Windows 2000 Magazine UPDATE, February 1, 2000 [1/3]
Konstantin Gusev
WINDOWS 2000 MAGAZINE UPDATE
The weekly Windows NT and Windows 2000 industry update newsletter
http://www.win2000mag.com/update
************************************************************
This week's issue sponsored by
MKS UNIX-Windows Interoperability Products
Incognito Software Inc.
http://www.ipcommander.com
(below KEEPING UP WITH NT)
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February 1, 2000 - In this issue:
1. FROM THE EDITOR
2. HOT OFF THE PRESS
- Microsoft Postpones Mars Project
- Judge Upholds Microsoft Java Injunction
3. ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Windows 2000 Magazine Launches Three Free Email Newsletters
- Conference: Windows 2000 in the Enterprise
4. KEEPING UP WITH NT
- Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 DNS Coexistence
- Rdisk Security Fix
- Batch Job Access Violation
- Knowledge Base Not Updated
- Troubleshooting User Profile Problems
- SAM Sizing Guidelines
5. NEW AND IMPROVED
- Secure Desktop and Notebook Systems
- Windows NT-Based Rendering System
- Web Master Shareware
- Monitor Clipboard Activity
6. HOT RELEASES (ADVERTISEMENT)
- St. Bernard Software
- RippleTech LogCaster, "Monitor...Alert...Correct"
- Web Timesheet 3.0
- CommVault Galaxy Cures NT Backup Blues
7. PICKS OF THE WEEK
- Book Highlight: Object-Oriented Programming with Windows 95 and
NT
- Hot Thread: Problems with Offline Folders
- Tip: Making the NT Window Focus Follow a Mouse
- User Group: Boston Enterprise Engineers Regional Microsoft User
Group
8. WHAT'S ONLINE
- Instant Poll
- Techfocus
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Want to sponsor Windows 2000 Magazine UPDATE? Contact Vicki Peterson
(Western and International Advertising Sales Manager) at 877-217-1826
or vpet...@win2000mag.com, OR Tanya T. TateWik (Eastern Advertising
Sales Manager) at 877-217-1823 or ttat...@win2000mag.com.
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1. ========== FROM THE EDITOR ==========
Hi all,
Unless you're a computer news hound, you probably missed the biggest
change in Microsoft's plans for Windows since the quiet cancellation of
Cairo, an object-oriented version of Windows NT that the company had
planned to release in the mid-1990s. To its credit, Microsoft has
always been open with developers about its strategy for Windows. But
market realities have often forced changes in the past. And such a
change has just occurred, though the company is trying to keep it
quiet.
About a week and a half ago, I received some cryptic email from
people in and around Microsoft stating that the company was proceeding
with work on the first post-release to manufacturing (RTM) builds of
Windows 2000 (Win2K), but had changed its original plans for the next
version of Win2K. Instead of separate consumer- and business-oriented
releases, code-named Neptune and Odyssey, respectively, Microsoft
combined these products into one project, code-named Whistler. I first
mentioned this change of plan in WinInfo (http://www.wininformant.com),
my daily Windows email newsletter, setting off an unprecedented chain
of events. By early last week, every major computer news agency had
picked up the story, eagerly devouring a massive follow-up story that I
wrote last Monday. You can check it out on the Web at
http://www.wininformant.com/display.asp?ID=2535.
The interesting part of this story, however, is Microsoft's
reaction. In addition to expressing amazement that anyone had found out
about the plans to merge its consumer and business products into one
project, Microsoft took the rare step of publicly confirming the
report, which it did several times last week, including once for
Windows 2000 Magazine's C. Thi Nguyen (You can read this article at
http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/Content/8026_01.html).
Thanks to the work of countless connections, I've been able to piece
together Microsoft's plans for the future of Windows, and it's an
interesting story. In the short term, the company is working on Win2K
Service Pack 1 (SP1), which will ship by June. SP1 will feature a
limited set of fixes, rather than the wide range of fixes we've come to
expect from the NT 4.0 service packs. Microsoft's idea is to focus on
quality, not to change every little feature just because someone might
use it. In other words, Microsoft will provide a service pack like
those the company promised, but never delivered, in NT 4.0. Meanwhile,
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server (Datacenter), which was supposed to ship
within 90 days of the other editions of Win2K, will instead ship in
June 2000 and will include the SP1 code in the box. Also, Datacenter
will support only a gold Hardware Compatibility List (HCL), meaning
that the compatible list of hardware for this version will be much
shorter and, presumably, more reliable.
As this work progresses, the Win2K team is working on new builds
every day. Microsoft is creating all the post-RTM builds of Win2K
(Whistler) using a new Source Depot (SD) system, which is a brand new
way to build the OS. And you can identify SD builds by an SD watermark
on the desktop. Whistler, which is unrelated to a Microsoft Research
voice recognition project of the same name, will ship in consumer and
business editions. It will feature an extensible user interface (UI)
called Forms+ that Microsoft created by combining Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
with the traditional Win32 API the company currently uses to create
Windows applications. This melding means that the Win2K team finally
has a way to easily create different UIs for businesses and consumers.
For consumers, the new UI will make it easier to tweak the look and
feel of their systems. For business users, the new version is all about
quality: Everything that's right about Win2K will continue to the new
version, and Microsoft will fix problems as they come up. The company
will draw on user feedback to determine Whistler's final feature set,
which it hopes to ship in late 2001.
That date should be the first clue that this next release isn't a
massive sea change, as is Win2K. Instead, Microsoft will refine its
current business offering and provide incremental changes over the next
several years. For anyone considering the Win2K upgrade, this is good
news: The last thing we want to hear in the weeks leading up to the
Win2K launch is that this oft-delayed product is but a stepping stone
to the next big release. Instead, think of Win2K as the foundation for
the next release of Windows, and you'll have the right idea.
On an unrelated note, I'd like to once again thank everyone that
sent in tips, resources, and other information about Active Directory
(AD) and X.500 directory services. I'll finally compile these emails
into a coherent resource this week and post it to my SuperSite for
Windows. Check it out at http://www.winsupersite.com.
Paul Thurrott
Windows 2000 Magazine UPDATE News Editor
thur...@win2000mag.com
2. ========== HOT OFF THE PRESS ==========
(contributed by Paul Thurrott, thur...@win2000mag.com)
* MICROSOFT POSTPONES MARS PROJECT
Microsoft has postponed the Internet Explorer (IE)-related Mars project
for reasons unknown, but insiders suggest that this move is related to
the recent merging of Neptune and Odyssey into Whistler, the next
version of Windows 2000 (Win2K). Beta testers received an email from
the Mars team this week asking for patience and continued secrecy. In
fact, Microsoft is keeping the entire Mars project hush-hush: Some
analysts have theorized that the project relates to a DUN or network
wizard technology, but I suspect that Mars is, in fact, the version of
IE that will enable HTML user interfaces (UIs) in future versions of
Windows. If so, the delay makes sense because Microsoft recently
cancelled Neptune, the first version of Windows that would have used
this new interface. When you combine this revelation with news of
Microsoft working on an extensible UI for the next version of Windows,
everything starts to make sense.
* JUDGE UPHOLDS MICROSOFT JAVA INJUNCTION
In an unexpected development in the legal battle between Sun
Microsystems and Microsoft, the judge overseeing the case recently
ordered Microsoft to ship a version of Java that Sun has certified to
be compatible with its inhouse specifications. However, Microsoft says
that the ruling, which is basically the reinstatement of an injunction
that had expired, represents no change because the company has been
shipping such a version of Java since early last year. However, both
sides are claiming victory. For more on the story, go to
http://www.wininformant.com/wininfo/display.asp?ID=2538.
3. ========== ANNOUNCEMENTS ==========
* WINDOWS 2000 MAGAZINE LAUNCHES THREE FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
XML UPDATE, Enterprise Storage UPDATE, and IIS Administrator UPDATE
are the latest offerings from Windows 2000 Magazine. Each email
newsletter focuses on a new and important segment of the Windows IT
professional's job. Written by industry insiders, the UPDATEs contain
the news, tips, and advice that you can't find anywhere else. Subscribe
to just one or all of our FREE updates at:
http://www.winntmag.com/sub.cfm?code=up99inbup.
* CONFERENCE: WINDOWS 2000 IN THE ENTERPRISE
Will Windows 2000 (Win2K) be your server platform of choice? This
thorny question is the reason more and more organizations are turning
to The GartnerGroup to evaluate the promise and pitfalls of this new
technology.
GartnerGroup analysts offer an in-depth, yet independent, assessment
of Win2K and give you the information you need to make an informed
decision. You can experience GartnerGroup's expertise at our
conference, "Windows 2000 in the Enterprise: Off the Shelf and Into the
Fire," to take place April 26 to 28, 2000, in San Francisco,
California. For additional information about this exciting conference,
just use the link http://www.gartner.com/nt/usa.
4. ========== KEEPING UP WITH NT ==========
(contributed by Paula Sharick, pa...@win2000mag.com)
* WINDOWS 2000 AND WINDOWS NT 4.0 DNS COEXISTENCE