CompTIA^® A+^™ Core 2 Exam Notes : Operating Systems : Features & Requirements Of Various Microsoft Operating Systems

3. TCP/IP protocol stack is installed by default when you install Windows 2000 on a computer.

4. You can use Regional Options to support additional languages on your computer. With the support of additional languages, you will be able to edit documents written in those languages. You can also set locale specific to any region using this Option.

5. The Windows 2000 Performance tool is composed of two parts:

1. a. System Monitor: With System Monitor, you can collect and view real-time data about memory, disk, processor, network, and other activity in chart (graph), histogram, or report form

2. Some of the important System Monitor counters are:

   1. 1. Memory>Available Mbytes: measures the amount of physical memory that is available. Typically > 4MB. If less than 4 MB, consider adding more memory.

   2. 2. Memory>Pages/Sec: Shows the number of times that the disk has been accessed, because requested information was not available in memory. If the value of the counter is not below 20, you should add more memory. A value of 4 or 5 is typical.

   3. 3. Paging File>%Usage: Indicates the % of allocated page file utilization. Should be less than 99%.

   4. 4. Processor>%Processor Time: measure the time that the processor is busy. Should be typically less than 80%

   5. 5. Processor>Interrupts/Sec: Indicates the average number of hardware interrupts that the processor receives each second. If more than 3,500, you can suspect a program or faulty hardware.

   6. 6. PhysicalDisk>%Disk Time: Measures the amount of time that the physical disk is busy servicing read or write requests. If more than 90%, you can improve the performance by adding another disk channel.

   7. 7. PhysicalDisk>%Current Disk Queue Length: indicates the number of pending disk requests that need to be processed. The value should be less than 2. The disk problems might arise from less memory, resulting in usage of excessive paging. Ensure that the memory is sufficient before attending to the disk problem.

   8. 8. LogicalDisk > %Free Space counter: Indicates the amount of logical disk's free disk space. Typical value is 10% or above.

3. b. Performance Logs and Alerts: Through Performance Logs and Alerts you can configure logs to record performance data and set system alerts to notify you when a specified counter's value is above or below a defined threshold.

6. Event Viewer maintains logs about program, security, and system events. You can use Event Viewer to view and manage the event logs, gather information about hardware and software problems, and monitor Windows 2000 security events.

7. To open Event Viewer, click 'Start', point to 'Settings', and then click 'Control Panel'. Double-click 'Administrative Tools', and then double-click Event Viewer.

8. Encrypting File System (EFS) keeps your documents safe from intruders who might gain unauthorized physical access to your sensitive stored data by stealing your laptop or Zip disk, or by other means.

9. You need to ensure the following before the upgrade:

1. a. The hardware is adequate for upgrading to Windows 2000 Professional

2. b. Also, check the hardware, software adequacy by running "Winnt32.exe / checkupgradeonly". Note that the switch "checkupgradeonly" will output a report on the adequacy of hardware and software. It will also warn you if any applications need upgrade packs, which may be obtained from respective application vendors, if available. If the software upgrade pack is not installed for any application, the application may be rendered unusable!

10. If you are creating a Striped volume on a new Windows 2000 machine, it can only be created on dynamic disks. However, if you are upgrading a Windows NT computer to Windows 2000, any existing stripe set will be supported.

11. For creating Stripe set with parity, we need at least 3 disk volumes.

12. Placing the paging file on different physical disks is optimal. This will improve faster access to the Paging file, and also distribute the load.

13. Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer can be used for assigning Share and NTFS permissions on a Windows 2000 computer.

14. To insert a new file extension, you use Windows explorer, and select the application. Then, Tools -> Folder Option -> File Types. Configure the extension appropriately.

15. Windows 2000 Operating systems support 5 different volume types:

1. a. Simple volumes :A simple volume consists of a formatted disk on a single hard disk.

2. b. Spanned volumes: A Spanned volume consists of disk space on more than one hard disk.

3. c. Striped volumes: A Striped volume has disk space on 2 or more disks. The disk spaces must be same on all disks. Fastest disk access among all volume types. RAID level 0.

4. d. Mirrored volumes: A mirrored volume consists of a Simple volume that is mirrored in total, onto a second dynamic disk. Provides highest level of fault tolerance. RAID level 1

5. e. RAID-5 volumes: A RAID-5 volume consists of identical sized disk space located on three or more dynamic disks. Here any single disk failures can be recovered. RAID level 5

6. f. Note that Windows 2000 Professional doesn't support Disk Mirroring, RAID-5 volumes, where as other Windows 2000 Operating Systems (2000 Server, Advanced Server) support.

16. Fault tolerance boot disk is a floppy disk that enables you to boot a computer in the event that the first disk in a mirrored volume fails. If you mirror the installation folder in a Windows 2000 Server, you will not be able to boot because boot.ini points to the first volume. Therefore, you need to create a fault tolerance boot disk that contain an appropriately edited Boot.ini file, that points to the mirrored volume.

17. By default, you can start recovery console (in Windows 2000) using,

1. a. The Windows 2000 Professional Setup Disks

2. b. From the CD ROM drive using Windows 2000 Professional CD (if the CD-ROM drive is bootable).

3. c. Also, you can have "Recovery Console" as a start up option by typing \i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons at the command prompt, after switching to the CD ROM drive letter.

18. Windows 2000 provides two versions of Registry Editor

1. a. Regedt32.exe (32-bit): Regedt32.exe is automatically installed in the systemroot\system32 folder.

2. b. Regedit.exe (16-bit): Regedit.exe is automatically installed in the systemroot folder. c. Regedit.exe is primarily used for its search capabilities as it doesn't support all functions and data types.

19. On a Windows 2000 computer, the default spool folder is located at: Systemroot\System32\spool\printers. For example, if the OS is residing on C drive, the default location will be: "C:\\WINNT\System32\spool\printers".You can access this location through:

1. Start -> Printers -> File -> Server Properties -> Advanced tab. Type in the new spool location over the default location.

20. Up-grade to Windows 2000:

1. a. You can upgrade Windows 95/98, Windows NT 3.51Work Station, Windows NT 4.0 WS can be upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional.

2. b. You can't upgrade Windows 3.1 and Windows for workgroups to Windows 2000 Professional. If you need to install 2000 Prof. On Windows 3.x, you need to upgrade first to Windows 95/98 or NT and then upgrade to 2000 Prof. It is easy to do a clean install of Windows 2000 on Windows 3.x machines.

3. c. You need to ensure the following before the upgrade:

   1. a. The hardware is adequate for upgrading to Windows 2000 Professional

   2. b. Also, check the hardware, software adequacy by running Winnt32.exe / checkupgradeonly.

   3. Note that the switch "checkupgradeonly" will output a report on the adequacy of hardware and software. It will also warn you if any applications need upgrade packs, which may be obtained from respective application vendors, if available. If the software upgrade pack is not installed for any application, the application may be rendered unusable!

   4. c. It is also recommended, if you are upgrading on a large population, to upgrade only one work station, and check whether the application softwares are running properly.

21. By default, Windows 2000 stores a user's profile in the C:\Documents and Settings\ user_name folder on the computer the user logs on.When a new user logs on, his initial user profile is an exact copy of either the local or domain-wide "default user" profile folder.The local default user profile folder is located in %root%\Documents and Settings.

22. If you have installed Windows 2000 in C drive, it is C:\Documents and Settings.

23. Pressing F8 during boot process in Windows 2000 desk top bring up the following options:

1. a. Safe Mode: Safe Mode loads only the drivers necessary to get the desk top up and running. The drivers loaded with Safe Mode include mouse, monitor, keyboard, hard drive, and standard video driver.

2. b. Safe Mode with Networking: Safe Mode with Networking is same as Safe Mode with networking enabled.

3. c. Safe Mode with Command prompt: Safe Mode with Command Prompt option loads the command prompt instead of Windows 2000 graphical interface.

4. d. Enable Boot Logging

5. e. Enable VGA Mode: Enable VGA Mode option loads a standard VGA driver. This option is good if you have any problem with newly installed video driver.

6. f. Last Known Good Configuration: Last Known Good Configuration enables the desk top to load the configuration that was stored when it was booted successfully last time. This option can't take care of any hardware related problems.

7. g. Debugging Mode: The Debugging Mode option runs the Kernel Debugger, if that utility is installed.

8. h. Boot Normally: The Boot Normally is same as not pressing the F8 key. The Windows boots normally

24. You can access Task Manager by pressing < Alt > < Ctrl > < Del > The applications tab lists all the applications that are currently running on the computer. The current status of the application is also displayed as either "Running" or "not responding" or "stopped".

25. Blue screen messages are also called STOP messages. You will not be allowed to proceed, when a blue screen message appears. The most likely cause of blue screen messages are:

1. a. Boot sector virus

2. b. IRQ/ IO address conflicts.

3. c. You can check for any boot sector virus, and also for any conflicting IRQ / IO addresses.

26. You can configure support for multiple displays on your Windows 2000 computer. This is done through the use of Control Panel -> Display -> Settings. A Windows 2000 computer can support up to ten display monitors at the same time. Use additional video cards as required.

27. On a Windows 2000 computer, disk quotas can be used on NTFS volumes. Windows Explorer can be used to configure and monitor disk quotas.

28. On a Windows computer, you can use the View tab in Folder Options applet in the Control Panel to show / hide files and folders that have "Hidden" attribute set. You can also use Windows Explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View tab.

29. If you want to install Windows 2000 on the same partition as that of Windows 98, install 2000 Professional either on the FAT file systems or on the FAT32 for dual boot. Windows 98 supports FAT (FAT16) and FAT32. It doesn't support NTFS file system.

30. The various file systems supported by Windows 2000 are:

1. a. FAT: Also called FAT16, supported by all Microsoft Operating Systems.

2. b. FAT32: Also supported by Win 95 OSR2 and Win98

3. c. NTFS: This is not supported by Win95/98

4. d. CDFS (Compact Disk File System, used to access CDs)

5. e. UDF (Universal Disk Format, used to access DVDs)