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The main difference between the Windows 9x and Windows 2000 Operating System is in
their Network security and configuration.

Windows 9x is usually Networked in a peer-to-peer configuration. Peer-to-peer is
considered as a share-level-security.

Windows 2000 is a server-based Network OS.

Users must enter the proper passwords before they can access their computers.
Restricted resources appear nonexistent to the user.

Windows 2000 comes in workstation and server editions.

REMEMBER: Windows 2000 is intended for business use. (Microsoft developed Windows
ME to incorporate some of Windows 2000 features. A+ test does NOT cover Windows
ME).

HWinfo: is a hardware detection utility for Windows 9.x and Windows 2000. The utility is
similar to the Device Manager but much more powerful.

Automatic Skip Driver (ASD): A Windows 98 utility that helps prevent bad or missing
drivers from halting the computer during startup.
ASD works this way, it automatically detects potential driver problems and configures the
computer to skip over them at startup.

To access ASD: Start>Run and type ASD or
Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Information.

WSRIPT: It is an utility that runs in the background and allows you to view, run or modify
non-Windows scripts (Visual Basic, 1ava and Perl.) using Windows programs such as
notepad.
Windows 2000 System Files
Windows 2000 uses many of the same system files as Windows 9x.
However, SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI are not included in Windows 2000.
To make things different, Windows 2000 renamed CONFIG and AUTOEXEC files.
Windows 2000 calls them, CONFIG.NT and AUTOEXEC.NT

Below are some of the unique system files in Windows 2000 (These are not found in
Windows 9.x)

NTLDR: It is similar to Windows 9x IO.SYS file.
NTLDER is used to coordinate the system's startup procedure and locating and initializing
other required startup files.

NTDETECT.COM: Windows 2000 boot process file that is responsible for gathering
information about hardware that currently exists in the system. NTDETECT sends this
information to NTLDR. NTLDR writes this information in the Window Registry.

BOOT.INI: This file is used if the computer has more than one Operating System installed.
If you have more than one OS on the computer, not unusual in today's business
environment, at startup you must select which OS to use. BOOT.INI displays your OS
choices at startup.

NTBOOTDD.SYS: This file allows Windows 2000 to boot from a SCSI device
.
REGEDT32: Windows 2000, to edit the registry uses REGEDT32 and REGEDIT.

Computer Management: Has the utilities for the system's security, disk management and
printers.
To access: Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Computer Manager

Windows 2000 Compression and Encryption.

Windows 2000 allows file and folder compression and encryption. Windows 9x you must
use a third-party utility. There are plenty of good third party utilities available.

Windows 2000 Compression: Remember, Windows 2000 Compression can only be applied
on hard drives that uses the NTFS file system.

Windows 2000 Encryption: Remember, Compressed files and folders CAN NOT be
encrypted.

To access Encryption, you must use the Advanced Properties dialog box of the file/folders.

Disk Management

FAT: Stands for file allocation table.

FAT32: Supports up to 2 terabytes (TB) of drive capacity. It recognizes a greater number
of clusters and cluster sizes are usually smaller...4KB.

FAT32 is available for Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows 95 OSR2 and later.

The NT line of Operating Systems uses NTFS files systems that follow. Windows NT and
Windows 2000.
NTFS5: Available in Windows 2000, NTFS5 improves on NTFS4 by allowing native
encryption.
Windows 2000 Installation Process

Please note: There are some differences when installing Windows 2000.

One major difference is that Windows 2000 comes with its own format utility. Windows
2000 partitioning utility can create FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS partition. Whereas, Windows
9x is limited in the number of partition (4), Windows 2000 is not.

Windows 2000 installation CD can be used as a boot-up disk, if the computer's BIOS
supports booting from the CD-ROM. If you are going to install Windows 2 on a
computer, that supports Windows 2 minimum requirements, than its BIOS will probably
support booting up from a CD.

Windows 2000-installation utility is WINNT.EXE.
Please note: Windows 2000, CAN NOT operate in real mode.

Real Mode: does not support multitasking (Remember Window 3.x and DOS are not
multitasking.)

Applications that run in real mode usually run by accessing the hardware directly.



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