Windows NT Tech Support
ITP 9985 --Lenny Bailes (M,W,F 4/23-5/2; 6-9:30pm)

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First Day Agenda

Student & teacher intros

Discussion of class resources

(class homepage, MS tech support home page)

DeAnza College TV course

This class will probably wind up being the "clean-up" class.

Fill out and hand-in skills survey

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Strategic overview of NT Tech Support

We have several basic tools:

Access Windows Help (\Support\Book folder on CD)

Event Viewer

Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com)

Using Event Viewer (handout, p. 3, Tech Support manual, p. 650)

There are three logs
system log -- track hardware and driver problems
application log track application problems
security log -- audit user logins and server access ((show how to turn auditing on))

Show how to filter events viewed in the log
Choose View->Filter Events
View From/View Through == From a specified date/time or during a specified timeframe
Type of Event (Error, Warning, Information, Success Audit, Failure Audit)
Source (Alerter, Browser, DLC error, floppy disk, etc.)

Filtering has no effect on the contents of the event log; all events are logged whether filter is active or not.

Archiving event logs (three formats: logfile, text, comma-delimited text)

Control size and contents of event logs (maximum size, overwrite-as-needed)

Using Windows NT Diagnostics

Start NT Diagnostics from the Administrative Tools group

• Services tab -- lists services and devices in the CurrentControlSet, along with state or status, running or stopped
• Resources tab -- displays system resources in use (IRQs, I/O ports, DMA channels, memory allocation)
• Environment -- displays environment variables
• Network -- lists network-related configuration information, including current network statistics
• Version -- contains operating system information, with versions numbers, such as build and Service Pack no.
• System -- Displays BIOS, HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer), and CPU information
• Display -- information about video adapter, video drivers, display settings
• Drives -- shows all available drives, including floppy, hard disk, CD-ROM & removable
• Memory -- contains information about physical and virtual memory on the system

NT Diagnostics can be used to view information about computers, remotely.
Exercise: gather information about your computer.

System Recovery (Tech Support manual, p. 670)

When a severe error (called a STOP error, or fatal system error, or blue screen) occursw, Windows NT allows you to configure the way your system respondes. This is accomplished through the Recovery options found on the Startup/Shutdown tab of the System applet in Control Panel. You can:

a) write an event to the system log
b) send an administrative alert to users and computers specified in Alerts dialog box (Server applet in Control panel).
c) write a debug file to a specified filename (If pagefile is configured properly and of sufficient size)
d) Restart the system automatically

Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com)

Creating an Emergency Repair Disk (RDISK.EXE, p. 634 of Tech Support manual)

The Emergency Repair folder and disk are used to return a computer running Windows NT to the state of the last Emergency Repair update. The disk can repair missing or corrupt Windows NT files and restore parts of the registry (including the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database), disk configuration information, and software registry entries. Rdisk.exe is located in the \systemroot\System32 folder.

Note: the emergency repair disk does not back up the SAM and Security files (with user account information) by default. But you can do this by entering RDISK /S at the command prompt.

To perform the emergency repair process, you need: the original installation CD or installation folder. Boot from the original NT setup floppy disks or create a new set by typing WINNT /ox or WINNT32 /ox. At the installation prompt on the blue screen, type "R" to indicate that you want to repair your Windows NT files, then follow on-screen instructions.

[Break]

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Installing Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and Server (handout, p. 4)

See Microsoft help files (XSH_05 to 08.DOC in the \help directory on your Windows NT Installation disk)
Hardware requirements
Upgrade issues (old OS to Winnt vs. new installations)

Planning and preparation:

Workgroup or Domain? Nember computer or domain controller (PDC or BDC)?

checking hardware compatibility -- create a hardware inventory, locate appropriate 3^rd party driver disks

choosing a partition scheme

install from CD vs. install from floppies, local hard disk, or network directory

Blue Screen installation (part 1 -- go through hardware steps)

GUI installation (part 2 -- go through software configuration steps)

Review Training Materials simulations

Install Windows NT Server on computers at the side of the room.