Ask the Windows 2000 Dev Team

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Every other week we put your How-Come-You-Did-That questions to the Windows 2000 development team. Submit your questions here.

DirectX Support, Enabling X-Mouse, Switching from Mixed Node to Native in Active Directory

Q: What about DirectX® support? Many games need DirectX to run. Should we stop playing, or stay on Windows 98/95?

A: Good news for gamers! DirectX 7.0 is included in Windows 2000, with full hardware acceleration support. Many games will run on Windows 2000 right out of the box. For some games, the installation programs check your operating system and will not install if Windows NT is detected. This is because, in the past, Windows NT may not have supported all of the features required for the game to run well. These games will detect Windows 2000 as a "Windows NT" operating system and will not install.

To see a list of applications, including games, that Microsoft has already tested for compatibility with Windows 2000, go to Check Hardware and Software Compatibility. Click the Software button. Under Product Category, choose "Arts and Entertainment" and enter the manufacturer's name and/or product name. Then click the Find button.

Q: What is the new registry key replacing the functionality of ActiveWindowTracking? In other words, how do I get "X-mouse" behavior?

A: TweakUI will be available in the Windows 2000 Resource Kit, and will provide the ability to enable "X-mouse" behavior.

Q: What happens to Active Directory when it is switched from mixed mode to native mode?

A: Native mode is the final operational state of a Windows 2000 domain, and enables the full range of Active Directory features. After you have upgraded all domain controllers to Windows 2000, you can then choose to move the domain to native mode. During the switch, the following occurs:

  • You can no longer add Windows NT BDCs to the domain.

  • Pre-Windows 2000 clients continue to use the Active Directory domain controller that you previously designated as the PDC emulator (see definition below) to locate the PDC and perform password changes. In addition, Windows NT resource domains use the PDC location information to establish trusts.

  • Group nesting and Windows 2000 group types, such as universal and domain local groups, become available.

  • The functionality that enables security principals, such as users and groups, to be moved between domains, becomes available.

  • Shortcut trusts to trusted domains in the same forest, which previously had to be maintained for the benefit of the Windows NT BDCs in the domain, are no longer necessary.

In mixed mode, all Active Directory domain controllers can accept updates, and multi-master replication is used between those domain controllers. You do not need to switch to native mode to take advantage of multi-master replication.

The primary reason to move a domain to native mode is to take advantage of the new group functionality in Windows 2000, such as nested groups and Universal groups.

All of the NT 4.0 domain controllers in a domain must be upgraded or removed before the domain can be changed to native mode. If your domain consists only of Windows 2000 domain controllers, you can change to native mode at any time.

What's a PDC Emulator?

The domain controller assigned to act as a Windows NT 4.0 primary domain controller (PDC) to service network clients that do not have Active Directory client software installed, and to replicate directory changes to any Windows NT backup domain controllers (BDCs) in the domain. For a Windows 2000 domain operating in native mode, the PDC emulator master receives preferential replication of password changes performed by other domain controllers in the domain and handles any password authentication requests that fail at the local domain controller. At any time, there can be only one PDC emulator in a particular domain. The PDC emulator role can be moved between Windows 2000 domain controllers.

What's a Universal Group?

A security or distribution group that can be used on any computer joined to the forest. A universal group can have members from any Windows 2000 domain in the forest. It can also include other universal groups, global groups, and user accounts from any domain in the forest. Rights and permissions must be assigned on a per-domain basis, but can be assigned at any domain in the forest. The membership of a universal group can be members of domain local groups and other universal groups, but cannot be members of global groups. The membership of a universal group is replicated to global catalog servers and should contain primarily global groups.