Foreword

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We began in earnest on Microsoft Windows 2000 in August 1996. About three and a half years later, on December 15, 1999, we released Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2000 Advanced Server to manufacturing. With more than 5000 people contributing in one way or another, Windows 2000 represents the single largest operating system effort ever within Microsoft and probably within the entire industry. It also presents the most reliable and comprehensive system we have ever produced. It was quite a journey.

Today, Windows 2000 runs some of the largest Internet Web sites and enterprises in the world and is quickly becoming the standard client operating system for businesses and even some homes. Windows 2000 includes an amazing amount of technology. It can be used for desktop or laptop systems, and an astonishing array of servers, including file, print, Web, transactioning, dial-in, routing, streaming media, database, line-of-business applications, and many others. Understanding all these pieces is a daunting task. But if you start at the core concepts of the system and work out, the puzzle fits together a lot easier.

If you're like me, you like to figure out how things really work. Reading "how to use" books or standard Help information has never been sufficient for me. If you understand how something works internally, you know how to better use it, maximize performance and security, diagnose failures, and frankly have more fun. That's what this book is about.

David and Mark have done an outstanding job detailing the real "inside" technical story of Windows 2000. And the tools that are highlighted (or included) are a great resource for direct hands-on training and diagnostics work. After you read this book, you'll have a much greater understanding of how the system fits together, the improvements done as part of this release, and how to get the most out of the system.

I know Windows 2000 pretty well, but reading this book taught me a few things about the system that I didn't know. So open the book and open the hood on one of the most impressive operating systems ever created.

Jim Allchin
Group Vice President, Platforms
Microsoft Corporation