Installing Windows 2000 Professional

To install Windows 2000 Professional on a system I had used the list below. The goal here is to install software on the system and join the computer to the domain controlled by the Windows 2000 Server installed previously. By the end of this exercise I would have a small isolated functional network of 2 Windows 2000 computers. I would also have my development environment installed on Windows 2000 Professional.

Installing the operating system

• Backup old data if necessary. This installation procedure formats the destination partition on the hard disk. All data on this partition will be lost.
• Have the hardware ready.
• If the system is multiple-boot as in my case, it is probably a good idea to prepare partitions before the installation.
• Connect network cables using a hub to have an isolated network of 2 Windows 2000 computers.
• Use Windows 2000 Professional installation disk to start installation.
• Accept all defaults except when the installer asks whether you want to upgrade the hard disk to NTFS file system. Select "No" here. Installer copies a few files and then automatically restarts the system.
• Press ENTER on the Windows 2000 Server Setup blue screen to set up Windows 2000 now.
• Select the desired partition and proceed. If the pratition was not NTFS-formatted previously, format it now.
• Ignore the message about older verisons of NT not being able to start unless upgraded to SP4.
• Accept default locale and keyboard layout on the "Regional Settings" dialog. Just click on Next on that screen.
• Provide a name and organization on the "Personalize Your Software" dialog.
• Provide computer name (I used misty) and an Administrator password.
• Select date and time as desired.
• Use default "Typical Settings" on the "Networking Settings" dialog.
• Use default settings on the "Workgroup or Computer Domain" dialog. Notice that making this computer a member of a domain at this time will fail anyway. The system will present a "Network Configuration" dialog with the message "An invalid domain was specified. Would you like to proceed for now and try to join a domain later?". Select Yes if you got this far.
• Remove the CD when asked and click on the Finish button to restart the system.
• On "Users of This Computer" dialog in Network Identification Wizard select "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer."
• Log on as Administrator and change display properties if necessary. Right-click anywhere on the free area of desktop, then select Properties - Settings and configure screen.
• Start Windows Explorer (Start - Programs - Accessories - Windows Explorer) and configure folder options. Use the Tools - Folder Options menu, navigate to View, select "Show hidden files and folders", uncheck "Hide file extensions for known file types", and "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)". Click on the Apply button, and then on the "Like Current Folder" button to make all folders behave like specified.
• Change the timeout line in C:\boot.ini file. The default is timeout=30. Change it to timeout=5. This makes the OS loader to wait for only 5 seconds instead of 30 before loading the default OS.
• Configure TCP/IP. Go to Start - Settings - Network and Dial-up Connections. Select Local Area Connection - Properties. Double-click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Select "Use the following IP address:" and type in 192.168.2.3 for the address, and 255.255.255.0 for subnet mask. Type in 192.168.2.1 for default gateway. Notice that 192.168.2.1 may yet exist at this point. This is an internal IP address of the firewall machine. Type in 192.168.2.2 for preferred DNS server. Leave alternate DNS server blank.
• Join the computer to Windows 2000 domain. Use Start - Settings - Control Panel - System. Select Network Identification and click on the Properties button. Type in domain name. Provide Administrator as user name and it password on the "Domain Username And Password" dialog. Reboot after dismissing the welcome message box.
• Install Windows 2000 Service Pack 1.
• Shutdown, restart, and make sure it boots okay.

Installing the development environment

• Install Visual Studio 6.0. I used disk 1 of MSDN Office Test Platform and Development Tools (U.S.). I have selected custom installation type and selected all options except for Visual FoxPro 6.0, Visual InterDev 6.0, and Visual SourceSafe 6.0. Notice that all other options are selected in their entireties (meaning all suboptions present).
• Install Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 4.
• Make full installation of Microsoft Platform SDK. I have been using July 2000 Edition. It is located on disk 3 of MSDN Development Platform (English). To select complete set of options proceed until "Custom Installation" dialog is presented. Click on the root node named "Microsoft Platfor SDK", then select "Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive".

  If you don't have the Platform SDK disk you can try installing it from Microsoft web site. At the moment of this writing it's available from this link: http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/setuplauncher.htm. The link, of course, may change or disappear in the future. In this case you can try searching for it in MSDN Library (using keywords like Platform SDK download). Alternatively, you can try locating the Platform SDK section using Microsoft Downloads page (if available), see Figure below.


Locating Microsoft Platform SDK download page.
• Reboot and make sure Visual Studio works okay (VC++ and VB). Check also whether Platform SDK binary tools start properly. For example, you can check whether adsvw.exe is able to start.