Date/Time
As its name implies, the Date/Time applet lets you configure the date and time and specify the time zone for your Windows NT system. The dialog box is divided into two tabbed sections: Date & Time and Time Zone. The Time Zone tabbed section also contains a check box that lets Windows NT 4.0 automatically adjust for daylight saving time (DST), if applicable for the selected time zone. The Date/Time applet is shown in Figure 5.8.
Special Note: Make sure that you don’t have the DST adjustment set in more than one place on your system. Many systems contain basic input/output systems (BIOSs) that automatically adjust for DST. If your system has multiple operating systems (and you’re not using a BIOS-based adjustment), only one operating system should have the DST adjustment feature turned on. If the DST adjustment is configured in more than one place, each adjustment will increment/decrement the system’s time, causing the clock to be set incorrectly.
Devices
Windows NT 4.0 supports hardware devices (and some software services as well) using device drivers. These device drivers are copied to your Windows NT installation and configured by Windows NT 4.0 when you install the hardware or software using various applets of Control Panel (such as Network or SCSI Adapters). The management of these device drivers is largely automatic. However, you may occasionally need to examine or modify the device drivers to troubleshoot a problem.
The Control Panel’s Devices applet, shown in Figure 5.9, displays the list of installed Windows NT 4.0 device drivers.
The Devices window displays the current status (in the Status column) of the device (i.e., Started, if the driver has been loaded, or blank, if the device has not been loaded) and the startup status (in the Startup column) of the device, which indicates how Windows NT loads the driver and what the device’s loading priority is. The Startup button on the right side of the dialog box controls the startup state of the device driver currently selected. The possible startup types for device drivers in Windows NT are
Boot: Boot is the highest priority startup type. Device drivers configured as Boot drivers are critical to the system’s ability to boot and are loaded when the system starts.
System: Devices with a System startup type are also critical to system operations and are loaded during system startup after Boot devices.
Automatic: Devices with an Automatic startup type are loaded automatically at system startup after Boot and System devices.
Manual: Devices with a Manual startup type are not loaded when the system boots but may be loaded manually by either the user or a dependent device driver.
Disabled: Devices with a Disabled startup type are not loaded. These drivers cannot be manually started by the user, although Windows NT can start them if necessary. An example of a device in a Disabled startup state would be a SCSI driver for a SCSI adapter that has been removed from the system.
Caution: Changing the startup state of a Boot or System device driver can render your Windows NT system unstartable. Be very careful when making changes to these device drivers.
Problems and Answers:Every time I start Windows NT, I get a dialog box telling me that one or more devices failed to start. When I check the Windows NT Event Viewer, it says that the ATDISK service failed to start properly. What is this service and how can I stop this message from appearing?
This message will sometimes begin appearing right after the upgrade to Windows NT 4.0. It normally occurs on computers with either dual-channel EIDE disk controllers or systems containing both an IDE hard disk and a CD-ROM drive. Previous versions of Windows NT required two separate device drivers for IDE hard disk and CD-ROM drive support: Atdisk.sys and Atapi.sys, respectively. In Windows NT 4.0, the functionality of Atapi.sys has been expanded, and it can support both types of drives. Although Windows NT 4.0 adds the new Atapi.sys disk driver to these systems, it does not automatically disable the previous Atdisk.sys driver. As a result, the Atdisk.sys driver fails when NT 4.0 attempts to load it, a harmless but annoying situation. To get rid of this error, highlight the Atdisk entry in the list of device drivers, and set the startup type to Disabled.
Another feature of the Devices applet that is new to Windows NT 4.0 is its ability to control which devices are loaded in different hardware profiles.
For More Information: For more information about hardware profiles, see the description of the Control Panel’s System applet.
To enable or disable a device driver in a particular hardware configuration, select the device driver and choose the HW Profiles button. A dialog box (shown in Figure 5.10) that contains a list of all current hardware and the status of the current device driver in each profile (enabled or disabled) will be displayed.
By default, all devices are enabled in all configurations. However, you should individually disable devices not required in certain profiles. For example, suppose a laptop system has two configurations: one for connection to a LAN via a network adapter and one for use in a standalone mode. In the standalone configuration, the device driver and any related network services (described in the Services applet section) associated with the network card could be disabled to eliminate startup errors when the network card isn’t present in the laptop.
Dial-Up Monitor
Windows NT 4.0 provides a dial-up networking feature that lets you access remote computers or networks via dial-up connections (e.g., using an analog modem or ISDN terminal adapter). To monitor your Windows NT Dial-Up Networking sessions, you can use the Control Panel’s Dial-Up Monitor applet. The Dial-Up Networking Monitor dialog box is shown in Figure 5.11.
For More Information: For more information about Dial-Up Networking, see Chapter 9.
The Dial-Up Networking Monitor dialog box contains three tabbed sections:
Status: This screen displays various statistics about the current dial-up networking session, such as connection speed, total number of incoming and outgoing bytes and frames, and information about any transmission errors that have occurred, which is useful for troubleshooting problems.
Summary: The Summary screen displays the networks and users currently connected via dial-up networking as well as the devices used to make the connections. Windows NT 4.0 supports multiple simultaneous dial-up networking sessions on a single Windows NT system, and all such connections are displayed in the summary window.
Preferences: The Preferences screen lets you configure various options for monitoring dial-up networking sessions. These options include the ability to play sounds when certain events occur in the dial-up networking session, control whether the Dial-Up Monitor is included in Windows NT’s task list, and display on-screen status lights to represent transmit and receive activity on the dial-up networking device.
Special Note: The Dial-Up Monitor replaces the Remote Access Monitor utility (Rasmon.exe) in Windows for Workgroups and previous versions of Windows NT.
Display
Control Panel’s Display applet is used to configure display-related settings in Windows NT 4.0. These settings include items such as screen resolution, colors, wallpaper, screen saver, and monitor type. The Windows NT 4.0 Display applet contains several of the functions originally in the Windows 3.x and Windows for Workgroups Desktop applet, but it also incorporates the Color applet and the video setup portion of Windows Setup, which allowed configuration of video resolution. Windows 95 users will recognize that Windows NT’s Display applet is nearly identical to the applet of the same name in Windows 95. The Display applet window is shown in Figure 5.12.
Caution: Some applications may freeze if you change display-related settings while the application is active (especially terminal or remote-control applications). To ensure that you don’t have problems, exit all applications before making any changes.
The Display applet’s window has the following five tabbed sections:
Background: Lets you set a background pattern and desktop wallpaper, if desired. These options are similar to the options found in the Desktop applet of the Windows 3.x Control Panel.
Screen Saver: Lets you configure a screen saver to appear after a specified time period of mouse and keyboard inactivity. Windows NT 4.0 includes many of the old favorites from Windows 3.x and several new screen savers as well. The screen savers based on the OpenGL graphics language (a high-end graphics API supported natively by Windows NT) are particularly interesting.
Appearance: Lets you configure various aspects of the Windows NT 4.0 desktop, such as the fonts and colors used for various types of windows. You can also select these settings from a list of predefined desktop “schemes” that automatically set a number of these options. In addition, you can create your own custom schemes and then save and name them using the Save As button.
Plus!: This dialog box gets its name from the Plus! Pack introduced in Windows 95. The Windows 95 Plus! Pack, is an optional add-on that contains a variety of new desktop schemes, utilities, screen savers, and so on. Several of the Windows 95 Plus! Pack’s features are incorporated into Windows NT 4.0, such as the ability to stretch the wallpaper to fit the entire screen and the ability to show a window and its contents while it’s being dragged across the screen (aka “full drag”).
Settings: Lets you set important information about the Windows NT 4.0 video display, including screen resolution, number of displayable colors, font size for screen characters, and video refresh rate. The Display Type button lets you change the Windows NT 4.0 video driver. Most changes to the video display require that you test the new configuration using the Test button before Windows NT will let you accept the changes. Windows NT informs you of this requirement if you attempt to exit the dialog box using OK before testing the new settings.
Caution: Setting Windows NT display settings such as the refresh rate or the video driver type to settings beyond the capabilities of your video card or monitor can cause Windows NT to become unviewable after the system is restarted. To determine the capabilities of your video card and monitor, consult their documentation.
Problems and Answers:I made a change to Windows NT’s video display settings and now when I boot the system, the screen is unreadable. What happened and how can I get my screen back?
Invalid display settings can cause Windows NT to set the video card to modes not supported by either the video card or the monitor. If this happens, use the Windows NT 4.0 (VGA Model) boot option from the Windows NT Boot Manager menu. This option causes Windows NT to boot using a basic VGA 640x480 display and lets you access the system and return to the Control Panel’s Display applet to correct your display settings.
Order Your SQL Fundamentals CD Today! Learn how to use SQL Server, understand Office integration techniques and dive into the essentials of SQL Express and Visual Basic with this free SQL Fundamentals CD.
You've Deployed SharePoint...Now What? This one-day free online conference delivers the technical knowledge needed to kick MOSS up a notch. In one information-packed day, independent SharePoint experts will present practical, real-world information and provide take-away, ready-to-use solutions
What Would You Do If You Ran Microsoft? ITTV's 2008 inaugural video contest, "If I Ran Microsoft..." is your chance to tell it like it is. Be goofy or be serious, but don"t miss this chance to have fun, win prizes, and go viral in a major way.
Maximize Your SharePoint Investment This web seminar discusses how true bi-directional replication of SharePoint content from one server to another enables branch offices to maintain access to current SharePoint content.
Windows IT Pro
Register
