Dear Microsoft
I am bothered by your insensitivity toward MCSEs. I spent hours studying for my MCSE, which I received September 18, 1997. On October 4, 1997, I received your letter outlining the new Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) logo and revised benefits.
I began reading your letter with anticipation, believing that MCSEs would be receiving additional benefits for supporting your products. But soon I discovered that you stopped offering MCSEs 10 free incidents of technical support effective September 15, 1997. On top of this disappointment, you insulted my intelligence by printing "MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES NEW BENEFITS FOR MCPs" at the top of the letter.
I'm upset at your "new benefits" for two reasons. First, although Technet and your Web site are good resources, speaking to a high-level technician is necessary at times. Second, MCSEs should be receiving more—not fewer—benefits. Increasing MCSE's benefits would not only thank the engineers who support your products, but also provide marketing value.
Your "new benefits" are a slap in the face for your MCSEs. I can't believe you have the audacity to dump on those who support your products.
—Scott Frisby
fscott@sisna.com
Restore Your NT OS
You probably religiously perform backups to protect your data, but how often do you restore your Windows NT operating system (OS)? When a hard disk crashed in one of my servers, I discovered that the restore process is largely undocumented, especially for restoring the OS and Registry.
After many tribulations, I discovered one way that consistently works: using the NT backup utility with a local tape drive. When an NT system partition crashes because of a media or other failure, you can restore the OS from a backup. The backup must contain the Registry files. In other words, when you perform a backup, you need to select the Backup Local Registry check box.
You can determine whether your current backup contains the Registry by cataloging the tape and viewing the directory C:\<system root\system32\config. Your backup includes the Registry if the following files (which have no extensions) are in the directory: Software, System, Security, and Sam.
Once you have a full backup (including the Registry), you can use Ntbackup to restore the OS. Before you start the restore, make sure you have a good hard disk that contains enough space to hold two instances of NT (400MB is usually safe). Then you can follow these steps:
- Install NT into a new directory and name it. You do not need to configure networking or any components beyond a standard installation.
- Reboot the machine. By default, your machine will reboot into the new installation.
- Configure the tape drive.
- Perform a catalog of the tape to view the directories.
- Find the <system> root directory, which will be winnt35 or WinNT for default installations for NT 3.51 and NT 4.0, respectively. Mark it for restoration by selecting the check box next to the directory. Click Restore.
- Find the Alternate Path box in the restore dialog screen. Enter the path to the <system> root of the original NT installation. The directory name of the system root must be the same as the name of the installation you are recovering. In other words, use the same directory names you used when you backed up the image. Click OK to restore.
- Instruct Ntbackup to overwrite any existing files.
- Select the Verify check box in the restore screen. By verifying the files, you can make sure you have restored all the files correctly.
- Run the restore.
- Remove the read-only attribute so you can edit the boot.ini file. Change the ARC boot path to the directory containing your new restoration.
- Reboot the system. The machine will boot into your restored NT OS. You can remove the temporary installation of NT by deleting the directory that you created in step 1.
- Force a domain synchronization if your system has a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or Backup Domain Controller (BDC). The synchronization will refresh the security identifiers for your machine across the domain. You might receive NetLogon service errors until the synchronization is complete.
- Restore applications if necessary. You can restore applications over the old directories by instructing the restore program to overwrite existing files.
—Dane Schubert
schubed@msn.com
A Driving Issue
I have read several letters in Windows NT Magazine from readers frustrated with the lack of Windows NT drivers for the HP OfficeJet Pro printer/copier/scanner. Being an NT Workstation user who has just purchased this printer, let me shed some light on the driver issue.
The drivers for this printer will ship with NT 5.0. However, HP is writing NT 4.0 drivers for this printer. HP has developed a beta version of the NT 4.0 driver for the OfficeJet Pro 1150C. You can download the beta driver at http://www.officejet-prosupport.com/oj1150c/drivers/index.html.
HP is planning to officially release the NT 4.0 driver in the first quarter of 1998. HP will distribute the driver through its Web site at http://www.hp.com/go/officejet-pro. In the meantime, you can use the beta version or even HP DeskJet 850C drivers. The HP DeskJet 850C drivers are not ideal, but they work.
—Robert Angrisano
bobang@microsoft.com
In the Trenches, Too
After reading Paula Sharick's "Phone Home! Phone Home!" in "Tech Stories from the Trenches" (October 1997), I feel compelled to relate my problems with a software vendor that refuses to supply information its customers need.
I was upgrading my company's accounting package, 20/20 Software's MAS90, from version 2.0 to version 3.0. Because my company was migrating from a Novell NetWare 3.11 server to an NT 4.0 platform, I called 20/20 Software's technical support line for guidance. The representative assured me that MAS90 3.0 would run under NT 4.0, with NT Workstation 4.0 for the client machines.
To prepare for the upgrade, I downloaded and read all the necessary documents (including the installation manual) from 20/20 Software's Web site and made sure that my system complied with all the requirements. I was ready for the upgrade.
The upgrade went smoothly. Soon the company accountant and his assistant were running MAS90 3.0. The outlook was sunny.
Then a cloud showed up. The accountant experienced file corruption, so he called 20/20 Software's technical support. A representative told the accountant that the file corruption probably resulted from the upgrade.
The cloud soon burst into a storm. The accountant came to me three more times over the next 2 days with the same problem. The third time, I became very suspicious and got involved. I called 20/20 Software's technical support for assistance, but the representative told me I had to complete a form detailing the network configuration and error message. Reluctantly I agreed and waited for the representative to fax the form to me.
When I got the fax, I couldn't make heads or tails of the questions, so I called technical support again but got a different representative. After I explained my dilemma, he responded with one question: "Have you configured your printers using the Device Configurator?" I hadn't because I hadn't heard about the Device Configurator.
The representative told me that, by default, the NT command prompt prints to the last file opened instead of to LPT1. As a result, when the accountant generated a report, the program sent the print output to the data files. In other words, the program was corrupting the data! To fix this problem, I created a device for the Windows default printer in the program. Since I installed this device, the accountant has not had any file corruption.
After the storm had cleared, I investigated why customers weren't informed about the default problem. I learned that this problem, which had been discovered 7 months earlier, would be addressed in MAS90's new installation manual. But a future installation manual doesn't help those who are currently installing the software.
—Steve Kastl
skastl@mcs.net
Change the Command Line
In Windows NT Explorer, you can create a shortcut icon to open a directory. This shortcut works well for directory browsing but not for setting up a menu system because you still see the directories that are above the current directory in the tree structure. However, you can create a shortcut that pretends any directory is the root directory.
The command line for this shortcut usually reads something like \\server\share\directory. If you change the line to read %windir%\explorer.exe /root, \\server\share\directory, you will designate that directory as the root. Thereafter when you hit the shortcut button, you will go to that root directory.
If you want the directory to open in the Explorer mode, change the line to read %windir%\explorer.exe /e, /root, \\server\share\directory. If you want to see your start menu in the Explorer view, use %windir%\explorer.exe/e,/root, "%userprofile%\start menu" as the command line.
—David Walker
david@starcityonline.com