Installing Windows 2000 Professional

The Windows 2000 Professional installation and upgrade procedures have been enhanced from previous versions of the operating system. The following is a brief description of these enhancements.

Support for Plug and Play Devices

Microsoft Windows 2000 now supports Plug and Play technology. A Plug and Play system requires the interaction of the operating system, basic input/output system (BIOS), devices, and device drivers. Windows 2000 Plug and Play is an enhanced implementation which extends the existing Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0 input/output (I/O) structure to support Plug and Play and power management. For more information about Plug and Play, see Device Management in this book.

Compatibility Check Options

Windows 2000 Professional Setup comes with a compatibility-mode option that can be used before installing Windows 2000 Professional to examine hardware and software for known problems that might be encountered during the Setup process. It creates a report to determine which hardware files and any upgrade packs are needed to successfully run Windows 2000. This report can be sent to a printer or saved to a file for later review. You can also get a downloadable version of this compatibility check option by using the Windows 2000 Readiness Analyzer link on the Windows 2000 Web Resources Page at: https://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/reskit/webresources .