Determine Whether Win2K Is a New Install or an Upgrade
Here’s a quick way to determine whether a Windows 2000 system is a new install or an upgrade from an older OS. Win2K Setup creates a text file, winnt\system32\$winnt$.inf, that lists the actions that Setup performs when it installs the OS. The .inf file's [data] section contains a set of variables similar to the following list:
[data]
unattendedinstall = "no"
floppylessbootpath = "no"
producttype = "winnt"
standardserverupgrade = "no"
winntupgrade = "no"
win9xupgrade = "no"
win31upgrade = "no"
sourcepath = "\device\cdrom0\"
floppyless = "0"
msdosinitiated = "0"
dospath=D:\
When the upgrade variables (e.g., winntupgrade) are set to "no," the OS that this .inf file describes is a clean install. When you upgrade from another OS to Win2K, Setup sets the corresponding upgrade variable to "yes." Other variables in this section indicate whether the install ran in unattended mode and whether it ran with setup floppies, and specify the location of the installation files (e.g., CD-ROM or network share). See Microsoft article Q258504 for details.
Win2K Print Operators Group Can't Add Third-Party Print Drivers
Members of the Windows 2000 Print Operators group have the necessary rights to create and manage print queues, but members encounter an access-denied error when they try to install third-party print drivers. When you add a print driver, Win2K copies the printer’s .inf file to the %systemroot%\inf directory. By default, the Print Operators group doesn't have write permission to this folder; as a result, the operation fails with an access-denied message.
Several workarounds exist for this problem. You can log on with an Administrator account and either install the printer driver or copy the .inf file to the Inf directory. Alternatively, if you want to let members of the Print Operators group install new third-party printers and create print queues, you can give these users write access to the Inf directory. This problem doesn't occur when a Print Operator attempts to install a native Win2K printer because Setup copies the .inf file for all native drivers to the Inf directory. Microsoft article Q259574 explains this problem in more detail.