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Contents
NT 4.0 Planning & Implementation
Windows 95 Installation & Configuration
NT Planning & Implementation
Which file system will best fit your organization’s specific needs? This question encompasses the first major decision you’ll need to make as you install Microsoft’s most advanced operating system onto office hard drives. Under Windows NT 3.51, you had three real choices: NTFS (NT’s native file system), FAT (the NT application of the DOS file system) or HPFS (the OS/2 file system). Each choice has a fair amount of both benefits and drawbacks, so the bewilderment concerning the decision is understandable. In other words, there is no clear choice that rises above all others in every situation. As you look at how you’ll employ NT 4.0, you must first fully understand all the pros and cons of each file system before jumping to a conclusion. After reading this article, you’ll be armed with all the ammunition you’ll need regarding NTFS and FAT to know which is right for you. Then we’ll provide a few of our own special rules of thumb.
What about HPFS? With the release of Windows NT 4.0 the debate gets a little less complicated as Microsoft has dropped the support for HPFS as a new drive installation. If you have a current setup utilizing HPFS and wish to upgrade to NT 4.0, you’ll be fine. As a result of this dropped support, the balance of this article will focus on NTFS and FAT only.
Before diving in, understand this: Regardless of which file system you choose, you’ll get extremely stable, fully 32-bit performance and long file names for all 32-bit applications. Both file systems can handle 16-bit file names and allow virtually any type of application (including DOS, Win16 and Win32) to reside on the hard disk error-free.
Sticking to the FAT One of the most obvious advantages to formatting NT using FAT volumes is that those partitions will be fully visible in dual-boot systems. If you need to maintain your Windows 95 or DOS/Windows 3.1x setup and install Windows NT to the same hard disk, FAT is the perfect choice. Other operating systems can’t recognize data stored on NTFS-formatted drives whereas all operating systems can access data on FAT volumes.
Perhaps the most significant reason many stay with FAT is for safety. If your system encounters a major system crash, sometimes the only way to access the hard disk at all is to boot from an emergency boot floppy disk. At this time, a tape backup program can be initiated to properly restore all files back to the formatted FAT volume. All this can be done without even loading NT.
A third benefit of FAT volumes is an additional performance gain derived from faster disk "write" operations with hard drives of 400MB or smaller. Since NTFS "read" operations are faster than those of a FAT volume, the real performance (reads and writes) difference is extremely minute, but "writing" to the hard disk is faster.
Little Software Support The last true benefit of using a FAT volume goes back to a traditional NT shortcoming: A lack of software designed for NT. Specifically, a lack of disk utilities. Windows 95 and DOS have the luxury of dozens of third-party programs to diagnose and fix hard disk problems. NT surely doesn’t share this comfort. Perhaps the tool NT could benefit most from would be a good disk defragmenter. Executive Software has released a program called Diskeeper that does serve as a defragmenter under NT for both FAT and NTFS volumes, but it won’t defragment NT’s paging file. Unfortunately, a fragmented paging file is a serious detriment to performance.
Should You Move to NTFS? These volumes are designed exclusively for Windows NT and can’t be accessed directly by any other operating system. This is actually a feature and an integral part of NT’s powerful security.
An NTFS Feature Overview Let’s briefly discuss each of these benefits as they pertain to NTFS to give you an understanding of exactly how much power NT provides.
Setting File Permissions This advanced NTFS security option offers MIS administrators the ability to centralize and control exactly which users and groups may access individual network resources. These permissions are in effect whether accessed across the network or directly from the workstation/server.
Although FAT drives support it, NTFS was designed for RAID. As a result, NTFS volumes maximize the following NT features:
Built-in Mirroring (one controller and two drives)
Duplexing (two controllers and two drives)
There are two strategies for building redundancy in a mission-critical Windows NT server. Both provide a safety net for the enterprise in case of hard disk failure. If one drive crashes, the second keeps going strong. These features individually allow for real-time protection of the network by constantly keeping the system volume up and running on NT Server, even in the case of catastrophic hardware failure.
Striping with Parity (RAID 5) It is a combination of redundancy (safety) and speed in NT Servers. It configures multiple disks to be combined together to create huge performance gains. It also allows simultaneous access to multiple disks. While data is being "read" from one disk, information is being "written" to another to further increase performance with the number of drives combined in the stripe set.
Volume Flexibility Expansion capabilities for NTFS volumes are based on creating and extending Volume Sets on NT Server. This allows the spanning of multiple drives with one volume, and the adding of additional capacity without affecting the data currently on the volume.
Virtually Limitless Space FAT volumes are limited to 4GB in size. NTFS volumes (excluding the boot volume) are limited to 16 Exabytes (16 billion GB!) per volume! Still not enough space?! Just add another drive.
In addition, NTFS uses current disk space more efficiently so current drives have longer lives. FAT volumes use varying cluster sizes depending on the partition size. Only one file can be allocated to a cluster, so if a 3KB file is allocated to a cluster that is 64 sectors (32KB), 29KB of actual space is wasted.
NT always uses more efficient cluster sizes, generally ranging from 512 to 4096 bytes. This may reduce actual disk space usage by up to 30% (depending on the type of files on the volume). This more efficient cluster usage is what makes NTFS "write" a little slower than FAT "writes." Unlike write operations, disk "reads" are significantly faster with NTFS volumes.
Advanced NT Services For those of you supporting multiple platforms, NTFS volumes are required for:
Microsoft’s Recommendations Microsoft currently recommends creating a boot volume (C:) of approximately 300MB which will also be used for the system volume, and formatting it as a FAT volume. Then use the rest of the drive capacity as an NTFS volume, to take advantage of all the other benefits.
Mastering Computers’ Recommendations Certainly, we feel that Microsoft’s suggestion is a decent recommendation for NT Workstations, but not for NT Servers. Server needs to take advantage of the fault tolerance options of mirroring, duplexing or striping with parity and the expansion capabilities of volume sets. Additionally, the administrative control and security that NTFS provides is a premium feature in most Server environments.
For NT Servers, we recommend installing multiple drives, creating an NTFS boot/system partition on the first drive of 300 to 500MB, and create a mirrored or duplexed NTFS volume on the second drive of exactly the same size. Use the leftover capacity (plus the capacity of any additional drives) as NTFS partitions in a stripe set with parity (RAID 5) for premium performance. This setup is very fast, very efficient with disk space and filled with fault tolerance. Perfect.
Recovering Data from NTFS Volumes
In the last article, we discussed a hot topic and raging debate in Windows NT computing–FAT vs. NTFS. Mastering Computers recommends most of our seminar attendees implement NT’s new file system, NTFS. One of the major reasons to use NTFS is security. Using NTFS file and directory permissions, you can set security on a resource to protect it from users accessing it both locally and from across the network. One concern of NTFS, however, is compatibility. No other operating system can locally access NTFS volumes. If no other operating system can see NTFS volumes, what happens if something goes wrong?
For those of you who have been working with PCs for any amount of time, you have created your own emergency boot disk. If anything goes wrong with the hard drive (a virus, boot sector corruption, FAT damage or a destructive user) you can boot from your floppy and recover data from the drive. Microsoft has said with NTFS there is no way to do this. If a NTFS volume fails, retrieving your data can be difficult if not impossible. Since booting from a floppy disk would violate the strict security of NTFS, there is no such thing as a "boot disk." Or is there?
Does the new shareware tool violate NTFS security? Mastering Computers found a utility on the Internet some time ago called NTFSDOS. This utility allows you to mount and have read-only access to all NTFS volumes - while ignoring all NTFS security! You’ll be able to copy files and directories to any drive you wish. Is this a breach of security?
Most IS pros in the industry say yes. Mastering Computers says no. NTFSDOS is only a local issue and has absolutely no power over the network. In other words, it’s impossible for users on the network to run NTFSDOS on their local workstation and mount the server’s NTFS volumes. The only way NTFSDOS is a threat is if someone can get physical access to the server, boot off of a DOS disk, then run NTFSDOS. If you establish physical security for your servers, this utility is of no threat to you. However, NTFSDOS can be a scary utility for network administrators who don’t have servers locked up.
How can you use NTFSDOS to your advantage rather than your distress? Make an emergency boot disk, just like in the old days. If anything goes wrong with your machines running NTFS, this is a way to recover data
You now have a DOS-bootable disk that will automatically mount any NTFS volume on your NT machines. In the event that Windows NT fails to start or the hard disk becomes corrupted, this utility can save you and your data from obliteration.
Overcome Possible NTFSDOS Security Breach If the security implications introduced by NTFSDOS still concern you, we’ve discovered three ways to defeat this useful utility:
Understanding the Windows NT 4.0 Architecture
What’s under the hood?
Thousands of you are still a step behind the FAT vs. NTFS question. Before you can really start thinking about that debate, you need to decide which operating system to roll out across the enterprise. Since the release of Windows 95 last August, the most popular PC-related question facing organizations and individuals has been whether to migrate to Windows 95 or wait for Windows NT 4.0 Workstations.With the advent of this new version of NT upon us, perhaps the most noticeable difference between NT and 95 has been erased. For the first time, both operating systems actually look the same from a user perspective. Like it or not, NT has adopted the new, user-friendly look and feel of the Explorer interface. Now that they both use the same [Start] button, the same shortcuts and more often than not the same applications, what’s the difference and which one is right for your organization?
Underneath all the cosmetics, these operating systems are significantly different. As we introduce NT in this issue, we’ll try to uncover a few of the most integral architectural differences between NT and Windows 95. Armed with this information, you’ll be better equipped to make an unbiased decision for the good of your company.
Is NT 4.0 Faster Than Version 3.51? One of the most publicized down-sides to NT has always been the high working set necessary to run it. PCs running previous versions of NT perform sluggishly with anything less than 32MB RAM. With NT 4.0, Microsoft made three strategic alterations to the architecture of the operating system to reduce these lofty requirements: 1) The inclusion of the GDI and USER memory heaps into the Kernel, 2) using all available RAM as cache and 3) the absence of "Thunking." These changes have resulted in an operating system that runs quite adequately on systems with only 16MB RAM.
NT 4.0 System Resources and Caching Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of Windows 3.1x stems from its severe resource limitations and memory leaks. A definite short-term solution resides in Windows 95. Here, Microsoft creatively uses the GDI and USER heaps and benefits from better-written 32-bit applications to relieve some of the Resources pressure. However, this imaginative resource reallocation will not be enough as graphical applications like PhotoShop and AutoCAD need well over 64K of system resources to run effectively. NT 4.0 offers a massive 4GB resource "limitation"!
Placing all GDI and USER components in the Kernel allows them to run as Ring 0 functions, or more simply, places them in the area of memory where the system gives them the absolute highest priority. Now, all screen redraws and graphical elements are stored and executed without requiring a "handoff" between functions in the operating system. This clever streamlining of GDI and USER provides NT 4.0 with an automatic 12 to 15% performance boost over NT 3.51.
The second change made to NT 4.0 is that all RAM not allocated to NT and/or open applications is allocated to the NT cache. Be aware that with this new version of NT, many initial operations still seem rather sluggish when compared with Windows 95 (e.g. Startup time, launching the Explorer, establishing connections with NetWare servers). However, once these operations are completed and NT is finished loading, all those components will be stored in the advanced cache and performance shines. Although NT can perform adequately using 16MB RAM, the real performance benefits offered by the cache aren’t attainable under 32MB.
Windows NT 4.0 and Thunking Believe it or not, this rather clumsy, unimaginative word represents one of the most technical processes in computing. "Thunking" is the process of moving a 32-bit request (protected-mode; above 1MB) to a 16-bit area of memory (real-mode; below 640K) so that the system can deal with it. Every time thunking occurs, it takes longer for the system to process that request. In a purely 16-bit environment (e.g. DOS), processing data is a relatively simple task since nothing is advanced enough yet to thunk. Windows 3.1x employs many advanced, 32-bit file and networking components that require significant overhead (thunking) but still offer extra stability and performance. Windows 95 runs primarily 32-bit code (the file system and interface) with some underlying 16-bit components in the operating system. Perhaps the most noticeable downside to this trade-off is its 16-bit printing subsystem, which provides neither the stability nor the performance demanded of today’s users and document size/complexity.
One of the most devastating performance hits occurs as various functions access the System BIOS and BIOS-supported devices (except disk drives). Every BIOS call is a 16-bit function in Windows 95. The result is the constant thunking, or changing between 16- and 32-bit functions. Windows NT eliminates all thunking and slowdowns associated with the BIOS by providing a path to allowing all devices, drivers, applications, access and connections to run in true 32-bit mode.
Ultimate Protection for 32-Bit Applications Not only does NT provide each 32-bit application with its own, separate memory space (as in Win95), these advanced programs also get their own messaging queue to transfer information between itself and the operating system. When an application hangs, it corrupts this messaging queue. If the queue is shared, as it is in Windows 3.1x, the potential for data loss and more intense problems increases. In Windows NT, even 16-bit applications can run in their own memory space with a unique messaging queue if you instruct it to do so.
These integral architectural features have paved the way to faster, more stable, secure computing. The alterations made to NT 4.0 go further to secure that position.
Configure NT Dual-Boot Post Installation
With the introduction of Windows NT 4.0, NT Workstation is finding its way to more and more desktops. Since support personnel still need to maintain older operating systems to support legacy applications (play games) and hardware devices, dual-booting is more vital than ever before. When you upgrade your existing system to Windows NT, it automatically creates a dual-boot menu between your previous operating system and Windows NT. This is a relatively straighforward process as NT installs to the \WINNT folder rather than overwriting your old Windows files (Windows 95 and 3.1x normally install to \WINDOWS). But with NT coming pre-installed on more and more systems, there is no dual-boot ability. How do we get a Windows NT system to dual-boot Windows 95 or Windows 3.1x without starting over?
Understanding the Boot Sector The key to dual-booting is locked inside the critical boot sector of your hard disk. After your computer powers on, it runs the POST - the Power-On Self Test. The last step of the POST is to check the boot sector of the drive (hard or floppy) to look for instructions on how to load the operating system. On an MS-DOS or Windows 95 disk, the instructions in the boot sector point to COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS, and MSDOS.SYS. Within these three files are routines for loading the operating system. When you install Windows NT, it saves the previous boot sector, then writes its own instructions to the boot sector to look for NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI. This allows NT to boot between both operating systems. But if Windows NT was installed on a clean hard drive, there are no previous operating system instructions for it to save. How do we instruct Windows NT to "reverse dual-boot"? These steps will show you the way.
NOTE: This procedure assumes that you’re booting Windows NT from a FAT volume. If you’re using NTFS, you will not be able to dual-boot as other operating systems cannot recognize NTFS. That said, to accomplish this feat you’ll need one blank floppy disk and the three Windows NT setup disks.
TIP: Lost your three setup disks? From the command line, get to the Windows NT CD-ROM’s \i386 folder, then type WINNT/OX to recreate them.
As always, Mastering Computers recommends backing up your system before any major undertaking.
Reverse Dual-Booting NT
NOTE: SYS.COM copies COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and the boot sector instructions to the floppy (or target) disk.
Undocumented Tip to Wrap It Up At this point, NT will boot as normal, but you won’t really be able to get back to your DOS/Windows configuration. The reason is that when presented with the NT boot menu, there is no DOS/Windows option to choose. These steps will allow you to edit BOOT.INI to add the necessary boot instructions to achieve this needed flexibility.
For those of you who need to support and test Windows NT but can’t afford to leave your current users in the dust, this article should provide exactly what the MIS Director ordered: "Get NT dual-boot up and running and do it quickly!"
Beware! NT May Not Be As Secure As You Think!
We have investigated the differences between NT’s two main file systems, FAT and NTFS. One of the most highly touted features of NTFS is advanced security. This file system allows administrators to restrict access to any folder or file by assigning permissions to users or groups. For example, you have a folder called DOOM2 and want to grant administrators full access to it, but need to prevent everyone else from deleting the DOOM2 folder (you must protect vital data!). One option would be to use permissions: set the group Administrators to Full Control and set the group Everyone to Read access. Permissions can be set at the folder level (as the example above describes) or at the file level. If you have a particular file you wish to protect, set permissions on the individual file in the exact same manner.
So What’s the Problem? During some research, we learned that no matter what type of permission we set on an individual file, any user on the network could delete it – regardless of permission! We attempted every restriction available, from Read-only access to No Access. No matter what we tried, any user logged on to the network could delete the restricted files from Explorer or the command line. If you’re using file permissions on your network, you’re vulnerable! To make this clear, there is no concern if you’re utilizing directory permissions. The concern is only for file permissions.
Is This a Breach in NT Security? No. Our knee-jerk reaction was that we had discovered a bug in NT. If I set a file to No Access, then I mean no access. Users can’t open, edit or delete the file. What kind of security allows users to delete restricted files? We learned from Microsoft that this "breach" is not a flaw at all. Instead, it’s built-in to NT by design for POSIX compliance. They included a special hidden permission called File Delete Child (it would have been nice if they could have told everyone about it!) into NTFS. If the parent folder has the permission Full Control, then all files in that folder are granted the hidden File Delete Child permission automatically. This permission allows users to delete a file regardless of the permissions or attributes of that particular file – and there is no way to disable this hidden permission.
Management Issues If you assign file permissions to files on your network and those files are located in a folder that has the Full Control permission set, those files can be deleted by any user. Remember, users can’t open or edit the files; they can only delete them. Be careful! The default permission set for all resources on NT machines is that everyone gets Full Control. If you truly want to protect your files on a per file basis (with file permissions), just be sure to remove the Full Control permission from the files’ parent folders. You might consider using the Change permission instead. Change gives users the ability (rights) to read, write, execute and delete just like Full Control does. However, the File Delete Child permission is not in effect.
Back to the Future-Running DOS Apps under NT
In the Windows 3.1x world, we have several options for configuring DOS applications to run effectively. Since most of the problems are central to available conventional memory restraints, of course diving into CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT is the first logical step. Move this TSR high, remove this driver, set up multiple configurations, etc. What a mess!
If tweaking those two files doesn’t solve the problem, you can always brave the mysterious world of the PIF. After hours of headache and testing, many of you have realized that nothing can get some of the more unstable DOS programs to run under Windows reliably. In these cases, you always have the old C:\> prompt as a safety valve to run the application.
Welcome to NT Under Windows NT, the option of returning to the real C:\> prompt to run DOS applications is a distant memory. Windows NT 4.0 doesn’t have any more PIFs to configure and it seems that AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS are gone. How do you configure Windows NT to run our older DOS applications and Command Prompt sessions efficiently?
An Old Friend (or Should I Say Foe?) To the distress of some and the joy of others, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are still alive and well in NT 4.0. They’re hidden deep within the Windows NT subdirectories (WINNT\SYSTEM32) and have been renamed CONFIG.NT and AUTOEXEC.NT. These two files, along with several environment variables, set up NT Virtual DOS Machines (NTVDMs) in which DOS programs and Command Prompt sessions reside.
As the lines in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT built a suitable "environment" in conventional memory for DOS applications before, CONFIG.NT and AUTOEXEC.NT load drivers and set up the proper environment for DOS programs under NT. These two files are processed each time you launch a DOS program and the environment they create is applied to the NTVDM. These files may be altered or customized as necessary. For example, if a certain DOS program needs a specific TSR (e.g., SETVER), open CONFIG.NT in Notepad and add the necessary line. If an application depends on the old SHARE.EXE, add its line to AUTOEXEC.NT. Just about anything you’ll need to do can be accomplished using a text editor or by making a few clicks in Control Panel’s System - [ENVIRONMENT] tab (see graphic at left).
Remember, any change you make to CONFIG.NT and/or AUTOEXEC.NT will alter the NTVDM for every DOS program and Command Prompt session from that point forward. For that reason, it might be a good idea to keep a few backups around if you have a few necessary configurations.
For those of you struggling to get that pesky DOS app running under NT, this article may provide a little extra breathing room.
NT 4.0‘s New Task Manager:The Best Configuration
There has never been a quick and easy way to monitor Windows NT. Sure, the Task List is available, but it only shows applications currently in memory. What about NT services? Of course, you can access the SERVICES icon in Control Panel to see which are running, but how much RAM is each one consuming at any one time? You could try Performance Monitor. It shows memory usage, but which of the hundreds of counters should you use? Microsoft combines the best of all these tools into one new feature – TASK MANAGER. Right-click the task bar and choose TASK MANAGER to launch this useful tool. You’ll find that it has three tabs: APPLICATIONS, PERFORMANCE, and PROCESSES.
Applications This tab shows applications in memory and their status. The status varies from Running to Not Responding. Regardless of an application’s status, you may select it at any time and click END TASK to terminate it. This requests the application to close itself; but, if the app refuses to close gracefully, TASK MANAGER will step in and forcibly close it and all associated processes.
Performance This tab provides a detailed view of the CPU and memory usage. You can tell if your CPU is a bottleneck or if you don’t have enough RAM. The number of processes and threads that NT has running is also displayed. The display updates about once every second. You can change this update interval by clicking VIEW - UPDATE SPEED. To get the most current data, change the speed to High and the display updates about three times per second. To keep the longest history of performance, change the update speed to Slow, which updates the display once every three seconds.
Processes This tab shows all .EXE files in RAM, including applications and services. It also shows the amount of CPU time and memory each process is consuming. You can forcibly close applications (as in the APPLICATIONS tab), but in this tab you can also terminate services! Find an NT machine that is not a vital part of your network, close all open applications and try this:
In PROCESSES, you can also change the priority of a process. Windows NT uses priority levels to divide CPU time among processes. For example, if WINWORD.EXE has a priority level of eight and EXCEL.EXE has a priority level of four, Word can be granted more CPU time. Changing the priority level can greatly aid an application’s performance by instructing the CPU to run one program’s code before another’s.
Windows NT allows four priority levels to be set: low, normal, high and real-time. Low runs the application at a lower priority, specifically level four. This is useful for large tasks running in the background because with a low priority, they won’t take away from other applications’ responsiveness. Normal is level eight and is the default. High is level 13 and runs the application at a level equal to some services. This makes the program very responsive, but can slow other processes dramatically. Real-time is priority level 24. Never set this! This level can cause your machine to stop responding completely. To set a priority level on a process, go to PROCESSES, right-click the executable, then choose SET PRIORITY.
Remember that this will set the priority level for just this session. When the application is closed and launched again, it will return to its original level.
Windows 95 Installation & Configuration
At Mastering Computers, we stumble across hundreds and hundreds of new tips every week. Of course, many of these "tips" prove to be rather inefficient, silly or down-right wrong! It’s only when we uncover or develop a real gem that you get to hear about it during one of our seminars or read about it in our monthly newsletter, Windows Tips & Secrets. However, we often find quick tips that are so sweet that we adopt them into our personal routines immediately, only they’re too short to find their way into our workshops or the newsletter.
Here you’ll learn several new ways to work with Windows 95. These "Quick Tips" will prove to be valuable time-savers if you learn to use them effectively.
Quickly Finding Files in Explorer Even in the Windows 3.1x File Manager you could type a character and immediately arrive at the first file in that directory starting with that letter. Repeatedly hitting that key allowed you to easily scroll through all files in the right window pane starting with that character. Of course, Win95 also supports this flexibility and even takes it a little further. Now you can jump directly to the file you’re searching for by typing a little faster because Windows 95’s Explorer supports "incremental searches." For instance, typing "e" might take you to EMM386.EXE, quickly hit "x" and you’ll jump to EXCHNG32.INI, add a "p" (in other words, typing "exp") and you’ve selected EXPLORER.EXE. Try it out!
The Best Registry Backup Tool Since the Win95 Registry is extremely fragile, it’s always critical that you have a recent backup available if things go awry. What’s the quickest and most effective way to accomplish this task? We feel that ERU, the Emergency Recovery Utility that ships with the CD-ROM version of Windows 95 (\MISC), is the best choice. Simply double-click ERU.EXE and an easy-to-follow wizard walks you through the process of backing up Win95’s main files. However, there have been several reports that ERU doesn’t work correctly (as you may have read) and that you shouldn’t use it. The problem is that ERU won’t work properly unless you have a CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT on your system. Since those files aren’t required by Win95, many of you may not have them. If you don’t, simply create a "junk" file in Notepad and name it accordingly. Before you attempt the following tips, use ERU to back up your Registry.
Delete Unwanted System Icons In many cases, Windows 95 users would rather not stare at some of the default icons built-in to the Explorer interface. We find that the majority of you don’t use many of these "bullet-proofed" icons, yet you can’t remove them. Here’s how to hack the Registry so that you can delete the icons you don’t need (e.g. Inbox, Microsoft Network, Recycle Bin, Dial-Up Networking, Internet, etc.).
Beta Testers: This tip also removes the icon for the new Athena PIM in Windows 97 (code-named Nashville)!
Right-click the icon. You’ll now see the Delete command on the resulting menu so you can remove the icon as you wish.
Quickly Remove Network Neighborhood Unfortunately, the above method doesn’t work for removing the Network Neighborhood icon. Perhaps the easiest and most widespread way to accomplish this feat is by using the Policy Editor utility. By double-clicking a user’s (or group’s) icon, then choosing Shell-Restrictions, you’ll find an option called Hide Network Neighborhood. Enable this option and the next time the user logs in to Windows, the icon will be gone. If you happen to have no access to the Policy Editor or would rather not spend the time to learn how to use it (of course, we strongly suggest you thoroughly explore this utility), you can add a Key to the Registry and arrive at the same end. Here are the necessary steps:
Remove Items from RUN’s Drop-Down List When you click [START]-RUN and then type a command, Win95 will place it in a drop-down list in the RUN dialog box so that the next time you need it, you won’t have to retype it. Many readers have asked us how to delete commands from this new drop-down list as you can’t do it from the interface. Here’s the Registry hack you need to make:
These are just a few of our favorite "Quick Tips" for Windows 95. We know they’ve made us more efficient and removed a few annoyances built-in to the interface. If you can integrate them into your own bag of tips, we think they’ll do the same for you. For those of you who have a few particularly beneficial tips of your own, feel free to e-mail them to us at
fgartland@masteringcomputers.com.Dual-Boot Windows 3.1 over Win95
There is a technique for setting up Windows 95 so that you have the choice of either loading it at startup or booting to a previous version of DOS and running Windows 3.1x. This scenario is called "dual-boot" and allows the user to load the old operating systems by hitting [F4] as the "Starting Windows 95" message appears at system startup. Support pros who need to maintain both versions of Windows rely heavily on this type of flexibility. Additionally, many organizations find that old applications don’t run properly in Windows 95 so they depend on dual-boot for those offending programs. Others utilize this feature so that users can remain productive while gradually learning the nuances of Windows 95.
Whatever the reason for using it, dual-boot is fairly easy to configure on PCs that currently have Windows 3.1x installed. Instruct the installation program to copy the Windows 95 files to a different directory (e.g. \WIN95), and you’re off and running. However, as corporations continue to invest in new hardware, MIS departments are finding Windows 95 pre-installed on incoming computers. How can you install DOS and Windows 3.1x, then configure dual-boot after Win95 has already been installed? Do you have to format the hard disk and start over? Although setting up dual-boot on these types of machines is much more difficult, you’ll find that by following these steps, we can reduce the process to child’s play.
Reverse Engineering Dual-Boot The first step is to create a Windows 95 boot disk from the PC that has Windows 95 pre-installed. Then you must safely backup all its key files:
When the utility prompts you for a location to store the backups, instruct it to save them to the same boot diskette you just created. During this process, ERU also copies a program file called ERD.EXE to the floppy. This program is used to restore the backups when you need them.
The Dual-Boot File Gyrations Since all the system files now represent DOS files, you must copy each one to a new file with a different extension so that Windows 95 will be able to find them when you need them. For example, under normal dual-boot installation conditions, the Windows 95 Setup program renames every DOS system file with a .DOS extension (e.g. CONFIG.SYS to CONFIG.DOS). As the PC starts up and the "Starting Windows 95" message appears, if the user hits [F4] to load the previous version of DOS, Windows 95 will automatically rename all its system files with .W40 extensions (e.g. CONFIG.SYS to CONFIG.W40) then rename the older .DOS files back to their original name. To make this "reverse" dual-boot configuration fly, you need to copy the DOS system files to .DOS extensions manually because Win95 has already been installed. These files are hidden, system, read-only files stored in the computer’s root directory. Here are the files you must find and rename in preparation for Win95’s resurrection:IO.SYS to
IO.DOSMSDOS.SYS to MSDOS.DOS
COMMAND.COM to COMMAND.DOS
CONFIG.SYS to CONFIG.DOS
AUTOEXEC.BAT to AUTOEXEC.DOS
Now that DOS and Windows 3.1x are properly installed and you’ve prepared the *.DOS system files for dual-boot, you must restore the Windows 95 system files back to where they belong.
At this point, you’ve successfully installed DOS and Windows 3.1x so that they can co-exist with the Windows 95 system. However, before you’ll be able to actually boot the older configuration, you must add one line to the Windows 95 MSDOS.SYS file. This core operating system component is a hidden, read-only, system file that exists in the root directory.
So there you have it, the PC is now configured for dual-boot perfectly. You will have to reinstall most of your applications so that they’ll work under Windows 3.1x, but there is no need to format the entire hard drive and start from scratch. Every time you purchase new computers targeted for dual-boot, remember this tip and save yourself hours of configuration time.
Troubleshooting the File System
Although Windows 95 is fully compatible with more hardware and software than any other Microsoft operating system, many of you have found that it’s far from perfect. Those of you supporting older and/or less mainstream systems may find that this operating system can be a beast in these unfamiliar surroundings. Obviously, there are many new, updated features in Windows 95 that weren’t available in the old DOS/Windows 3.1x world. Dozens of protected-mode device drivers; better sharing tools; and faster, built-in caching are just a few of these new advances. When a particular system component depends on the older method of doing things and Windows 95 provides its new "improved" method instead, watch out! At the very least the PC will be very unstable while running certain applications or the computer may not work at all. In these cases you can often find simple solutions within the Windows 95 System Control Panel. Although you may have seen the following options before, you probably weren’t sure how they affected your computer, or when to use them effectively. The next few paragraphs will shed some light on these valuable troubleshooting features.
Getting to the Proper Place If you fear that your PC may be incompatible with some of Windows 95’s default components, you’ll need to know where to disable the offending feature. Although the system may be unstable, usually you’ll be able to start Windows successfully. If this is not the case for you, simply hit [F8] when you see the "Starting Windows 95" message and choose to enter into "Safe Mode." This will allow you to make the necessary changes. Regardless of how you enter into the interface, once you’re there, follow these steps:
Note: We use the word "feature" because these components all provide more speed for Windows 95. Always remember that by disabling any of these options, you’re tying a lasso around an integral part of the operating system. If that component is causing a device or application to fail in Windows 95, you should disable it. Otherwise, never check any of these options so that your system can utilize all its tools and achieve optimal performance.
Dissecting These Switches Before you can make the determination if a certain switch will fix a problem, you must know what that switch will disable. Of course, these options will all make changes to the Registry, but where? Each option changes or adds a value to the Registry in this Key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | System | Current ControlSet | Control | FileSystem
This list will help to explain these seemingly abstract entries so you’ll know what types of problems they may, or may not, solve. In addition, the specific Registry values for each option will be provided for you.
Disable New File Sharing and Locking Semantics Windows 95 uses an updated device driver to handle all file sharing. This device is similar (yet improved) to Windows for Workgroups’ VSHARE.386, and locks a file that’s being edited in one application so that a second can’t change it simultaneously. This option can be especially useful to troubleshoot misbehaving DOS applications running under Windows 95. This sets SoftCompatMode=0 in the Registry.
Disable Long Name Preservation for Old Programs Let’s say you create a file with a 32-bit application and save it with a long file-name. If you open the file with an old, 16-bit application, the long name will be truncated to 8.3, but when you save it using the older program, then re-open it using the 32-bit program, the long name will still be intact. This feature is called tunneling (notice the above screen captures). Some older DOS programs and Windows applications will have problems with the feature. This sets PreserveLongNames=0.
Disable Protected-Mode Hard Disk Interrupt Handling Every time DOS needs to access the hard disk, it needs to transfer data to the ROM routine, let it handle various interrupts, then access the hard disk controller. These ROM routines handle data very slowly. An improvement came with Windows 3.1x as some hard disk controllers could be accessed directly with virtual disk drivers. Windows 95 offers this advanced flexiblilty to abundantly more devices while providing even more speed. Unfortunately, many older controllers aren’t compatible. This sets VirtualHDIRQ=1 in the Registry.
Disable Synchronous Buffer Commits Under normal circumstances, data is saved to the cache, then the cache will save it to the hard disk. During this last phase, the cache has control over the processor until the save has been completed and committed (that is, all disk writes have been verified). Enabling this option causes the cache to start the process of writing the buffered (cached) data to the disk, but not to wait until the write has been committed. In other words, the data may never make it to the physical hard disk! You should only use this as a testing measure to troubleshoot old programs that are having performance problems under Windows 95.
If you use Disable Write-Behind Caching For All Drives, this option is moot since data never goes to the cache as it’s saved.
Disable All 32-bit, Protected-Mode Disk Drivers This option completely disables all 32-bit disk drivers in the system–except the floppy disk driver. When it is enabled, all disk input/output is channeled through real-mode drivers or the system BIOS. If you have disk drives that depend on protected mode, they will no longer be visible to Windows 95. Some older IDE and SCSI hard disks may require this switch. Also, if your hard disk controller is listed in Device Manager with a yellow exclamation point over it, this option may be enabled unnecessarily. Expect severe performance drains when using this switch. This sets ForceRMIO=1 in the Registry.
Disable Write-Behind Caching for All Drives Using this switch ensures that all saved data is being written directly to the disk and not stored in cache. This removes an enormous performance benefit and should only be used if you’re performing mission-critical operations. If you experience regular data loss while running a certain, incompatible application, this switch may reduce some of the risk of increased data loss. This sets DriveWriteBehind=0 in the Registry.
If you’re supporting a large number of PCs and are looking at migrating to Windows 95 (or if you already have), do not underestimate the power of these six switches! For computers that have been hanging around the office for a while, using one of these entries could breathe new life into a group of systems that otherwise would be traded in for much more expensive models. In addition, most corporations still depend on older applications–a DOS-based accounting package, a custom database program, etc. You’ll be more capable of pinpointing exactly where specific incompatibilities lie if you know exactly how these switches affect Windows 95.
Another Default Behavior Falls Short
Another Win95 default could cause problems if you’re not careful...
Windows 95 offers an abundance of powerful, time-saving features. One of our favorites is the flexibility experienced users have in customizing file associations. Although the operating system and various applications preconfigure many associations as they’re installed, we find it quite useful to make certain exceptions to the defaults. Why would you need to make changes such as these? Have you ever wanted to crack open an MS-DOS batch file (*.BAT) for editing and double-clicked it by accident? Executing certain batch files at the wrong time may prove to be a sizable mistake. Another problematic file association is the Registry file (*.REG). As you launch these files they automatically merge with the System Registry. This can be a very costly blunder if you’re not sure what that .REG file contains. Why not change the default file associations for items like batch or Registry files? Making alterations such as these are easy if you know where to go:Smart Associations Let’s start with Registry files. As previously mentioned, if you double-click a registry file, the default behavior is to merge the file into the Registry. This can be disastrous if the file happens to be an experimental registry hack! Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to have Registry files open in Notepad with a double-click? These steps will walk you through the process of making this modification:
Once you’ve finished this procedure, the default behavior of .REG files has been altered. Now, when you accidentally double-click that experimental registry hack, it will be harmlessly opened in Notepad. To actually merge the file into your Registry, simply right-click the file and choose Merge.
Undocumented Alterations Altering MS-DOS batch file associations require a more hard-core solution. If you follow the above procedure to arrive at the Edit File Type dialog box for MS-DOS batch files, you’ll find the [Set Default] button is grayed out. You can’t change the default behavior! Why is this a big deal? Under normal circumstances, executing a batch file accidentally won’t cause any problems; however, that one time you double-click a batch file containing DELTREE /Y or a similar command you’re in trouble. For added protection from haphazard clicking, we recommend you change the file association default.
For MS-DOS batch files, this requires an undocumented Registry tip.
NOTE: If you look at the subkeys contained in this Key, you’ll find the default behaviors for batch files are Edit, Open, and Print.
Test your new default behavior by locating AUTOEXEC.BAT in the root directory and double-clicking it. If you’re a little unsure of yourself, or just a non-believer, right-click the batch file and see for yourself that edit is the highlighted, and therefore, default behavior.
Using these two techniques, you can greatly enhance the power of Windows 95’s file types, associations and behaviors while building improved flexibility within the interface. But, as with any Registry changes, please be sure to make a backup of your registry before trying these or any other "hacks."
Registry Hack Boosts Efficiency
Real Windows 95 power-users are always in search of improved ways of working with files and applications to increase efficiency. Microsoft’s entire ideology regarding the new Explorer interface is anchored by this principle. The problem for PC gurus is that this operating system was designed for neophytes. For example, wading through the [START] button’s various cascading menus is usually far from efficient. Many users would rather litter the desktop with miscellaneous shortcut icons to give them easy access, but this can get confusing! To boost productivity you must uncover as many different hidden tips and shortcuts as possible to take the training wheels off the interface. In past issues we’ve discussed several of these proficiency builders: Ways to customize the entries in the various [START] menus, adding MenuShowDelay to the Registry to increase the cascading menus’ response time, and many other tips. The next few paragraphs will walk you through a process that will allow you to create files in virtually any application with only two mouse clicks!
Interface Preparation When you right-click a blank area of the desktop and point to NEW, you have quick access to creating new files in several different applications. Of course, the default options rarely come in handy (how many different briefcases do I need anyway?). However, since applications can be launched very efficiently using this method, why not add your favorite applications to this list?
The first thing you’ll need to do is create an empty file using the desired application. Better yet, if you regularly use a file with your company letterhead or another particular template, you can use it in place of the generic, empty file. Once you’ve decided, copy the file (the empty file or the template, that is) to the folder in Explorer named WINDOWS\SHELLNEW.
Another Registry Hack Now that the file is in the proper place, you must instruct Windows 95 to add the entry to the right-click menu’s New option.
There’s no need to restart Windows for this hack to take effect. Just right-click the desktop, point to NEW and your new application will appear in the menu. Once you click its option, a shortcut icon will be placed on the desktop so you can quickly name the file, double-click, and you’re off and running.