2.1 What Changed?
| I'll start by briefly summarizing a number of minor and often unnecessary changes that are likely to cause frustrated W2K administrators to say, "Why on earth did they do that?" Then I'll conclude the chapter with a quick summary of new features and enhancements that make WS2003 even better than W2K from the point of view of administering the platform. The changes listed here are more or less in the order you might encounter them as you begin administering the new platform.
2.1.1 Where Are the Icons?By default, the only icon on the WS2003 desktop is Recycle Bin, which can be a bit unnerving the first time you log on to a WS2003 machine. To make icons for My Computer, My Network Places, My Documents, and Internet Explorer visible on the desktop, do the following:
You can also hide/display all desktop icons at any time by:
2.1.2 Display PropertiesIf you've opened the Display Properties using the earlier procedure, you'll immediately notice that they've renamed some of the tabs and rearranged where the settings are found. There's a lot of this renaming and rearranging in WS2003, and it can be frustrating to administrators who are used to the way they've been performing common tasks in W2K. Table 2-1 compares the Display Properties tabs and settings for the two platforms. Table 2-1. Display properties tabs and settings in W2K versus WS2003
2.1.3 System PropertiesWhile we're right-clicking on desktop items, let's open the System Properties page by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties. Again, note that some of the tabs and settings for this commonly used item have been renamed and rearranged as detailed in Table 2-2. Table 2-2. System properties tabs and settings in W2K versus WS2003
2.1.4 Network ConnectionsRight-click on My Network Places and select Properties. In W2K, this opens the Network and Dial-up Connections window, but in WS2003 this window is called Network Connections ”another subtle name change. Exploring the various menu options available, note that:
now becomes:
even though it still refers only to dial-up connections. For more on network connections, see Connections in Chapter 4. 2.1.5 Start MenuLet's continue by examining the changes to the Start menu, the launching point for running applications on W2K and WS2003. There are a few improvements here, but there are also a lot of unnecessary changes that will require you to perform familiar actions 200 times in totally different ways (since psychologists say it takes about 200 repetitions of an action to form a habit). The most frustrating change to me is placing the All Programs option at the bottom of the Start menu in WS2003, when in W2K the equivalent Programs option is found near the top of the menu. Argh! Anyway, Table 2-3 summarizes the main differences between the Start menu in the two platforms. Table 2-3. Start menu in W2K versus WS2003
Of course, you can also switch to the good old Classic Start menu if you prefer by doing the following:
2.1.6 Administrative ToolsFortunately, the administrative tools haven't changed much from W2K to WS2003, but there are a few things that may trip you up initially. First, the default set of tools installed on a standalone server has changed somewhat, as Table 2-4 shows. The base platforms compared in this table are Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition. Table 2-4. Default set of administrative tools installed on W2K versus WS2003
While a few of these tools have been enhanced with new functionality in WS2003, some of them have also been changed in ways that might be more frustrating than helpful to administrators. A good example of this is the Routing and Remote Access console, in which the Routing and Remote Access Setup Wizard used to enable and configure RRAS has been completely redesigned without really adding that much new functionality (see Routing and Remote Access in Chapter 4 for more information). Another seemingly arbitrary change in functionality is Computer Management: the useful System Information node under System Tools in the W2K version of this tool has disappeared in the WS2003 version. As a result, to access System Information you now have to do the following:
Of course, you might consider starting System Information from the command line, but unfortunately its executable msinfo32.exe isn't in the default system path. To access it, you either have to type the full path ( C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\msinfo32.exe ) or add this path to your PATH environment variable. Alternatively, you can create a shortcut to the tool on your desktop or modify your Start menu. The point is, why make this change to Computer Management in the first place? Another seemingly arbitrary change is the omission of the Logical Drives node under Storage, but this is not as significant because the same information can be obtained from the Disk Management node anyway. For more on Computer Management, see Administrative Tools in Chapter 4. 2.1.7 Control PanelThere isn't much to trip you up regarding changes to Control Panel utilities, other than the following:
In addition, there are three new Control Panel utilities also found in XP, namely: Speech, Stored User Names and Passwords, and Taskbar and Start Menu. 2.1.8 Browse the WebLet's try one more thing: start Internet Explorer and see what happens. You'll see a dialog box saying,
This feature is one of the "secure out-of-the-box" enhancements of WS2003, which installs in a more-or-less locked-down state as opposed to W2K which installs in a more-or-less wide-open state. Basically what it means is that the security setting for the Internet zone is set to High, so if you want to browse a relatively benign site like Google, you can either:
The best solution is the first one, and in general you shouldn't be browsing the Web on a server anyway, use a workstation instead to download drivers and perform similar tasks. While this new security feature is probably to be commended ”who is going to read the Drudge Report on their server anyway ”don't you think Microsoft could have at least added *.microsoft.com to the Trusted Sites zone by default? After all, when you use Help and Support to search for information on some topic, the results list includes some links to Knowledge Base articles on support.microsoft.com. When you try to read those articles and all those security dialog boxes start popping up, it can be more than a bit annoying. |
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