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SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

04. Check the location of the folder with the NT System Files.
. Purpose:An Administrator needs to know how to locate the operating system files on any machine.
. Method:
  • Right click on the Start button and select Explorer; or
  • Open the Command Prompt and use the SET command. Screen Shot
  • The Set command also provides other detailed information about the architecture of the machine and the operating system installed.
. Note:
  • The BOOT FILES (boot.ini, ntldr, etc.) are installed on the SYSTEM PARTITION and the SYSTEM FILES (i.e. the operating system) are installed on the BOOT PARTITION. No good explanation has been provided for this confusing syntax.

05. In NT Explorer, show Hidden Files, File Extensions, and Details.
. Purpose:An Administrator needs to see the details of all the files installed on a machine.
. Method:
  • In Explorer, open the View \ Options menu.
  • Select the View tab. Activate the "Show all files" radio button.
  • Deselect the "Hide file extensions..." box. Screen Shot
  • Click OK.
  • Open the View \ Options menu again and select the Details option. Screen Shot

06. Put Notepad and Wordpad in the Send To menu.
. Purpose:To make it quicker and easier to view and review files.
. Method:
  • Open the folder with the System Files (see Item 04).
  • Drill down to Profiles \ Administrator \ SendTo. Screen Shot
  • Add a shortcut in the SendTo folder to Notepad. The the executable (notepad.exe) is located in the System Files folder.
  • Add a shortcut in the SendTo folder to Wordpad. The executable (write.exe) is located in the System32 folder.
. Note:
  • To use: when in Explorer, right click on a file name and select the Send To option on the context menu.

07. Install a Printer.
. Purpose:To set up a device to a server.
. Method:
  • Open the Add Printer applet from the Printers control module.
  • Select My Computer.
  • For this exercise, scroll down the list of Available Ports and select the File port and click Next. Screen Shot
    • This will create a Postscript file of a print job. This is useful when sending a print project out to a service bureau.
    • In most cases select LPT1.
  • Select Manufacturer: Generic and Printer: Generic / Text Only. Screen Shot
    • If a device is attached, select the actual Manufacturer and Model.
    • If not listed, acquire the necessary drivers and use Have Disk... to install
  • Printer name: PrinterXX, where XX is the number of the machine in the classroom.
  • Select Shared. The Share Name is PrinterXX.
  • No, do not print a test page.
  • If a dialog box asks for the CD-ROM, browse to the location of the I386 directory on the local hard drive.
. Note:
  • In the syntax of NT, a "Printer" is the software control created with the Add Printer applet. The physical printer is called a "Printer Device".
    • It's possible to set up multiple Printers that point to the same Printer Device, with each Printer having different Permissions, Time Access, etc.
    • It's also possible to set up one Printer sending jobs to multiple Printer Devices. In this case, "pooling" of Printer Devices requires that the devices be the same make and model.

08. Install a Network Printer.
. Purpose:To access a device on a remote server.
. Method:
  • Open the Add Printer applet from the Printers control module.
  • Select Network printer server.
  • Browse a domain and select a printer from another machine. Screen Shot
  • No, do not print a test page.
. Note:
  • In the syntax of NT, a "Printer" is the software control created with the Add Printer applet. The physical printer is called a "Printer Device".
    • It's possible to set up multiple Printers that point to the same Printer Device, with each Printer having different Permissions, Time Access, etc.
    • It's also possible to set up one Printer sending jobs to multiple Printer Devices. In this case, "pooling" of Printer Devices requires that the devices be the same make and model.

10. Create an Emergency Boot Disk
. Purpose:An essential Adminstrator's tool to use in case a machine fails to boot up.
. Method:
  • Format a floppy with the FAT file system.
  • Copy the following Boot files (found in System partition) to the floppy:
    • BOOT.INI
    • NTDETECT.COM
    • NTLDR
. Note:
  • Make sure that the disk is formatted under NT and not another OS, such as Win95.
  • This Emergency Boot Disk is not to be confused with the Emergency Repair Disk.

11a. Change the CD drive letter to R:
. Purpose:Place the CD drive letter toward the end of the alphabet so that if additional drives or partitions are added, the CD drive letter stays the same. This is important for efficient access of a CD drive on a remote machine.
. Method:
  • Open the Disk Administrator under Adminstrative Tools.
  • Select the CD drive by hightlight the partion rectangle.
  • Open Tools \ Assign Drive Letter... and change the letter to R. Screen Shot
  • Keep the Disk Administrator open for Item 11b.

11b. Add a new 100MB NTFS partition and edit the Boot.ini file if necessary.
. Purpose:To add usable disk resources.
. Discussion:A designator is a piece of software that manages the assignment of drive letters to both local and remote network resources or shared drives. When access to the lettered drive is requested, the designator substitutes the resource's network address for the drive letter before the request is sent to the redirector. An IDE drive on a PC machine can only be divided into 4 partitions. To get around this limitation, there are 3 Primary partitions, which are designated by a single drive letter. The 4th partition, called the Extgended partition, can have multiple drive letters, with each letter designating a Logical partition. These logical partitions are treated as if they are actual physical partitions of the hard drive by the operating system, but they in fact all located on the 4th partition.

A source of confusion is that one part of NT identifies drives and partitions using LETTERS. Another part of NT identifies the partitions of a drive with NUMBERS. LETTERS are assigned in the order that drives or partitions are created or added; they can be changed arbitrarily; and they do not need to be consecutive. NUMBERS are assigned in the order that partitions of a drive are created. For example:
  • Primary partitions are numbered in order first, starting with "1".
  • Logical partitions are then numbered in order.
  • If a new Primary partition is added, then the new Primary partition gets the next number after the last existing Primary partition, and the Logical drives are shifted up one number.
  • For example:
    • An existing Primary partition is designated by Number 1, because it is the first Primary partition, and Letter C: by convention.
    • Two existing Logical partitions are designated by Numbers 2 and 3, because there are no other Primary partitions, and by Letters D: and E:
    • A new Primary partition will take Number 2, because it is the 2nd Primary partition; and
    • The existing Logical partition designations are shifted to Numbers 3 and 4.
    • The new Primary partition is given Letter F: This way, existing mapping schemes won't be disrupted.
  • Just to add to the potential confusion, Physical Drives are also numbered, starting with "0"
  • This becomes an issue because the Boot.ini file designates partitions using the partition NUMBERS and IS NOT automatically updated if a new Primary partition is added.

. Method:
  • In the Disk Administrator, highlight the Free area on the right of the partition bar.
  • Open Partition\Create... (In some cases, a warning screen about DOS compatibility will pop up. Click Yes.)
  • Enter 100 in the Create partition of size box and click OK. Screen Shot
  • The partition has been created, but is unformatted. Screen Shot
  • Open Partition\Commit Changes Now... and Yes.
  • A dialog box will prompt to update the Boot.ini file.
  • Highlight the new partition.
  • Open Tools\Format and set the File System type to NTFS.
  • Changing, or in this case creating, the formatting will erase all data. With a new partition there is no data to lose. Screen Shot
  • Make sure that the C: partition remains the Active partition. Highlight the C: partition. Open the Partition menu. Verify that the Mark Active menu item is grayed out. If not, select it. Screen Shot
  • Close Disk Administrator and open Explorer.
  • Change the properties of the Boot.ini file by deselecting the Read-only box. Screen Shot
  • Open Boot.ini is Notepad
  • Change the old Logical partition number(s) to the new number(s) Screen Shot
  • Save and Close Boot.ini.
. Note:
  • If the Boot.ini file is not changed to reflect the new partition numbering, when the machine reboots the Boot.ini file will look to the new Primary partition for the NT system files, will not find them there, and will be unable to continue the boot up operation.



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02 July 1999: Initial posting