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The new HP Vectra VL Series 6 computers (generally 266MHz Pentium II) arrive configured with Windows NT 4.0 and either Service Pack 1 (SP1) or SP2. They also feature the Soft PowerDown Utility, which shuts the PC power off when the user selects Shut Down from the Start menu. If you install SP3, however, this utility might disappear. In some cases, when you select Shut Down, the HP Vectra restarts and then doesn't give you an option to shut down.
Although the Soft PowerDown Utility documentation states that you can use this utility with only SP1 or SP2, I have discovered a workaround for SP3. You need to use the file hal.dll dated October 21, 1996. After you install SP3, you will find the hal.dll file in the uninstall directory. (The file was originally part of the SP1 and SP2 upgrade.) Copy this file into the Winnt/System32 directory, and rename the original file in the uninstall directory. Then open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon in the Registry, and set the PowerdownAfterShutdown value to 1.
Now when you boot, NT startup will show the presence of SP3, hal.dll 2.0, and the Soft PowerDown Utility. When you select Shut Down from the Start menu, the PC will close NT and power down the CPU.
—Lee A. Meyerpeter
lameyerpeter@ra.rockwell.com
Enable the Shut Down Key
In Windows NT Workstation, the Shut Down button is available in the Welcome screen after you press Ctrl+Alt+Del to log on. However, in NT Server, the Shut Down button is not available by default.
You can display the Shut Down button by configuring the Registry. Follow these steps:
- Run a Registry editor (regedt32.exe).
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
- Double-click ShutdownWithoutLogon.
- Change the value of the string to 1 to make the Shut Down button available. (The value 0 disables the key.)
This tip works for NT Workstation and NT Server 4.0, 3.51, and 3.5.
—Mike Earl
mikeearl@jmcdev.com
A Windows NT Snob's Opinion
I read Kent Dahlgren's "A UNIX Snob's Opinion of NT" (Reader to Reader, October 1997) and couldn't believe that his gripes about Windows NT are still so petty. What happened to comparing operating systems based on their power and capabilities? NT has a long way to go before it surpasses UNIX in the ability to handle massive amounts of data and users, so why use the worst feature of any operating system (the command line) or the lack of certain utilities (such as the Telnet daemon) as a basis for comparison?
People who gripe that NT's command line stinks or that NT doesn't have a Telnet utility need to wake up. The tools available to most network administrators are GUI-based. Although the command line can do tasks that the GUI can't, the GUI makes my life easier. I can always use the Microsoft Windows NT Server Resource Kit tools or find a Telnet utility on the Internet, where I can find many commercial, shareware, and freeware tools to download.
I'm not telling anyone who uses UNIX to abandon ship. UNIX is a great operating system, so if you like it, keep using it. Just don't tell me that NT stinks because you don't feel comfortable with its command line or because it's missing a Telnet utility.
—Mark J. Morgan
mjmorgan@usa.net
Map Your Drives with Policies
Many ways exist to map network drives. You can use User Profiles to map static drives, but you must set up the profiles manually. You can use Roaming Profiles, but you must set up and regularly maintain them. You can use the templates in Microsoft's Zero Administration Kit (ZAK), but none address network drive mappings--an area in which I had many questions. (For more information on ZAK, see Darren Mar-Elia, "Zero Administration Kit: The Answer to Your TCO Woes?" January 1998.)
Then I read "Guide to MS Windows NT 4.0 Profiles and Policies" (TechNet, November 1997). This excellent article answered most of my questions on the subject, except for one: Can I use policies to map network drives? Douglas S. Frisk's October 1997 article, "Using System Policy Templates" answered this question and inspired me to write a custom template, DriveMap.adm. Listing 1 contains this template. (You can download the template from the Windows NT Magazine Web site at http://www.winntmag.com.)
I have used the custom template to map three drives with defined network shares: Application, Public, and Shared. Screen 1, page 44, shows how this template looks now that I've added it to the System Policy Editor.
You can adapt this template to map your drives with defined network shares. Just use your favorite text editor to create a similar file, and add as many drive letters as you like.
—Larry Dragich
dragich@mich.com
Implement SPE Changes with Custom Template
After reading Sean Daily's article, "Set Sail for Uncharted NT Performance" (September 1997), I decided to create a policy template to implement several changes throughout the System Policy Editor (SPE). This template includes some of Daily's entries and others that I've found useful. (You can download this template and an overview of what it does from the Windows NT Magazine Web site at http://www.winntmag.com.)
This policy template requires instantiation for different machines on the network. My company uses a default machine (which represents all the workstations in the domain) and individual computer templates for domain controllers and member servers. I hid the default machine from the browser (Browsing Client category) and set the machine as Not a Browser (Browsing Server category). For the domain controllers and member servers, I created individual policies, which make them visible to the browser (Browsing Client category), and set domain controllers as Preferred Browsers and member servers as Potential Browsers (Browsing Server category). You control the Browsing Server category through the drop down list. Similarly, you control the system cache through the drop down list.
In the USER class, this template defines a category, Persistent Drive Mappings, to manage users' drive mappings on a per-user or per-group basis through the policies. This innovative, policy-based approach provides significant advantages over the standard approach to controlling drive mappings through the logon script.
As with any process involving modifying the Registry, make sure you back up the Registry before making any modifications. If you're uncomfortable manually creating policy templates, you can use Simac Software Products' Policy Template Editor (http://www.tools4nt.com) to create customer system policy templates.
—Alex Zarenin
azarenin@bellatlantic.net