This page will contain wikis about windows 2k, as they become available.Windows 2000It has been suggested that Windows 2000 Server be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K, W2K or Windows NT 5.0) is a preemptible and interruptible, graphical, business-oriented operating system that was designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor (SMP) 32-bit Intel x86 computers. It is part of the Microsoft Windows NT line of operating systems and was released on February 17, 2000. Windows 2000 comes in four versions: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server. Additionally, Microsoft offers Windows 2000 Advanced Server- Limited Edition, which released in 2001 and runs on 64-bit Intel Itanium microprocessors. Windows 2000 is classified as a hybrid-kernel operating system, and its architecture is divided into two modes: user mode and kernel mode. The kernel mode provides unrestricted access to system resources and facilitates the user mode, which is heavily restricted and designed for most applications. All versions of Windows 2000 have common functionality, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and standard system management applications such as a disk defragmentation utility. Support for people with disabilities has also been improved by Microsoft across their Windows 2000 line, and they have included increased support for different languages and locale information. All versions of the operating system support the Windows NT filesystem, NTFS 5, the Encrypted File System (EFS), as well as basic and dynamic disk storage. Dynamic disk storage allows different types of volumes to be used. The Windows 2000 Server family has enhanced functionality, including the ability to provide Active Directory services (a hierarchical framework of resources), Distributed file system (a file system that supports sharing of files) and fault-redundant storage volumes. Windows 2000 can be installed and deployed to an enterprise through either an attended or unattended installation. Unattended installations rely on the use of answer files to fill in installation information, and can be performed through a bootable CD using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), by the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep). HistoryWindows 2000 originally descended from the Microsoft Windows NT operating system product line. Originally called Windows NT 5, Microsoft changed the name to Windows 2000 on October 27th, 1998. [1] It was also the first Windows version that was released without a code name, though Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 was codenamed "Asteroid" and Windows 2000 64-bit was codenamed "Janus" (not to be confused with Windows 3.1, which had the same codename). The first beta for Windows 2000 was released on September 27, 1997 and several further betas were released until Beta 3 which was released on April 29, 1999. From here Microsoft issued three release candidates from between July to November 1999 and finally released the operating system to partners on December 12, 1999. [2] The public received the full version of Windows 2000 on February 17, 2000 and the press immediately hailed it as the most stable operating system Microsoft had ever released. Novell, however, was not so impressed with Microsoft's new directory service architecture as they found it to be less scalable or reliable than their own Novell Directory Services (NDS) technology. [3] On September 29, 2000, Microsoft released Windows 2000 Datacenter. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1) on August 15, 2000, Service Pack 2 (SP2) on May 16, 2001, Service Pack 3 (SP3) on August 29, 2002 and its last Service Pack (SP4) on June 26, 2003. Microsoft has stated that they will not release a Service Pack 5, but instead, have offered an "Update Rollup" for Service Pack 4. Microsoft phased out all development of their Java Virtual Machine (JVM) from Windows 2000 in Service Pack 3. Windows 2000 has since been superseded by newer Microsoft operating systems. Microsoft has replaced Windows 2000 Server products with Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 Professional with Windows XP Professional. Windows Neptune started development in 1999, and was supposed to be the home-user edition of Windows 2000. However, the project lagged in production time – and only one alpha release was built. Windows Me was released as a substitute, and the Neptune project was forwarded to the production of Whistler (Windows XP). The only elements of the Windows project which were included in Windows 2000 were the ability to upgrade from Windows 95 or Windows 98, and support for the FAT32 file system. Several notable security flaws have been found in Windows 2000. Code Red and Code Red II were famous (and highly visible to the worldwide press) computer worms that exploited vulnerabilities of the indexing service of Windows 2000's Internet Information Services (IIS). In August 2003, two major worms named the Sobig worm and the Blaster worm began to attack millions of Microsoft Windows computers, resulting in the largest down-time and clean-up cost ever. The worms have also had political consequences as many companies in several countries started to call for government action to prevent further damages from Windows worms. ArchitectureThe Windows 2000 operating system architecture consists of two layers (user mode and kernel mode), with many different modules within both of these layers.Windows 2000 is a highly modular system that consists of two main layers: a user mode and a kernel mode. The user mode refers to the mode in which user programs are run. Such programs are limited in terms of what system resources they have access to, while the kernel mode has unrestricted access to the system memory and external devices. All user mode applications access system resources through the executive which runs in kernel mode. User modeUser mode in Windows 2000 is made of subsystems capable of passing I/O requests to the appropriate kernel mode drivers by using the I/O manager. Two subsystems make up the user mode layer of Windows 2000: the environment subsystem and the integral subsystem. The environment subsystem was designed to run applications written for many different types of operating systems. These applications, however, run at a lower priority than kernel mode processes. There are three main environment subsystems:
The integral subsystem looks after operating system specific functions on behalf of the environment subsystem. It consists of a security subsystem (grants/denies access and handles logons), workstation service (helps the computer gain network access) and a server service (lets the computer provide network services). Kernel modeKernel mode in Windows 2000 has full access to the hardware and system resources of the computer. The kernel mode stops user mode services and applications from accessing critical areas of the operating system that they should not have access to. Each object in Windows 2000 exists in its own namespace. This is a screenshot from SysInternal'sThe executive interfaces with all the user mode subsystems. It deals with I/O, object management, security and process management. It contains various components, including:
The Windows 2000 Hardware Abstraction Layer, or HAL, is a layer between the physical hardware of the computer and the rest of the operating system. It was designed to hide differences in hardware and therefore provide a consistent platform to run applications on. The HAL includes hardware specific code that controls I/O interfaces, interrupt controllers and multiple processors. The microkernel sits between the HAL and the executive and provides multiprocessor synchronization, thread and interrupt scheduling and dispatching, trap handling and exception dispatching. The microkernel often interfaces with the process manager. [5] The microkernel is also responsible for initialising device drivers at bootup that are necessary to get the operating system up and running. Kernel mode drivers exist in three levels: highest level drivers, intermediate drivers and low level drivers. The Windows Driver Model (WDM) exists in the intermediate layer and was mainly designed to be binary and source compatible between Windows 98 and Windows 2000. The lowest level drivers are either legacy Windows NT device drivers that control a device directly or can be a PnP hardware bus. Common functionalityCertain features are common across all versions of Windows 2000 (both Professional and the Server versions), among them being NTFS 5, the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), the Encrypting File System (EFS), dynamic and basic disk storage, usability enhancements and multi-language and locale support. Windows 2000 also has several standard system utilities included as standard. As well as these features, Microsoft introduced a new feature to protect critical system files, called Windows File Protection (WFP). This prevents programs (with the exception of Microsoft's update programs) from replacing critical Windows system files and thus making the system inoperable. [6] Microsoft recognised that the infamous Blue Screen of Death (or stop error) could cause serious problems for servers that needed to be constantly running and so provided a system setting that would allow the server to automatically reboot when a stop error occurred. Users have the option of dumping the first 64KB of memory to disk (the smallest amount of memory that is useful for debugging purposes, also known as a minidump), a dump of only the kernel's memory or a dump of the entire contents of memory to disk, as well as write that this event happened to the Windows 2000 event log. In order to improve performance on computers running Windows 2000 as a server operating system, Microsoft gave administrators the choice of optimising the operating system for background services or for applications. NTFS 5Windows 2000 supports disk quotas, which can be set via the "Quotas" tab found in the hard disk properties dialog box.Microsoft released the third version of the NT File System (NTFS) — also known as version 5.0 — in Windows 2000; this introduced quotas, file-system-level encryption (called EFS), sparse files and reparse points. Sparse files allow for the efficient storage of data sets that are very large yet contain many areas that only have zeroes. Reparse points allow the object manager to reset a file namespace lookup and let file system drivers implement changed functionality in a transparent manner. Reparse points are used to implement Volume Mount Points, Directory Junctions, Hierarchical Storage Management, Native Structured Storage and Single Instance Storage. Volume mount points and directory junctions allow for a file to be transparently referred from one file or directory location to another. Encrypting File SystemThe Encrypting File System (EFS) introduced strong encryption into the Windows file world. It allowed any folder or drive on an NTFS volume to be encrypted transparently to the end user. EFS works in conjunction with the EFS service, Microsoft's CryptoAPI and the EFS File System Run-Time Library (FSRTL). As of February 2004, its encryption has not been compromised. EFS works by encrypting a file with a bulk symmetric key (also known as the File Encryption Key, or FEK), which is used because it takes a relatively smaller amount of time to encrypt and decrypt large amounts of data than if an asymmetric key cipher is used. The symmetric key that is used to encrypt the file is then encrypted with a public key that is associated with the user who encrypted the file, and this encrypted data is stored in the header of the encrypted file. To decrypt the file, the file system uses the private key of the user to decrypt the symmetric key that is stored in the file header. It then uses the symmetric key to decrypt the file. Because this is done at the file system level, it is transparent to the user. [7] Also, in case of a user losing access to their key, support for recovery agents that can decrypt files has been built in to the EFS system. Basic and dynamic disk storageWindows 2000 introduced the Logical Disk Manager for dynamic storage. All versions of Windows 2000 support three types of dynamic disk volumes (along with basic storage): simple volumes, spanned volumes and striped volumes:
Windows 2000 also added support for iSCSI protocol. Accessibility supportThe Windows 2000 onscreen keyboard map allows users who have problems with using the keyboard to use a mouse to input text.Microsoft made an effort to increase the usability of Windows 2000 for people with visual and auditory impairments and other disabilities. They included several utilities designed to make the system more accessible:
Language & locale supportWindows 2000 has support for many languages other than English. It supports Arabic, Armenian, Baltic, Central European, Cyrillic, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Indic, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkic, Vietnamese and Western European languages. [8] It also has support for many different locales, a list of which can be found on Microsoft's website. System utilitiesThe Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is used for administering Windows 2000 computers.Windows 2000 introduced the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which is used to create, save, and open administrative tools. Each of the tools is called a console, and most consoles allow an administrator to administer other Windows 2000 computers from one centralised computer. Each console can contain one or many specific administrative tools, called snap-ins. Snap-ins can be either standalone (performs one function), or extensions (adds functionality to an existing snap-in). In order to provide the ability to control what snap-ins can be seen in a console, the MMC allows consoles to be created in author mode or created in user mode. Author mode allows snap-ins to be added, new windows to be created, all portions of the console tree can be displayed and for consoles to be saved. User mode allows consoles to be distributed with restrictions applied. User mode consoles can have full access granted user so they can make whatever changes they desire, can have limited access so that users cannot add to the console but they can view multiple windows in a console, or they can have limited access so that users cannot add to the console and also cannot view multiple windows in a console. [9] The Windows 2000 Computer Management console is capable of performing many system tasks. It is pictured here starting a disk defragmentation.The main tools that come with Windows 2000 can be found in the Computer Management console (found in Administrative Tools in the Control Panel). This contains the event viewer — a means of seeing events and the Windows equivalent of a log file, a system information viewer, the ability to view open shared folders and shared folder sessions, a device manager and a tool to view all the local users and groups on the Windows 2000 computer. It also contains a disk management snap-in, which contains a disk defragmenter as well as other disk management utilities. Lastly, it also contains a services viewer, which allows users to view all installed services and to stop and start them on demand, as well as configure what those services should do when the computer starts. The REGEDIT.EXE utility on Windows 2000. The REGEDT32.EXE utility showing the same part of the registry.Windows 2000 comes bundled with two utilities to edit the Windows registry. One acts like the Windows 9x REGEDIT.EXE program and the other could edit registry permissions in the same manner that Windows NT's REGEDT32.EXE program could. REGEDIT.EXE has a left-side tree view that begins at "My Computer" and lists all loaded hives. REGEDT32.EXE has a left-side tree view, but each hive has its own window, so the tree displays only keys. REGEDIT.EXE represents the three components of a value (its name, type, and data) as separate columns of a table. REGEDT32.EXE represents them as a list of strings. REGEDIT.EXE was written for the Win32 API and supports right-clicking of entries in a tree view to adjust properties and other settings. REGEDT32.EXE was also written for the Win32 API and requires all actions to be performed from the top menu bar. Because REGEDIT.EXE was directly ported from Windows 98, it does not support permission editing (permissions do not exist in Windows 9x). Therefore, the only way to access the full functionality of an NT registry was with REGEDT32.EXE, which uses the older multiple document interface (MDI), which newer versions of regedit do not use. Windows XP was the first system to integrate these two programs into one, adopting the REGEDIT.EXE behavior with the additional NT functionality. The System File Checker (SFC) also comes bundled with Windows 2000. It is a command line utility that scans system files and verifies whether they were signed by Microsoft and works in conjunction with the Windows File Protection mechanism. It can also repopulate and repair all the files in the Dllcache folder. [10] Recovery ConsoleThe Recovery Console is usually used to recover unbootable systems.The Recovery Console is an application that is run from outside the installed copy of Windows and that enables a user to perform maintenance tasks that cannot be run from inside of the installed copy, or cannot be feasibly run from another computer or copy of Windows 2000. It is usually used, however, to recover the system from errors causing booting to fail, which would render other tools useless. It presents itself as a simple command line interface. The commands are limited to ones for checking and repairing the hard drive(s), repairing boot information (including NTLDR), replacing corrupted system files with fresh copies from the CD, or enabling/disabling services and drivers for the next boot. The console can be accessed in one of two ways:
Server family functionalityThe Windows 2000 server family consists of Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. They all have advanced functionality not found in Windows 2000 Professional, among these features are support for DFS, Active Directory and advanced fault-tolerant volumes. Distributed File SystemThe Distributed File System, or DFS, allows shares in multiple different locations to be logically grouped under one folder, or DFS root. When users try to access a share that exists off the DFS root, the user is really looking at a DFS link and the DFS server transparently redirects them to the correct file server and share. A DFS root can only exist on a Windows 2000 version that is part of the server family, and only one DFS root can exist on that server. There can be two ways of implementing DFS on Windows 2000: through standalone DFS, or through domain-based DFS. Standalone DFS allows for only DFS roots that exist on the local computer, and thus does not use Active Directory. Domain-based DFS roots exist within Active Directory and can have their information distributed to other domain controllers within the domain — this provides fault tolerance to DFS. DFS roots that exist on a domain must be hosted on a domain controller or on a domain member server. The file and root information is replicated via the Microsoft File Replication Service (FRS). [11] Active DirectoryActive Directory allows administrators to assign enterprise wide policies, deploy programs to many computers, and apply critical updates to an entire organization, and is one of the main reasons why many corporations have moved to Windows 2000. Active Directory stores information about its users and can act in a similar manner to a phone book. This allows all of the information and computer settings about an organization to be stored in a central, organized database. Active Directory Networks can vary from a small installation with a few hundred objects, to a large installation with millions of objects. Active Directory can organise groups of resources into a single domain and can link domains into a contiguous domain name space together to form trees. Groups of trees that do not exist within the same namespace can be linked together to form forests. Active Directory can only be installed on a Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server or Datacenter Server computer, and cannot be installed on a Windows 2000 Professional computer. It requires that a DNS service that supports SRV resource records be installed, or that an existing DNS infrastructure be upgraded to support this functionality. It also requires that one or more domain controllers exist to hold the Active Directory database and provide Active Directory directory services. Volume fault toleranceAlong with support for simple, spanned and striped volumes, the server family of Windows 2000 also supports fault tolerant volume types. The types supported are mirrored volumes and RAID-5 volumes:
VersionsMicrosoft released various versions of Windows 2000 to cater to different markets and business needs. It released Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows Datacenter Server:
[12] A limited edition 64 bit version of Windows 2000 Advanced Server was made available via the OEM Channel. It also supports failover and load balancing.
DeploymentWindows 2000 can be deployed to a site via various methods. It can be installed onto servers via traditional media (such as via CD) or via distribution folders that reside on a shared folder. Installations can be attended or unattended. An attended installation requires the manual intervention of an operator to choose options when installing the operating system. Unattended installations are scripted via an answer file, or predefined script in the form of an INI file that has all the options filled in already. The Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe program then uses that answer file to automate the installation. Unattended installations can be performed via a bootable CD, using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), via the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep), via running the Winnt32.exe program using the /syspart switch or via running the Remote Installation Service (RIS). The Syspart method is started on a standardised reference computer — though the hardware need not be similar — and it copies the required installation files from the reference computer's hard drive to the target computer's hard drive. The hard drive does not need to be in the target computer and may be swapped out to it at any time, with hardware configuration still needing to be done later. The Winnt.exe program must also be passed a /unattend switch that points to a valid answer file and a /s file to point to the location of one or more valid installation sources. Sysprep allows the duplication of a disk image on an existing Windows 2000 Server installation to multiple servers. This means that all applications and system configuration settings will be copied across to the new Windows 2000 installations, but it also means that the reference and target computers must have the same HALs, ACPI support, and mass storage devices — though Windows 2000 automatically detects plug and play devices. The primary reason for using Sysprep is for deploying Windows 2000 to a site that has standard hardware and that needs a fast method of installing Windows 2000 to those computers. If a system has different HALs, mass storage devices or ACPI support, then multiple images would need to be maintained. Systems Management Server can be used to upgrade system to Windows 2000 to multiple systems. Those operating systems that can be upgraded in this process must be running a version of Windows that can be upgraded (Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4, Windows 98 and Windows 95 OSR2.x) and those versions must be running the SMS client agent that can receive software installation operations. Using SMS allows installations to happen over a wide geographical area and provides centralised control over upgrades to systems. Remote Installation Services (RIS) are a means to automatically install Windows 2000 Professional (and not Windows 2000 Server) to a local computer over a network from a central server. Images do not have to support specific hardware configurations and the security settings can be configured after the computer reboots as the service generates a new unique security ID (SID) for the machine. This is required so that local accounts are given the right identifier and do not clash with other Windows 2000 Professional computers on a network. [13] RIS requires that client computers are able to boot over the network via either a network interface card that has a Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) boot ROM installed or that it has a network card installed that is supported by the remote boot disk generator. The remote computer must also meet the Net PC specification. The server that RIS runs on must be Windows 2000 Server and the server must be able to access a network DNS Service, a DHCP service and the Active Directory services. [14] Total cost of ownershipIn October 2002, Microsoft commissioned IDC to determine the total cost of ownership (TCO) for enterprise applications on Windows 2000 versus the TCO of Linux on the same enterprise applications. IDC looked at security and other infrastructure tasks, and Web Serving. According to the report, Windows 2000 had a lower TCO for four infrastructure items and Linux had a lower TCO for web serving. IDC's report was based on telephone interviews of IT executives and managers of 104 North American companies in which they determined what they were using for a specific workload for file, print, security and networking services. IDC determined that the four areas where Windows 2000 had a better TCO than Linux — over a period of five years for an average organization of 100 employees — were in the use of file, print, network infrastructure and security infrastructure. They determined, however, that Linux had a better TCO than Windows 2000 when it came to web serving. The report also found that the greatest cost was not in the procurement of software and hardware, but in staffing costs and downtime. The report did not take into consideration the impact of downtime to the profitability of the business (although they did apply a 40% productivity factor, in order to recognize that employees are not entirely unproductive during periods of IT infrastructure downtime) though it did find that Linux servers had less unplanned downtime than Windows 2000 Servers. They found that most Linux servers ran less workload per server than Windows 2000 servers and also found that none of the businesses they interviewed used 4-way SMP Linux computers. IDC also did not take into account specific application servers — servers that need low maintenance and are provided by a specific vendor — when they performed their study. The report did emphasise that TCO was only one factor in considering whether to use a particular IT platform, and also noted that as management and server software improved and became better packaged the overall picture that was being shown in their report could change. [15] This page about windows 2k includes information from a Wikipedia article. Additional articles about windows 2k News stories about windows 2k External links for windows 2k Videos for windows 2k Wikis about windows 2k Discussion Groups about windows 2k Blogs about windows 2k Images of windows 2k |
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[15]. More information and the song can be found on the NPR website. The report did emphasise that TCO was only one factor in considering whether to use a particular IT platform, and also noted that as management and server software improved and became better packaged the overall picture that was being shown in their report could change. National Public Radio interviews concerning the rediscovery of the species were conducted with residents of Brinkley, Arkansas, and then shared with musician Sufjan Stevens who used the material to write a song titled "Lord God Bird". IDC also did not take into account specific application servers — servers that need low maintenance and are provided by a specific vendor — when they performed their study. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is sometimes referred to as the Grail Bird or the Lord God Bird (a name shared with the Pileated Woodpecker). They found that most Linux servers ran less workload per server than Windows 2000 servers and also found that none of the businesses they interviewed used 4-way SMP Linux computers. Others have independently come to the same conclusion, and publication of independent analyses may be forthcoming...For scientists to label sight reports and questionable photographs as “proof” of such an extraordinary record is delving into “faith-based” ornithology and doing a disservice to science.[8]. The report did not take into consideration the impact of downtime to the profitability of the business (although they did apply a 40% productivity factor, in order to recognize that employees are not entirely unproductive during periods of IT infrastructure downtime) though it did find that Linux servers had less unplanned downtime than Windows 2000 Servers. Prum, Robbins, Brett Benz, and I remain steadfast in our belief that the bird in the Luneau video is a normal Pileated Woodpecker. The report also found that the greatest cost was not in the procurement of software and hardware, but in staffing costs and downtime. In a paper published in The Auk in January 2006, Jerome Jackson expressed skepticism of the Ivory-bill evidence:. They determined, however, that Linux had a better TCO than Windows 2000 when it came to web serving. The Committee is waiting for unequivocal proof that the species still exists. IDC determined that the four areas where Windows 2000 had a better TCO than Linux — over a period of five years for an average organization of 100 employees — were in the use of file, print, network infrastructure and security infrastructure. The ABA Checklist Committee has not changed the status of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker from Code 6 (EXTINCT) to another level that would reflect a small surviving population. IDC's report was based on telephone interviews of IT executives and managers of 104 North American companies in which they determined what they were using for a specific workload for file, print, security and networking services. On page 13 of the American Birding Association publication "Winging It" (Nov/Dec 2005), it says:. According to the report, Windows 2000 had a lower TCO for four infrastructure items and Linux had a lower TCO for web serving. Prum, intrigued by some of the recordings taken in Arkansas' Big Woods, said the evidence thus far is refutable.[7]. IDC looked at security and other infrastructure tasks, and Web Serving. In December 2005, Richard Prum's position was presented this way:. In October 2002, Microsoft commissioned IDC to determine the total cost of ownership (TCO) for enterprise applications on Windows 2000 versus the TCO of Linux on the same enterprise applications. Some skeptics, including Richard Prum, believe the video could have been of a Pileated Woodpecker [6]. [14]. Cornell could not say with absolute certainty that the sounds recorded in Arkansas were made by Ivory-billeds[5]. The server that RIS runs on must be Windows 2000 Server and the server must be able to access a network DNS Service, a DHCP service and the Active Directory services. In August 2005, despite the arguments for the existence of at least one Ivory-billed Woodpecker, questions about the evidence remained. The remote computer must also meet the Net PC specification. But the thrilling new sound recordings provide clear and convincing evidence that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is not extinct. [13] RIS requires that client computers are able to boot over the network via either a network interface card that has a Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) boot ROM installed or that it has a network card installed that is supported by the remote boot disk generator. We were very skeptical of the first published reports, and thought that the previous data were not sufficient to support this startling conclusion. This is required so that local accounts are given the right identifier and do not clash with other Windows 2000 Professional computers on a network. Yale ornithologist Richard Prum stated:. Images do not have to support specific hardware configurations and the security settings can be configured after the computer reboots as the service generates a new unique security ID (SID) for the machine. However, after reviewing new sound recordings from the White River of Arkansas supplied to them by the Cornell team that reported the rediscovery, they announced in August 2005 that they had concluded that the bird has indeed been rediscovered and withdrew their paper. Remote Installation Services (RIS) are a means to automatically install Windows 2000 Professional (and not Windows 2000 Server) to a local computer over a network from a central server. In June 2005, ornithologists at Yale University, the University of Kansas, and Florida Gulf Coast University submitted a scientific article skeptical of the initial reports of rediscovery. Using SMS allows installations to happen over a wide geographical area and provides centralised control over upgrades to systems. There are stories from when the species was more abundant of adult birds abandoning their nests and young simply because they were being watched. Those operating systems that can be upgraded in this process must be running a version of Windows that can be upgraded (Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4, Windows 98 and Windows 95 OSR2.x) and those versions must be running the SMS client agent that can receive software installation operations. This is exactly what birders have been encouraged not to do by experts to avoid disturbing the birds. Systems Management Server can be used to upgrade system to Windows 2000 to multiple systems. A current concern is that many bird enthusiasts will rush to the area in an attempt to catch a glimpse of this rare bird. If a system has different HALs, mass storage devices or ACPI support, then multiple images would need to be maintained. It describes the potential for a thinly distributed population in the area, though no birds have been located away from the primary site. The primary reason for using Sysprep is for deploying Windows 2000 to a site that has standard hardware and that needs a fast method of installing Windows 2000 to those computers. The report also notes that drumming consistent with that of Ivory-billed Woodpecker had been heard in the region. This means that all applications and system configuration settings will be copied across to the new Windows 2000 installations, but it also means that the reference and target computers must have the same HALs, ACPI support, and mass storage devices — though Windows 2000 automatically detects plug and play devices. That same video included an earlier image of what was believed to be such a bird perching on a Water Tupelo (Nyssa aquatica). Sysprep allows the duplication of a disk image on an existing Windows 2000 Server installation to multiple servers. A very large woodpecker was videotaped on April 25, 2004; its size, wing pattern at rest and in flight, and white plumage on its back between the wings were cited as evidence that the woodpecker sighted was an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The Winnt.exe program must also be passed a /unattend switch that points to a valid answer file and a /s file to point to the location of one or more valid installation sources. The secrecy permitted The Nature Conservancy and Cornell University to quietly buy up Ivory-billed habitat to add to the 120,000 acres (490 km²) of the Big Woods protected by the Conservancy. The hard drive does not need to be in the target computer and may be swapped out to it at any time, with hardware configuration still needing to be done later. About fifteen sightings occurred during the period (seven of which were considered compelling enough to mention in the scientific article), possibly all of the same bird. The Syspart method is started on a standardised reference computer — though the hardware need not be similar — and it copies the required installation files from the reference computer's hard drive to the target computer's hard drive. This report led to more intensive searches there and in the White River National Wildlife Refuge undertaken in deepest secrecy—for fear of a stampede of bird-watchers—by experienced observers over the next fourteen months. Unattended installations can be performed via a bootable CD, using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), via the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep), via running the Winnt32.exe program using the /syspart switch or via running the Remote Installation Service (RIS). One of the authors, who was kayaking in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, Monroe County, Arkansas, on February 11, 2004, reported on a website the sighting of an unusually large red-crested woodpecker. The Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe program then uses that answer file to automate the installation. A group of seventeen authors headed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reported the discovery of at least one Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a male, in the Big Woods area of Arkansas in 2004 and 2005, publishing the report in the journal Science on April 28, 2005. Unattended installations are scripted via an answer file, or predefined script in the form of an INI file that has all the options filled in already. The expedition was inconclusive, however, as it was determined that the recorded sounds were likely gunshot echoes rather than the distinctive double rap of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker [4]. An attended installation requires the manual intervention of an operator to choose options when installing the operating system. The exact source of the sound was not found because of the swampy terrain, but signs of active woodpeckers were found (i.e., scaled bark and large tree cavities). Installations can be attended or unattended. In the afternoon of January 27, after ten days, a rapping sound similar to the "double knock" made by the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was heard and recorded. It can be installed onto servers via traditional media (such as via CD) or via distribution folders that reside on a shared folder. In a 2002 expedition in the forests, swamps, and bayous of the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area by Louisiana State University, biologists spent 30 days searching for the bird [3]. Windows 2000 can be deployed to a site via various methods. In 1999, there was an unconfirmed sighting of a pair of birds in the Pearl River region of southeast Louisiana by a forestry student, David Kulivan. It also supports failover and load balancing. This assessment was later altered to "critically endangered" on the grounds that the species could still be extant [2]. [12] A limited edition 64 bit version of Windows 2000 Advanced Server was made available via the OEM Channel. Many ornithologists believed the species had been wiped out completely, and it was assessed as "extinct" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1994. It released Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows Datacenter Server:. bairdii), after a long interval, was in 1987; it has not been seen since. Microsoft released various versions of Windows 2000 to cater to different markets and business needs. p. The types supported are mirrored volumes and RAID-5 volumes:. The last reported sighting of the Cuban subspecies (C. Along with support for simple, spanned and striped volumes, the server family of Windows 2000 also supports fault tolerant volume types. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was listed as an endangered species on March 11, 1967, though the only evidence of its existence at the time was a possible recording of its call made in East Texas. It also requires that one or more domain controllers exist to hold the Active Directory database and provide Active Directory directory services. By 1944 the last known Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a female, was gone from the cut-over tract (Smithsonian p 98). It requires that a DNS service that supports SRV resource records be installed, or that an existing DNS infrastructure be upgraded to support this functionality. By 1938, only 20 or so individuals remained in the wild, located in the old-growth forest called the Singer Tract in Louisiana, where logging rights were held by the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company, which brushed aside pleas from four Southern governors and the National Audubon Society that the tract be publicly purchased and set aside as a reserve. Active Directory can only be installed on a Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server or Datacenter Server computer, and cannot be installed on a Windows 2000 Professional computer. It was given up for extinct in the 1920s, when a pair turned up in Florida, only to be shot for specimens. Groups of trees that do not exist within the same namespace can be linked together to form forests. Heavy logging activity and hunting by collectors decimated the population of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the late 1800s. Active Directory can organise groups of resources into a single domain and can link domains into a contiguous domain name space together to form trees. The whole family will eventually split up in late fall or early winter. Active Directory Networks can vary from a small installation with a few hundred objects, to a large installation with millions of objects. Even after the young are able to fly, the parents will continue feeding them for another two months. This allows all of the information and computer settings about an organization to be stored in a central, organized database. About five weeks after the young are born, they learn to fly. Active Directory stores information about its users and can act in a similar manner to a phone book. They feed the chicks for months. Active Directory allows administrators to assign enterprise wide policies, deploy programs to many computers, and apply critical updates to an entire organization, and is one of the main reasons why many corporations have moved to Windows 2000. Both parents sit on the eggs and are involved in taking care of the chicks, with the male taking sole responsibility at night. [11]. Usually 2 to 5 eggs are laid and incubated for 3 to 5 weeks. The file and root information is replicated via the Microsoft File Replication Service (FRS). Before they have their young, they excavate a nest in a dead or partially dead tree about 8–15 m up from the ground. DFS roots that exist on a domain must be hosted on a domain controller or on a domain member server. These paired birds will mate every year between January and May. Domain-based DFS roots exist within Active Directory and can have their information distributed to other domain controllers within the domain — this provides fault tolerance to DFS. Pairs are also known to travel together. Standalone DFS allows for only DFS roots that exist on the local computer, and thus does not use Active Directory. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is thought to pair for life. There can be two ways of implementing DFS on Windows 2000: through standalone DFS, or through domain-based DFS. The more common Pileated Woodpecker may compete for food with this species. A DFS root can only exist on a Windows 2000 version that is part of the server family, and only one DFS root can exist on that server. Hence, they occur at low densities even in healthy populations. When users try to access a share that exists off the DFS root, the user is really looking at a DFS link and the DFS server transparently redirects them to the correct file server and share. Surprisingly, these birds need about 25 km² (10 square miles) per pair so they can find enough food to feed their young and themselves. The Distributed File System, or DFS, allows shares in multiple different locations to be logically grouped under one folder, or DFS root. The bird uses its enormous white bill to hammer, wedge, and peel the bark off dead trees to find the insects. They all have advanced functionality not found in Windows 2000 Professional, among these features are support for DFS, Active Directory and advanced fault-tolerant volumes. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker feeds mainly on the larvae of wood-boring beetles, but also eats seeds, fruit, and other insects. The Windows 2000 server family consists of Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. After the Civil War, the timber industry deforested millions of acres in the South, leaving only sparse isolated tracts of suitable habitat. The console can be accessed in one of two ways:. At that time, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker ranged from east Texas to North Carolina, and from southern Illinois to Florida and Cuba [1]. The commands are limited to ones for checking and repairing the hard drive(s), repairing boot information (including NTLDR), replacing corrupted system files with fresh copies from the CD, or enabling/disabling services and drivers for the next boot. Prior to the American Civil War, much of the Southern United States was covered in vast tracts of primeval hardwood forests that were suitable as habitat for the bird. It presents itself as a simple command line interface. Ivory-billeds are known to prefer thick hardwood swamps and pine forests, with large amounts of dead and decaying trees. It is usually used, however, to recover the system from errors causing booting to fail, which would render other tools useless. . The Recovery Console is an application that is run from outside the installed copy of Windows and that enables a user to perform maintenance tasks that cannot be run from inside of the installed copy, or cannot be feasibly run from another computer or copy of Windows 2000. Even if the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is not extinct, most believe that only a handful could still be living. [10]. The reason for the species' decline was primarily due to loss of habitat and also hunting by collectors. It can also repopulate and repair all the files in the Dllcache folder. Its drum is a single or double rap, and its alarm call, a kent or hant, sounds like a toy trumpet repeated in a series or as a double note. It is a command line utility that scans system files and verifies whether they were signed by Microsoft and works in conjunction with the Windows File Protection mechanism. Like all woodpeckers, it has a strong and straight chisel-like bill and a long, mobile, hard-tipped, barbed tongue. The System File Checker (SFC) also comes bundled with Windows 2000. These characteristics distinguish it from the darker-billed Pileated Woodpecker. Windows XP was the first system to integrate these two programs into one, adopting the REGEDIT.EXE behavior with the additional NT functionality. It has a pure white bill and displays a prominent top crest, red in the male and black in the female. Therefore, the only way to access the full functionality of an NT registry was with REGEDT32.EXE, which uses the older multiple document interface (MDI), which newer versions of regedit do not use. The bird is shiny blue-black with extensive white markings on its neck and on both the upper and lower trailing edges of its wings. Because REGEDIT.EXE was directly ported from Windows 98, it does not support permission editing (permissions do not exist in Windows 9x). It measures from 48 to 53 cm (19 to 21 in) in length and 450 to 570 g (1.0 to 1.25 lb) in weight, with short legs and feet ending in large, curved claws. REGEDT32.EXE was also written for the Win32 API and requires all actions to be performed from the top menu bar. imperialis) of western Mexico, another rare species which is very likely to be extinct. REGEDIT.EXE was written for the Win32 API and supports right-clicking of entries in a tree view to adjust properties and other settings. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is the second-largest woodpecker in the world, slightly smaller than the closely related Imperial Woodpecker (C. REGEDT32.EXE represents them as a list of strings. If its rediscovery is confirmed, this would make the Ivory-billed Woodpecker a lazarus species. REGEDIT.EXE represents the three components of a value (its name, type, and data) as separate columns of a table. However, highly compelling sightings of at least one male bird in Arkansas in 2004 and 2005 were reported in April 2005 (abstract), and audio evidence suggesting the presence of the bird has also been collected. REGEDT32.EXE has a left-side tree view, but each hive has its own window, so the tree displays only keys. It is officially listed as an endangered species, and until recently had widely been considered extinct. REGEDIT.EXE has a left-side tree view that begins at "My Computer" and lists all loaded hives. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) is a very large and extremely rare member of the woodpecker family, Picidae. One acts like the Windows 9x REGEDIT.EXE program and the other could edit registry permissions in the same manner that Windows NT's REGEDT32.EXE program could. Scott Weidensaul, "Ghost of a chance" Smithsonian Magazine August 2005 pp 97–102. Windows 2000 comes bundled with two utilities to edit the Windows registry. ISBN 0618456937.. Lastly, it also contains a services viewer, which allows users to view all installed services and to stop and start them on demand, as well as configure what those services should do when the computer starts. The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, Houghton Mifflin. It also contains a disk management snap-in, which contains a disk defragmenter as well as other disk management utilities. Gallagher, Tim (2005). This contains the event viewer — a means of seeing events and the Windows equivalent of a log file, a system information viewer, the ability to view open shared folders and shared folder sessions, a device manager and a tool to view all the local users and groups on the Windows 2000 computer. ISBN 1588341321.. The main tools that come with Windows 2000 can be found in the Computer Management console (found in Administrative Tools in the Control Panel). In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, Smithsonian Institution Press. [9]. Jackson, Jerome A (2004). User mode consoles can have full access granted user so they can make whatever changes they desire, can have limited access so that users cannot add to the console but they can view multiple windows in a console, or they can have limited access so that users cannot add to the console and also cannot view multiple windows in a console. ISBN 0374361738. (children's book). User mode allows consoles to be distributed with restrictions applied. The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Author mode allows snap-ins to be added, new windows to be created, all portions of the console tree can be displayed and for consoles to be saved. (2004). In order to provide the ability to control what snap-ins can be seen in a console, the MMC allows consoles to be created in author mode or created in user mode. Hoose, Phillip M. Snap-ins can be either standalone (performs one function), or extensions (adds functionality to an existing snap-in). Press Release. Each console can contain one or many specific administrative tools, called snap-ins. Once-thought Extinct Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Rediscovered in Arkansas. Each of the tools is called a console, and most consoles allow an administrator to administer other Windows 2000 computers from one centralised computer. Fish and Wildlife Service (April 28, 2005). Windows 2000 introduced the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which is used to create, save, and open administrative tools. U.S. [8] It also has support for many different locales, a list of which can be found on Microsoft's website. Science 308 (5727): 1460-1462. PMID 15860589. It supports Arabic, Armenian, Baltic, Central European, Cyrillic, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Indic, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkic, Vietnamese and Western European languages. Ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) persists in continental North America. Windows 2000 has support for many languages other than English. Fitzpatrick JW, Lammertink M, Luneau MD Jr, Gallagher TW, Harrison BR, Sparling GM, Rosenberg KV, Rohrbaugh RW, Swarthout EC, Wrege PH, Swarthout SB, Dantzker MS, Charif RA, Barksdale TR, Remsen JV Jr, Simon SD, Zollner D (2005). They included several utilities designed to make the system more accessible:. ISBN 0395720435.. Microsoft made an effort to increase the usability of Windows 2000 for people with visual and auditory impairments and other disabilities. Woodpeckers: A Guide to the Woodpeckers of the World, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Windows 2000 also added support for iSCSI protocol. Nurney (1995). All versions of Windows 2000 support three types of dynamic disk volumes (along with basic storage): simple volumes, spanned volumes and striped volumes:. Christie, and D. Windows 2000 introduced the Logical Disk Manager for dynamic storage. A. [7] Also, in case of a user losing access to their key, support for recovery agents that can decrypt files has been built in to the EFS system. Winkler, H., D. Because this is done at the file system level, it is transparent to the user. Watchlist entry for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, from the National Audubon Society. It then uses the symmetric key to decrypt the file. ISBN 0810920611. To decrypt the file, the file system uses the private key of the user to decrypt the symmetric key that is stored in the file header. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker from the now public domain Birds of America by John James Audubon, hosted by a commercial website. The symmetric key that is used to encrypt the file is then encrypted with a public key that is associated with the user who encrypted the file, and this encrypted data is stored in the header of the encrypted file. EFS works by encrypting a file with a bulk symmetric key (also known as the File Encryption Key, or FEK), which is used because it takes a relatively smaller amount of time to encrypt and decrypt large amounts of data than if an asymmetric key cipher is used. As of February 2004, its encryption has not been compromised. EFS works in conjunction with the EFS service, Microsoft's CryptoAPI and the EFS File System Run-Time Library (FSRTL). It allowed any folder or drive on an NTFS volume to be encrypted transparently to the end user. The Encrypting File System (EFS) introduced strong encryption into the Windows file world. Volume mount points and directory junctions allow for a file to be transparently referred from one file or directory location to another. Reparse points are used to implement Volume Mount Points, Directory Junctions, Hierarchical Storage Management, Native Structured Storage and Single Instance Storage. Reparse points allow the object manager to reset a file namespace lookup and let file system drivers implement changed functionality in a transparent manner. Sparse files allow for the efficient storage of data sets that are very large yet contain many areas that only have zeroes. Microsoft released the third version of the NT File System (NTFS) — also known as version 5.0 — in Windows 2000; this introduced quotas, file-system-level encryption (called EFS), sparse files and reparse points. In order to improve performance on computers running Windows 2000 as a server operating system, Microsoft gave administrators the choice of optimising the operating system for background services or for applications. Users have the option of dumping the first 64KB of memory to disk (the smallest amount of memory that is useful for debugging purposes, also known as a minidump), a dump of only the kernel's memory or a dump of the entire contents of memory to disk, as well as write that this event happened to the Windows 2000 event log. [6] Microsoft recognised that the infamous Blue Screen of Death (or stop error) could cause serious problems for servers that needed to be constantly running and so provided a system setting that would allow the server to automatically reboot when a stop error occurred. This prevents programs (with the exception of Microsoft's update programs) from replacing critical Windows system files and thus making the system inoperable. As well as these features, Microsoft introduced a new feature to protect critical system files, called Windows File Protection (WFP). Windows 2000 also has several standard system utilities included as standard. Certain features are common across all versions of Windows 2000 (both Professional and the Server versions), among them being NTFS 5, the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), the Encrypting File System (EFS), dynamic and basic disk storage, usability enhancements and multi-language and locale support. The lowest level drivers are either legacy Windows NT device drivers that control a device directly or can be a PnP hardware bus. The Windows Driver Model (WDM) exists in the intermediate layer and was mainly designed to be binary and source compatible between Windows 98 and Windows 2000. Kernel mode drivers exist in three levels: highest level drivers, intermediate drivers and low level drivers. [5] The microkernel is also responsible for initialising device drivers at bootup that are necessary to get the operating system up and running. The microkernel often interfaces with the process manager. The microkernel sits between the HAL and the executive and provides multiprocessor synchronization, thread and interrupt scheduling and dispatching, trap handling and exception dispatching. The HAL includes hardware specific code that controls I/O interfaces, interrupt controllers and multiple processors. It was designed to hide differences in hardware and therefore provide a consistent platform to run applications on. The Windows 2000 Hardware Abstraction Layer, or HAL, is a layer between the physical hardware of the computer and the rest of the operating system. It contains various components, including:. It deals with I/O, object management, security and process management. The executive interfaces with all the user mode subsystems. The kernel mode stops user mode services and applications from accessing critical areas of the operating system that they should not have access to. Kernel mode in Windows 2000 has full access to the hardware and system resources of the computer. It consists of a security subsystem (grants/denies access and handles logons), workstation service (helps the computer gain network access) and a server service (lets the computer provide network services). The integral subsystem looks after operating system specific functions on behalf of the environment subsystem. There are three main environment subsystems:. These applications, however, run at a lower priority than kernel mode processes. The environment subsystem was designed to run applications written for many different types of operating systems. Two subsystems make up the user mode layer of Windows 2000: the environment subsystem and the integral subsystem. User mode in Windows 2000 is made of subsystems capable of passing I/O requests to the appropriate kernel mode drivers by using the I/O manager. All user mode applications access system resources through the executive which runs in kernel mode. Such programs are limited in terms of what system resources they have access to, while the kernel mode has unrestricted access to the system memory and external devices. The user mode refers to the mode in which user programs are run. Windows 2000 is a highly modular system that consists of two main layers: a user mode and a kernel mode. The worms have also had political consequences as many companies in several countries started to call for government action to prevent further damages from Windows worms. In August 2003, two major worms named the Sobig worm and the Blaster worm began to attack millions of Microsoft Windows computers, resulting in the largest down-time and clean-up cost ever. Code Red and Code Red II were famous (and highly visible to the worldwide press) computer worms that exploited vulnerabilities of the indexing service of Windows 2000's Internet Information Services (IIS). Several notable security flaws have been found in Windows 2000. The only elements of the Windows project which were included in Windows 2000 were the ability to upgrade from Windows 95 or Windows 98, and support for the FAT32 file system. Windows Me was released as a substitute, and the Neptune project was forwarded to the production of Whistler (Windows XP). However, the project lagged in production time – and only one alpha release was built. Windows Neptune started development in 1999, and was supposed to be the home-user edition of Windows 2000. Microsoft has replaced Windows 2000 Server products with Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 Professional with Windows XP Professional. Windows 2000 has since been superseded by newer Microsoft operating systems. Microsoft phased out all development of their Java Virtual Machine (JVM) from Windows 2000 in Service Pack 3. Microsoft has stated that they will not release a Service Pack 5, but instead, have offered an "Update Rollup" for Service Pack 4. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1) on August 15, 2000, Service Pack 2 (SP2) on May 16, 2001, Service Pack 3 (SP3) on August 29, 2002 and its last Service Pack (SP4) on June 26, 2003. [3] On September 29, 2000, Microsoft released Windows 2000 Datacenter. Novell, however, was not so impressed with Microsoft's new directory service architecture as they found it to be less scalable or reliable than their own Novell Directory Services (NDS) technology. [2] The public received the full version of Windows 2000 on February 17, 2000 and the press immediately hailed it as the most stable operating system Microsoft had ever released. From here Microsoft issued three release candidates from between July to November 1999 and finally released the operating system to partners on December 12, 1999. The first beta for Windows 2000 was released on September 27, 1997 and several further betas were released until Beta 3 which was released on April 29, 1999. [1] It was also the first Windows version that was released without a code name, though Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 was codenamed "Asteroid" and Windows 2000 64-bit was codenamed "Janus" (not to be confused with Windows 3.1, which had the same codename). Originally called Windows NT 5, Microsoft changed the name to Windows 2000 on October 27th, 1998. Windows 2000 originally descended from the Microsoft Windows NT operating system product line. . Unattended installations rely on the use of answer files to fill in installation information, and can be performed through a bootable CD using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), by the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep). Windows 2000 can be installed and deployed to an enterprise through either an attended or unattended installation. The Windows 2000 Server family has enhanced functionality, including the ability to provide Active Directory services (a hierarchical framework of resources), Distributed file system (a file system that supports sharing of files) and fault-redundant storage volumes. Dynamic disk storage allows different types of volumes to be used. All versions of the operating system support the Windows NT filesystem, NTFS 5, the Encrypted File System (EFS), as well as basic and dynamic disk storage. Support for people with disabilities has also been improved by Microsoft across their Windows 2000 line, and they have included increased support for different languages and locale information. All versions of Windows 2000 have common functionality, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and standard system management applications such as a disk defragmentation utility. The kernel mode provides unrestricted access to system resources and facilitates the user mode, which is heavily restricted and designed for most applications. Windows 2000 is classified as a hybrid-kernel operating system, and its architecture is divided into two modes: user mode and kernel mode. Additionally, Microsoft offers Windows 2000 Advanced Server- Limited Edition, which released in 2001 and runs on 64-bit Intel Itanium microprocessors. Windows 2000 comes in four versions: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server. It is part of the Microsoft Windows NT line of operating systems and was released on February 17, 2000. Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K, W2K or Windows NT 5.0) is a preemptible and interruptible, graphical, business-oriented operating system that was designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor (SMP) 32-bit Intel x86 computers. Approximately 1 GB of available disk space. 256 MB of RAM - up to 64 GB is supported in one machine. A Pentium-class CPU at 400 MHz or higher - up to 32 are supported in one machine. Its system requirements are normal, but are compatible with vast amounts of power:
It offers clustering infrastructure for high availability and scalability of applications and services, including main memory support of up to 8 gigabytes (GB) on Page Address Extension (PAE) systems and the ability to do 8-way SMP. Windows 2000 Advanced Server is a variant of Windows 2000 Server operating system designed for medium-to-large businesses. Furthermore, Windows 2000 introduced a DNS server which allows dynamic registration of IP addresses. This also provided a purely transitive-trust relationship between Windows 2000 domains in a forest (a collection of one or more Windows 2000 domains that share a common schema, configuration, and global catalogue, being linked with two-way transitive trusts). Additionally, Microsoft integrated Kerberos network authentication, replacing the often-criticised NTLM authentication system used in previous versions. A significant component of the server products is Active Directory, which is an enterprise-wide directory service based on LDAP. Windows 2000 Server products share the same user interface with Windows 2000 Professional, but contain additional components for running infrastructure and application software. It supports up to two processors, and can address up to 4 GBs of RAM. It offers greater security and stability than many of the previous Windows desktop operating systems. It is the basic unit of Windows 2000, and the most common. Windows 2000 Professional was designed as the desktop operating system for businesses and power users. Should a disk fail in the array, the parity blocks from the surviving disks are combined mathematically with the data blocks from the surviving disks to reconstruct the data on the failed drive "on-the-fly" (this works with various levels of success). RAID-5 volumes: a RAID-5 volume consists of multiple disks, and it uses block-level striping with parity data distributed across all member disks. Mirrored volumes are also known as RAID-1. This means that if one disk fails, the data can be totally recovered from the other disk. Mirrored volumes: the volume contains several disks, and when data is written to one it is mirrored to the other disks. However, the console can then only be used if the system boots to the point where NTLDR can start it. Installing the Recovery Console via Winnt32.exe, with the /cmdcons switch. Starting from the Windows 2000 CD, and choosing to enter the Recovery Console instead of continuing with setup, or. SoundSentry: designed to help users with auditory impairments, Windows 2000 will show a visual effect when a sound is played through the sound system. High contrast theme: to assist users with visual impairments. Narrator: Microsoft Narrator assists users with visual impairments with system messages, as when these appear the narrator will read this out via the sound system. On screen magnifier: assists users with visual impairments by magnifying the part of the screen they place their mouse over. Normally the modifier key must remain pressed down to activate the sequence. StickyKeys: makes modifier keys (ALT, CTRL and SHIFT) become "sticky" — in other words a user can press the modifier key, release that key and then press the combination key. SerialKeys: gives Windows 2000 the ability to support speech augmentation devices. On screen keyboard: assists those who are not familiar with a given keyboard by allowing them to use a mouse to enter characters to the screen. MouseKeys: allows the cursor to be moved around the screen via the numeric keypad instead of the mouse. ToggleKeys: when turned on, Windows will play a sound when either the CAPS LOCK, NUM LOCK or SCROLL LOCK keys are pressed. RepeatKeys: allows users to slow down the rate at which keys are repeated via the keyboard's keyrepeat feature. BounceKeys: multiple keystrokes to one key to be ignored within a certain timeframe. SlowKeys: Windows is told to disregard keystrokes that are not held down for a certain time period. FilterKeys: These are a group of keyboard related support for people with typing issues, and include:
Spanned volumes: multiple disks spanning up to 32 disks. Simple volume: this is a volume with disk space from one disk. The Window Manager component of this driver is responsible for drawing windows and menus while the GDI (graphical device interface) component is responsible for tasks such as drawing lines and curves, rendering fonts and handling palettes. The display system is handled by a device driver contained in Win32k.sys. Power Manager: the power manager coordinates power events and generates power IRPs. PnP Manager: handles Plug and Play and supports device detection and installation at boot time. Process Manager: handles process and thread creation and termination. Virtual Memory Manager: manages virtual memory, allowing Windows 2000 to use the hard disk as a primary storage device (although strictly speaking it is secondary storage). IPC Manager: short for Interprocess Communication Manager, manages the communication between clients (the environment subsystem) and servers (components of the executive). [4]. Security Reference Monitor (SRM): the primary authority for enforcing the security rules of the security integral subsystem. I/O Manager: allows devices to communicate with user-mode subsystems by translating user-mode read and write commands and passing them to device drivers. This essentially is a resource management infrastructure service that allows Windows 2000 to be an object oriented operating system. Object manager: a special executive subsystem that all other executive subsystems must pass through to gain access to Windows 2000 resources. POSIX environment subsystem supports applications that are strictly written to either the POSIX.1 standard or the related ISO/IEC standards. OS/2 environment subsystem supports 16-bit character-based OS/2 applications and emulates OS/2 1.3 and 1.x, but not 2.x or later OS/2 applications. Win32 subsystem runs 32-bit Windows applications and also supports Virtual DOS Machines (VDMs), which allows MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows 3.x (Win16) applications to run on Windows. |