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Want to Join the Windows 2000 Professional Pilot Run?

by Manfred Chan

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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:

    • Only the domain account and the local administrator are assigned in the local administrator group.

    • Drive C is converted to NTFS partition.

    You may check the above settings after Windows 2000 Professional has been successfully upgraded.

  6. A list of software/applications that are provided centrally in Windows 2000 Professional is as follows:

    • MS Windows 2000 Multi-language pack (Traditional & Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French)
    • MS Office 2000 SR1 (English)
    • MS Office 2000 Multi-language pack SR1 (Traditional & Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French)
    • MS Office XP (SP1)
    • MS Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2
    • MS Visual Studio 6.0 (English)
    • MS Visual Studio 6.0 SP5 Setup (English)
    • MS Visual Basic 6.0 (Traditional Chinese)
    • MS Visual Foxpro 6.0 (Traditional Chinese)
    • McAfee Virus Scan
    • Eudora 5.1
    • Netscape Communicator 4.78
    • Acrobat Reader 5.0
    • Clipart Library
    • SimpTerm
    • TextPad 4.4
    • WinZip 8.0
    • WinZip 8.1 Upgrade
    • Q9 2001 Chinese Input Method
    • WebImage Icon Library

Tips on using Windows 2000 Professional

  1. 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.)

  2. 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.

  3. 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.