Windows 2000 Requirements
Windows 2000 Professional:
133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU.
64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum; more memory generally improves responsiveness.
2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1 GB of free space. (Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network.)
Windows 2000 Professional supports single and dual CPU systems.
Windows 2000 Server:
133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU.
256 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum [128 MB minimum supported; 4 gigabytes (GB) maximum].
2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1.0 GB free space. (Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network.)
Windows 2000 Server supports up to four CPUs on one machine.
Windows 2000 Advanced Server:
133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU.
256 MB of RAM recommended minimum (128 MB minimum supported; 8 GB maximum).
2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1.0 GB free space. (Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network.)
Windows 2000 Advanced Server supports up to eight CPUs on one machine.
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server:
8-way capable or higher server (supports up to 32-way).
Pentium III Xeon processors or higher.
256 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended.
2 gigabyte (GB) hard disk with a minimum of 1 GB free space. (Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network.)
CD-ROM or DVD drive.
VGA or higher resolution monitor.
Windows 2000 Boot Process
A successful boot process on an Intel-based computer running Win2K takes the following six steps to complete:
Step 1 - POST - Power On Self Test. This is something that all computers will perform, regardless of the Operating System that is installed on it. This step is only mentioned because a working hardware platform is necessary for a successful boot. During the POST, a computer will typically test its memory, verify that it has all necessary hardware, such as a keyboard. After checking itself, the computer will allow adapter cards (such as SCSI cards) to run their own POSTs. After the POST, the computer will locate a boot device, and load the MBR (Master Boot Record) into memory, which in turn locates the active partition and loads the boot sector into memory. Up to this point, the computer's hardware has played the active role. Without properly functioning hardware, the operating system doesn't matter much. At this point it is good to know that About.com also has the best site on the Internet for PC Support, complete with a great newsletter, an interactive forum, and a chat room. Even if your computer is booting and running fine right now, this site is a great resource for tips and information your computer.
Step 2 - Choose the OS. NTLDR is the key component of this step. It will use the files Ntdetect.com, boot.ini, and bootsect.dos (for dual-boot machines). At the beginning of this step, the screen will display the "OS Loader V5.0" message on the screen. When NTLDR runs, it switches the processor into 32-bit flat memory mode (until this point the computer was running in real mode (just like your old 8086 or 8088 CPU). It then starts the appropriate mini-file system (e.g.:FAT, NTFS), so that it can read the files from the disk. It will then read the Boot.ini file, and display the boot menu on the screen. If an OS other than Windows 2000 is selected, NTLDR then loads the bootsect.dos file and passes control to it, which then boots the other OS. If a Windows 2000 OS is selected, then NTLDR runs Ntdetect.com to gather information about the computer's hardware. It is also in this step when you can choose to press F8 for troubleshooting and advanced startup options. Ntdetect detects the following hardware components:
Computer ID
Bus/adapter type
SCSI adapters
video adapters
keyboard
Com ports
Parallel ports
Floppy disks
Mouse/pointing devices
Floating-point coprocessor
Once Ntdetect.com has collected the hardware information, NTLDR will load Ntoskrnl and pass that information to it.
Step 3 - Kernel Load. This phase begins wtih the loading of ntoskrnlexe, along with the file hall.dll. NTLDR will also read the SYSTEM registry key into memory, and select the hardware configuration and control set (from the Registry) that will be used for this boot. If you have more than one hardware profile created, you could select it at this point in the boot sequence. NTLDR will also load any device drivers that have a start value (again from the Registry) of 0x0. If you add the switch /SOS in the boot.ini, you will be able to see the drivers listed on the screen as they are loaded. At this point all of these files have been loaded into memory.
Step 4 - Kernel Initialization. Once Ntoskrnl.exe is initialized, it creates the Clone control set by copying the current control set. It will also create the HARDWARE key in the Registry using the information gathered by earlier by ntdetect.com. Ntoskrnl.exe will then initialize the drivers loaded earlier, and will then scan the Registry for device drivers that have a start value of 0x1.
Step 5 - Services Load. This step begins with the starting of the Session Manager (Smss.exe). It will run the programs listed in its BootExecute Registry entry, as well as starting the required subsystems. The Win32 subsystem will then start Winlogon.exe, which starts the Local Security Administration (Lsass.exe), and the Ctrl+Alt+Delete window appears. The Service Controller (Screg.exe) will check the Registry for services with a start value of 0x2, and will load them. Services can be loaded simultaneously, but dependent on their dependencies. Services with start values of 0x3 are started manually, and services with start values of 0x4 are disabled.
Step 6 - Logon. The logon prompt will appear during the previous step, but it begins the final step in the boot-up process. A boot is not considered successful or completed until a user logs in. After a successful logon, the Clone control set from Step 4 is copied to the LastKnownGood control set. This makes it available as an advanced boot option in the later half of Step 2 for the next boot. What this means is that if you install a bad device driver that renders your computer unbootable, you can press F8 during Step 2, and choose to use the LastKnownGood control set. Since this control set was created before you installed the bad driver, your system will load without trying to start the driver, allowing you to boot successfully.
Knowing these steps (which I have organized/summarized myself - don't memorize these specific steps for the exam...) can help you immensely when having problems booting. You can see how far you have made it in the boot process, which can help you determine which part of your system is having problems when booting. If you have specific questions, or would like to discuss more about the Windows 2000 boot process, or Windows 2000/NT, or any related topic, please feel free to post your questions or comments on the Focus on Windows NT/2000 forum, or visit the Chat room to exchange information, ideas and opinions with other NT'ers.
Top 10 Windows 2000 registry tweaks.
10. Delete roaming profiles.
When a user who has a roaming profile logs off a workstation, a copy of the roaming profile remains, consuming space on the local hard disk. To delete cached profiles at logoff, go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon subkey and set the DeleteRoamingCache value to 1.
9. Add a prelogon dialog box to display a user greeting or an authorized users only warning.
To alter the welcome dialog box, go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon subkey and change the LegalNoticeText value to a string such as This is the corporate ACME server. To set the dialog box's title bar, change the LegalNoticeCaption value to a string such as Unauthorized access prohibited.
8. Add a Copy To folder option to Windows Explorer's context menu.
Through regedit, go to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \AllFilesystemObjects \shellex \ContextMenuHandlers subkey. From the Edit menu, select New, Key. Type Copy To, and press Enter. Go to the new Copy To key, double-click the (Default) value, and set the value to {C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}.
7. Disable CD-ROM AutoRun.
Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet \Services Cdrom subkey and set the AutoRun value to 0.
6. Speed up your Start menu and taskbar.
You can reduce the time that the Start menu takes to display its submenus. Go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Control Panel\Desktop subkey and set the MenuShowDelay value to 100.
5. Don't display the most recent username.
On shared systems, I prefer to turn off the display of the most recent logon name. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows NT\Current-Version\Winlogon subkey and set the DontDisplayLastUserName value to 1.
4. Open a command prompt from the current Windows Explorer location.
Use regedit to navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \Folder \shell. Select Edit, New, Key, and enter CmdPrompt in the dialog box. Double-click (Default), and enter the name that you want to display when you right-click the directory (e.g., Command Prompt Here). Then, select Edit, New, Key and enter a key under CmdPrompt named command (in lowercase). Double-click (Default) and enter the path to your cmd.exe program, followed by "%L" (e.g., C:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe /k cd "%L").
3. Change My Computer to the actual computer name and username.
Open regedt32 and go to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \CLSID{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} subkey. Copy the contents of the key's LocalizedString subkey (e.g., @C:\WINNT\system32\shell32.dll,-9216@1033,My Computer) to Notepad. Delete the LocalizedString subkey, then recreate it using the data type REG_EXPAND_SZ. Copy Notepad's contents into the new subkey, and change My Computer to %username% on %computername%.
2. Prevent users from changing My Computer.
After you rename My Computer, use regedt32 to change the access permissions on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Classes \CLSID{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} subkey. Remove Everyone:Full Control, and add Authenticated Users:Read.
1. Remove My Computer from the desktop.
Simply delete the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \CLSID{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B 30309D} subkey. Be sure to first use regedit's Export Registry File option to save this subkey, in case you ever want to restore My Computer.
