Top Five Tools in Windows 2000

written by: Len Parov; article published: year 2007, month 05;



In: Categories » Computers and technology » Microsoft OS family » Top Five Tools in Windows 2000

Here's one IT professional's take on five third-party tools for Windows 2000 every system administrator should have.

There can be no doubt that with every release of Microsoft's operating system the need for third-party utilities becomes less and less. One major complaint about NT was its lack of disk quotas, something Unix has included since day one. A number of companies noticed this oversight and produced a product that did the trick. The release of Windows 2000 saw disk quotas become part of the OS, thus making the need to purchase this type of software an irrelevance for the majority of companies.

Whether you agree with Microsoft's policy of continually adding features to its products that were once available only from other sources is one for debate. But in my role as a network administrator, I still find a need to seek out additional software to help make my job a lot easier. I'm sure everyone has their favorite must-have utilities, but these are my top five must-have add-on products for Windows 2000.

Server Monitor Lite

Server Monitor Lite is an invaluable monitoring product that allows you to monitor your servers centrally and get notified if a problem occurs. I use this utility to ping all my servers periodically, watch for low disk space, keep an eye on critical services, and make sure the company intranet is still accessible for my users. For more information, see http://www.purenetworking.net/Products/ServerMonitor/ServerMonitor.htm.

Lost Password Recovery

Have you inherited systems for which nobody knows the local administrator password, or do you have users that need access to Word, Excel, or Access documents that are password-protected and nobody knows the password? Well, this handy little product will save the day. It lets you reset the password on a huge array of systems. For more information, see http://www.lostpassword.com.

Data Replicator

Do you need to copy files from one system to another on a regular basis? Data Replicator makes this job much easier—it allows you to watch files or folders for changes, and then replicate them to another location. You can copy files across a LAN, WAN, or via FTP, which makes Data Replicator a great alternative to traditional backup software. For more information, see http://www.purenetworking.net/Products/DataReplicator/DataReplicator.htm.

Virtual Network Computing (VNC)

Take control of your remote servers from the comfort of your desk. VNC lets you control Windows, Unix, and Mac machines. For more information, see http://www.realvnc.com.

Network View

With this handy tool, you'll never need to draw out your network. It automatically generates a network diagram for you within minutes. For more information, see http://www.networkview.com.

legal disclaimer

1) Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article as well for any and all copyright infringements by authors and writers. E-articles is a free information resource. If you suspect this article for any copyright infringements, please read the Terms of service and contact us to investigate the problem.
2) The E-articles directory team is not responsible for inaccuracies, falsehoods, or any other types of misinformation this tutorial may contain and will not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by a user through the user's reliance on the information gained here. Please read the Terms of service

Useful tools and features

Translate this article to...    Send this article to you or to a friend

Link to this article from your page   
If you like this article (tutorial), please link to it from your web page using the information above. Linking to this page, this is the only way to help us improve our service, the same time providing your visitors with a way to improve their online experience.

related articles

1. How to make your PC Available for Remote Desktop Connection
To use Remote Desktop to reach your computer from the Internet, both the computer and your Internet connection must always be up and running. In addition, you must be able to make connections from the outside world to your computer, so there are additional requirements: If you use dial-up Internet service, you'll need someone at home to establish the connection before you can connect to your computer. If you use cable or DSL Internet service, you must either have a static IP address ass...

2. How to Update DirectX ~ Advantages
Although most Windows applications place fairly low demands on the display system, putting up fairly static displays and updating them relatively infrequently, interactive games and video displays are very graphics intensive. Game players pay big bucks for fps, or frames per second, which is a measure of how fast the hardware and software can generate new images as the scene changes and objects move. Under about 30fps, the image flickers and motion is noticeably jerky. Beyond 30fps, faster updates aren't noticeable, and the e...

3. Using Simple File Sharing in Windows
Although most home users are typically happy letting anyone at any computer read or modify any file, business users need to restrict access to files with payroll, personnel, and proprietary information. Windows XP and its predecessors, Windows NT and Windows 2000, were primarily designed for business use, so they require usernames and passwords for identification, and have a security system that lets computer owners restrict access to sensitive files on a user-by-user and file-by-file basis on each computer. Unfortunate...

4. The Evolution of Microsoft Windows ~ The Windows 9x Family
By the mid-1990s, processor power had increased and memory prices had decreased dramatically since Windows' original release. The Internet had also sprung onto the world stage, from an academic tool to an instrument of global communication and commerce. (You may recall that Windows 3.1 did not even include support for the TCP/IP network protocol used on the Internetyou had to purchase it from a third-party vendor.) Users' expectations likewise had grown with computers' capabilities, and desktop publishing, graphics editing, and...

5. How to install Windows and Installation Types
Deciding on the type of installation to perform is dictated by many factors, such as the following: Is there an operating system currently installed? If so, do you want to preserve settings and configurations, or start from scratch? Will the installation be performed interactively or remotely? How many computers are to be installed at a single time? Is your network arranged in a domain model using Active Directory? These are ...

6. How to adjust Text Icons and Window Element Sizes
If you find the items on the screen difficult to read or see, you can either lower the screen resolution, which makes everything larger but blurrier, or ask Windows to make the elements themselves larger while keeping a crisper, high screen resolution. There are two ways you can do this. Here's the first procedure: 1. Right-click the Desktop and select Properties. 2. Save the current screen settings so if you're unhappy with the results, you can back the changes out. Select the Themes tab, click Save As, and enter ...

7. DOS Versions
Let's take a look at the actual nuts and bolts that constituted each version of DOS. DOS 1.x PC DOS 1.0 was introduced along with the IBM PC on August 12, 1981, and supported only single-sided 5.25-inch drives. Floppy disks were formatted using 8 sectors per track (one side, 40 tracks) resulting in a capacity of only 160KB when formatted. There was no support for hard disks at all, which were generally quite rare for personal computers at the time. DOS was a text-based operating system, hence there was no graphi...

8. How to Back Up and Restore the Windows Registry
Before diving into Registry modifications, I'll talk about backing them up. Every computer book I've seen stresses these facts: 1. There is no Undo key in the Registry Editor. 2. Improper changes to the Registry can keep Windows from booting, or can make subsystems fail to work....

9. How to Configure Multiple Monitors under Windows
Windows quite nicely supports the use of two or more monitors; Windows can stretch your desktop across up to 16 of them. Sixteen may be overkill, but even two 15" monitors, with about the same area as one 21" monitor, make it easier to stretch out several application windows. And you should see what three 21" monitors in a row look like! To get a multiple monitor setup, you'll need to install multiple display adapters, use a display adapter that supports more than one monitor (a "dual head" or "quad head...