Chapter 14Windows 2000 ProfessionalIn This Chapter Defining Windows 2000 Professional Windows 2000 Professional features Windows 2000 Professional strengthsThis chapter is the first of three that explore the family members ofMicrosoft networking-related solutions. After learning about Windows2000 Professional in this chapter, you will learn about Windows 2000Advanced Server and Datacenter in Chapter 15. Finally, in Chapter 16, I spenda few minutes with you on Small Business Server 4.5, which is the best darnsolution for small sites even today.When it comes to networks, if there is a server, there needs to be at least oneworkstation. Together, the server and workstation form the basic network.Windows 2000 Professional constitutes the workstation side of the basicnetwork equation. Before diving into the Windows 2000 Professional depths,allow me to set your expectations for a moment. This chapter is part of the“all in the family” paradigm that considers each Microsoft Windows 2000 andnetwork-related offering. This chapter is also limited in scope with respect toWindows 2000 Professional.One final note regarding the presentation of Windows 2000 Professional inthis chapter. I have hand picked the best and brightest features and secretsto present to you. Undoubtedly you have additional Windows 2000Professional features that you like. Great! Where the Work Gets DoneYou could argue that the workstation side via Windows 2000 Professional iswhere the work really gets done on the network. It’s where the users performtheir tasks. Let’s take a moment to find out exactly how their work can beaccomplished with Windows 2000 Professional. That is, what capabilities inWindows 2000 Professional enable the workers to be productive?4620-1 ch14.f.qc 10/28/99 12:05 PM Page 463Improved ease of useOne of Windows 2000 Professional’s shticks is its improved usability. As youwould expect, operating systems are evolutionary. Call it OS Darwinism.Mobile computing supportMy favorite improvement in Windows 2000 Professional is theSynchronization Manager (see Figure 14-1). This tool globally updates thenetwork copy of information that you worked with offline. This addresses theage-old issue of having your company’s information stored centrally, yetenabling mobile workers to work offline.Figure 14-1: Synchronization ManagerSynchronization Manager, the latest incarnation of Briefcase, is found in theAccessories program group. It will synchronize documents, calendars, ande-mail messages.Synchronization Manager will not synchronize database information at thetable or field level. That’s a task usually managed from within a sophisticateddatabase application.Another access favorite is Windows 2000 Professional’s commitment toVirtual Private Networking (VPN). Windows 2000 Professional is, notsurprisingly, the most VPN-compliant desktop OS I’ve worked with fromMicrosoft. I cover the VPN topic extensively in Chapter 8.464 Part V: All In the Family■ ■4620-1 ch14.f.qc 10/28/99 12:05 PM Page 464Looks betterMy favorite improvement here is the Start menu management capabilities.With past Microsoft desktop operating systems, you were basically limited toadding or deleting Start menu items. That has changed with Windows 2000Professional. Now, via the Taskbar Properties (see Figure 14-2), you cancustomize menu display options, a great improvement.Figure 14-2: Taskbar PropertiesAnother cool menu management feature is the Use Personalized Menusoption. It’s touted by Microsoft as a housecleaning feature that causes onlythe most recently selected menu options to be available. To display all of themenu items, you simply click the double-down arrows (which will fullyextend a menu).I call the Use Personalized Menus option the “shelf space” algorithm. Like abookstore or the local grocery, the most popular items, in this case Startmenu options, get the most space.Prints betterPrinting is printing, right? Well, Windows 2000 Professional has shifted thatparadigm slightly by adding Internet printing support, known as the InternetPrinting Protocol (IPP). With this feature, you can print to an Internet address(for example, www.springers.com/hp4000). The Internet print capability isconfigured on the Locate Your Printer screen of the Add Printer Wizard (seeFigure 14-3). Note that you can also print to an intranet site as well.Chapter 14: Windows 2000 Professional 465■ ■4620-1 ch14.f.qc 10/28/99 12:05 PM Page 465Figure 14-3: Internet printing configurationThe URL you are printing to using IPP must have its printer defined as avirtual directory to the right of the basic Internet domain name. You cannotconfigure IPP to print to a third-level domain name where said third-leveldomain name represents the printer.Improved managementIt can be said, and justifiably so, that the user experience is a function ofmanagement. That is, while just about everyone can use computers now, theuser’s ultimate computing experience will be a function of his or her ability tomanage the computer. Such reasoning wasn’t lost on the wonderkids fromRedmond as Windows 2000 Professional was developed. Two managementimprovements in Windows 2000 Professional stand out.Improved Add/Remove ProgramsGood old Add/Remove Programs has aged well and turned out to be a goodkid. In addition to a new look and feel, Add/Remove Programs (see Figure14-4) now allows you to automatically receive Windows 2000 Professional-related updates over the Internet with the push of a button called WindowsUpdate. Such updates include device drivers, patches, fixes, and operatingsystem enhancements.The Windows Update functionality is very similar to a popular desktopapplication called Oil Change. Perhaps Microsoft should have called it the OilChange Killer!466 Part V: All In the Family■ ■4620-1 ch14.f.qc 10/28/99 12:05 PM Page 466Figure 14-4: Add/Remove ProgramsImproved setup toolsOne new Windows 2000 Professional feature stands out here. Windows 2000Professional server has disk-duplication capabilities, which are found in theSystem Preparation Tool. Here, you can create an image of your computer’shard disk. Then, using a third-party disk-duplication tool such as Ghost, youcan duplicate your hard disk to other like-configured machines.I call the capability to create an image of your Windows 2000 Professionalhard disk the “manual mirroring secret.” Why? Because Windows 2000Professional doesn’t implicitly support RAID 1 mirroring. But you