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Issue
31 - March 2002
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Want
to Join the Windows 2000 Professional Pilot Run?
By
Manfred Chan
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The
Windows 2000 pilot run started in October 2001. Currently about
26 departments have participated in the pilot run. It is estimated
that over 400 colleagues have already tested the new Windows
2000 Intranet environment.
To join
the Windows 2000 Professional pilot run, the departmental Network
Administrator (NA) has to submit a CSC Work Request to initiate
the task. Upon receiving the request, the Computing Services
Centre (CSC) will check the disk space of the departmental LAN
server and refer the user to important notes before the upgrade.
The NA should read the notes carefully in order to fully understand
the upgrade procedure and limitations, ask the colleagues concerned
to attend related training courses organised by the CSC, send
us a list of the computer node names for those who would like
to participate in the upgrade, and arrange the pilot run. When
the department is ready, the CSC will create the Windows 2000
Professional Intranet menu, register the computer node names
provided, and notify it when the preparation is done.
Before the
decision to opt for Windows 2000 is made, there are known issues
and problems that need to be considered. They are:
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As
the upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 Professional
is irreversible, you should back up your whole system using
3rd party backup software, such as Norton Ghost, so that
you can fall back on Windows 98 if you encounter problems
after the upgrade.
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If you
have compressed files and folders using the built-in functions
of Windows 98, you must decompress the files and folders
before upgrading to Windows 2000 Professional; otherwise,
you will not be able to open the compressed files afterwards.
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Since
only the English version of Windows 2000 Professional is
supported, we have installed the multi-language packs for
other languages such as Traditional Chinese, Simplified
Chinese, Japanese, Korean and French. However, these language
packs provide only a subset of their localised counterpart
version. As a result, some functionality cannot be performed;
for example, MS Office XP cannot provide Chinese symbol
pack that is used for inserting Chinese punctuation symbols
into the documents.
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You
may experience the problem of starting the Intranet menu
automatically after upgrading to the Windows 2000 Professional.
This is due to the newly introduced Kerberos authentication
mechanism in the Windows 2000 environment. Under the circumstances,
you may simply reset your password and redo the upgrade
using the customised Windows 2000 Professional configuration
disk provided by the CSC.
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Whether
you upgrade to the Windows 2000 Professional using our configuration
disk or selecting the upgrade option from the Windows 98
Intranet menu, the permission of the Windows 2000 Professional
should be as follows:
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Only
the domain account and the local administrator are assigned
in the local administrator group.
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Drive
C is converted to NTFS partition.
You
may check the above settings after Windows 2000 Professional
has been successfully upgraded.
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A list
of software/applications that are provided centrally in
Windows 2000 Professional is as follows:
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MS
Windows 2000 Multi-language pack (Traditional & Simplified
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French)
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MS
Office 2000 SR1 (English)
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MS
Office 2000 Multi-language pack SR1 (Traditional &
Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French)
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MS
Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2
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MS
Visual Studio 6.0 (English)
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MS
Visual Studio 6.0 SP5 Setup (English)
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MS
Visual Basic 6.0 (Traditional Chinese)
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MS
Visual Foxpro 6.0 (Traditional Chinese)
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Netscape
Communicator 4.78
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Q9
2001 Chinese Input Method
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Tips
on using Windows 2000 Professional
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You
should apply the security patches using the Windows Update
option frequently. (Select Start | Windows Update
| Product Updates, click the Critical Updates
Package button, and follow the instructions to download
the patches.)
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Install
the anti-virus scanner software from the Intranet menu (by
selecting Software Tools & Utilities | Tools
& Utilities and then clicking Virus Scan McAfee),
and reboot your PC everyday to obtain the latest virus definition
file from the network. Remember that anti-virus software
is only effective for known viruses and it is therefore
important to keep the virus definition file updated so that
the newly discovered viruses can be detected instantly.
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Create
a Windows 2000 Emergency Repair Disk for disastrous recovery.
(Select Start | Programs | Accessories
| System Tools, click Backup, followed by
Emergency Repair Disk. Insert an empty formatted
floppy disk in drive A. Check the option "Also backup
the registry to the repair directory" and click
OK.)
The CSC
welcomes any comment regarding the Windows 2000 Professional
pilot run. For further information, please contact Manfred Chan
at ext. 8270.
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