Microsoft windows XP professional administrator's guide

TEAMFLY

Team-Fly®

Microsoft® Windows® XP

Professional

Administrator’s Guide

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Microsoft® Windows® XP

Professional

Administrator’s Guide

Jerry Lee Ford, Jr.

Publisher:

Stacy L. Hiquet

Marketing Manager:

Heather Hurley

Acquisitions Editor:

Todd Jensen

Technical Reviewer:

Dallas Releford

Copy Editor:

Ginny Kaczmarek

Interior Layout and

Project Management:

Argosy

Cover Designer:

Mike Tanamachi

Indexer:

Larry Sweazy

Proofreader:

Karen A. Gill

© 2003 by Premier Press, a division of Course Technology. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 1-931841-96-9

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To Mary, Alexander, William, and Molly.

Acknowledgments

There are a number of individuals who deserve credit for their work on this

book. I especially want to thank Todd Jensen, who served as the book’s acquisi￾tions editor, Ginny Kaczmarek for her work as copy editor, and the book’s pro￾ject editor, Karen Cheng. I also want to acknowledge the book’s technical editor,

Dallas G. Releford, who is an accomplished author with numerous computer

books and articles to his credit, for his thorough review and assistance in com￾pleting this book. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone else at Premier Press for all

their hard work.

About the Author

Jerry Lee Ford, Jr. is an author, an educator, and an IT professional with 14 years

of experience in information technology, including roles as an automation ana￾lyst, a technical manager, a technical support analyst, an automation engineer,

and a security analyst. Jerry is an MCSE and has also earned Microsoft’s MCP

and MCP+I certifications. In addition, he has a master’s degree in business

administration from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Vir￾ginia. Jerry is the author of nine other books, including Learn JavaScript in a

Weekend, Learn VBScript in a Weekend, and Microsoft Windows Shell Scripting and

WSH. He has over five years of experience as an adjunct instructor teaching net￾working courses in information technology. Jerry lives in Richmond, Virginia,

with his wife, Mary, and their children, William, Alexander, and Molly.

Contents at a Glance

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

PART I Windows XP Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1 Introducing Windows XP Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Installing and Upgrading to Windows XP Professional . . . 43

3 Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

4 Application Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

5 Printer and Fax Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

PART II Desktop Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

6 Configuring the Windows XP Start Menu, Taskbar,

and My Documents Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

7 Configuring Desktop Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

8 Configuring Accessibility Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

PART III Advanced Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

9 Security Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

10 Microsoft Management Consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

11 Disk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

12 Configuring and Administering System Files . . . . . . . . . 415

13 Performance Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

14 Shell Scripting and the WSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

PART IV Networking with Windows XP Professional . . 523

15 Supporting Mobile Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

16 Windows XP and TCP/IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

17 Supporting Internet Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

18 LAN Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625

19 Printer and Disk Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

PART V Windows XP Professional

Reference Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

A Windows XP Command Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689

B Troubleshooting System Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841

Contents at a Glance vii

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

PART I WINDOWS XP BASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 Introducing Windows XP Professional . . . . . . . . 3

Windows XP Professional Features and Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Enhanced User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Streamlined Installation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Better Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Improved Help and Support Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Stronger Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Improved Hardware and Software Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Better Networking and Remote Access Features . . . . . . . . . . 27

Comparing Windows Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Windows Me vs. Windows XP Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Windows 2000 Professional vs. Windows XP Professional . . 33

Windows XP Home Edition vs. Windows XP Professional . 34

Windows XP 64-Bit Edition vs. Windows XP Professional . 35

Navigating a Windows XP Login Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

The Boot Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Logging On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Logging Off and Shutting Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 2 Installing and Upgrading to Windows XP

Professional. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Installation Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Hardware and Software Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Hardware Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Generating an Incompatibility Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Researching the Windows Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Upgrading vs. Clean Install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Dual-Booting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Planning a Windows XP Professional Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Selecting the Right Windows XP File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Network Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Performing an Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Performing a Clean Install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Installing Over a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Migrating User Settings and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Files and Settings Transfer Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

User State Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Automated Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Answer and Uniqueness Database Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Ghosting and RIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Postinstallation Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Product Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Testing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Hardware Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Chapter 3 Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Introducing the Help and Support Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

The Help and Support Center Home Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Navigating the Help and Support Center Index . . . . . . . . . 103

Retrieve Previously Viewed Help Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Support Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Help and Support Center Configuration Options . . . . . . . . 106

Searching for Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Remote Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Remote Assistance Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Contents ix

Establishing a Remote Assistance Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Working with Remote Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Managing Invitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Offering Unsolicited Remote Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Help and Support Center Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Windows Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Hardware and Software Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Help and Support Center Troubleshooters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Configuring Windows XP Error Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Keeping Windows XP Up-to-Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Configuring Automatic Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Applying Automatic Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Uninstalling Automatic Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Chapter 4 Application Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Application Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

The Designed for Windows Logo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

The Windows Installer Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Using the Add or Remove Programs Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Adding a New Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Managing an Application’s Life Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Adding Windows Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Configuring Noncompatible Windows XP Applications . . . . . . 156

Using the Program Compatibility Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Manually Configuring Compatibility Settings . . . . . . . . . . 160

Scheduling Application Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Configuring the Task Scheduler Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Scheduling Tasks with the Scheduled Task Wizard . . . . . . . 164

Scheduling Tasks with the AT Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Using the Task Manager to Control Applications . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Terminating Nonresponsive Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

x Contents

TEAMFLY

Team-Fly®

Changing Application Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Other Application Management Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Application Error Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Optimizing Application Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Monitoring the Application Event Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Chapter 5 Printer and Fax Administration . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Windows XP Fax and Printer Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Fax Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Installing and Administering the Fax Application . . . . . . . . 182

Windows XP’s Printer Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Printer Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Printer Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Print Job Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Working with Network Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

PART II DESKTOP MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . 217

Chapter 6 Configuring the Windows XP Start Menu,

Taskbar, and My Documents Folder . . . . . . . . 219

Customizing the Windows XP Professional Start Menu . . . . . . 221

Configuring the Classic and Simple Start Menus . . . . . . . . 223

Start Menu Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Configuring the Individual User’s Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . 230

Configuring the Start Menu for All Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Configuring the Startup Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Customizing the Windows XP Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Using the Taskbar to Work with Open Applications . . . . . . 233

Configuring Taskbar Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Configuring Taskbar Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Working with the Notification Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Configuring the My Documents Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Contents xi

Managing User Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Setting Up a Roaming Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Setting Up a Mandatory User Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Controlling User Profiles Using Group Policy . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Chapter 7 Configuring Desktop Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Administering the Windows XP Professional Desktop . . . . . . . 248

Deploying a Standard Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Improving User Efficiency with Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Configuring the Windows XP Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Applying Desktop Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Customizing the Windows XP Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Setting Up a Screen Saver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Configuring Appearance Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Setting Resolution and Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Working with Desktop Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Creating Application Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Creating Folder Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Creating URL Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Working with Special Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Working with the Desktop Cleanup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Chapter 8 Configuring Accessibility Features . . . . . . . . 275

Accessibility Options Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Using the Accessibility Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Making Things Clearer with Magnifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Setting Up Narrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Configuring the On-Screen Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Managing Accessibility Options Using the Utility Manager . . . 287

Manually Configuring Accessibility Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Setting Keyboard Accessibility Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Setting Sound Accessibility Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

xii Contents

Setting Display Accessibility Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Setting Mouse Accessibility Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Setting General Accessibility Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Setting Accessibility Settings in Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . 300

PART III ADVANCED ADMINISTRATION . . . . . . . 301

Chapter 9 Security Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Overview of Security Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Controlling the Login Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Applying Password Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Setting Up Password-Protected Screen Savers . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Encrypting Data Stored on the Local Computer . . . . . . . . 307

Protecting Network Connections Using the Internet

Connection Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

User Account Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Examining Built-in User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Administering User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Administering NFTS Security Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Group Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Using the Group Policy Snap-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Configuring Security Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Monitoring Audit Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Turning Auditing On for Specific Windows Resources . . . . 332

Monitoring Audit Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Chapter 10 Microsoft Management Consoles . . . . . . . . . . 335

MMC Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Starting an MMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

MMC Snap-ins and Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Creating a Custom Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Contents xiii

Working with the Computer Management Console . . . . . . . . . 346

System Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Services and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Chapter 11 Disk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Managing Different File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Dual-Boot Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Converting from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Windows XP Disk Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Managing Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Working with the Disk Management Snap-in and

Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Using the Diskpart Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Disk Drive Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Administering Basic Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Administering Dynamic Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Common Disk Administration Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Applying Advanced NTFS Disk Management Features . . . . . . 393

Applying Disk Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Applying Disk Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Limiting Disk Consumption with Disk Quotas . . . . . . . . . 398

Performing Disk Maintenance Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Maintaining Disk Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Disk Defragmenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Removing Temporary Files to Free Up Additional Space . . 408

Chapter 12 Configuring and Administering

System Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Windows XP Professional System Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Working with the Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Modifying the Registry through the Control Panel . . . . . . . 421

xiv Contents