Overview
This is a summary of Tips occuring to the Topic Windows - NT Server and Windows - NT Workstation. For further
tips look at Tips & Tricks occuring to Windows NT / 101 - 200.

ADDING AN ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD IN AN UNATTENDED SCRIPT
Adding programs to the Start menu
ADD QUICKVIEW TO YOUR POP-UP MENU
ADD A RIGHT-CLICK OPTION TO FILES
ANOTHER WAY TO FIX FILE ASSOCIATIONS
AVOID BUYING A HUB FOR YOUR HOME OFFICE NETWORK AND SAVE MONEY
AVOID USERNAME ERRORS WITH NDS FOR WINDOWS NT
BECAUSE DOSKEY REMEMBERS . . .
Binding multiple frame types in NT Workstation 4.0 and Novell Client 32
BROADCASTING URGENT NETWORK MESSAGES
Bugs with Windows NT Workstation and NetWare
BYPASSING THE STARTUP FOLDER
CHANGE THE USERNAMES OF THE DEFAULT USERS
CHANGE ATTRIBUTES OF MANY FILES AT ONCE
CHANGING ASSIGNMENTS
CHANGING THE LOCATION OF YOUR PRINTER SPOOL FOLDER
Changing the default WinNT install path
Changing default program for certain file types
Changing NT's Login splash screen when using Netware's Intranetware Client for NT
Changing License number of NT installation
Creating secret network shares
Daylight time in germany
DELETING UNDELETABLE PRINT JOBS ON YOUR NT SERVER
Display preview of *.BMP files as Icons (in Explorer)
DISPLAY A LIST OF CONTROL PANELS IN YOUR START MENU
DOES YOUR SERVER OR WORKSTATION HAVE A PAGING PROBLEM?
Do desktops load before the logon script finishes?
Don't display Last user in logon dialogue
Don't leave your Workstation unlocked
DRAGGING WITH THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON
ERROR-CHECKING DRIVES
Fault Tolerance on Workstation?
Find a file, folder, or program instantly
GAINING ACCESS TO A BROKEN NT SYSTEM THAT IS USING NTFS
GET THE HISTORY
GIVE YOUR HOME DRIVE A LETTER
HACKERS ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS YOUR NETWORK?
Hiding a server from the browser
How can I get NT to complete commands when I hit TAB?
How do I stop a "Stop: 0x0000001E" error message during Setup?
Installing Windows NT Workstation without a NIC
IS YOUR HARDWARE COMPATIBLE WITH NT?
JUMP TO A COMMAND PROMPT
KEYBOARD JAMMIN'
Keyboard shortcuts for copying and moving files
Leave your System partition in FAT format
LIST ALL LISTENING TCP/IP PORTS
LONG FILENAMES IN THE ROOT DIRECTORY
Making an Emergency Repair Disk with Security information
MAKING THE WINDOWS EXPLORER VIEW THE DEFAULT
MAKE A BOOT FLOPPY
Make NT's Boot Manager wait for your input
MONITORING DISK COUNTERS FOR MEMBERS OF STRIPE SETS
MAPPING HIDDEN HOME DIRECTORIES
MISSING DRIVER DISKS
MS-DOS CUT AND PASTE
NT QUIRK WORKAROUND
NUMLOCK ON--AND LEAVE IT ON
NO STARTUP SCREEN
OPEN MY COMPUTER IN EXPLORER MODE
Optimizing your network protocol bindings
OVERCOME USER ID CONFLICT
PASSWORD EXPIRATION WARNING PERIOD
PLANNING FOR DOMAIN GROWTH
Promote a primary domain controler to a backup domain controller
PUMP UP THE PASSWORD - WINDOWS 95
A QUICK FIX FOR BROKEN FILE ASSOCIATIONS
Quickly accessing the desktop
Quickly accessing the Network Properties sheet
Reclaiming the lost drive letter B
REMEDYING AN ERROR MESSAGE FOR NOT ENOUGH SERVER STORAGE
Remember to copy the I386 directory's hidden files from Exploring
Remove Favorites Folder from Start menu
Revealing NT Easter Eggs
Remove the "Log Off user" from the Start menu
RULES FOR SHARE NAMES
RUNNING A MARATHON
SAVING HARD DISK SPACE
SAVING SEARCHES ON YOUR DESKTOP
SEARCHING FOR NETWORK SHARES WITH NET VIEW
SETTING UP THE ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD DURING UNATTENDED SETUP
SEND IT TO THE DESKTOP!
START MENU CLEANUP
Synchronize your system's clock
SYNCHRONIZING YOUR NT DOMAIN FROM THE COMMAND LINE
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE GO TO... COMMAND
Tighten security with the Audit feature from Exploring Windows NT
TWO EASY WAYS TO SEARCH FOR FILENAMES
USING SUBST TO MAKE THE PERSONAL FOLDER EASIER TO FIND
Using your company logo on the logon screen
Using fonts without installing them
Using the Title command to make your MS-DOS sessions easier to identify
Using your Windows 95 Keys
Visual InterDev offers a similar shortcut
What do I do when my PDC dies using NDS for NT?
WHERE IS BRIEFCASE?
Why is the Intranetware client for NT so slow?
Why can't I map search drives from NT's DOS box?
With Unencrypted Password SP3 Fails to Connect to SMB Server
WORKING WTIH SCRAPS

Using the Title command to make your MS-DOS sessions easier to identify
Normally, when you start an MS-DOS window, Windows NT displays a default title in the window.
Normally an MS-DOS window is called Command Prompt. If you're running multiple DOS sessions
on your workstation, it can become confusing to find the program you want to view from your Taskbar.

Fortunately, you can execute the DOS Title command to change the current windows title.
The command is very easy to use. The format for the Title command is

Title string

where string specifies the new text for the windows title. For example, to change a DOS windows
title to Accounting Software, you enter the command

Title Accounting Software

from the DOS command line of the DOS window. Windows NT then changes the title of that MS-DOS
session to Accounting Software.

Adding programs to the Start menu
Is there a program, file, or folder that you use often and would like to
access from the Start menu? If so, there's an easy way to accomplish this.
First, launch Windows Explorer or My Computer and locate the file you want
to add to the Start menu. Next, drag and drop the file onto the Start menu.
A shortcut to that program will appear at the top of the Start menu in
alphabetical order. Remember, this technique works not only with program
files, but with other file types and folders as well.

IS YOUR HARDWARE COMPATIBLE WITH NT?
Are you having trouble installing or booting NT? If so, an incompatible
device could be causing a problem. Before installing NT or
troubleshooting boot problems, you'll want to make sure that each of
your computer's devices appears in the Windows NT Hardware compatibility
list. The Windows NT Server and Workstation CD Package includes a hard
copy of the list, but because the list changes so frequently, you'll
want to check the latest version online at
http://www.microsoft.com/hwtest/hcl/.

But what if you're not exactly sure of the make and model of the devices
in your machine? Fortunately, Microsoft provides the Hardware Detection
Tool application on every Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and Server CD-ROM.
You'll find this application in the CD-ROM's \support\hqtool directory.
Execute the Makedisk.bat file in this directory to create a bootable
floppy that contains the Hardware Detection Tool. Just boot from this
floppy and follow the application's instructions.

KEYBOARD JAMMIN'
Here are three keyboard shortcuts you shouldn't be without:

Alt-Shift-Tab
While Alt-Tab cycles you through open programs and windows,
Alt-Shift-Tab cycles you backward through the same list. It's useful
when lots of applications are open.

Shift-Right-click
If you'd like to open a file in a particular application other than the
one it's associated with, hold down Shift as you right-mouse-click on
the already selected file icon. Select Open With, choose the application
in which you'd like to open the files, and click on OK.

Shift-Delete
Typically, selecting an item and pressing the Delete key sends it to the
Recycle Bin (after you click on Yes to confirm that you actually want to
send the item there). To bypass the Recycle Bin altogether, hold down
Shift as you press Delete.

SAVING HARD DISK SPACE
If your Windows NT workstation is using the NTFS file system, you can
use Windows NT's built-in compression tool to save disk space. Unlike
Windows 95's DriveSpace, Windows NT's compression allows you to squeeze
the slack space out of a single folder, an entire drive, or anything in
between-all without changing drive letters, affecting settings for
installed applications, or going through a lengthy conversion process.
To compress one or more files, open a Windows Explorer window, select
the files you want to compress, right-click, and choose Properties from
the shortcut menu. At the bottom of the General tab, you'll see a
Compress check box. Select that box and click OK. To compress a folder
or an entire drive, select the appropriate icon and follow the same
steps.

Quickly accessing the desktop

How many times have you needed to access an application or a document
located on the desktop? When you do, you probably minimize each one of the
applications you currently have open until you can see the desktop.
However, there's a much easier way. Simply right click on the taskbar and
choose the Minimize All command from the context menu to close all open
windows. Once you access the item on the desktop, you can restore all your
open windows simply by right clicking on the taskbar again and selecting
the Undo Minimize All command.

USING SUBST TO MAKE THE PERSONAL FOLDER EASIER TO FIND

If you don't provide Network home directories for your users, they're
probably accustomed to storing files on their local machines in the
%SystemRoot%\Profiles\%Username%\Personal directory. You can make it
easier for users to find their Personal folders. Windows NT's SUBST
command lets you map a directory path to the root of a virtual drive
letter. When you use SUBST in conjunction with the environment variable
%UserProfile% in a logon script, you can map a drive letter to a user's
Personal directory. The logon script command

SUBST U: %USERPROFILE%\Personal

maps the virtual drive letter U (for users) to the current user's
Personal folder. When you run this command, NT will add an extra icon to
the My Computer window. Double-clicking this icon will take the user
straight to the Personal folder on the server.

Please note: If you have a lot of experience with DOS or Windows, you
may have lost data in the past when using SUBST to map drive letters to
a directory path. Fortunately, Window NT's version of SUBST is far more
robust and stable than previous versions.

CHANGING ASSIGNMENTS

If you'd like to temporarily change the application opened by a certain
type of file, you can do it without first loading the application. All
you have to do is click on the file's icon to select it, then
right-click on the file while you hold down the Shift key. When the menu
opens, select Open With. Locate the program you want to associate with
this file type and select it. The file will open using the newly
selected application--assuming that application can open the file.

NUMLOCK ON--AND LEAVE IT ON

By default, every time you log on to Windows NT, it sets the NumLock key
to off. You can change this by editing the Registry. Standard
disclaimers about editing the Registry apply here: Make sure you have a
current backup, and be very careful, because mistakes in the Registry
can cause data loss. Start either version of the Registry Editor
(Regedt32.exe or Regedit.exe), and select the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard
In the right pane, double-click the InitialKeyboardIndicators value and
change it from 0 to 2. Click OK to save the change and then close the
Registry Editor. The next time you log on, NT will note your preference
and turn on the NumLock key. In Windows 95, the procedure is much
easier. To configure the NumLock key to always stay on, simply add this
setting to your Config.sys file: Numlock=on.

BECAUSE DOSKEY REMEMBERS . . .
One great DOS utility is Doskey. You turn on Doskey by typing its name
during any DOS session. If you're in a DOS window and make a mistake
typing a very long command, use Doskey to recall that command so you can
fix your mistake. Press your keyboard's up arrow once to insert the most
recently typed command (or use the up/down arrows to scroll through all
the commands in Doskey's memory). Make your changes, press Enter, and
you've saved yourself some typing!

To view the commands in Doskey's memory, type the following at
the command prompt ("h" stands for history):

doskey /h

WORKING WTIH SCRAPS
Did you know that in many applications you can drag scraps of text or
graphics to the desktop for later use in their original or another
application? For example, when working on a report in Microsoft Word,
you decide to cut a paragraph. However, you may want to use that
paragraph later in the document or even in another file. To create a
scrap, select the text you wish to use and then drag it onto the desktop
with the right mouse button. When you release the button, select the
Move Scrap Here command from the context menu (dragging with the left
mouse button will automatically copy the scrap). Now when you want to
copy the scrap into a document, just drag it from the desktop into the
text.

Quickly accessing the Network Properties sheet

As you may know, you can access your NT Workstation's Network properties
sheet by selecting Settings and Control Panel from the Start menu, and then
opening the Control Panel's Network icon. However, the Network properties
sheet is only a click away from your desktop. Instead of opening the
Control Panel, right-click on your Desktop's Network Neighborhood icon and
select the Properties command from the context menu. Alternatively, you can
instantly open the Network properties sheet by pressing and holding down
the [Alt] key while you double-click the Network Neighborhood icon. Note:
You won't be able to make changes to Network properties unless you have
administrative rights to your workstation.

SYNCHRONIZING YOUR NT DOMAIN FROM THE COMMAND LINE

As you probably know, changes that you make to your NT Domain's SAM
(Security Accounts Manager) only affect the PDC's (Primary Domain
Controller's) database until automatic replication occurs. In very large
NT Domains, automatic replication of the PDC's SAM to the Domain's
Backup Domain Controllers can take as long as 45 minutes to an hour
after you make changes. To force synchronization of your PDC with all
your BDCs, you can open Server Manager and select the PDC and choose
Synchronize Entire Domain option from the Computer menu. Or you can use
a shortcut. At your PDC, open a command line or Run dialog box and enter
the command
net accounts /sync
to synchronize your PDC's SAM with all of BDCs' SAMs.

Promote a primary domain controler to a backup domain controller

If for some reasons the standard methods to promote a PDC to BDC fails, you can modify the registry to relect the desired server role:
Log in with administrator rights
Start REGEDT32 (not REGEDIT), highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MASCHINE/SECURITY, from the Permissions menu, change the Administrator's permissions to Full Control amd make sure the Change Permissions on Subkeys box is selected.
Find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SECURITY/Policy/PolSrvRo, double-click on <No Name>:REG_NONE to modify the data, where 03000000 is for Primery and 02000000 is for Backup.
After the change is complete and the machine has restarted, change Administrator's permissions for the SECURITY hive can ba changed back to the default Special Permissions, including only the Write DAC and Read Control options.

Using your Windows 95 Keys

If you are using Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 95 and own one of the new Windows 95 keyboards with the 3 additional Microsoft keys, you should try the following helpful shortcuts to accelerate your work
Win m minimize all windows
Win M Restore all minimized windows
Win e    starts Windows Explorer
Win f     starts Find dialog
Win r    starts Run dialog
If you have no Windows 95 keyboard and using Windows 95 you need not do without the Win key. There's a litte utility from microsoft called Keyremap.zip to map e.g. the right ctrl key to the win key. But there's unfortunately no key mapper available for Windows NT 4.0.

Daylight time in germany

In germany from this year on the daylight saving time ends at end of october instead of end of september the last years. Because Windows NT 3.51 and Windows 95 are released befor the change of the daylight saving time end, the system is configured for change to standard time at end of september. To correct the settings open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and change under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ System/ CurrentControlSet/ Control/ TimeZoneInformation the value of StandardStart from 00 00 09 ... to 00 00 0a ... You should also modify under key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ Software/ Microsoft/ Windows/ CurrentVersion/ TimeZones /W.Europe the 15th byte of the value TZI from 09 to 0a.
Note: Windows NT 4.0 knows already about the new end of daylight saving time in germany.

   System error 1240 has occurred.

   The account is not authorized to login from this station.

   HKLM,System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Rdr\Parameters,
   "EnablePlainTextPassword", 0x10001, 1

Visual InterDev offers a similar shortcut

If you're fond of keyboard shortcuts, you're certainly familiar with
using the Alt-Tab shortcut to cycle through the open applications in
Windows. For those of you who cringe at the thought of moving your hands
from the keyboard to accomplish such a simple task as switching
documents, Visual InterDev offers a similar shortcut. By pressing
Ctrl+Tab, you can cycle through the open Visual InterDev windows, as
well as any other Developer Studio application windows you have open.

NO STARTUP SCREEN

Version 4.0, 3.51
You can change your Windows NT startup screen. If you'd like to
eliminate this screen completely, open Windows NT Explorer and locate
the Winnt folder. Find the winnt.bmp and winnt256.bmp files and rename
them. You can change the extension and name them winnt.old and
winnt256.old. Of course, you can also substitute another .BMP file to
make your own startup screen. Perhaps you'd like to use the company logo
or some personal photographs. To do this, copy your selected file into
the Winnt folder and name it Winnt256.bmp. If your system is running at
256 or more colors, then you don't need to worry about winnt.bmp.

GIVE YOUR HOME DRIVE A LETTER
Longtime NetWare users switching to an NT server may miss the MAP ROOT
command, which allows you to assign a drive letter to your server-based
personal storage area and work with it as though it were the root
directory of the mapped drive. NT doesn't support the MAP ROOT command,
but it does let you use the SUBST command, which dates back to the DOS
days, to accomplish the same goal. Used in conjunction with NT system
variables and login scripts, the SUBST command lets you define a single
drive letter where all network users can expect to find their personal
files (U, for users, is a popular choice.) To map U: to the Personal
folder stored in each user's profile, add the following command to the
login script for each user: SUBST U:
%userprofile%\Personal
With this command in the login script, NT will add an extra icon to the
My Computer window. Double-clicking this icon will take the user
straight to the Personal folder on the server. If you're wary of using
the SUBST command because you've lost data when using it with pervious
versions of DOS or Windows, don't worry. The NT version is far more
robust and stable.

CHANGING THE LOCATION OF YOUR PRINTER SPOOL FOLDER

When you install a printer, Windows NT Server creates a folder to
temporarily store print jobs before sending them to the print device. By
default, Windows NT creates this folder in the path
%SystemRoot%\System32\Spool\Printers. If you share your printers with
others, your printer spooler folder can grow to be quite large, taking
up much needed disk space and negatively affecting disk I/O in your boot
partition. Fortunately, you can move the location of your printer
spooler folder out of your boot partition and, preferably, to a second
physical disk. To do so, open Printers in the Control panel and choose
Server Properties from the File menu. In the Print Server Properties
dialog box, select the Advanced tab and enter a new path for your
printer spooler folder in the Spool Folder field. Click OK to save your
changes and restart your system. Windows NT will then create a new
printer Spool folder in the location you specified.

Synchronize your system's clock

As you probably know, the clocks in most PC systems tend to drift easily,
which can be a real pain if you need to be on the same time as everyone
else in your workgroup or domain. If you have administrative privileges to
your NT Workstation, you can use the NET TIME command to synchronize your
workstation's clock with another workstation or server's clock. To do so,
open a command line or Run dialog box and enter the command

NET TIME \\ComputerName /SET /YES

Where ComputerName is the name of the workstation or server that you want
to synchronize with. If your workstation is a member of an NT domain, you
may want to synchronize your clock with your Primary Domain Controller. To
run this command every time you log on, put it in a batch file and add the
file to your Startup Menu.

Don't leave your Workstation unlocked

As you probably already know, you should never leave your Workstation
unattended while your account is logged on. However, logging off from your
Windows NT session allows other users to logon locally or to the network.
Fortunately, you can lock your Workstation without ending your Windows NT
session while preventing others users (except local or Domain
Administrators) from logging on. To do so, press [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DELETE]
simultaneously to display the Windows NT Security dialog box. Then Click
the Lock Workstation button. The Workstation Locked dialog box will appear,
displaying a message that states that the workstation is in use and locked.
To unlock your workstation, press [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DELETE] simultaneously
again and enter your password in the Unlock Workstation dialog box.

HACKERS ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS YOUR NETWORK?

Many hackers will try to gain unauthorized access to your network by
repeatedly trying to log in with a known account's username and guess at
the account's password. These attempts won't go unnoticed if you use
Windows NT's auditing feature. To do so, go to a domain controller, open
User Manager for Domains and choose Audit... from the Policies menu. In
the resulting Audit Policies Dialog box, select the Audit these events
option and check the Logon and Logoff Failure option and click OK to
close the dialog box. Then when you periodically use the Event Viewer to
display the Security log, you'll find an entry for every failed logon
attempt. If you notice failed logon attempts occurring with unusually
high frequency or at odd hours (such as when the user is not normally at
work or telecommuting) you may want to take further steps to tighten
your network's security.

PASSWORD EXPIRATION WARNING PERIOD

Windows NT 4.0 reminds users to change their passwords with a warning
message upon startup. You can change the number of days this warning
appears before the password will automatically expire. To do so, use the
Registry editor to add a Registry entry that adjusts this value (the
value does not appear in the Registry unless you add it). Go to the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
key. Add the value PasswordExpiryWarning of data type REG_DWORD. The
range for this value is in number of days, and the default value is 14.
Warning: Using the Registry editor incorrectly can cause serious,
system-wide problems. You may have to uninstall NT to correct them. Use
this tool at your own risk.

LONG FILENAMES IN THE ROOT DIRECTORY

At first glance, Windows 95's long filenames feature may seem like the
perfect tool for organizing the root directory. Although you can exploit
long filenames to describe the contents of your directories, you should
be cautious about using them in your root directory. DOS imposes a
512-entry limit in the root directory, and this is still true in Windows
95. While 512 may sound like an extremely large number of entries, it's
really not. Because when you create a long filename, Windows 95 uses one
directory for the file's 8.3-style DOS name and another for its long
filename alias. Therefore, if all your filenames are longer than the 8.3
format can handle, your limit is reduced to 256 entries.

GET THE HISTORY
Version 4.0
When you enter a command in the Command Prompt window, that command gets
saved by the system (for up to 50 commands), and you can use it again
without having to retype it. All you have to do is press F7 to open the
History dialog box. Now you can use the arrow keys to highlight the
command you want to use and then press Enter to execute the command. If
you need more than the default 50 commands, click in the Command box
(upper left corner) and choose Properties. Click on the Options tab and
then set Buffer Size to the number of commands you need. Click on OK,
and then click on OK again.

Make NT's Boot Manager wait for your input

If your NT Workstation uses the NT Boot Manager to boot your system to two
or more different operating systems or versions of Windows NT, then you
know that the NT Boot Manager will wait for a predetermined amount of time
(usually 30 seconds) and then boot to the default OS (operating system).
Wouldn't it be nice to have the Boot Manager wait for you to make a
selection without worrying about not being there to "catch" it before it
boots the default system when the timer runs out?

Fortunately, you can edit the Boot Manager's timeout value (which is stored
in the hidden BOOT.INI file in the root of your system partition) and make
NT's Boot Manager wait for your input before booting an OS. To do so, open
Windows Explorer and display the properties for the BOOT.INI file. Deselect
the file's Read-only attribute and copy the file as BOOT.BAK. Then open
BOOT.INI in Windows Notepad and find the line that reads "timeout=30",
which is usually the second line in the file, after the "[boot loader]"
identification. Change this line so it reads "timeout=-1". Then close the
file and reset its Read-only attributes.

When you restart your Workstation, the NT Boot Manager will display the
menu listing multiple operating systems without doing a countdown. It will
wait until you select the operating system you want and hit enter before
booting an OS.

Creating secret network shares

Sometimes you need to be discrete when sharing information on your network.
To create a secret network share, right click on the folder that you want
to share and choose Sharing... from the context menu. In the resulting
Properties dialog box, select the Sharing tab and click the Shared As
option. Then add a dollar sign ($) to the end of the text in the Share Name
field and click OK. Users who have the proper access privileges will still
be able to access the share by using the UNC path name
(\\servername\secret$), but users won't see the share's name listed in the
Network Neighborhood browse list. Unless a user knows where to look, he or
she won't be able to access your secret network share.

DOES YOUR SERVER OR WORKSTATION HAVE A PAGING PROBLEM?

If you've noticed that your server or workstation has suffered an
overall performance hit, you might want to investigate the possibility
of excessive paging. Using Performance Monitor, examine the values of
the Paging File's %Usage object and the Physical Disks (which contains
the pagefile.sys) Avg. Disk Sec/Transfer object. The product of these
values is equal to the percentage of disk access time devoted to
providing virtual memory for applications. If the product is greater
than .10 for an extended period of time, excessive paging is occurring.
Unfortunately, increasing the size of your paging file won't alleviate
this problem. To reduce the amount of disk access time devoted to
paging, we recommend that you make more memory available to applications
by adding physical RAM to your system and removing any unnecessary
device drivers or system services.

Remove the "Log Off user" from the Start menu

To remove the "Log Off user" enrty from your Start menu:
Start the Registry Editor.
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer
Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New/DWORD Value
Name it NoLogOff
Double-click this entry and add the value 1
Exit Regedit and Restart Windows

Remove Favorites Folder from Start menu

To remove the new Favorites Menu from your Start menu:
Start the Registry Editor.
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer
Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New/DWORD Value
Name it NoFavoritesMenu
Double-click this entry and add the value 1
Exit Regedit and Restart Windows

Making an Emergency Repair Disk with Security information

As you probably know, an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) can help you repair a
damaged registry. However, using the Repair Disk Utility to create an ERD
won't help you repair a damaged Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database
unless you run the utility with the /S parameter. Open a command line or
Run dialog box and enter the command

Rdisk /s

to run the Repair Disk Utility and create an ERD that contains the most
current SAM database information. Should your SAM become corrupted, you can
use the ERD in conjunction with the Windows NT Setup Boot disks to repair
the SAM registry information. Remember: Because ERDs contain sensitive
security information, you should keep them in a secure place.

Installing Windows NT Workstation without a NIC

You may occasionally find that you need to install Windows NT Workstation
on a computer that doesn't have a NIC(Network Interface Card) adapter
installed. In this situation, you can take a simple step that will make
adding a NIC to the Workstation later a snap. During the GUI portion of the
Windows NT Workstation installation, the Setup program asks you to specify
the computer's network configuration. The options are Wired to the Network
and Remote Access. Select the Wired to the Network Option and specify the
MS Loopback Adapter as your network interface adapter. The MS Loopback
Adapter is software which mimics an actual adapter and fools Windows NT
Workstation into thinking that a real adapter is installed on the system.
When your ready to install a real adapter, you can install the correct
device drivers and remove the MS Loopback Adapter.

MAKE A BOOT FLOPPY

NT Workstation 4.0, 3.51
There are times when Windows NT won't start, and you know why. If this
occurs, you can go through the usual procedures to restore the system,
but since you know what's wrong, you can get running again more quickly
if you have a boot floppy. To create one, insert a floppy disk into
Drive A. Right-click on the floppy disk icon and choose Format. Format
the disk using Full Format (just to be safe). Now open Windows NT
Explorer and click on the root folder (usually C:\). Copy the following
files to the floppy disk:

Boot.ini
Ntdetect.com
Bootsect.dos (for dual start-up installations)
NTLDR
Ntbootdd.sys (if it's in the root folder, copy it)

If you don't see these files in your root folder, choose View, Options
in Windows NT Explorer. Select the radio button labeled Show All Files.
Click Apply and then OK. Now you should see the files. If you don't,
press F5 and look again. Using the boot floppy, you can boot into your
damaged system and make the appropriate repairs.

ADDING AN ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD IN AN UNATTENDED SCRIPT

You can't conventionally add a password for an Administrator account in
an unattended script. But you can put a Net Use Password
/user:Administrator command in cmdlines.txt and place the net.exe file
in the $OEM$ directory.

PUMP UP THE PASSWORD - WINDOWS 95
Passwords are a vital part of any company's computer security. Although
you can legislate periodic changes of passwords if you're running a
Windows NT network, you can never dictate exact password syntax or make
sure users don't write down their passwords where someone else can find
them. However, the length of your PC's passwords is in your hands. If
you're using a peer-to-peer Windows 95 network, take charge of this
system attribute by editing the Registry. Standard disclaimers about
editing the Registry apply here: Make sure you have a current backup and
be very careful, because mistakes in the Registry can cause data loss.

To enforce a minimum password length, open the Registry Editor and
navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network key. Now, choose the
Edit|New|Binary value command and call the new value MinPwdLen. Press
Enter twice and then type in the number of characters you want the
machine's passwords to have.

Find a file, folder, or program instantly

In the Windows 95 operating system, you can bring up the Find dialog box quickly
without having to use a menu. Simply click on an empty portion of your desktop
and then press F3. The Find dialog box will appear, and you can follow the usual
Find procedure.

SEARCHING FOR NETWORK SHARES WITH NET VIEW

You can use the NET VIEW command line utility to display a list of a
computer's network shares. However, if a computer hosts several or
perhaps even dozens of shares, the list may scroll off your screen.
Obviously, you can prevent the list from scrolling by piping the list
results through the more command, but you would still have to search
through a long list for the share you're looking for. Instead, try
piping the NET VIEW results through the find command, and specify a
search string of characters that appears in the name of the share you're
looking for. The command

NET VIEW \\%computername% | find "%string%"

(where %computername% is name of the target computer and %string% is the
search string) will display a list of only the target computer's shares
that contain the characters found in the search string. Note: the search
string is case sensitive.

Reclaiming the lost drive letter B

Long ago, gigantic 5.25" floppy drives roamed the Earth. You may even
remember a time when new desktop machines shipped with two floppy drives
that reserved both drive letters A and B. Today, most new desktop computers
come with a single 3.5" drive that uses drive letter A. An obvious, but
often overlooked fact is that you can assign drive letter B to a partition
or drive mapping. As you know, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 supports up to 32
primary or logical partitions on a single hard disk. Because there are only
26 letters in the alphabet, a drive divided into 32 partitions must include
stripe or volume sets so that you don't run out of drive letters! This
letter shortage makes reclaiming the drive letter B for a partition or
drive mapping even more important. One of our favorite ways to reclaim the
lost drive letter B is to use the SUBST command to map it to a directory
and thereby avoid typing long and complex path names. Type SUBST /? at the
command prompt for details on using the SUBST command.

Remember to copy the I386 directory's hidden files from Exploring
Windows NT

Creating a shared I386 directory allows you conduct server-based NT
installations and saves you the trouble of hunting for the NT
Installation media every time you need to install a new service.
However, before you attempt to copy the NT CD-ROM's I386 directory to a
server, you should remember that Windows NT Explorer doesn't display
files that have .sys, .dll and .vxd extensions. Explorer doesn't copy
files that it doesn't display. So, before you use Explorer to copy the
I386 directory, choose Options... from Explorer's View menu. Click the
View tab in the Options dialog box and select the Show All Files option.
Explorer will then copy all hidden files when you copy the I386 files to
your server. Alternatively, you can use the XCOPY command line utility
with its /S switch (which copies all subfolders) to copy the I386
directory. XCOPY copies hidden file types by default.

PLANNING FOR DOMAIN GROWTH

When you're planning your company's NT domain model, make sure you give
your domains the room they need to grow. Remember that every user,
computer and group account in a NT domain takes up file space in the
domain's SAM (Security Accounts Manager) database. Microsoft recommends
that a domain's SAM database should be no larger than 40 Mb. Each user
account uses 1Kb. Each computer account uses 500 bytes. Each group
account uses 4 Kb. Therefore, a single NT domain could conceivably hold
40,000 user accounts or 25,000 user accounts, 14,000 computer accounts
and 2,000 group accounts. If you use a single master domain model where
all user and global group accounts are stored in the master domain and
all computer and local group accounts are stored in the resource
domains, you may need to implement multiple master domains if you have
more than 40,000 users.

DRAGGING WITH THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON
Did you know that dragging files with the right mouse button displays a
context menu with a choice of several actions? You can choose from
several options: Move Here, Copy Here, Create Shortcut(s) Here or
Cancel. Dragging with the right button gives you more control than
dragging with the left button, which automatically performs the default
action (which, incidentally, is displayed in bold on the right-drag
context menu). The Cancel command can also come in handy, especially
when you accidentally drop a file on the wrong folder.

SEND IT TO THE DESKTOP!
If you frequently move items to the desktop for easy access, you can
speed up the process by including the desktop on your Send To menu. To
do so, right-click the Start button, choose Explore and then open the
SendTo folder. When the folder's current contents appear in Explorer's
right pane, right-click a blank spot in that pane and choose
New|Shortcut. When the Create Shortcut Wizard window appears, type
c:\windows\desktop (or the correct path to your desktop, if it's
different) in the Command line text box and click Next>. In the wizard's
next screen, give your new shortcut the name Desktop and click Finish.

Now you'll be able to move items directly to the desktop by
right-clicking their icons, choosing the Send To command and selecting
Desktop. Remember, if you change your mind and want to send the object
back to its original location, just press [Ctrl]Z or choose Undo Move
from the Edit menu of My Computer or Windows Explorer.

One last note: If the object you're copying to your desktop is stored in
a volume other than the one on which your desktop resides, Windows will
notify you that the object will be copied to your desktop, not moved
there. If you want to move the object, you can always just right-drag it
to the desktop and choose Move from the context menu.

Optimizing your network protocol bindings

If you use your NT Workstation in a multi-protocol environment, you can
optimize your network's performance by configuring your protocol bindings
so that the most commonly used protocol is bound to your network card
first. To configure your protocol bindings, open the Network Applet in the
Control Panel and select the Bindings tab. Select a service in the Show
Bindings for field and click the + symbol next to the services name to
display its bound protocols. Select the most commonly used protocol and
click the Move Up button until it appears at the top of the binding order.
Then click the OK button to save your changes. The new settings will go
into effect when you restart your system. Note: only protocol binding order
on workstations affects network performance. Servers will use whichever
protocol a workstation requests, making protocol binding order
inconsequential.

AVOID BUYING A HUB FOR YOUR HOME OFFICE NETWORK AND SAVE MONEY

If you're planning to create your own home office network, you may have
been dreading the idea of spending $50 to $100 for a four-port hub to
connect your computers via 10baseT. Rather than foot this expense, you
can use 10base2, a.k.a. Thinnet, instead of 10baseT and thereby avoid
having to buy a hub. When you use 10base2, you connect your computers in
a linear bus rather than a star bus configuration. Here's what you'll
need:

- One 10base2 cable for every two computers
- One T connector per computer
- One 10base2 Ethernet card per computer
- Two terminators

All this will cost you less than 10baseT patch cables and a hub. We
recommend purchasing 10baseT/10base2 combination Network Interface Cards
for your computers. They usually don't cost more, and you'll be able to
use them to attach your computers to 10baseT cables later if you wish.

Using your company logo on the logon screen

When you press [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DEL} to logon to your Windows NT workstation,
the Winlogon program displays the NT Logo as wallpaper behind the logon
dialog box. Wouldn't it be nice to use your company's logo on the logon
screen instead? To do so, save your company's logo as a bitmap file in the
system root directory. Then use the Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE) to open
the subkey

HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

Select the Wallpaper entry for this subkey and choose the String... command
from the Edit menu. In the resulting String Editor dialog box, change the
value to the path and filename for your logo's bitmap file. Then click OK
to save your change, close the Registry Editor and restart your system.

Note: Before you use the Registry Editor, make sure that you have a current
backup of your workstation's Registry. Making even simple mistakes when
editing the Registry can have disastrous results.

LIST ALL LISTENING TCP/IP PORTS

If you're running a TCP/IP stack on Windows NT 4.0, you might need to
determine which ports are active and listening. This information is
useful in many situations, such as troubleshooting a faulty TCP/IP
service.

To get this information, you no longer need to run a port scanner
against a particular NT system's IP address. If you have installed
Service Pack 3 (SP3), NT 4.0 will give you a list of listening ports
from the command line. SP3 replaces the old NETSTAT.EXE program with a
new version that introduces the "-a" command-line parameter. Issuing the
command "netstat -a" will list all listening ports on that particular
machine.

MONITORING DISK COUNTERS FOR MEMBERS OF STRIPE SETS

As you probably know, you can use Windows NT's Performance Monitor
utility (found in the Administrative Tools (Common) group) to monitor
your disk drive's performance. However, if you open Performance Monitor
and try to add your drive's %Disk Time and %Disk Queue Length counters
to a chart, you'll find that the values for these counters will always
read zero. To get a correct reading, you must run the command "diskperf
-y" at the command prompt and restart your system to turn on your
system's disk performance counters. However, if you want to monitor the
performance of a disk that is a member of a stripe set or stripe set
with parity, you must run the command "diskperf -ye" at the command
prompt and restart your system. You should always remember that leaving
disk performance counters turned on uses valuable system resources. Once
you're done monitoring your drive's performance, run the command
"diskperf -n" at the command prompt and restart your system to turn the
disk counters off.

SAVING SEARCHES ON YOUR DESKTOP

Do you frequently use the Windows 95 Find feature to search for certain
types of files? If you repeatedly search for the same file types, you
may find it helpful to save your search criteria on your desktop. When
you need to perform the search, you can simply double-click the shortcut
and, with no additional input, your results will appear.

Let's say that you frequently search for .mid and .wav sound files. To
do this, you'd usually click the Start button, select Find and then
click the Files or Folders... command. When the Find: All Files dialog
box appears, key in the criteria for your search. For our example, just
type *.mid, *.wav in the Named text box. When you're satisfied with your
search criteria, click the Find Now button, and the results will appear
at the bottom of the dialog box. At this point, pull down the File menu
and select the Save Search command. This will create a shortcut on your
desktop named All Files.fnd (you can rename the file if you want). Now
when you double-click the shortcut, Find will automatically perform a
new search with the saved criteria.

GAINING ACCESS TO A BROKEN NT SYSTEM THAT IS USING NTFS

If you need to access a broken Windows NT system that uses NTFS on the
system partition, you'll find that most troubleshooting procedures
recommend installing another copy of NT on the local system. This
technique is slow and costly for support personnel, and it's not always
possible.

An alternative solution is to use an external hard disk and an NT boot
floppy. First, you must install Windows NT on a local SCSI hard disk on
any system. You'll only need to install the basic operating system. But
if you need networking, add the I386 directory and the appropriate
drivers for the network interface cards that you use at your site.

Once you've configured this system, remove the hard disk and place it in
a portable SCSI drive bay. Next, take the portable drive to the broken
system and plug it into the external SCSI plug. Then use an NT boot
floppy (with correct ARC path names) to start the NT installation on the
portable drive. You'll then have access to the broken system and may
back up all of its data.

Tighten security with the Audit feature from Exploring Windows NT

Many hackers will try to gain unauthorized access to your network by
repeatedly trying to log in with a known account's username and guess at
the account's password. These attempts won't go unnoticed if you use
Windows NT's auditing feature. To do so, go to a domain controller, open
User Manager for Domains and choose Audit... from the Policies menu. In
the resulting Audit Policies Dialog box, select the Audit these events
option and check the Logon and Logoff Failure option and click OK to
close the dialog box. Then when you periodically use the Event Viewer to
display the Security log, you'll find an entry for every failed logon
attempt. If you notice failed logon attempts occurring with unusually
high frequency or at odd hours (such as when the user is not normally at
work or telecommuting) you may want to take further steps to tighten
your network's security.

MAPPING HIDDEN HOME DIRECTORIES

If you use Windows NT server to provide shared home directories for
Windows 95 users, you've probably dreaded the task of creating a
separate logon script for each user that will map a drive letter to the
user's home directory. However, you can use a simple technique to create
a generic logon script that maps a drive letter to a user's home
directory, which is hidden from other users.

First, create a shared home directory on your Windows NT server for each
Windows 95 user. Give the share the same name as its user's username,
but add a dollar sign to the end, as in

Eric$

This will hide the share from view in Network Neighborhood. Be sure to
assign each home directory's share permissions and NTFS permissions
appropriately. Then use User Manager for Domains to open each user's
User Properties sheet and specify the paths to the user's hidden home
directory and the generic logon script. Then create the generic logon
script, and add the command

NET USE U: /HOME /YES

to map the drive letter U to the user's home directory.

START MENU CLEANUP

Want to clean some unwanted items out of your Start menu without opening
lots of windows? The Taskbar Properties dialog box has a Remove button
just for this purpose.

Right-mouse click on a blank area of the Taskbar and select Properties
to open the Taskbar Properties dialog box. Select the Start Menu
Programs tab. Under Customize Start Menu, click the Remove button and
navigate your way to the Start menu item you want to remove. With the
unwanted item selected, click the Remove button, and the item is
history.

Or, if you run Internet Explorer 4.0, right-mouse click a Start menu
item and select Delete.

A QUICK FIX FOR BROKEN FILE ASSOCIATIONS

If you accidentally associate a particular file extension with the wrong
application, you can try fixing this problem by using Windows Explorer's
File Types dialog box. However, you'll soon discover that Windows
Explorer won't let you remove a single extension from a registered file
type without deleting the entire entry and starting over. Fortunately,
you can use Windows 3.x's File Manager to fix the problem quickly and
easily. To begin, open the Run dialog box, type winfile, and press
[Enter]. Once File Manager opens, pull down the File menu and select the
Associate... command. Then, in the Files with Extension text box, type
the extension that's associated with the wrong application. When you do,
you'll see the errant file association appear in the Associate With text
box. To remove the file association, scroll to the top of the list of
file types and select (None). Then, click OK to completely remove the
association from your system.

Bugs with Windows NT Workstation and NetWare

Have you encountered problems using Windows NT Workstation on a Novell
network? If so, you re not alone. Some of the problems are caused by bugs
and incompatibilities between Windows NT Workstation and NetWare. These
unresolved bugs and incompatibilities include:

If you try to change your password on a 3.x or 2.x NetWare server, Windows
NT prompts you for the Novell NDS tree.

When you run a VI editor to open a read-only file on a File and Print
Services for NetWare (FPNW) server, it may open a new file for editing as
though the original wasn t there. However, when you use the VI editor on
the same file on a NetWare server, the file opens with no problems.

16-bit programs may not be able to use long filenames on NetWare servers.

NetWare login scripts that include the ENDIF command may produce errors on
a Windows NT Workstation.

When you turn off Packet Burst on Windows NT 3.51, the computer may not be
able to copy files larger than 1,450 bytes to or from a Novell server over
Ethernet. The copy can also fail if the NetWare server doesn't have Packet
Burst turned on and Packet Burst is enabled on Windows NT.

Login errors can occur after you remove the NWLink IPX/SPX Compatible
Transport on a computer running Windows NT that has the RAS server service
installed and previously had the IPX protocol enabled for RAS dial-in.

WHERE IS BRIEFCASE?

We have suggested that you move files into Briefcase using Send To, but
you may encounter a few problems creating new Briefcase folders and
using Send To. Here's what happens.

Let's say you create a new Briefcase folder (right-click the desktop,
choose New, Briefcase). The Briefcase will be named New Briefcase. Send
To will only work with a Briefcase named My Briefcase. So, click the
name of the new Briefcase twice and change its name to My Briefcase. Or,
if you prefer, simply copy files from Explorer to My Briefcase.

BROADCASTING URGENT NETWORK MESSAGES

Here's a tip both you and your users can use. NT 4.0's Messenger Service
makes it easy to broadcast urgent messages to other NT4.0 users on the
network. To do so, open the Command Prompt window and use the NET SEND
command with the following syntax:

NET SEND {computername| * |/DOMAIN[:domainname] /USERS} message

To broadcast an urgent message to everyone on the network, type

NET SEND * This is an urgent message! The Server is shutting down!

Then press the ENTER key. Everyone on the network running NT4.0
Workstation or Server will see your message. Do not enclose the message
in quotes. To prevent broadcasts from reaching your desktop, you can
stop this service in the Control Panel's Service applet.

REMEDYING AN ERROR MESSAGE FOR NOT ENOUGH SERVER STORAGE

An incorrect value in the PagedPoolSize in the Windows NT Registry is a
common cause for the message "Not enough server storage is available to
process this command." If you receive this message, you might have a
nonzero PagePoolSize entry in the Registry. Open the Registry and go to
the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management key. Set the PagedPoolSize value to 0. If you
change this value, you will need to reboot your system.

MS-DOS CUT AND PASTE

You can paste information from a Windows NT application into a command
prompt line. Select a line of text and press Ctrl-C to copy it. Now open
the command prompt and click the control box. This will open a menu.
Choose Edit, Paste. (Note: You can't press Ctrl -V to paste into a
command prompt window.)

If you want to copy some text in a command prompt window and paste it
into a Windows application, click the control box and choose Edit, Mark
from the menu. Now use the mouse to select the text you want to copy.
After you finish the selection, press Enter. This copies the text to the
clipboard. Go to the Windows application and click where you want the
text to appear. Press Ctrl-V to paste the text.

Revealing NT Easter Eggs

The developers of Windows NT couldn't resist hiding a few buried treasures
in the operating system. NT's 3D Text(Open GL) screen saver alone contains
three Easter Eggs. To view them, right-click on the desktop and choose
Properties to open the Display Properties dialog box. Click the Screen
Saver tab in this box and select the 3D Text(Open GL) from the Screen
Savers drop-down list. Then click the Settings… button and enter the name
of one of the Easter Eggs described below in the Text field. When the 3D
Text (Open GL) screen saver launches, it will the display the Easter Egg
you requested.

Volcano-This Easter Egg displays the names of all of the volcanoes in the
West Coast portion of the "Ring of Fire." (Is there only one volcano with
multiple names or several volcanoes?

I Love NT-This Easter Egg zooms the word good followed by a question mark
around the screen.

Not Evil-The name of this Easter Egg is an anagram for I Love NT. It
displays

How do I stop a "Stop: 0x0000001E" error message during Setup?

The Stop: 0x0000001E message may occur after the first reboot during
Windows NT Setup. It may also occur after Setup is finished. You may get
the error because:
1) Your disk drive is full.
2) You have an incompatible Third-party video driver
3) You have an incompatible system BIOS
To fix the problem, solve each symptom one at time starting with freeing
disk space. Next, remove the video driver. Go back to plain VGA if
necessary. Finally, upgrade your computer's BIOS.

ERROR-CHECKING DRIVES

You have two choices for error-checking a drive when you run the Disk
Administrator tools: fixing file system errors and remapping bad sectors.
The basic procedure is to highlight a drive, click Tools, and select
Properties. If you want to fix file system errors, you must reboot your
system before the error-checking and correction can continue. This process
is similar to the DOS command "chkdsk /f /r". If you want the system to
attempt to remap bad sectors, the error-checking process can continue even
if the drive is locked.

AVOID USERNAME ERRORS WITH NDS FOR WINDOWS NT

If you use NDS for NT on your network to integrate your Netware and Windows
NT servers, you may have encountered the following error when trying to
create a new user in User Manager for Domains on a migrated domain:

"You specified a Username which is already in use by another user. Choose a
Username which is not already in use by another user or group."

This error can occur if there's an NDS object in the "Default User Creation
Context" of the NDS Domain Object with the same name as the NT user you are
trying to create. This object can be any NDS object, not just a user or
group. To avoid the error, make sure the new NT name for the user or group
is unique for both the NT Domain and the NDS context.

BYPASSING THE STARTUP FOLDER
If you want to quickly load Windows 95 without loading any of the programs
in the Startup folder, type your password and click OK in the Welcome to
Windows dialog box, then press and hold down the [Shift] key. If you're on a
network, type your password and click OK in the Enter Network Password
dialog box, then press and hold down the [Shift] key. If you're not logging
into Windows 95 or a network, press and hold down the [Shift] key, when you
see the Windows 95 splash screen appear.

RULES FOR SHARE NAMES
Share names follow rules that are similar to those for long filenames in
Windows 95 and Windows NT, with some noteworthy exceptions. You can use
numbers (0-9), letters (A-Z), and these special characters:
$ % ' - _ @ ~ ` ! ( ) ^ # &
However, six special characters that are legal in long filenames:
+ , ; = [ ]
aren't permitted in share names. Spaces are allowed in share names.
Although NT workstations and servers can create and connect to a share
name that's up to 80 characters long, it's better to use share names
that are much shorter. Windows 95 workstations, for example, can't see a
share name that's more than 12 characters long, and DOS and Windows for
Workgroups clients can connect only to shares that follow the 8.3 DOS
file-naming convention.

Binding multiple frame types in NT Workstation 4.0 and Novell Client 32

Depending on your network configuration, you may be running more than one
type of IPX frame type. Microsoft NT Workstation 4.0 only allows you to
specify a single IPX frame type. Normally if you want to use multiple
types, you can use the Autodetect option. If you use Autodetect, NT
searches for multiple frame types in the following order:
Ethernet 802.2
Ethernet 802.3
Ethernet II
Ethernet SNAP
This may not be the best order for your network.
You can specify more than one frame type to be bound when the network
services are initialized by making changes in the Registry. The key you'll
need to change is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NWlnkIpx\NetConfig\<NIC
/Adapter
Driver> : PktType
PktType is a multiple string value (REGEDIT32), which means you can
make more than one entry as long as the values are on separate lines. The
following values are possible:
ff - Autodetect (cannot be used in conjunction with other values)
0 - Ethernet II
1 - Ethernet 802.3
2 - Ethernet 802.2
3 - Ethernet SNAP
4 - ARCnet
You can determine what frame types are bound by using the IPXROUTE CONFIG
command at a Command Prompt.
NT Server doesn't restrict you to a single frame type like NT Workstation.

Fault Tolerance on Workstation?

One of the differences I highlighted in my November 1996 Windows NT Magazine article,
"Inside the Difference Between Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server," was that
fault tolerant disk configurations are only available on Server. This is because the
Windows NT disk administrative program, Windisk.exe, checks to see if its running on
a Workstation, and if so, does not display its Fault Tolerance menu, which contains
the entries that are used to create mirrors and parity striped sets.
It turns out that whoever wrote the Workstation Resource Kit program FTEDIT was unaware
of Microsoft's official policy on fault tolerance and Workstation: it appears you can
use this utility to create mirrors and striped sets with parity on Workstations.
Update: several people have complained that this doesn't work, which isn't surprising
since I left out an important step: the Fault-tolerant disk driver must be enabled.
If you have an existing volume-set then it is already is, but if you don't, use a
Registry editor to set the value of:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\FtDisk\Start
to 0. The next time you boot your workstation, the fault-tolerant
drives you have created will be functional.

SETTING UP THE ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD DURING UNATTENDED SETUP

Have you tried to run unattended setup of your Windows NT server, started the
process and come back later hoping to see the installation finished only
to see that the system is waiting for an administrator password? You can
specify the machine administrator password or leave it blank automatically
to fix this problem.
The password is ordinarily set during GUI mode and is controlled by the
following key:
OemBlankAdminPassword = %value%
with 0 meaning no and 1 meaning yes.
To set the local administrator's password, first create a $OEM$ directory in
your I386 directory. Next create a file called CMDLINES.TXT using EDIT or any
ASCII editor. In the file put the following lines:
[commands]
".\net user administrator <Password>"
Save the file. Then, copy NET.EXE to the $OEM$ directory. Edit your UNATTEND.TXT
file, and make sure the Oempreinstall value is set to Yes. Rerun unattended setup
and this time, everything should be fine.

Display preview of *.BMP files as Icons (in Explorer)

It's possible to make the icons for bitmap files be thumbnail
images of the bitmap itself. Here is how to do:
1. Start the Registry Editor "regedt32.exe".
2. Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Paint.Picture.
3. Open DefaultIcon.
4. Double click on the entry on the right site, and give it the value %1,
instead of the value "mspaint.exe, 1".
5. Close the Registry Editor and restart your system

Do desktops load before the logon script finishes?

Edit or add value (REG_DWORD):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion\winlogon
value: RunLogonScriptSync
0 = Don't wait for the logon script to complete before loading the desktop.
1 = Wait for the logon script to complete before loading the desktop.
Also add this to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion\winlogon

Changing the default WinNT install path

If you want to change where NT expects to find the NT CD, edit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Sourcepath
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sourcepath
If your CD drive is D: and you are working with an Intel-based machine,
the value should be D:\I386 and D:\ respectively.

Don't display Last user in logon dialogue

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
DontDisplayLastUserName REG_SZ
Range: 0 or 1
Default: 0 (false)
By default, Windows NT displays the name of the last person to log on
in the Username space of the Logon Information dialog box. If you add
this value entry and set it to 1, the Username space is always blank when
the Logon Information dialog box appears.

Hiding a server from the browser

To hide a server from the browser, edit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
Add value Hidden (REG_DWORD). Set it to 1.
Reboot the server. It may take up to ½ hour for the server to
disappear from the browse lists.

ANOTHER WAY TO FIX FILE ASSOCIATIONS

In the October 1997 Windows NT Magazine Reader to Reader, Daniel Rodriguez
discussed "Problems with File Associations." Specifically, he removed a stubborn
association between a .1ST file and Notepad with the following command:
ASSOC .1ST=
Here is another way to remove this association. ASSOC does file association
and FTYPE connects the association with the program. So for .exe to associate
*.txt with Notepad, you type
ASSOC .txt=txtfile
followed by:
FTYPE txtfile=%Systemroot%\System32\notepad.exe %1
To discover which program will launch a .txt file, you type
assoc .txt
which will return .txt=txtfile. Then you type
ftype txtfile
which will return the association with Notepad.

How can I get NT to complete commands when I hit TAB?

Unix users know and love the shell extension that allows for tab-completion of commands.
Type the first few letters of the program name, text file, directory, or virtually
anything on the system, press Tab, and watch the OS complete the word for you.
This is particularly helpful when you're navigating through deeply nested subdirectories.
In Windows NT 4, it is frustrating to have to type C:\WinNT\Profiles\
Administrator\Desktop . . . at a command prompt while I know I could merely type
C:\W{Tab}Pr{Tab}A{Tab}D{Tab} in Unix.
It turns out, however, that a little-known Registry setting in Windows NT provides
this functionality. As always, before making changes to the Registry, back it up, as
a simple typo could cause your entire system to crash. Then launch the Registry editor
and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Command Processor. Double-click
on CompletionChar in the right-hand pane and set its value to 9. Now close the Registry
editor, open the command processor, and try it out. You will find that if you type
C:\W{Tab} the command line will cycle through all the files or directories that
start with "W." Typing additional characters limits the choices accordingly.
Note that if you upgraded from Windows NT 3.51 or earlier, the Command Processor
key is not in the Registry. You can get around that by navigating to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft, creating a new key called Command Processor
(the key is case-sensitive), and creating a new DWORD value within that key called
CompletionChar (also case-sensitive) and setting its value to 9.
-- Jacob Vitas Vogelstein
-- Baltimore, Maryland
PC MAGAZINE: You can avoid the need to edit or create the CompletionChar Registry
value by creating and running Ntcompch.reg, which should contain the following:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor]
"CompletionChar"=dword:00000009
Launch this file from Explorer, or enter the command Start Ntcompch.reg from
a command prompt. Tab completion will be available in any command prompt windows
launched after you make this change. Once you get accustomed to this handy feature,
you'll wonder how you ever did without it!

DELETING UNDELETABLE PRINT JOBS ON YOUR NT SERVER

Have you tried to delete a print job from your NT server, only to find
that the job is stuck and won't delete? If so, here's how you get rid
of it. First, close the Printers Folder. Next, open the Control Panel
and double-click the Services icon. Click the Spooler Service. Click Stop.
If you are using TCP/IP Printing Services, click it as well and then click Stop.
Next, delete the *.spl and *.shd files that show the approximate time
and date of the print job causing the problem. You'll find them in the
%Winroot%\System32\Spool\Printers directory.

Why is the Intranetware client for NT so slow?

Have you noticed that opening files from a Novell file server using the
Novell IntraNetWare client takes a long time? It's not your imagination. It
does.
Slow file access doesn't happen if you use Microsoft's client for Novell
instead of Novell IntraNetWare client. Here's why.
Microsoft added the MultinetGetConnectionPerformance API to Windows 95 and
Windows NT version 4.0 to speed file access on a network. Microsoft's
Novell Client supports the API call, Novell's doesn't. Without this call,
things slow down appreciably. Until Novell fixes the Intranetware Client
for NT, if you want performance, go with Microsoft's client if possible.

TWO EASY WAYS TO SEARCH FOR FILENAMES

My network clients occasionally ask me who is accessing a certain file. For
example, someone might try to open a file but is denied access because another
user has that file open.
The most common way to retrieve this information is to double-click \\SERVER
in Windows NT's Server Manager and then click In Use. Unfortunately, you can
sort through the files only by user. If you work in an environment with
thousands of users and files, you can quickly become frustrated scrolling
through page after page of filenames, trying to find the file in question. And
you can easily miss the filename you want.
I know of two ways to avoid this frustration. If your system has a file
manager, you can run winfile.exe, click the appropriate filename, and press
ALT+ENTER. You will get a screen that shows the file's properties and gives you
access to the Open By button. You can learn who has the file open by clicking
that button.
If your system doesn't have a file manager, you can use the FINDSTR command to
get the same information. However, you must first create a batch file. Here is
my batch file, whatopen.bat:
@ECHO OFF
NET FILES > WHATOPEN.TXT
FINDSTR /I %1 WHATOPEN.TXT|MORE
Next, you must make sure that the filename of the file in question is in a
directory contained in the PATH variable. Finally, you must go to a command
prompt and type:
WHATOPEN <filename>
NT will reveal the usernames of people who are accessing that file via the
network. You can also use the FINDSTR command to display the files users have
opened by typing
WHATOPEN <username>
You can get more creative with the FINDSTR command. For example, you can find
files that are open in the write mode by entering:
WHATOPEN <username> in <directory>
These are a few examples of the many uses for the FINDSTR command.

What do I do when my PDC dies using NDS for NT?

Sometimes something goes wrong and your servers crash. There's no
controlling it. But what do you do if your NT server crashes and you're
using NDS for NT and want to relink your NT domain with the NDS tree and
Domain object without manually re-creating the domain users and
re-migrating them?
If you have a Backup Domain Controller in the domain that has NDS for NT
installed on it, you're in luck. All you have to do has to do is promote
the BDC to a PDC, rebuild the original PDC, and demote the second PDC when
the orginal comes back online.
If you don't have a BDC in your domain, things get rougher. First, you'll
have to reinstall NT on the server using an emergency recovery disk for
that specific server. (This is important because the SID identifier for the
server has to be the same as it was orginally). Next, install NDS for NT
and place the new domain object in a temporary Organizational Unit. Make
sure you use the same name for the new domain and server that you used
orginally. Delete the domain object and SAMMIG.EXE dated 4/17/98 or later.
(If yours is older contact Novell Technical Support.)
SAMMIG detects that the migrated domain no longer exists and allows you to
browse the tree for the original domain. It will then update the NT
registry to point to the original domain and re-grant user access to the
domain. Reboot the NT server, and everything should be fine!

Why can't I map search drives from NT's DOS box?

If you're used to using the command-line but use NT on your Novell network,
you might try using NT's DOS Box to issue Novell commands such as MAP. The
MAP command works to map logical drives, but it won't map search drives. To
map a search drive, use Network Neighborhood.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE GO TO... COMMAND

The Go To Folder dialog box allows you to quickly navigate to a specific
folder on your hard disk. You can only access this dialog box from within
Windows Explorer. To do so, select a drive letter in Windows Explorer's left
pane, pull down the Tools menu, and select the Go To... command. You can
also access the Go To Folder dialog box by pressing [Alt] TG. Once the Go To
Folder dialog box appears, you simply type the name of the folder whose
contents you want to display in Windows Explorer's right pane. Keep in mind
that while the Go To Folder dialog box is a handy feature, you have to know
the exact location and spelling of the folder you want to access. If you
don't know either of these pieces of information, you'll be better served by
using the Find utility to access the folder.

Changing NT's Login splash screen when using Netware's Intranetware Client for NT

With the Novell intraNetWare Client for Windows NT, the default login
screen that you see when you press [Ctrl][Alt][Delete]is bitmap file called
NWELCOME.BMP. You'll find the file in the WINNT directory on your computer.
You can change this to just about anything you want. To do so, go to the
Network icon in Control Panel. Click the Services tab and select the
properties for Novell intraNetWare Client for Windows NT. Click the
Advanced Login tab and change the name of the file in the Bitmap Filename
field.
Make sure you've copied the name of the new bitmap into your WINNT
directory. Also make sure the bitmap you want to use is in .BMP format.

NT QUIRK WORKAROUND

(contributed by Jeremy Brandt, jbrandt@cmpu.net)
I love finding tricks to make my job as an administrator easier. Here's
a trick to work around a Windows NT quirk.
NT doesn't let you map a drive letter to a share's subdirectory. This
quirk is especially annoying in home directories, where users can use
Windows Explorer to view other users' directories. A great workaround
is to use the SUBST command to map the drive. SUBST lets you use
Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) paths and environment variables in the
command line. You simply add the following command to the logon script:
SUBST h: \\logonserver\users\%username%
This command tells NT to map the H drive to the directory under the
user's share that matches the name of the user logging on.

RUNNING A MARATHON

The "Run" command in the Start Menu is largely
ignored. Try pasting a website in there sometime! Or, if you want
to send an e-mail, just type in: mailto:someone@somewhere.com and
it should launch your default e-mail program. Heck, you can even
type in folder names found within the Windows subdirectory and
they should launch in Explorer. Run with it!

Changing License number of NT installation

To change the actual license number of your NT installation, you have to change it in the registry.
Open registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
with regedt32 and change the entry ProductID.

MISSING DRIVER DISKS

One problem everyone seems to run into are missing driver disks.
In a large company with hundreds of PCs, most of which have different hardware,
a network administrator can end up with hundreds of driver disks for CD-ROM drives,
video cards, and modems. Even companies that try to store all of the disks they
start out with inevitably run out of room quickly. And with many drivers shipping
on CD-ROM, storing them all together is getting tough.
One solution? A CD-Recordable (CD-R) drive for storing all the drivers on one
CD-ROM. Whenever you need a driver for a PC that's misbehaving, simply find the
CD-ROM with all the drivers. Whenever you get new equipment, update the CD-ROM.
You can do the same thing with a CD-R drive or even a ZIP or Jazz drive. Each
type of driver is stored in its own directory (such as MODEM, VIDEO, SCSI), then
grouped by manufacturer and model. We put a standard text file and a text file
viewer in the root directory of the CD-ROM. The text file describes all of the
drivers on the CD-ROM and their location.

JUMP TO A COMMAND PROMPT
(contributed by Heinz Achtermann, Heinz.Achtermann@proenergy.com)
You can create a right-click mouse option to jump to a command prompt
from any selected folder location. If you are far down a directory tree
and need to get to a command prompt in the selected folder, all you
need to do is right-click on the highlighted folder and select the
"Command Prompt Here" option.
To enable this option, bring up NT Explorer. Select View, Options.
Then select the File Types tab. Select the registered file type Folder.
Then add a New action called Command Prompt Here, or whatever phrase
you prefer. In Application used to perform this action, type the path
to cmd.exe (usually c:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe).

CHANGE THE USERNAMES OF THE DEFAULT USERS

When you install NT, two users, Administrator and Guest, are created by default.
Hackers know that most users will not change the default names, so they are more
likely to try to break into your system via one of these user accounts.
You can protect your system by changing the usernames.
To do this, launch User Manager, or User Manager for Domains, and highlight
the Administrator user. Select User, Rename from the menu bar. Type the new name
in the Rename dialog box and click OK. Repeat this process for the Guest account
or simply disable this account.
Changing these usernames is a simple job that can dramatically improve the
security of your system.

OVERCOME USER ID CONFLICT

(contributed by R.K. Dhanalakshmi, dlaxmi@hotmail.com or dlaxmi@aditi.com)
Here's a Windows NT tip that I have found many people are unaware of.
When connecting to a share on another system (e.g., MACHINEA), you
might suddenly receive the following message: "The credentials supplied
conflict with an existing set of credentials."
What caused this message? It appears when you have already connected
to MACHINEA with another user ID. If you are not aware of what user ID
you first used and you want to connect to MACHINEA with another ID, you
can disconnect the previous share by entering the following command:
NET USE \\MACHINEA\IPC$ /DELETE
You should now be able to successfully reconnect to MACHINEA.

DISPLAY A LIST OF CONTROL PANELS IN YOUR START MENU

(contributed by Juergen M. Lobert, jlobert1@san.rr.com)
Here's a neat way to display a list of Control Panels in your Windows
NT or Win95 Start menu without pulling up the Control Panels folder.
This method lets you select from the drop-down list the control panel
you want to use, so you don't need to open the entire window from the
Start/Settings/Control Panels menu.
Right-click the Start button and select Explore All Users (or
whatever name you used to log on), then right-click in the file-listing
pane and select New Folder. Name the folder (type the following
exactly)
Control Panel.{21ec2020-3aea-1069-a2dd-08002b30309d}
and click OK. This procedure will result in a new folder named Control
Panel, which gives you a listing of all the control panels. You can
create this folder from any location in the C:\WINNT\PROFILES section.
You can make this folder available to everyone on your network or only
the Administrators. Before your newly installed control panels appear
in your Start list, you might need to log off and on again or open the
control panel window the old-fashioned way once.

MAKING THE WINDOWS EXPLORER VIEW THE DEFAULT

If you prefer the Windows Explorer view of your folders to the My Computer
view, you can change a single setting to make the Windows Explorer view the
default for all folders. To begin, open any folder, pull down the View menu
and select the Folder Options command. (If you're using Windows 95 and
haven't upgraded to Internet Explorer 4.0, the command will be called
Options.) Now, select the File Types tab and scroll through the Registered
File Types list and select the Folder item.
Once you access the Folder item, click the Edit button. Now, select Explore
in the Actions list box and click the Set Default button. When you do,
the Explore entry will become bold. To complete the operation, click OK
twice. (If you ever want to reverse the setting, follow the same steps,
but select Open instead of Explore and set it as the default.)

ADD QUICKVIEW TO YOUR POP-UP MENU

(contributed by Jason Anderson, Forum Manager--The Windows NT Forum
http://computingcentral.msn.com/forums/windowsnt)
You can add QuickView to your pop-up menu when you right-click any
file. First, open the Registry editor: Click Start, choose Run, type
regedit.exe in the box, and click OK. Expand the branches in the
Registry to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\. Look for a key that reads "*" (without
the quotation marks). If you don't see this key, add it by selecting
New and then Key from the Edit menu. Under this key, add a new key
called QuickView. Set the (default) value to "*" (without the quotation
marks), and close the Registry editor.
This tip works for all files that have an extension, except for .pcx
files. The QuickView option does not appear on the pop-up menu for
files that do not have an extension.

CHANGE ATTRIBUTES OF MANY FILES AT ONCE

(contributed by Eric Shanfelt, eric@winntmag.com)
At some point, you've probably needed to change the attributes of many
files located in various subfolders in a folder. For example, suppose
you've copied files from a CD-ROM to a hard disk and need to remove the
Read Only attribute from all the files. If you're running Windows NT
4.0 Server or Workstation using FAT, you can't change the attributes of
all these files with one command. With FAT, NT Explorer will let you
change attributes for only one folder and doesn't give you an option to
change the attributes for subfolders.
You can work around this problem with the ATTRIB command. From the
command prompt, go to the directory in which you want to change the
attributes. Type the following command:
ATTRIB -R /S
The -R tells the ATTRIB command to remove the Read Only attribute. The
/S tells the ATTRIB command to remove the Read Only attribute for all
subdirectories. Your problem is solved! For more information about how
the ATTRIB command works, type ATTRIB /? at the command prompt.

Leave your System partition in FAT format

One efficient way of organizing your hard drive space is to convert all of
your partitions to NTFS with the exception of a small (500MB) system
partition. Leaving your system partition in FAT format will allow you to
boot into another operating system, most usually DOS, and edit the system
files NT relies on to boot. If you convert the system partition to NTFS,
you won't be able to edit these files if you can't successfully boot NT. By
keeping the system partition small and only installing system-related
software on it, you can implement the tighter NTFS security on the majority
of your data, yet still be able to recover from some common problems.

OPEN MY COMPUTER IN EXPLORER MODE

(contributed by Rob van de Meulengraaf, rob.van.de.meulengraaf@tip.nl)
When you right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop and choose
Explore, the folder opens in Explorer style, which is my preferred
folder look. You can make this behavior your default.
Open NT Explorer. Select View, Options, then select the File Types
tab. Double-click the registered file-type Folder, then choose explore
from the actions list and set it as the default action.

Keyboard shortcuts for copying and moving files

When dragging a file from one directory to another, NT moves the file. If
you would like to make a copy while leaving the original file in the
original directory, press and hold the [Ctrl] key before you let go of your
mouse button. You will notice a small + below the file to be copied.
When you drag a file from one drive to another, NT will make a copy of the
file on the new drive. To move the file, press and hold the [Shift] key
before you drop the file on the new drive. You will notice the +
disappears when you hold the [Shift] key.

Changing default program for certain file types

I really dislike the new WiMP (Windows Media Player). I don't really want it associated
with anything. Ever have "one of those" programs which sets itself up as the default
program for a certain file type? Hold onto the SHIFT key, select an icon (program or
file type), right-click on it and select "Open With..." from the menu. A small
"selection menu" will pop up. If the program you want to use as a default isn't
there, click the other button and "find" it. Remember to check off the "Always use
this program to open this type of file" switch.

Using fonts without installing them

Do you download & install every font in sight? Stop it right now! Well, you can keep
downloading them, but don't install them. Every font you install sucks up physical
memory. Unless you have physical RAM to spare, I wouldn't suggest loading too much
more than your commonly used fonts. So what do you do with the fonts you want to
keep but not install? Put them in ANOTHER directory ("Other Fonts" is what I use).
When you want to use a particular font in a document/graphic, go to your "Other Fonts"
folder, double-click on the font you want to use (and KEEP THE FONT OPEN), launch
the application in which you wish to use that font... BINGO! The font should show
up in your regular list as if it were installed the "normal" way. When you're done,
you can close the font preview window and Windows is none-the-wiser.

ADD A RIGHT-CLICK OPTION TO FILES

(contributed by Itay Szekely, etay@writeme.co)
Here's a follow-up to the "Jump to a Command Prompt" tip (UPDATE Vol. 3,
Issue 27). You can add a right-click option to all files by editing the
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\* key in the Registry.
For example, to add a Notepad option to your files:
- Open regedit.
- Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and then to the * key (the first key in the tree).
- Select Edit|New|Key and name it Shell. (A Shell key might already be
there.)
- Add a subkey and name it Notepad.
- Add another subkey and name it Command.
- Edit the (Default) value in the Command key and type: notepad "%1".
Then, if you right-click any file in Windows Explorer, you'll see the
Notepad option in the context-sensitive menu. Selecting this option opens the
file in Notepad. You can use this method to add whatever option you want to
all files.