows 2000 Server supports 4 processors and is designed to fill the role of typical domain
controller, file and print server, application server, and other
common tasks. Windows 2000 Advanced Server is designed for high
end mission critical platforms, supports 8 processors, and
includes support for 2 way server clustering. Windows 2000 DataCenter
Server goes even further than Advanced Server in that it can
support up to 32 processors, cascading failover among 4 nodes, and 32 node network load balancing. |
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How much difference is there between Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0? |
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Even though Windows 2000 is built on the Windows NT
architecture, Microsoft has
added many new features (Plug and Play, USB support, Recovery Console, IntelliMirror, Group
Policy, Active Directory, integration of IIS and Terminal
Services) and redesigned many of the
management tools (MMC, Disk Administration, ADSI). If you are
already familiar with Windows NT, you'll have an easier time
getting used to Windows 2000 but there is still a lot to learn. |
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What is the difference between
Windows 95/98/Me and Windows 2000?
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Windows 98 and Windows Me are based on the popular Microsoft
Windows 95 Operating System, and are designed for the consumer
market. Windows 95/98 were designed for backward compatibility
with older DOS and 16bit programs, as well as providing a
platform for the newer (back in 1995) 32 bit programs. Although
many companies use both Windows 95 and Windows 98, these
Operating Systems lack the security and stability of Windows
NT/2000. However, Windows 95/98/Me is compatible with more
software (including games) and hardware. It is important to
remember that Windows 2000 is designed for the corporate
environment, and not the average home user. |
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What is the difference between
UNIX and Windows 2000?
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UNIX is a much older Operating System that was designed in
the 1960's. It began as an open source project that became widely used in Universities, scientific
labs, and by the U.S. government.
Over the years, hundreds of talented programmers contributed
their own improvements to Unix making it extremely
robust, stable, and fast. However, UNIX can be difficult to
learn and isn't as widely supported as Microsoft Windows. For
information regarding UNIX vs. Windows NT/2000 in corporate and
academic environments, see http://www.unix-vs-nt.org
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Can I run Windows 2000 in a
Windows NT 4.0 or Novell Networks? |
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Yes, Windows 2000 Professional and
Server will work just fine in a Windows NT 4.0 environment and
can authenticate to NT domain controllers. For Novell networks,
Windows 2000 still supports IPX/SPX as well as TCP/IP. Novell
has also created a client for Windows 2000 that is available on
their web site.
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How stable is Windows 2000?
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Although Windows 2000 contains about 30 million lines of
code and has its share of quirks and bugs, overall it is a very
stable operating system. Microsoft has removed many of the
system processes that contributed to crashes in NT 4.0, and
added several new recovery features that make it easier to
restore a system in the event things go horribly wrong. In our
experience, the leading cause of crashes in Windows 2000 have
been poorly written 3rd party software and hardware drivers, not
the operating system itself. |
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How secure is Windows 2000?
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No system is 100% hacker proof, but Windows 2000 includes
several improvements over Windows NT (and blows away Windows
9x). In addition to beefing up the file system and adding
encryption, Microsoft has changed the way Windows 2000
authenticates network resources by using certificates and
encrypting traffic using Kerberos, added support for smart cards
and biometric identification, and eliminated many of the back
doors that plagued Windows NT 4.0. The Windows 2000 CD-ROM also
includes
several ready to use security templates that
allow you to lock down workstations and servers quickly and
easily, depending on the level of security you need. Additional
information on locking down a Windows 2000 installation
can be found in our Windows
2000 Security Checklist
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How much does Windows 2000
cost?
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The standalone version of
Windows 2000 Professional will cost $319. Upgrades from Windows
95 or Windows 98 will cost $219. Upgrades from Windows NT
Workstation 4.0 are $149. Windows
2000 Server costs $1,199 and comes with ten client access
licenses. Upgrading from an existing copy of NT Server is $599.
Windows 2000 Advanced Server costs $3,999 and comes with 25
client access licenses. Upgrading from an existing copy of
Advanced Server is $1,999.
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Where can I can get an
evaluation copy of Windows 2000?
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You can order 120 day
evaluation copies of Windows
2000 Advanced Server directly from Microsoft for $5.95 (to
cover shipping and handling. Evaluation versions of Windows 2000
Professional and Server are no longer available from Microsoft,
however you can get a 120 day evaluation copy of Windows 2000
Server from the Microsoft
Windows 2000 MCSE Training Kit
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What happens when my
evaluation copy expires?
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When the evaluation
period expires, you will receive a warning message letting you
know that the test period has expired, and that the system will
shut down in 1 hour. Everything should continue to function
normally for 60 minutes, and then Windows 2000 will generate a
STOP Error which will crash the OS. For further information see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article:
250920
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What are the hardware requirements
for Windows 2000? |
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These are the minimum
hardware requirements for Windows 2000. For acceptable
performance, we recommend doubling processor, memory and disk
space requirements.
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Win2000 Version
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CPU |
Memory |
Disk Space |
| Professional |
P133 |
64Mb |
1 GB |
| Server |
P133 |
256Mb |
1 GB |
| Adv Server |
P133 |
256Mb |
1 GB |
| DataCenter |
To be announced |
To be announced |
To be announced |
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What is the Hardware
Compatibility List
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Windows 2000 is very
particular about the hardware on which it runs, and will run
just fine on most modern off the shelf computers and servers.
However, the support for video cards, sound cards, printers,
scanners, and other peripherals is not as comprehensive as it is
for Windows 95/98/Me. To help you sort through this mess,
Microsoft created a Hardware Compatibility List so you can check
to see which hardware has been tested and certified by Microsoft
with Windows 2000. If you don't find the hardware on the list,
check with the vendor to see if they have released any patches
or updates, or if they support their products on Windows 2000
but have not taken the time to submit their hardware and drivers
to Microsoft. You can search for compatible hardware on Microsoft's
Compatibility Database |
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Will my applications run on
Windows 2000?
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In our experience testing
thousands of applications for a major oil company, most 32 bit
software applications will run just fine on Windows 2000,
especially if they ran well on Windows NT 4.0. Games and older
software that was written specifically for Windows 95/98 are a
less likely to work, and will require some testing. The real
incompatibilities come in with software designed to work with
specific legacy hardware (old scanner and printer programs), and
utilities designed for specific operating systems (Norton Works,
Antivirus software, Backup software, Disk defragmenters,
Partition Magic, etc.)
Always check with your vendor to see if the software and
hardware drivers have been updated. IT departments should set up
a lab and test their mission critical applications for
compatibility before deciding to deploy Windows 2000. Microsoft
also features a searchable
Software
Compatibility Database.
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What about DOS and 16 bit
Windows programs? |
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Many of the older DOS and 16 bit programs we tested worked just
fine, provided they weren't expecting to interact with specific
hardware. For security and stability reasons, the Windows
NT/2000 kernel doesn't allow software to interact directly with
hardware, but insists that the program interact with a Hardware
Abstraction Layer. Older programs that aren't designed for this
standard often fail.
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Can I run Windows 2000 on my
Laptop?
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Windows 2000 is an ideal
operating system for laptops, provided your laptop can support
it. Since laptops often feature proprietary hardware in the
motherboard, display, network cards, video cards, integrated
modems, and sound cards, not all laptops can run Windows 2000.
If you're vendor supports Windows 2000 on your model, or if you're buying a new
laptop that comes preloaded with Windows 2000, you'll like the
stability and security that this OS brings. Windows NT 4.0 didn't support advanced power management, USB, or native file
encryption, and Windows 95/98 doesn't have any security. Windows
2000 brings you the best of both worlds. I travel with an IBM ThinkPad
i1400 that has a 366MHz Pentium II processor and 128Mb of RAM
and Windows 2000 performs flawlessly on the road. |
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Can I dual boot Windows 2000?
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Yes, you can dual boot
Windows 2000 with other versions of itself, Windows NT, and one
other Operating System. (Example: You can install Windows 98 on
a PC and then install Windows 2000 Professional on a different
partition, and Windows 2000 Server on another partition.) For
more information on dual booting Windows 2000, check out our Resource
Center |
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