The Network Platform

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Supported Operating Systems and Clients
Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Supported Operating Systems and Clients

Microsoft® Project 2002 supports most widely available network operating systems and network clients for file and printing services.

Microsoft Network Operating Systems and Clients

Microsoft Project supports the following Microsoft Windows network servers and clients.

Supported network servers
  • Windows® NT® Server4.0 with Service Pack 6 or later
  • Windows 2000 Server or later
Supported network clients
  • Windows 98 and Client for Microsoft Networks
  • Windows NT Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or later
  • Windows 2000 Professional
  • Windows XP Professional

Novell Network Operating Systems and Clients

Microsoft Project supports the following Novell network servers and clients.

Supported network servers
  • Novell NetWare version 4.11 with year 2000 updates
  • Novell intraNetWare version 4.11 with Support Pack 5b and year 2000 updates
  • Novell NetWare 5.0 with Support Pack 5
Supported Novell network clients
  • Novell intraNetWare client version 2.5 on Windows 98
  • Novell intraNetWare client version 4.30.410 on Windows NT 4.0 Workstation with Service Pack 3 or later
  • Novell intraNetWare client version 4.30.410 on Windows 2000 Professional

NetWare Network Clients

  • Microsoft Project supports the following NetWare network clients:
  • Client for NetWare Networks with Service for NetWare Directory Services on Windows 98
  • Client Service for NetWare on Windows NT Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or later
  • Client Service for NetWare on Windows 2000 Professional

Banyan Vines Network Operating Systems and Clients

Microsoft Project 2002 was not tested with Banyan Vines network servers or clients.

Artisoft LANtastic Peer-to-Peer Network Operating Systems

Microsoft Project 2002 was not tested with Artisoft LANtastic peer-to-peer networking software for full support.

Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP

If an organization deploys Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional, including Active Directory™, Microsoft Project can take advantage of additional Windows 2000 features. Some of these features require only Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000/Windows XP Professional; most require both.

IntelliMirror Support

IntelliMirror® is a set of powerful Windows 2000 features for change and configuration management of users' computers. These features combine the advantages of centralized computing with the performance and flexibility of distributed computing. Leveraging server as well as client operating system features, IntelliMirror allows users to access their specific data, applications, and customized settings on any computer that's connected to their organization's network.

IntelliMirror increases the availability of the user's computer and computing environment by intelligently storing information, settings, and applications based on policy definitions. IntelliMirror can recover and restore specific user data, applications, and personal settings in a Windows 2000-based environment.

Microsoft Project fully supports IntelliMirror features for the following functions:

  • User data management
  • Software installation and maintenance
  • User and computer settings management

Depending on the requirements of their environments, administrators can apply these IntelliMirror functions separately or in combination.

User data management

The user data management functionality of IntelliMirror supports the mirroring of user specific data to the network and the local caching of selected network data. User data management also ensures that data is protected, available offline, and available from any computer on the network.

For user data to be accessible to the user, it needs to be stored in a location specified for roaming, such as the My Documents folder. Microsoft Project supports user data management by storing users' Microsoft Project documents in the My Documents folder, by default.

Software installation and maintenance

The software installation and maintenance functionality in Windows 2000 allows for an application to be assigned to a user or a computer, or published to a user. Assigning and publishing of applications, which is fully supported in Microsoft Project, requires both Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server or later.

When an application is assigned to a user, it is advertised for that user the next time the user logs on to a computer running Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional. Advertising is the process of pre-configuring some Windows registry information (such as file associations, OLE activation information, and support for the Windows Installer service) and application shortcuts on the client computer.

Using application shortcuts, the Windows Installer installs an application the first time it is started. Using application file associations and OLE activation information, Windows Installer installs an application the first time a user attempts to open a file or activate an OLE object that requires a missing application.

When an application is assigned to a computer, it is fully installed the next time the computer is started and connects to the Windows 2000 network. The application is then available to all users of that computer.

When an application is published to users, it is made available in the Active Directory. No advertisement or application information, such as a shortcut, is installed on users' computers; however, all published packages, such as Microsoft Project, are displayed in Add/Remove Applications in Control Panel. Information in the Active Directory enables the application to be installed automatically when needed—for example, when a user who has not installed Microsoft Project opens a Microsoft Project file.

Microsoft Project can be assigned to users or computers, or it can be published to users. To enable assigning and publishing of applications to users, Windows 2000 and Windows XP provide per-user support in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry subtree. (In Windows 98, and Windows NT Workstation 4.0, the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subtree is supported on a per-machine basis.) The HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subtree contains the file association and class registration for OLE.

In previous versions of Windows, file types are persistently set to the application they are associated with. For example, if one user has the DOC file type associated with Wordpad.exe, and other users log on to that computer, DOC files of those users will also be associated with Wordpad.exe, even if they are associated with Winword.exe in their roaming user profile. To resolve this problem, Windows 2000 and Windows XP support the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subtree on a per-user basis, which allows file information to roam with the user.

Per-user associations are set up when an application is installed for a particular user. When an application is installed for all users of a computer, however, the per-machine version of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subtree is used.

The per-user features of the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subtree require Windows 2000 Professional.

In Windows 2000 and Windows XP, OLE activation to call the Windows Installer also works differently than in previous versions of Windows. If a user activates an OLE object, such as an embedded document, the operating system calls the Windows Installer for the required application. As long as the required application was installed using the Windows Installer and set to Installed on First Use, the Windows Installer can install the application required to work with the OLE object, even if this application has never been installed on the user's computer.

When the required application is set to Installed on First Use, the behavior of applications that use the Windows Installer differs slightly, depending on the version of Windows that is running on the user's computer. Under Windows 2000 Professional, the missing application required to open an OLE object is automatically installed without user intervention. Under Windows 98, or Windows NT Workstation 4.0, the missing application required to open an OLE object is installed, but the user is prompted first.

Additionally, if the application has been installed but has been damaged (for example, if a key file has been deleted), the Windows Installer repairs the application before it passes the path to the application back to OLE. This behavior gives applications that use the Windows Installer the capability to install on demand, as well as resiliency with OLE activation. In applications that do not use the Windows Installer, OLE does not call the Windows Installer and activation of the application fails.

Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional is required to install an application automatically and to activate an OLE object without user intervention.

User and computer settings management

Using the Windows 2000 user and computer settings management functionality, administrators can centrally define computing environments for groups of users and computers so that those users and computers automatically get the correct environment. Administrators can add new users and computers, define settings for groups of people and computers, and apply changes for groups of people.

Furthermore, using IntelliMirror, administrators can restore a user's settings if a computer fails, and can ensure that a user's computer settings can be accessed by the user from another computer on the network.

To more effectively manage user and computer settings, Microsoft Project provides application policies in the form of administrative template (ADM) files that can be used to customize Microsoft Project.

With Windows 2000, the registry policy folders (Software\Policies) under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER subtree and the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree are volatile. When any Group Policy object that affects a user or computer changes, keys written by that Group Policy are deleted and rewritten. This way, policy settings can be changed when the affected Group Policy objects change, for example, when a user roams to a different organizational unit.

Because registry folders are secured in Windows 2000, only administrators can change registry entries and values. (In previous versions of Windows, any user can change policy settings in the registry.)

User and computer settings management features require Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional.

Remote Operating System Installation

In addition to IntelliMirror features, Windows 2000 supports remote operating system installation, which simplifies the task of installing a new copy of the operating system on client computers throughout the organization.

Remote operating system installation provides a mechanism for computers to connect to a network server during initial startup, and then allows the server to drive a local installation of Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional. When used with IntelliMirror, remote operating system installation reduces the costs of setting up new computers and provides better recovery from computer failures.

If you are adding or replacing a computer, or returning a repaired computer to the network, remote operating system installation provides the services to reload the operating system. At the same time, IntelliMirror provides the services to quickly regenerate installed applications (such as Microsoft Project) and to restore user data and personal computer settings.

Remote operating system installation requires Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional.

Distributed File System

The Windows 2000 Distributed File System (DFS) provides a layer of redirection for servers. DFS permits consolidation of server and share names into a single logical directory. Using DFS, an administrator can set up a series of Microsoft Project distribution servers, advertised as a single DFS name. This configuration allows the administrator to provide load balancing and redundancy on the servers used to deploy Microsoft Project.

For example, using DFS, an administrator can publish three servers (\\Server1\Project2002, \\Server2\Project2002, and \\Server3\Project2002) as child objects of a \\Software\Apps\Project2002 share. When a client computer gains access to the \\Software\Apps\Project2002 share, it is transparently routed to one of the three participating servers.

The Windows Installer service can use a source list. If the service cannot connect to the last source it used, it searches for an available server stored in the source list. During deployment, an administrator can place other servers in the source list. If you choose to use DFS instead, you may not want to use the source list feature provided by the Windows Installer, unless you want to have one group of servers back up another group of servers.

DFS requires Windows NT Server 4.0 or Windows 2000 Server for DFS server shares. To access DFS shares, client computers must have a version of Windows installed that's supported by Microsoft Project. The Windows Installer source list feature works under all versions of Windows supported by Microsoft Project 2002.

See Also

For more information about Windows 2000 Server, see the Windows 2000 Server Web site.

For information about group policies in Windows 2000, see the Windows 2000 Group Policy white paper on the Windows 2000 Web site.