Startup/Shutdown
The Startup/Shutdown tab lets you configure how Windows NT behaves during system startup and shutdown. If you have multiple operating system choices on your Windows NT Boot Loader menu, this tab lets you inform Windows NT which operating system to load by default at startup and how long to wait before selecting the default choice. To do so, simply select your operating system choice from the Startup list and enter the number of seconds to wait before loading the default choice in the “Show list for” box.
The Recovery section of the tab lets you control how Windows NT behaves when a STOP error occurs. Occasionally, you may receive a STOP error when a major system malfunction is encountered during Windows NT’s operation. You can control what happens after a STOP error by checking the various boxes listed in this section. Click the box next to “Write an event to the system log” to have Windows NT log an event for the STOP condition. This log entry can than be viewed later using the Event Viewer application.
For More Information: For more information about the Windows NT Event Viewer, see “Using Event Viewer to Diagnose Problems,” Chapter 7.
To have Windows NT send an alert message to all users/computers set to receive alerts, check “Send an administrative alert” (the list of users/computers receiving such alerts can be defined with the Server applet, described earlier in this chapter). To have a memory dump containing contents of system memory at the time of the STOP error recorded to a file, check the “Write debugging information to” box. If you want the file automatically overwritten if it already exists, check the “Overwrite any existing file” box. Enabling this option can be helpful to developers when they diagnose the cause of a STOP error; occasionally, application developers or Microsoft may request this file to help them determine the source of a problem.
Finally, to have your system automatically reboot after a STOP error occurs, check the “Automatically reboot” box.
Tip: You should check the automatic reboot option on a system acting as file or print server on a network; that way, if the system experiences the STOP error while the administrator is away, it will automatically reboot and continue to provide services to network users once it restarts.
Hardware Profiles
The Hardware Profiles tab is an important new feature of Windows NT 4.0. It lets you define multiple startup hardware configurations for a single Windows NT system (this feature also exists in Windows 95). For example, you may want Windows NT 4.0 to start a different set of services and device drivers depending on the hardware present on your system. One of the primary reasons for the inclusion of this feature is laptop users, whose hardware settings often change due to the presence of different PC Card/PCMCIA devices or a docking station.
Hardware profiles tell which drivers to load when the system’s hardware configuration changes. Depending on your system, Windows NT may or may not automatically detect these configuration changes when the system is started. If it is not able to determine the correct profile to use for a given configuration, you will be presented with a list of choices. The default choice and the time Windows NT should wait before making a predetermined choice are controlled by the control buttons at the bottom of the window. The defined profiles are also given a preference order in the window, with the top-most profile being given the highest preference. The position of a particular hardware profile in the preference list can be changed by selecting the profile name and clicking either the up or down arrow buttons.
To have Windows NT wait indefinitely for user selection of a hardware profile choice, select the “Wait indefinitely for user selection” button. Otherwise, select the “Wait for user selection button” and enter (in seconds) how long the system should wait before selecting the highest-order preference in the profile list.
Once you have defined your Hardware Profiles, you need to select the drivers that should be loaded for each hardware profile using the Control Panel’s Devices and Services applets. These let you enable and disable devices and services in each hardware profile on a case-by-case basis.
For More Information: For more information about Windows NT Devices and Services, see the descriptions in the Devices and Services sections, respectively.
Choose the Properties button to get the properties window for a particular hardware profile. The Properties dialog box appears (shown in Figure 5.62), and tabs let you tell Windows NT whether or not this is a portable computer, what the docking state (if applicable) of the computer is, and whether or not network devices and services should be disabled for that profile.
You can also copy one profile to another by selecting the profile to copy and choosing Copy. To rename a profile, select the profile and choose Rename. To delete the profile, select the profile and choose Delete.
User Profiles
In addition to multiple hardware configuration profiles, a Windows NT system can have multiple profiles for different users. User profiles contain desktop settings, preferences, and other user-centric information.
Three types of user profiles are available in Windows NT: local user profiles are user-managed profiles stored locally on your computer (filename is Ntuser.dat); roaming user profiles are server-based profiles that can follow a user as he or she moves to different machines (these have file extensions of .usr); and mandatory user profiles are server-based profiles that are assigned by the network administrator and cannot be changed by the user. They have have file extensions of .man.
Special Note: When you use a server-based profile, the profile is copied to the local machine when you log on to the network. This profile is then cached so that it is accessible even if the network server storing the profile is unavailable.
When a user first logs on after a valid Windows NT user account has been created for that user by the administrator, a user profile is automatically created for that user and stored as a subfolder of the %SYSTEMROOT%\Profiles folder (e.g., c:\Winnt\Profiles\JohnR). If you wish to create additional user profiles and assign them to specific users, you can use the User Profiles tab.
The User Profiles window displays a list of all profiles currently stored on the computer for all users who have accessed it. To select a profile name to manage, first select the profile in the displayed list. To delete the profile, click Delete. To change the type of the user profile between local and roaming, click the Change Type button and select either Local profile or Roaming profile. For roaming profiles that can be accessed over slow connections, click the “Use cached profile on slow connections” box. This ensures that a faster, local copy of a roaming profile will be used in preference to the server-based one when the connection to the server is over a slow link.
Special Note: It is advantageous not to copy roaming profiles over slow links. However, when the roaming file is not copied over the link, the user will not receive the newest copy of a roaming profile that has recently been changed by the system administrator.
Finally, to copy the currently selected profile to a new location, choose the Copy To button and enter the new location. You can also select the new location using the Browse button. If you want to assign permissions to use the new profile to a particular user or user group, click the Change button in the “Permitted to use” section of the dialog box. By doing so, you can select the name of the user or group permitted to use the profile.
For More Information: For more information about managing user profiles, see “Managing Users and Groups with User Manager,” Chapter 8.
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