Quick Tips May 99

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Administering a domain from an NT Workstation
How to compress the WINS database
How can I undelete a file in Windows NT?
Adding a security warning
Protecting your ERD

Administering a domain from an NT Workstation

By Troy Thompson, MCSE

To administer your domain from a Windows NT workstation, follow these steps. First, install the NT Server client-based administration tools. Next, insert the NT Server CD into your NT Workstation and run the file

<CD-ROM drive>: *\clients\srvtools\winnt\setup.bat

Doing so will detect your processor and install the correct files in the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder.

You now need to create shortcuts—either on the desktop or the Start menu—for the following applications:

  • dhcpadmn.exe—DHCP Manager

  • poledit.exe—System Policy Editor

  • rasadmin.exe—Remote Access Administrator

  • rplmgr.exe—Remoteboot Manager

  • srvmgr.exe—Server Manager

  • usrmgr.exe—User Manager for Domains

  • winsadmn.exe—WINS Manager

How to compress the WINS database

By Troy Thompson, MCSE

You can use the Jetpack.exe utility that is shipped with Windows NT server to compress the WINS database.

  1. Change to the %systemroot%\system32\wins directory.

  2. Type Net Stop WINS and press ENTER to stop the WINS service.

  3. Type Jetpack WINS.MDB TMP.MDB and press ENTER to compress the database.

  4. When it finishes, type Net Start WINS and press ENTER to restart the WINS service.

The Jetpack utility actually compacts the WINS.MDB into the TMP.MDB then deletes the WINS.MDB and copies the TMP.MDB to the WINS.MDB.

How can I undelete a file in Windows NT?

By Troy Thompson, MCSE

If you have permanently deleted a file—which is to say that it is not in the Recycle Bin—and realize that you still need it, there may be a way to recover it. It is important to note that once a file is deleted, you should stop all activity on the computer to reduce the risk of another file overwriting the data to be recovered. The DOS utility called Undelete.exe, which comes with the NT Resource kit, will allow you to retrieve a file that was on a FAT partition. If the file deleted was on an NTFS partition, the Undelete utility will not work. NTFS does not perform destructive deletes so the actual data is left intact on the disk until another file is written in its place. There are some third party vendors that have written programs that allow for the retrieval of deleted files on NTFS partitions.

Adding a security warning

By Brien M. Posey, MCSE

In some situations, you may want to add a security warning to Windows NT that users will see before they log on. Doing so is easy, but requires you to edit the Registry. As always, you should exercise extreme caution when editing the Registry and make a backup before you begin—making a mistake in the Registry can destroy Windows.

To create a security warning, open the registry editor and navigate to

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon

Next, double-click the LegalNoticeCaption value and enter the following text into the data field: Unauthorized Access Warning. Double-click the LegalNoticeText value and enter your security warning in the data field. Now, log off. When you do, your security warning will be displayed before you're given the chance to log back on.

Protecting your ERD

By Brien M. Posey, MCSE

Although you've probably put a considerable amount of time and effort into creating your ERD, you may need to make the occasional change as you discover new needs. For example, after using your newly created ERD a few times you may find that you need to add a utility to the disk. To do so, you may have to remove a less-used utility.

When you've used your disk for a while, you'll begin to feel more comfortable with it. Your ERD may eventually become your most valuable—if not your most frequently used—tool. Because of this, you should make a couple of spares and store them in a safe place. It would be a shame for a disk error to destroy a tool that you use so often, along with all your hard work.

It's also extremely important to write-protect your disk, because you'll be using the disk on more than one computer. As you go from one machine to another, it's always possible for your disk to become infected with a virus. Even if the virus didn't damage your disk, you could quickly (although inadvertently) spread the virus. Write-protecting your disk will make infection impossible.

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