Windows NT Magazine Tips: June-July 1999

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By Bob Chronister

The below tips are courtesy of Windows NT Magazine. For more information, go to https://www.winntmag.com or e-mail subs@winntmag.com.

On This Page

Assigning Domain Users to the Local Administrators Group of a Windows NT Workstation Client During an Unattended Setup
Retaining Windows NT 4.0 Settings when Rebooting a Computer with an ASUS Motherboard
Executing Applications on a Windows 95 Partition from a Windows NT Partition
Help! Windows 95 Clients Dial In but can't Browse the Network!

Assigning Domain Users to the Local Administrators Group of a Windows NT Workstation Client During an Unattended Setup

June 7, 1999

Q: How do I assign domain users to the local Administrators group of a Windows NT Workstation client during an unattended setup? I can successfully add local users to the Administrators group using the netlocalgroup command, but I get an error message: There is no such global user or group: SOME DOMAIN\SomeUser when I run the following command:

 "net localgroup Administrators SOMEDOMAIN\SomeUser /add"

from the cmdlines.txt file.

A: You need to use the NetStart Netlogon command to start the Netlogon service. Try entering the following series of commands in your unattended installation:

 net use \\PDC \user:DOMAIN\User password 
 net start netlogon 
 net localgroup Administrators "Domain\Support_group" /add

Retaining Windows NT 4.0 Settings when Rebooting a Computer with an ASUS Motherboard

June 21, 1999

Q: I have a clone computer with an ASUS motherboard running Windows NT 4.0. Every time I change a setting and reboot my computer, I receive a message that the system can't start NT as configured and is using a previous working model instead. Can you provide any insight?

A: ASUS motherboards use Award BIOS and the problem you are experiencing typically occurs with Award Modular BIOS 4.50G, 4.50GP or 4.50PG (the PG version supports Plug and Play--PnP). If you are using the Award Modular BIOS 4.50G or 4.50GP, Award suggests that you change the following CMOS settings one at a time until the problem goes away:

  • Daylight Savings Time: disabled

  • DMACLOCK: SCLK-2

  • PRQ2detection: enabled

  • IDEHDDblockmode: disabled

If you are using the Award Modular BIOS 4.50PG, you can correct the problem you are experiencing by disabling the Daylight Savings Time setting. Also, I suggest you update your BIOS firmware, which you can download from the ASUS Web site (https://www.asus.com/ ).

Executing Applications on a Windows 95 Partition from a Windows NT Partition

July 5, 1999

Q: I have configured my IBM 770ED laptop to dual boot Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation. Win95 resides on a DOS partition, and Windows NT resides on an NTFS partition. Can I execute applications on the Windows 95 partition from Windows NT so that I don't have to install the same applications on both partitions?

A: Unfortunately, you have to install the applications on both partitions. Windows NT and Windows 95 often use different files and don't always share a Registry function. My preference is to install to the same location. This approach saves disk space, but you have to uninstall the software in both operating systems, which can leave garbage in either the Windows NT Registry or the Windows 95 Registry. The obvious solution is to avoid dual booting.

Help! Windows 95 Clients Dial In but can't Browse the Network!

July 19, 1999

Q: I'm having trouble getting my Windows 95 clients to browse the network when they call in using Dial-Up Networking (DUN) and register with only TCP/IP running. The network is present and I can access machines using Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) names, but this terminology is not acceptable to my users. Any suggestions?

A: Clients who dial in but can't browse the network are often not part of the workgroup or domain of the remote network. You need to take the following steps to configure the remote dial-in so that a DUN client can browse a remote network with only TCP/IP running:

  1. Make certain that the DUN client's workgroup name matches the workgroup or domain name of the remote network that the client is attempting to connect to. You can change the workgroup name by selecting the Identification tab in the Network applet in Control Panel and clicking Workgroup.

  2. Be certain that the remote network has Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) installed.

  3. On the Remote Access Service (RAS) server, be certain that you've registered TCP/IP with the WINS server. You can adjust this setting in the Network applet in Control Panel by selecting TCP/IP, Properties and WINS address from the Protocols tab. You must register all systems with the WINS server that you want to browse remotely.

  4. Set the DUN client to use server-assigned name server addresses by default.

Bob Chronister is a contributing editor for Windows NT Magazine and president of Chronister Consultants in Mobile, Alabama. He is co-author of Windows NT Backup and Recovery (Osborne/McGraw-Hill). You can reach him at bob@winntmag.com.

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