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Drivers, Applications and Printers
Drivers
Windows 9x and 2000 are Plug and Play compliant which means that most device drivers are installed automatically. If a device is not detected, use the "Add New Hardware" control panel. This will launch a wizard that will build a database of drivers to choose from. If your device is not on the list, you can choose the "Have Disk" option and install a driver provided by the manufacturer. The image below shows this window from a Windows 98 system.
Windows NT is not PnP compatible, which means that drivers have to be installed using an installation CD from the manufacturer or using the specific control panel for the type of device.
Often, device manufacturers release updated drivers to correct bugs and provide added functionality. In Windows 9x/2000 drivers can be updated from the Device Manager by selecting the device, clicking the properties button, clicking the driver tab and then the update driver button. This will launch the "Update Device Driver Wizard".
Applications
In Windows, applications can either be installed by using running an installation program provided with the software(usually SETUP.EXE or INSTALL.EXE) or they can be installed using the "Add/Remove Programs" control panel. Utilities that are bundled with Windows can be installed and removed using the "Windows Setup" tab in the "Add/Remove Programs" control panel. Non-Windows application can usually be installed by copying the file(s) to the hard drive.
There are many ways to launch applications as follows:
- Click Start > Programs and select the application
- Click Start > Run and enter the path to the executable file
- From Windows Explorer, browse to the location of the executable file and double-click it
- From My Computer, browse to the location of the executable file and double-click it
- If a shortcut exists on the desktop or elsewhere in the file system, it can be double-clicked
Printing
Printers are installed using the "Add Printer Wizard" which can be launched by clicking on the "Add Printer" icon in the Printers control panel. An option will be presented to install the printer as a local or network printer. If the printer is attached directly to the computer or it is a Windows NT/2000 computer acting as a print server, the choice will be local. If there is a print server already configured for the printer, then the network option will be selected and the shared printer will need to be located. Another way to install network printers is to locate them in the network neighborhood, right click on the printer and select install. If the printer is to be shared, File and Print Sharing must be enabled and the printer must be shared.
Printer properties can be accessed by going to the Printer control panel, right clicking on the printer and selecting properties.
Troubleshooting
Windows Issues
This section will discuss some of the more common Windows errors and how to resolve them:
- Windows Protection Errors - This typically is caused by the type or speed of the RAM installed in the system.
- Bad or Missing COMMAND.COM - This means that the OS is unable to locate the file COMMAND.COM. To fix this problem use the make sure that the necessary boot files are located on the hard drive. If not, boot with the startup disk and enter the command SYS C:\ which will copy the system files to the hard drive(Windows 9x only).
- HIMEM.SYS not loaded - Check the CONFIG.SYS file and make sure that the line Device=C:\HIMEM.SYS exists and that the path specified to the file is where the file actually is.
- Error in CONFIG.SYS line XX - This error is usually caused by a syntax error in the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file where XX will be the line number that the error occurred.
- Operating system not found - A common cause of this error is booting a system with a non-bootable floppy in the floppy drive. It can also be caused by missing boot files. To correct this, boot with the startup disk and enter the command SYS C:\ which will copy the system files to the hard drive (Windows 9x only).
- General Protection Faults (GPF) - Can be caused by software or hardware. GPFs can be caused by damaged core files which may need to be replaced or by a corrupt registry which can be restored from backup. They can be caused by running an application that is not designed for the operating system you are using. The Dr Watson utility will write information about these errors to DRWATSON.LOG which can be viewed for more information.
- Illegal Operation - Usually caused when 2 or more application attempt to use the same memory space. Incorrectly installed applications and software bugs. Try reinstalling the application and if the errors persist, check with the software vendor for patches/updates to the software.
- System locks up - Typically, this is caused by an application that is hung and can be corrected by ending the task. To end a task press CTRL + ALT + DEL and find the application that is not responding. ALT + F4 can also be used to close active windows. In Windows NT/2000 the CTRL + ALT + DEL or CTRL + SHIFT + ESC keys can be used to access Task Manager.
- Application will not start - Make sure that the file that is executed has a .EXE, .BAT or .COM extension. If attempting to run the application from a shortcut, make sure in the shortcut properties that the path to the application is correct.
Printing Issues
- Print Spooler is stalled - Go to the spool folder which is located in C:\Path to system files\spool\printers directory and delete all files in this location and resend any uncompleted print jobs.
- Incorrect print drivers - Having an incorrect driver can cause any number of problems from pages coming out as garbled ASCII text to not having access to the full range of features available for that printer. Drivers can be updated by going to the Printers control panel, right clicking on the printer and select properties.
- Out of memory - Print jobs have to be spooled to hard disk space. If there is not enough hard disk space available this error will occur. Try freeing up hard drive space or move the spool folder to a drive with more free space.
Other Troubleshooting Tools
Throughout this guide we have discussed many of the Windows troubleshooting tools. Below is a list of the ones that haven't been covered yet.
- MSINFO - Used to view installed devices and drivers. - Windows 9x
- HWINFO - The Hardware Diagnostic Utility is located in C:\Windows\HwInfo.exe and there aren't any shortcuts to it by default. In order to run this utility you need to append a /UI switch. This "tool" was run during your initial install of Win98 and created a record of various hardware settings, drivers, file sizes & dates, memory ranges, resource allocation, etc. - Windows 98 only
- Dr Watson - Will generate an error log when certain types of errors occur. This information can be accessed by typing drwatson in the run dialog box. - Windows 3.x/9x/NT/2000
- ASD.EXE - Automatic Skip Driver Agent identifies devices that can cause Windows 98 or Windows Me to stop responding (hang) when you start your computer, and then disables them so that they are bypassed when you next restart your computer.
- Maintenance Wizard(TUNEUP.EXE) - Allows you to schedule maintenance utilities such as defrag and scandisk. - Windows 98
- Signature Verification Tool - Microsoft "Signs" drivers which means that they are approved to work on a particular operating system. This tool checks files and informs you whether or not they have been signed by Microsoft. - Windows 98
- Event Viewer - This tool is a log of system, application and security events (successes and failures). Can be used to obtain more information about system and application errors. - NT/2000
- SCANDISK - The Scandisk utility inspects the hard drive for errors and corrects them. The standard test will inspect files and folders while the advanced test will also checks the disks physical surface. Scandisk is run automatically on startup when the system detects that the system was not shut down properly. Scandisk is available in DOS 6.x and Windows 9x.
Viruses
There are several different categories of viruses as follows:
- File infector viruses - File infector viruses infect executable program files such as .com and .exe files. The can infect other files when an infected program is run from floppy, hard drive, or from the network.
- Boot sector viruses - Boot sector viruses infect the system area of a disk known as the boot record.
- Master boot record viruses - Master boot record viruses are memory resident viruses that infect disks in the same manner as boot sector viruses. The difference between these two virus types is where the viral code is located. These can often be fixed by using FDISK /MBR.
- Multi-partite viruses - Infect both boot records and program files.
- Macro viruses: These types of viruses infect data files and are the most common. With the advent of Visual Basic in Microsoft's Office 97, a macro virus can be written that not only infects data files, but also can infect other files as well.
There are 2 other types of attacks that are common via the use of Trojans and Worms as described below:
- Trojan Horse - These are files that claim to be something desirable but are destructive and cause loss or theft of data. Trojans are different from viruses as they do not replicate themselves like viruses do.
- Worms - These are programs that replicate themselves from system to system without the use of a host file.
Most viruses are spread via email and the internet, but can also be spread via removable media(i.e. floppies) or across a network. Anti-virus software should be used to protect against virus threats and "clean" files when a computer does become infected.
File Systems
The following are common hard disk configurations.
- Partition - A partition is a portion of a physical hard disk. A partition can be primary or extended
- Primary Partition - This is a bootable partition. One primary partition can be made active.
- Extended Partition - An extended partition is made from the free space on a hard disk and can be broken down into smaller logical drives. There can only be one of these per hard disk.
- Logical Drive - These are a primary partition or portions of an extended partition that are assigned a drive letter.
- Volume - This is a disk or part of a disk that is combined with space from the same or another disk to create one larger volume. This volume can be formatted and assigned a drive letter like a logical drive, but can span more than one hard disk. A volume set can be extended without starting over, however to make it smaller, the set must be deleted and re-created.
There are various management tools that can be used to configure drives. The Disk Management MMC is a snap-in for the Computer Management Console in Windows 2000. You can create partitions, volume sets, logical drives, format disks, etc. NT 4.0 had a similar tool called the "Disk Administrator". DOS and Windows 9x utilize the FDISK utility.
When discussing Windows file systems you need to understand what File Allocation Tables(FAT) are. FAT is a table that an operating system maintains in order to map the clusters(the smallest unit of storage) that a file has been stored in. When files are written to a hard disk, the files are stored in one or more clusters that may be spread out all over the hard disk. The table allows Windows to find the "pieces" of your file and reassemble them when you wish to open it.
There are several different types of file systems that are explained below:
- FAT16 - FAT16 table entries are 16 bits in length limiting hard disk sizes to 2GB. Note that even if the OS supports larger partition sizes, the BIOS must also support logical block addressing(LBA) or the maximum partition that you will be able to create will be either 504 or 528 MB.
- FAT32 - Created to allow more efficient use of hard drive space and allowed for partitions up to 8GB using 4KB cluster sizes. In order to format a drive as FAT32, the "Large disk Support" must be enabled when starting FDISK. FAT32 is not compatible with older versions of Windows including Windows 95A and NT. In Windows 9.x, the CVT1.EXE can be used to convert FAT16 partitions to FAT32.
- NTFS4 - NTFS4 is the file system used by Windows NT that provides increased security and reliability over other file systems. On an NTFS partition, you can't boot from a DOS boot disk - this is one of the security features of NTFS. Additionally, a floppy disk cannot be formatted as NTFS. For this reason it might not be a bad idea to have a small partition formatted FAT so that you can boot into DOS for recovery purposes. In order to convert a FAT partition to NTFS, NT includes a utility called convert.exe.
- NTFS5 - This is the native file system for Windows 2000. NTFS5 has many new features as follows:
- Encrypted File System(EFS) - Windows 2000 NTFS volumes have the ability to encrypt data on the disk itself. Cipher.exe is a command line utility that allows for bulk or scripted file encryption.
- Disk Quotas - Provides the ability to set space limitations on users on a per volume basis.
- Defragmentation - Windows 2000 now includes a disk defragmenter that can be used on NTFS partitions.
- Volume Mount Points - Provides the ability to add new volumes to the file system without having to assign a drive letter to them. This feature is only available on an NTFS partition using dynamic volumes.
- Compression - In Windows 2000 files, folders and entire drives can be compressed by right clicking on the item to be compressed and selecting "properties" and then "advanced".
The convert.exe utility can be used to convert a FAT or FAT32 partition to NTFS.
- HPFS - Stands for High Performance File System and is used with OS/2 operating systems. This file system can only be accessed by Windows NT 3.51 and OS/2.
Windows 9x operating systems also employ VFAT which is a protected-mode FAT file system that prevents DOS and the BIOS from accessing resources. VFAT is the replacement for SMARTDRV.SYS and uses a driver called VCACHE.
Operating System |
Supported File Systems |
DOS |
FAT16 |
Windows 3.x |
FAT16 |
Windows 95A |
FAT16 |
Windows 95 OSR2 |
FAT16, FAT32 |
Windows 98 |
FAT16, FAT32 |
Windows 98SE |
FAT16, FAT32 |
Windows NT 4 |
FAT16, NTFS |
Windows 2000 |
FAT16, FAT32, NTFS |
Windows XP |
FAT32, NTFS |
Windows Vista |
NTFS |
In addition to the disk administration utilities previously mentioned, information about a drive can be displayed by right clicking the drive in My Computer or Windows Explorer and selecting "Properties". In a windows 9x system, a window like the one below will appear.
Here you can view the amount of used and free space on the drive, the capacity and the file system. The tools tab provides access to defragmentation, scandisk and backup utilities in Windows 98. Windows NT/2000 contains these items as well as a few additional. The 3rd tab is for sharing the drive and setting permissions on it so that it can be accessed across the network.
Backing up drives allows you to recover your data or even the entire system if a catastrophe occurs. There are several different types of backup:
- Full - copies all files and marks them as being backed up.
- Incremental - copies only files created/changed since last full backup and marks them as being backed up.
- Differential - copies only files created/changed since last full backup and doesn't mark them as being backed up.
- Daily - copies only files created/changed today and doesn't mark them as being backed up.
In DOS backups can be run with the BACKUP command. There are several switches that can be added to the command.
- /S - Forces all files and subdirectories to be backed up.
- /M - Only modified files are backed up.
- /D - Backs up files modified after a specific date.
- /T - Backs up files modified after a specific time.
The Windows 98 backup utility can be accessed via Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup and also via right clicking on a drive in My Computer and selecting the tools tab as previously mentioned.
There are several different hard drive utilities that can be found in the various versions of Windows that are listed below:
- CHKDSK - This utility is run from a DOS prompt and recovers lost allocation units on a drive that can occur when an application or the system are ended unexpectedly. The /F switch converts the lost units into a format such that the units can be viewed and deleted. Can be found in all versions of windows.
- SCANDISK - The ScanDisk utility inspects the hard drive for errors and corrects them. Scandisk is available in DOS 6.x and Windows 9x.
- DEFRAG - Reorganizes data on the disk for optimal disk performance. In DOS this utility was run from a DOS prompt. In Windows 9x and 2000 this utility can still be run from a prompt or can be accessed at Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragementer. Windows NT did not come with a defragmentation utility.
- DRIVESPACE - This utility for windows 9x offers many of the same features as NT's disk administrator including compression, formatting and drive information.
Installations and Upgrades
All new Windows installations start with using FDISK(or 3rd party utility) to partition the drive followed by a reboot and then the formatting of the drive.
Windows 98 New Installation
In order to install Windows 9x the following minimum hardware requirements must be met. The system must be at lease a 486DX, 66MHz processor or higher, 16 MB RAM, VGA Video adapter and display, 225 MB free FAT16 hard disk space or 175 MB free FAT32 hard disk space.
Unlike Windows 95, Windows 98 does not have to be installed over another operating system such as DOS and does not require access to a FAT16 partition.
The typical method for installing Windows 98 is to boot the computer from the installation CDROM. This requires that the system's CDROM drive is bootable and that the BIOS is configured for this. First Scandisk will be run and if no errors are found, the GUI portion of the setup process will begin which includes the following stages:
- Preparing to Run Windows 98 Setup
- Collecting Information About Your Computer
- Copying Windows 98 Files to Your Computer
- Restarting Your Computer
- Setting Up Hardware and finalizing Settings
- Restart
Upgrade from Windows 3.x to Windows 95
This upgrade is performed by running Setup.exe located on the installation CDROM. When you upgrade from Windows 3.x to Windows 95, you'll find that settings in protocol.ini, system.ini, and win.ini are used to create the Windows 95 Registry. These files and any files with the .GRP extension are saved for backward compatibility.
Upgrade from Windows 95 to Windows 98
This is typically the easiest upgrade and involves loading the Windows 98 CDROM and executing setup.exe. This will lauch the setup program that will go through the same stages as for a clean install, however, any usable information that is available from Windows 95 will be used during the upgrade. Note that CMOS antivirus software can cause an upgrade to fail during the 1st stage of the installation process. Information about failures can be found in the SETUPLOG.TXT file. If Windows 98 is installed to a directory other than the Windows directory, all previously installed applications will have to be reinstalled.
For more in depth resources for Windows 9x installations, click here
Windows 2000 New Installation
For Windows 2000 Professional, the hardware requirements are:
- 133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible processor
- 32MB of RAM minimum(64MB recommended; 4GB maximum)
- 2GB hard drive with a minimum of 650 MB of free space(Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network).
- Windows 2000 Professional supports up to 2 processors.
For Windows 2000 Server the hardware requirements are:
- 133 MHz+ Pentium-compatible CPU.
- 128 MB of RAM minimum (256 MB recommended; 4 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.
Before beginning any installation, you should check the Hardware Compatibility List(HCL) at Microsoft's website to make sure that your components are supported. If you have items that do not appear on the list, you should contact the manufacturer to see if they have updated drivers.
If you have a computer that will boot from the CD, then this is probably the way to go, otherwise you will be creating 4 setup disks using the makeboot.exe utility on the installation CDROM. Just like the NT 4.0 installation, we will start with the text based portion of the setup. You will be presented with an option to press enter to install Windows 2000. After you press enter you will read the license agreement and press F8 to accept. You will now be presented with a list of all of the disks and partitions that are on the system. Like NT 4 installation, you will have the option to create a new partition or select an existing one to install onto. Press C and you will arrive at the option to select NTFS, FAT or leave it the way it is. Files will be copied to your disk. After a reboot, the GUI based portion of setup will begin.
Windows 2000 is Plug and Play. The first portion of the GUI setup will detect your hardware and install drivers for it. Next you will have the option to select the locale for the computer. Then you will enter your name and organization followed by the license key. After you click next you will be prompted for the licensing mode and will have the option of per seat or per server. Next, you will enter the computer's name and an Administrative password. Now you will see a list of services that you can choose to install. This will obviously vary depending on which services you will need to use on your network. Now you will be prompted to enter the date and time zone. The services that you selected in the previous step will now be installed. Now you will have the option to select whether you want typical network settings or want to specify custom settings and configure them accordingly. Now the install will finish and the machine will be rebooted.
Listed below are the possible upgrade paths:
Current OS: |
Upgrade to: |
Windows 95 |
Windows 2000 Professional |
Windows 98 |
Windows 2000 Professional |
Windows NT Workstation |
Windows 2000 Professional |
Windows NT Server |
Windows 2000 Server |
There is no direct upgrade path from Windows 3.x
For more in depth information about Windows 2000 installations, click here
Dual Booting Windows 9x and Windows 2000
Note that Windows 9x is incompatible with drives/partitions formatted with NTFS and will not recognize them. The following information assumes that Windows 9x is already installed on the system. When you insert the Windows 2000 CD-ROM, you should be prompted that the CD contains a newer version of Windows and will ask if you would like to upgrade the existing OS or install a new copy. You will want to select new copy or else the existing operating system will be overwritten. The installation program will begin copying files to the hard drive and will then need to be rebooted.
Next, your drives and partitions will be displayed and will be prompted to select a partition to install Windows 2000 onto. If you select the same partition as the one that Windows 9x is installed on, make sure that you select the option to keep the existing file system intact instead of formatting it, otherwise you will lose the Windows 9x OS.
If you choose to install the operating systems onto different partitions, make sure that the Windows 2000 is not NTFS if you wish to be able to access that partition from Windows 9x. Furthermore, make sure that the boot partition is not formatted with NTFS or else you will not be able to boot into Windows 9x.
Boot Environment
This section will contain facts that you will need to know about booting the various operating systems. The boot file for the various operating systems has been covered already in Domain 1.0.
When booting DOS, there are a couple of boot options that can be used to modify the boot process:
- F5 or Left SHIFT - This will bypass the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.
- F8 - Processes CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT one step at a time with confirmation required between steps.
For Windows 9x
- F8 or Left CTRL - Displays the Windows startup menu for Windows 9x that contains boot options such as Safe Mode. Safe Mode is a startup mode in which minimal drivers(mouse, keyboard and VGA display) are loaded and is used to troubleshoot boot and display problems.
- F5 - Boots directly into Safe Mode.
For Windows NT
- VGA Mode - The BOOT.INI file is responsible for the Windows NT/2000 startup screen that lists the operating systems available to boot into and VGA mode. VGA mode will only load standard VGA display drivers and is used for correcting a situation when a driver conflict occurs that prevents normal boot.
- Last Known Good Configuration - This option is presented 2nd and if the space bar is pressed, the system will load system configuration information from the last successful boot. This option is used for fixing problem that arise after installing a new device driver.
For Windows 2000
- F8 - Brings up the Windows 2000 Advanced Options menu which contains several choices as follows: Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, Enable Boot Logging, Enable VGA Mode, Last Known Good Configuration, Directory Services Restore Mode and Debugging Mode.
Creating Boot Disks
DOS boot disks are created by using the command format a: /s. You should also copy SYS, EDIT, CHKDSK, FORMAT and FDISK onto the floppy.
In Windows 9X, you have the option to create a startup disk when installing the system. If the system is already installed and you need to create Windows 95 start disk, open the "Add/Remove Programs" control panel, select the "Startup Disk" tab and click on "Create Disk". This disk will include ATTRIB.EXE, COMMAND.COM, SYS.COM, FDISK.EXE, FORMAT.COM, EDIT.COM, SCANDISK.EXE, IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and REGEDIT.EXE. Windows 98 startup disks are made in the same manner and include all of the above files and also OAKCDROM.SYS (CDROM driver) and EXTRACT.EXE (for uncompressing CAB files).
Windows NT boot disks can be made from the installation CD using the WINNT.EXE /OX command. For windows 2000, this can be accomplished by using the MAKEBOOT.EXE utility. Windows NT/2000 also utilizes an Emergency Repair Disk which is used to repair the user account database (SAM) and the registry in case of a failure. In NT this can be created during installation or by using the RDISK utility. In Windows 2000 this can be done during installation or by using the backup utility.
Log Files
Windows 9x log files are:
- BOOTLOG.TXT - This file is created during the first boot after setup. The creation of a new BOOTLOG.TXT can be done by hitting F8 at startup and choosing "Logged" mode. The previous copy of BOOTLOG.TXT will be renamed to BOOTLOG.PRV. This log shows the boot process steps and whether they were successful or failed.
- DETLOG.TXT - This log shows the steps performed in detecting the system's hardware and is created anytime that hardware detection occurs such as during installation and when adding new hardware components.
- SETUPLOG.TXT - This file is created during installation of Windows 9x and records all the options chosen during setup.
Windows NT/2000 Structure
Windows NT and 2000 are 32 bit operating systems that run in 2 different modes which are kernel(protected) and user. Applications use Application Program Interfaces(APIs) to pass threads between the 2 modes. User mode provides no direct access to the system's hardware. The subsystems of these operating systems are outlined below.
- WIN32 -- This subsystem handles support for 32-bit windows applications and is also known as the Client/Server subsystem. This subsystem has the following features:
- 32-bit architecture
- Multiple execution threads are supported for each process
- Memory Protection - each Win32 application is separated and protected from other applications
- OpenGL - Support for 2D and 3D graphics cards
- 2GB no segmented address spaces are assigned to each application
- NT/2000 supports DOS applications via VDMs(Virtual DOS Machines). A VDM is a Win32 application that creates an environment where DOS applications can run. It does this by making the NT Workstation resemble a DOS environment and tricks the DOS applications into thinking that they have unrestricted access to the computer's hardware. NT can only support DOS applications that use VDDs(Virtual Device Drivers) to intercept the applications calls to the computer's hardware.
- NT/2000 also supports Win16 applications with the use of a DOS application called WOW(Windows on Windows). WOW runs within a VDM that runs as a 32-bit process. If a Win16 application crashes it will only corrupt the WOW, but will not affect the rest of the NT operating system.
In addition to the above, Windows 2000 also adds the Plug and Play Manager and the Power Management Manager
The boot files used by NT/2000 are completely different than Windows 9x and are listed below:
- BOOT.INI - Specifies boot defaults, operating system locations, settings and menu selections.
BOOTSECT.DOS - A file located in the system partition that allows the option to boot into another operating system such as Win98 or DOS.
- NTDETECT.COM - Hardware detection program that is located on the root of the system partition.
- NTLDR - File that loads the operating system and is located on the root of the system partition.
- NTOSKRNL.EXE - The executable file.
- OSLOADER.EXE - This is the OS loader for RISC based systems.
- NTBOOTDD.SYS - File used when the system or boot partition is located on a SCSI drive and the BIOS is disabled.
The registry editors included with Windows NT/2000 include Regedt32 and Regedit. For Windows 2000, the Regedt32 tool should be used while Windows NT can use either. Most of the registry(the static items) are contained in hive files which are located in the \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG directory. The 5 hives are SAM, security, software, system and default.
In Windows 2000 most system administration tasks are performed in the Computer Management Console that contains all of the various Microsoft Management Consoles (MMCs) in one location.
Windows 2000 filenames can be up to 215 characters long and cannot contain the following: <>\/?*"|
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