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Q: My domain administrator installed Internet Explorer (IE) 4.0 on my system and I didn't like it. When I tried to uninstall IE 4.0 from my system and rebooted my computer, my desktop was blank. What can I do?
IE 4.0 has an ongoing list of woes that range from running rdisk /s right after you upgrade, to the problem you are experiencing. The most likely cause of your problem is that you don't have administrator privileges. You must have administrator rights to install or uninstall IE, and these rights must be active the first time you boot after installing or uninstalling the software. Bite the bullet and ask your systems administrator for help.
Q: My company is planning to upgrade its leased Windows NT 3.51 machines to NT 4.0. Do you know of any specific problems we need to be aware of as the year 2000 approaches?
Your problem is the same problem many of us will face when upgrading to Windows 2000 (Win2K—formerly NT 5.0). You will have to deal with legacy hardware that NT 4.0 doesn't properly support. Check out the latest Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) on Microsoft's Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/hwtest/hcl.idc, and make certain that NT supports your hardware, which is unlikely if your machines are more than 3 years old.
Q: How can my company set up Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) without spending a lot of money on hardware?
Although I can't discern from your question why you want to use MSCS, I can't help but wonder why you want to economize on hardware when MSCS runs mission-critical applications. Microsoft has determined that serious use of MSCS demands high-end hardware. Some of the best systems I've seen for use with MSCS are from Compaq. These systems use SCSI-to-fibre channel converters and are impressive in performance and configurability. You simply set up Windows NT on internal, mirrored SCSI hard disks and install your other applications on external arrays in NT. You can use different RAID levels, as Screen 1, page 206, shows, on volumes and even dynamically resize the various volumes that you set up. I highly recommend these systems for any mission-critical setup.
Q: My company is creating a new Windows NT network, and we can't find any information about modem sharing. Does NT include this feature?
NT Server 4.0 and NT Workstation 4.0 don't include any built-in modem sharing capability, but the Small Business Server (SBS) version of NT does. If the network you're creating is small (i.e., 25 users or fewer), you might want to consider using SBS. If you're creating a larger network, you must use a third-party add-on utility for modem sharing such as LANSource Technologies' WINport modem pooling software.
Q: Do you know of an easy way to set up a home directory on a Windows NT server for my Windows 95 clients?
To create a home directory, you need to use a logon script with the net use x: /home command, where x is the drive letter that you want to map as the home share.
Q: On several occasions, I've repaired my Windows NT installation without using the Emergency Repair Disk (ERD). In all cases, the PC might not be able to boot properly if the PC boot files are corrupt or the Registry is damaged, which makes the ERD useless in these situations. However, I can always back up and restore my NT installation. If I want to take advantage of the ERD, I have to update the disk every time I change anything on my system, which isn't always practical. Therefore, what's the significance of an ERD?
I've seen installations where NT Setup can't find the corrupted or damaged NT installation. In such cases, you can't repair these types of installations without an ERD. At the same time, if you don't keep the ERD up-to-date, you can lose valuable program and setting changes you've made since the previous ERD update. On nonmission-critical systems, reinstalling and backing up a restored copy of the OS is a perfectly reasonable solution. For more information about the ERD, see "Ask Dr. Bob Your NT Questions," April 1998.