Windows NT 3.1 and 3.5

You can adjust most settings in your .INI files or, even more easily, through Control Panel. But when you need to make low-level changes, you can get at the equivalent information using the Windows NT Registry. The key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\IniFileMapping contains subkeys that represent each .INI file in the system and provides the equivalent registry location. For instance, the SYSTEM.INI subkey contains a 386Enh line, which lists the mapping as SYS:Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WOW\386Enh. SYS: indicates the entry is for the system rather than a user. If you examine HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\WOW, you'll see a 386Enh subkey containing the information you'd find in the [386Enh] section of Windows 3.1's SYSTEM.INI file.

Use the NWLink protocol shipped with Windows NT to provide application services to NetWare clients. Install it by going to Control Panel/Network and clicking on the Add Software button. Select NWLink IPX/SPX Compatible Transport from the list, and click on the Continue button. This copies NWLink files. Click on Continue. After bindings are run you'll see the NWLink Configuration dialog box. The defaults should work for most systems. Click on OK. You'll need to shut down and restart Windows NT to use NWLink. Applications that use NetBIOS commands to provide low-level I/O will work with NetWare client software when run on an NT server using NWLink. In other respects, NWLink?? functions like the NetBEUI protocol and can even replace it for communications between NT systems.

NetWare Requester (NWNT.EXE) gives you what you need to connect Windows NT systems to NetWare servers. Download it from CompuServe (look under Client Software/Windows NT in the NOVFILES download area). Execute the file, which is a self-extracting archive, then install Novell NetWare Support Software according to the instructions (in current versions, these are in a file called NWNT.TXT in the .ZIP file). Switch to an ODI network card driver (the NDIS drivers the built-in Windows NT networking uses don't work with the NetWare redirector). If you want the built-in and NetWare networking supported on a single network card, you'll also need Novell's ODI support for NDIS (ODINSUP) driver. It's included in the NWNT archive. If the installation doesn't work, there's probably an interrupt conflict with the network card. Or, you may need to designate a preferred server for the NetWare Requester (see NWNT.TXT for details). It's a good idea to assign the same user account name and password to both NetWare and the built-in Windows NT networking systems.

Improve Windows NT and Windows NT Advanced Server systems' performance by adjusting the way the network Server object uses memory. Start Control Panel/Network, select the Server object and click on the Configure button. You'll then have four choices for optimizing the server. Minimize Memory Used is a good choice for workstations and servers on very small networks (up to five sessions). Balance is good for servers on medium-sized networks (up to 64 sessions). Maximize Throughput for File Sharing is best for Advanced Server systems that provide resource sharing for large networks (more than 64 sessions) and Maximize Throughput for Network Applications is best for Advanced Servers like SQL Server, that provide application services for large networks. Reboot the computer after you change this setting.

Enhance Windows NT's performance by tuning the size and location of your swap file. First, run Control Panel/System/Virtual Memory to see what the initial size of the swap file is set to, and compare this with the size of PAGEFILE.SYS. If it's larger than the initial size, Windows NT has expanded it dynamically. It's probably too small, so set it to a larger size. You can also examine the Committed Bytes and Commit Limit Counters in the Performance Monitor Memory object. When Committed Bytes approaches the Commit Limit, the page file will expand dynamically, and that slows performance. High-performance systems--especially servers--can run better by distributing page files across multiple disk drives. Use Control Panel/System/Virtual Memory to add a page file for each available disk. This works only for systems with multiple hard disks. Systems with multiple partitions (and logical drives) on one hard disk perform most efficiently with a single swap file.

If security's not a primary concern, eliminate the Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to Log In, and the need to enter a user name and password each time the system starts by modifying your system configuration. Run REGEDT32, and add two new REG_SZ variables to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon key. The new variables should be named DefaultPassword (which should be set to the password used by the user name specified by the DefaultUserName variable) and AutoAdminLogon (which should be set to 1). Also check to see that the DefaultDomain variable has a legal value (this should be the local Windows NT Advanced Server domain on Advanced Server networks, or the Machine Name on stand-alone Windows NT systems). Then exit the Registry and log off. The system will automatically log you on using the specified default user name and password. Note: Because this step stores a clear-text password in the Windows NT registry, it violates C2 security guidelines and should not be used on secure systems.

Windows NT Workstation and Server come with a workgroup-level version of MS Mail similar to the one WFWG provides. You can upgrade this version to a full MS Mail 3.5 post office, which allows you to connect to other post offices and run gateways to third-party mail systems. It includes a Windows NT-based Multitasking Transfer Agent (MTA) that supports multiple gateways.

Install Windows NT's FTP Server software so network users with UNIX-style File Transfer Protocol (FTP) can access your system. Run Control Panel/Network, click on the Add Software button and select FTP server (you may need to install TCP/IP support first). NT will ask you to designate the source for the files (the installation CD or floppy drive), copy the necessary files and present an FTP Service dialog box. Specify a home directory for FTP users. Make it a directory you don't mind making publicly available, not the root of the system partition. You can also decide whether to allow anonymous FTP connections, and whether to make these the only connections you'll accept (anonymous users have Guest-level access). When you're satisfied with the FTP settings, click on OK twice and then reboot to complete the installation.

To make Windows NT shared resources (files and printers) accessible to WFWG machines (and Windows NT systems that aren't members of the same Windows NT Advanced Server Domain), enable the built-in Guest account. Log on as the administrator, run User Manager (or User Manager for Domains on a Windows NT Advanced Server) and double-click on the account named Guest. By default, the Account Disabled check box is checked. Remove the check to make shared resources available to those without accounts on your system. Now, any shared resource you gave the group everyone access to in File Manager is visible and accessible to guests. To keep guests out of certain shares, give everyone the No Access permission and override this by giving Full Access or other Permissions to specified user groups.

If you're adding Windows NT workstations or servers to LAN Manager 2.*x* domains, enable LM-compatible broadcasts in the NT systems. Broadcasting is a technique LAN Manager servers use to announce their presence on the net to other LAN Manager systems. By default, Windows NT doesn't provide these broadcasts. Instead, it relies on the BrowseMaster technology developed for WFWG. As a result, Windows NT systems are invisible on the network. To turn broadcasts on, run the Control Panel/Network icon, select the Server object and click on the Configure button. When the Server Configuration dialog box appears, check the Make Browser Broadcasts to LAN Manager 2.*x* Clients box. When you restart, NT systems will be visible to LAN Manager users.

The Windows NT Advanced Server Upgrade for LAN Manager lets you upgrade LAN Manager servers to Windows NT. It includes special programs for automatically migrating the user database, shared resources, server configuration, access control lists (permissions) and so on. It costs significantly less than the regular Windows NT Advanced Server package. You'll need to convert LAN Manager servers to Windows NT Advanced Servers, rather than to the basic Windows NT package, in order to retain their centralized domain administration features. You can mix Windows NT Advanced Servers and LAN Manager servers in a single network, but the primary domain controller must be a Windows NT Advanced Server. Plus, LAN Manager servers won't be able to validate log-on requests from users attempting to connect with global accounts from a trusted Windows NT Advanced Server domain.

You can monitor the performance of both physical and logical disk drives using Windows NT's Performance Monitor application. First, turn on disk performance counters (they're turned off by default) by starting a Windows NT Command Prompt and typing
diskperf -y
at the command line. After you restart you can use the various counters in the Performance Monitor's Physical Disk and Logical Disk objects to monitor performance. In particular, look at the Avg. Disk Bytes/Transfer and Avg. Disk Seconds/Transfer. If you divide the former by the latter you'll get an average disk transfer rate in Bytes/Sec. Check these values periodically to monitor disk fragmentation and other factors that may inhibit disk performance.

Windows NT comes with a DOS-based character-mode installation program (WINNT.EXE) for over-the-network installation from a central shared CD or hard disk. To use it, share the CD-ROM on the network. Or, for better performance, copy the contents of the CD-ROM to a hard disk directory and share that on the network. Then install any DOS-compatible network access software (WFWG, LANtastic, NetWare or Microsoft's Workgroup Connection 5-pack) on the target machine that will let it access the shared installation files. Next, complete the appropriate configuration steps to gain access to the network and you'll be able to run the DOS WINNT.EXE program directly from the DOS command line (don't run it from an Enhanced-mode Windows DOS prompt because the application wasn't designed to run within Windows). WINNT.EXE automatically copies over the files from the source CD or hard disk, boots NT and continues the installation from there. Be sure to install the necessary network software components so NT can use the network. To customize your installation, edit the DOSNET.INF file in the directory with WINNT.EXE and type
WINNT /?
to examine the possible control switches for remote installation.

Windows NT ships with both a single-CD and 23-diskette installation in the box, but you can't use the diskettes with a CD-based installation. To get around this (for instance, if you need to install additional drivers on a portable machine that was originally set up using a network-based installation from the CD), use the following procedure from a Windows NT Command Prompt:

1. Rename all .INF files in the \WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory (or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directory) to .ICD.

2. Copy all .IN_ (.IN$ in beta versions) files from the diskettes to the \WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory (or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directory).

3. Type
expand *.in_
.

4. Type
rename *.in_ *.inf
.

5. Compare a directory list of .ICD files with .INF files. Eliminate any .INF files that don't have .ICD equivalents (these most likely are .INI files).

You should now be able to use the diskettes to install drivers. To switch back to the CD-based installation, change the .INF files to .IFD files and the .ICD files to .INF files.

When a Windows NT system has trouble accessing the network, you can debug it with the net send command. Normally, you'd use this command to send alert-type text messages to users, such as "Server going down in 10 seconds, please log off!'' But the /BROADCAST command-line switch makes it useful for debugging as well. In this mode, net send uses a low-level datagram broadcast that all users receive on the local segment, regardless of whether the sending machine is logged onto the net. To use it, type the following at a Windows NT command prompt:
net send /BROADCAST Tommy can you hear me?
If the system is working properly, the text message will pop up on the screens of all LAN Manager and Windows NT systems on the local network segment. If it doesn't, even low-level data packets aren't being transmitted. This indicates the network card is misconfigured or the wrong driver is installed.

Windows NT's built-in networking can participate in two very different kinds of administrative groups: workgroups, as used in WFWG; and domains, as used by the Windows NT Advanced Server. Workgroups are ad hoc groupings of workstations and peer servers for administrative convenience. Each system maintains its own user account database and is administratively separate from all the others. Domains have a single account database, maintained by the Primary Domain Controller, which must be a Windows NT Advanced Server. Systems participate in the domain log-on through the Primary Domain Controller, or one of its backups that replicate the Primary Domain Controller's user database. Windows NT workstations can participate as members of an Advanced Server domain or can be outside of it, but only domain members can be centrally administered. This means if you use Windows NT workstations with Windows NT Advanced Servers, you should set them up as domain members. Otherwise, they must be set up as standalone workgroup members. Although you can mix the two, the result is difficult to administer.

The Windows NT Event Viewer application can provide an audit trail of access to files and directories in New Technology File System (NTFS) disk partitions. This can be useful for debugging performance problems or for security purposes. Enable auditing (it's disabled by default) by running User Manager and selecting Policies/Audit. You can choose a variety of events to audit and can audit them based on success or failure. Next, run File Manager, select the NTFS file or directory you want to audit and select Security/Auditing. You can then add the names of particular users or groups whose access you want to audit, and specify which events to record. Results of the audit will appear as events in the Event Viewer's Security log.

Visual Basic programs may crash when run with Windows NT on RISC systems. That's because early versions of the Visual Basic 3.0 runtime (VBRUN300.DLL) were compiled with 386-specific code. The Intel *x*86 emulator in RISC versions of NT emulates a 286. To correct this, get a new copy of VBRUN300.DLL from the Visual Basic forum on CompuServe.

The system font Windows NT uses (VGA by default) may be unreadable on systems with very high-resolution displays. For a more comfortable font, edit the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_

MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\

Windows NT\CurrentVersion\

GRE_Initialize. You'll find entries for fixed, system and OEM fonts, and you can change these to any font from the .FON files in the \WINNT\SYSTEM or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. The VGA*.FON, 8514*.FON and (on RISC systems) JAZZ*.FON files generally work best though, so you may want to pick one other than the one you're already using--possibly in a different size.. Once you make the change, restart your computer.

To use Windows NT Advanced Server's built-in Macintosh support, run Control Panel/Network, click on the Add Software button, select Services for Macintosh and click on Continue. The Services for Macintosh files will load, and you'll see a Configuration dialog box. This allows you to designate a network card to bind with (it supports the AppleTalk protocol on Ethernet cards, as well as separate AppleTalk cards installed in the server) and an AppleTalk Zone to participate in and decide whether to support AppleTalk routing. You don't have to reboot the computer; just start it from Control Panel/Services, and control it from Control Panel/MacFile. Now you can create a Macintosh-compatible directory structure, called a volume, on an NTFS partition. In File Manager, select a directory for Mac users, then select MacFile/Create Volume. You can control the volume name, password, whether the volume is read-only and whether guests can access it. Clicking on the Permissions button allows you to selectively control various access privileges for various types of users. Once you're satisfied, OK takes you back. Mac users can now attach to your server using the Chooser accessory, and can then see and use files in the shared directory space. You can also share the same directory tree as a regular Windows NT share, making it available to DOS, Windows, WFWG, OS/2, Windows NT and LAN Manager users as a shared NTFS directory.

Set up a Program Information File (PIF) for DOS and OS/2 applications that need special environmental parameters. PIFs can include custom AUTOEXEC.NT and CONFIG.NT files, which provide an application with such things as extra memory, the start-up directory, multitasking options, shortcut keys and timer emulation. To create a PIF, start PIF Editor from Program Manager's Main group, specify PIF options using PIF Editor and select Save As from PIF Editor's File menu.

Improve 16-bit Windows application performance on Windows NT by starting applications in separate sessions. Create a Program Manager icon for the application, then highlight the application's Program Manager icon and select File/Properties. When the Program Item Properties dialog appears, check the Run in Separate Memory Space box. The program will now execute in its own memory space, preemptively tasked against other applications in the system. This can provide significant benefits for applications that monopolize the system, such as Microsoft Mail Remote. You can also provide separate sessions for applications launched from the Windows NT command line by typing:

start <program_name> /SEPARATE

You can change display driver settings on the fly in Windows NT. Select Control Panel/Display and you'll get a Display Settings dialog. To change the screen resolution, adjust the Desktop Area slide control. To change the display color depth, select an entry from the Color Palette listing. You can also set the font size and display refresh frequency. Click on the Test button to see if the new settings work correctly, and when you're satisfied with the result, click on OK. Restart Windows NT to install the new settings.

Customize Windows NT's mouse pointer cursor by launching Control Panel/Cursors. Select one of the standard system cursors, then Browse for a new cursor (.CUR) or animated cursor (.AMI) file to load. Windows NT adds support for cursor schemes in which all the system cursors are changed at once. The Windows NT Resource Kit includes tools for designing your own cursors--static or animated.

Windows NT Workstation's and Server's built-in Remote Access Service (RAS) allows you to connect to the LAN from a remote computer. To set up RAS, launch Control Panel/Network and click on the Add Software button. When the Add Network Software list appears, select Remote Access Service and click on Continue. You'll be asked for the pathname to the distribution files (on diskette or CD), and then you'll be presented with a Remote Access Service configuration dialog. Configure RAS for your modem, then restart Windows NT. You control RAS from the Remote Access Service group in Windows NT Program Manager.

The Windows NT Resource Kit contains a remote command-line utility (REMOTE.EXE) that provides a complete remote command prompt for running batch files and other character-mode tasks accross a network. Select the computer you want remote jobs to run on, open a command prompt, and type
REMOTE /S cmd.exe *unique-id*
, where unique-id is a character string that uniquely identifies a particular remote session, such as
MyRemote1
. You can now gain access to the remote session from any other Windows NT machine on your network by typing
REMOTE /C *computer-name unique-id*
, where computer-name is the name of the computer on which the REMOTE /S session was run. By default, REMOTE /S provides no security--anyone with access to a Windows NT system and knowlege of the unique-id for a particular session may access it. To restrict access, add */U domain\user* to limit the session to use by a particular user from a particular domain.

All Windows NT distribution CDs include a runtime Microsoft Access database with full documentation on Windows NT system messages. To set up the database, insert the CD and select Run from Program Manager's File menu. When the Run dialog appears, click on the Browse button and select SETUP.EXE from the \SUPPORT\WINNTMSG directory.

Increase disk capacity in Windows NT 3.51 with NTFS' built-in compression feature. Compression is transparent to the user, and you can set it on a per-directory or per-file basis. You control it from NT File Manager's File/Compress and File/Uncompress menu entries, or with the COMPACT command-line function. The performance is good enough to use full-time on both workstations and servers.

Improve NT disk performance with Diskeeper from Executive Software (818-547-2050). This is a background defragmenter that works on both NTFS and DOS-style File Allocation Table (FAT) partitions. On badly fragmented NTFS partitions, there can be up to a 6:1 performance improvement.

Manage Windows NT servers and workstations from Windows (or WFWG) using Microsoft's client-based network administration tools. These are bundled with Windows NT Server and ship on the installation CD in the \CLIENTS\SRVTOOLS directory. Connect to the NT Server from the client on which you want to run the administration tools (because the tools are Win32s based, this must be an 80386SX with at least 4MB of RAM), access the CD's CLIENTS\SRVTOOLS\NETSETUP directory and run SETUP.EXE. This automatically installs the Win32s libraries (if required), copies the Network Client Administrator application files and creates a Network Administration group in Program Manager. Reboot the computer and you can launch the Network Client Administrator tools by double-clicking on their icons. These tools don't support Windows 95--if you need to manage NT Server from a Win 95 machine, you'll need the Windows 95 Resource Kit, which includes versions of the Win95 tools.

Both Windows NT Server and Workstation come with NetWare client software. The server includes a NetWare gateway that allows Windows, WFWG, NT and Win95 systems to access data on NetWare Servers. Log in on an account with administrative rights, run Control Panel/Network, click on the Add Software button and select Client Service for NetWare (on NT Workstations) or Gateway Service for NetWare (on NT Servers). Then follow the on-screen instructions to set up NetWare access.

Enable WAN bridging by resetting the RemoteListen parameter to Windows NT Remote Access Services (RAS). By default, RemoteListen is set to 1, which enables only messaging traffic from the LAN to remote clients. By changing this parameter to 2, you can enable all types of traffic--including sharing resources, which allows RAS to bridge between LANs. Run the Windows NT configuration Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE), select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\

RemoteAccess\Parameters\NetBiosGateway, double-click on RemoteListen and set it to 2. Microsoft doesn't recommend this procedure, because it can produce an unacceptable drain on network resources, but it's fine for bridging small networks with only a few machines.

Simplify TCP/IP configuration with NT 3.5 Server's built-in DHCP and WINS support. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) automate the assignment of IP addresses and network names on Windows NT workstations. Setting up clients for use with DHCP/WINS is easy--just install TCP/IP from Control Panel/Networks and check the Enable Automatic DHCP Configuration box. The Microsoft Windows NT TCP/IP guide that comes with Windows NT Server covers server configuration.

Extend Windows NT's built-in TCP/IP to UNIX networks with third-party software. Network File Service (NFS) support is available in products from NetManage (408-973-7171), Beame & Whiteside (919-831-8989) and Intergraph (800-345-4856). X/Windows graphics are available from Intergraph, Digital Equipment's Windows NT group (800-DIGITAL), AGE Logic (619-455-8600), Hummingbird Communications (905-470-1203) and VisionWare (415-325-2113).