If you're reading this appendix, you're probably interested in learning about the new features that NT 5.0 has to offer. This appendix gives you a brief summary of the major features currently planned for NT 5.0. While this chapter won't answer all your questions, it should provide you with a good overview.
When upgrading to Windows NT 5.0, the decisions that you make and the related planning depends on whether you're upgrading to NT Workstation or to NT Server. If you're upgrading to NT Workstation 5.0, the upgrade from any previous Windows operating system should be rather smooth. Upgrading from Windows 3.1x went well for those installing NT Workstation 4.0, and no new surprises are expected. Users who tried to upgrade from Windows 95 to NT Workstation 4.0 were frustrated by the fact that they had to reinstall all their applications, which was caused by the fact that the Registry format differs between the two operating systems. Microsoft has promised a smooth upgrade from Windows 95 to NT Workstation 5.0, however, presumably through the use of a conversion utility or other device that will be able to import the Windows 95 Registry settings into NT Workstation. Users of previous versions of NT Workstation should also have no problems upgrading to NT 5.0, particularly those upgrading from NT 4.0, which is expected to have the smoothest upgrade path.
If you're planning to upgrade to one of the versions (standard, small business, or enterprise) of NT Server 5.0 from a previous version of NT Server, then you need to do more planning than users who are upgrading an NT Workstation installation. Microsoft strongly recommends that users of NT Server 3.5x upgrade first to NT Server 4.0, and in fact there has been some speculation that there will be no guaranteed upgrade support from NT Server 3.5x to NT Server 5.0. One of the main reasons that Microsoft wants users to upgrade first to NT 4.0 is that it reportedly will be much easier to upgrade your directory services to the new Active Directory in NT 5.0 if you're starting from an NT Server 4.0 installation. If, in fact, Microsoft requires an upgrade to NT Server 4.0 before installing NT Server 5.0, established users will likely put pressure on Microsoft to provide them with the means to do this without having to pay for the full upgrade price of both NT Server 4.0 and 5.0, and Microsoft should take the appropriate steps to keep its loyal NT Server users happy and ensure a painless (or at least low-pain) upgrade to NT Server 5.0.
While Windows NT 5.0 enables you to use the same GUI employed in Windows NT 4.0, you'll also have the option to use the new GUI supplied by Internet Explorer 4.0. The shell integration element of Internet Explorer 4.0 consists of the following:
The Active Desktop makes your Windows NT Desktop HTML-aware, and you can place anything from traditional Web content (including ActiveX controls, Java, and HTML) to Desktop Components (which are objects containing HTML, scripting, and other elements) and a Channel Bar (for viewing Web content through the new Channel Definition Format) on your Active Desktop.
Through the use of Web View, you can activate all icons on your desktop, as well as in My Computer, the Windows NT Explorer, and elsewhere with a single click. You can also customize any directory to which you have access, either on your computer or on any network to which you have access, with custom HTML and background images to make it easier for you and others to find the files for which you're looking.
Although there's still a separate Web browser called Internet Explorer, Microsoft has also integrated the features of that browser throughout the user interface, as in the Windows NT Explorer. Rather than having to open Internet Explorer, you can view Web pages and other content from an Internet or intranet site within the Windows NT Explorer just as easily as viewing files on your computer or a local network. The Windows NT Explorer also has a new toolbar that includes buttons similar to those found in Internet Explorer, enabling you to move back and forth between local directories, as well as Internet content. Thus, in Windows NT 5.0 it will be much easier to work with local and remote files without ever having to leave the Windows NT Explorer (see Figure G.1).
Windows NT 5.0 will also feature other GUI enhancements as a Taskbar that can be used for multiple purposes, such as providing one-click access to commonly used applications and Internet sites. The Start button will feature support for finding people on the Internet, as well as provide quick access to your favorite sites. You'll be able to minimize open windows by clicking their icons on the Taskbar rather than having to use the Minimize button. Also, you'll be able to use animation features and other enhancements (such as ToolTips for the Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons) in NT 5.0.
The new Windows NT Explorer enables you to browse both directories and Internet content.
One of the complaints users have had about previous versions of Windows NT was its lack of support for many hardware devices. With the growing popularity of NT (which has caused many hardware manufacturers to finally start supplying NT device drivers for their products) as well as increased support for devices from NT 5.0 itself, however, Windows NT will be able to fully support even those new devices that are on the cutting edge of hardware technology.
Most of the new hardware that Windows NT 5.0 supports is contained in the PC 97 and PC 98 hardware design guides authored by Microsoft and leading PC hardware vendors. Among the new devices to be supported by NT 5.0 are:
Also important to hardware support in NT 5.0 are the implementation of Plug and Play (as well as related hot plugging, hot swapping, and hot docking) and Advanced Power Management, the latter of which is handled through the Win32 Driver Model in hardware devices that support that model.
Windows NT 5.0 will also support two new computing platforms: the Net PC and the Windows Terminal. Net PCs are personal computers that are designed to be easily used and administered within a network environment. Although they have fairly limited capabilities (such as a low-level Pentium-class microprocessor and relatively little RAM), they employ the latest bus technologies (such as USB and IEEE 1394) and will be able to check for system updates each time they boot. Net PCs will use a sealed-case design that limits end users from fiddling around with the internal hardware, although additional devices can easily be added as needed through the USB and IEEE 1394 ports.
Windows-based Terminals will be reminiscent of diskless workstations (also known as "dumb" terminals), which will be used primarily by task-oriented workers such as those engaged in data entry work within a single application. Although it's unclear whether or not they'll have an independent operating system (if so, it will likely be Windows CE or some variation thereof), Windows Terminals will run applications solely off of a computer running NT Server that features the new multi-user Microsoft server technology code-named Hydra. Through the use of this new server technology, Microsoft hopes to encroach further on the territory once held exclusively by mainframe and other large computer systems.
One of the features of NT 5.0 that has been getting a lot of lip service from Microsoft since early 1996 is the Win32 Driver Model (WDM). Historically, hardware vendors had to develop separate device drivers for Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, and Windows NT. Because this took a lot of effort on the part of hardware vendors, and also since Windows NT has a much smaller market share that Windows 3.1x and Windows 95, a number of hardware vendors simply chose not to write device drivers for Windows NT, leaving NT users in the lurch.
Having officially ended the development of 16-bit operating systems, Microsoft is now left with two operating system platforms for personal computers: Windows 95 (including the upcoming Memphis upgrade) and Windows NT. To ensure that hardware device drivers are available for both platforms and to make it easier for hardware vendors to supply drivers for both platforms, Microsoft designed WDM to enable a single device driver to work with both operating systems beginning with the release of Memphis and Windows NT 5.0.
WDM is a significant advance in the technology of developing hardware device drivers. Because Microsoft supplies the base driver for various classes of hardware devices, many vendors will only have to write a small minidriver to enable their devices to work under Memphis and NT 5.0. Devices that have WDM support also will have greater support for power management and Plug and Play because those functions are built into WDM.
Unfortunately, it now appears that true WDM support will not appear until after both of the new operating systems have shipped. Microsoft has been slow in delivering the tools and information that hardware vendors can use to construct these new device drivers and has also not supplied class drivers for all types of devices. Significantly, Microsoft admitted in the summer of 1997 that WDM will not feature support for monitors until sometime after Memphis and NT 5.0 are released. Because monitor drivers are often updated by their manufacturers and also are important to power management, the lack of monitor support in WDM is disappointing. Nonetheless, many other types of hardware devices will be supported by WDM in NT 5.0, and the inclusion of WDM in NT 5.0 is an important step toward addressing the needs of hardware vendors, as well as ensuring that hardware devices interoperate well with both the operating system and other devices.
Anyone who has tried to run Windows NT 4.0 on a laptop computer with batteries knows that NT 4.0 has no power management capabilities and that laptops running Windows 95 can run significantly longer than when using NT. Windows NT 5.0 changes that through the inclusion of power management capabilities on all personal computers, whether they be desktop computers or laptops.
Windows NT 5.0 includes support for power management through WDM (Win32 Driver Model) and through its support for Microsoft's OnNow initiative. OnNow is a means by which Microsoft is enhancing power management both at the hardware and the software level. By designing the hardware and software in such ways that they can work and communicate with each other, you can obtain better power management capabilities for your personal computer, including any attached devices.
To fully take advantage of OnNow, you need a new (or nearly new) computer that features hardware designed to work with OnNow. Through the use of hardware devices and related device drivers (written under WDM) that are OnNow compliant, the Windows NT 5.0 operating system will communicate with open software applications and the hardware devices to determine whether or not they are needed. If there's no perceived need for a device, NT 5.0 can work through the WDM class driver and the individual device driver to put that device into a lower-power mode (either some degree of sleep or just plain off).
The OnNow initiative will lead to computers that have features that both consumers and corporate users have been asking for over the last few years. Thus, you can set your computer to go into a sleep state after a certain period of time being idle, yet have it able to power back on instantly if an incoming fax rings into your modem. Also, because your computer is never fully powered down, you can turn it back on to full power by moving your mouse, hitting a key on your keyboard, or any such activity. Additionally, sleeping computers on a corporate network can be awoken by a message over the network, at which time the server can perform automated maintenance or other work on the computers.
Although PCs offer a lot of power and independence to their users, they also require a fair amount of software and operating system maintenance. Indeed, the cost of maintaining a personal computer over the course of several years can easily exceed the original purchase price of the computer. With this reality in mind, Microsoft began looking at ways in which it might help organizations reduce the total cost of ownership of their personal computers. Out of this effort, the Zero Administration for Windows (ZAW) initiative was born.
Although ZAW also includes hardware concerns, such as the use of Net PCs, which limit end users' interaction with hardware, the focus of ZAW is on three software-related areas: the capability of the operating system to automatically check for and install new updates each time that the computer boots up, storage of data and other user information on a server, as well as on the user's local computer, and more control over the desktops of end users who don't need to have access to all available system functions and applications.
Although these features will be available in Windows NT 5.0, network administrators can get a preview of how they'll be able to maintain further control over the desktops of end users through the use of the Zero Administration Kit now available for NT 4.0. Through the use of this kit, you can either limit your users to being able to use a single application that loads automatically whenever the computer boots up or else provide a limited set of applications to which they have access. This kit is essentially a means of using existing tools such as the System Policy Editor to limit the types of things that end users have access to on their computers.
Although these limitations will not be appropriate for all users, they should eliminate a large degree of support calls from those users (particularly those who are help-desk intensive) who have little understanding of computers and tend to mess up their computers by improperly adjusting system settings, deleting necessary files, or installing unauthorized applications on their computers.
Whereas Windows NT 4.0 delivered a number of telephony and electronic messaging enhancements to the NT operating system, NT 5.0 offers further improvements and refinements to those capabilities. NT 5.0 supports an updated version of TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface), which makes it easier for software developers to implement applications whereby computers can interact with telephony hardware and software located on a server. Remote Access Service (RAS) has also been updated to include software routing capabilities in the renamed Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS).
Although Windows NT 4.0 shipped without support for fax services, NT Workstation 5.0 will include a fax utility through which you can easily send a fax from within any Windows application. A fax cover sheet editor will also be included so that you can either change the included sample fax cover sheets to suit your needs or create a new cover sheet from scratch. You will also be able to use the image and event viewers that ship with NT to view faxes and fax logs. A beta version of this fax utility is currently available for NT 4.0, and in this book we show you how you can to install and use this utility in NT 4.0 until the final version ships in NT 5.0.
Windows NT 5.0 will also feature a new electronic messaging client. It appears that Microsoft will probably replace the Windows Messaging (also known as the Exchange Inbox) client with a new product named Outlook Express shown in Figure G.2. Originally included as an add-on to Internet Explorer 4.0, Outlook Express features support for Internet protocol-based mail servers, thus providing a universal in-box through which you can receive Internet e-mail and newsgroup postings, as well as e-mail and newsgroup postings from local network messaging servers that support standard Internet protocols.
Outlook Express, included in NT 5.0, enables you to send and receive e-mail and newsgroup postings from any messaging server that supports standard Internet protocols.
Microsoft would prefer for you to use the full e-mail client, Microsoft Outlook, but to use that product, you have to pay extra by either buying it separately or as part of Microsoft Office or Exchange Server to get the additional scheduling and contact management capabilities offered by that product. If Microsoft uses Outlook Express as its main messaging client in NT 5.0, this will likely push more organizations toward a non-proprietary messaging and groupware system, such as those provided by Microsoft Exchange Server and Lotus Domino.
With Windows NT 5.0, Microsoft continues its push to make NT a viable platform for viewing and developing multimedia content. Whereas most multimedia capabilities have been more at home in Windows 95 than in Windows NT, NT 5.0 will feature support for television viewing (including DVD video), the NetShow client and server, the Interactive Music Control, and updated implementations of both DirectX and DirectDraw (formerly ActiveMovie).
One of the most innovative features in NT 5.0 is the capability to view television and related program information on your desktop computer or PC/TV. The TV Viewer utility enables you to view any type of television or video feed on your monitor including those from digital satellite transmissions, cable television, DVD videos and VCRs. You can also view HTML and related content in the same window as the television viewer, enabling you to click related links or chat with other viewers in real time.
NT 5.0 will also feature an Electronic Program Guide through which you can download scheduling and other information about upcoming television programs offered by your broadcast service provider. By using this guide, you can search for your favorite shows, set the computer to remind you to watch a program, and limit the capabilities of your children to watch television.
Whereas Windows NT 4.0 shipped with a Web browser (Internet Explorer 2.0), Windows NT 5.0 will feature a suite of new tools for viewing Internet content. The browser will be updated to either version 4.0 or 5.0 of Internet Explorer, and NT 5.0 will also feature add-on components such as Outlook Express for e-mail and newsgroups, NetMeeting, Chat, NetShow, a VRML viewer, FrontPage Express for authoring Web pages, and the ActiveX control Microsoft Wallet for conducting secure transactions. The related Windows Scripting Host and the Internet Explorer Administration Kit will both be of interest to network administrators, as well.
The updated version of Internet Explorer will include support for the latest HTML tags and Dynamic HTML, the latter of which can be used to add a new level of interactivity in Web pages. Internet Explorer will include additional navigational aids (such as the capability to see where you have been by right-clicking the toolbar's Back button). An AutoComplete feature fills in the remaining portion of a previously visited URL as you are typing it, similar to the AutoFill feature in products such as Microsoft Money. As Figure G.3 shows, you also will be able to view the recent history of where you've been on the Internet so that you can easily go back to a previously visited site.
Another new capability in Internet Explorer is the option to view a Web page across your full screen rather than in a window. Indeed, this full-screen view is the default when viewing channels, which are a new means of having Web content delivered to your computer, based on pre-selected sites that are accessed through the Channel Bar (on the Active Desktop) or the Explorer bar (in Internet Explorer).
Internet Explorer also enables you to browse the Web offline. Thus, even if you cannot connect to the Internet, you can still browse any content that is cached on your local computer. If you decide to subscribe to certain Web sites through the new Subscriptions feature, that content can delivered to your computer on a regular basis, and you can view it any time whether you're connected to the Internet or browsing offline.
You can view the history of your recently visited sites by clicking the History icon located on the toolbar, which opens the Explorer bar shown here in the left pane.
In addition to viewing channels and your Internet viewing history in the Explorer bar, you can also search for sites in this bar by accessing Internet search engines. By using this two-pane approach, you can click sites found through your search in the Explorer bar on the left while having the selected site appear in the larger browser pane on the right. Internet Explorer also includes enhanced capabilities for printing Web pages and downloading files.
Internet Explorer also includes increased user security through the use of features such as Security Zones, which zones include the Internet, your local intranet, trusted sites and restricted sites. As Figure G.4 shows, by assigning sites to particular zones, you can determine what level of security (high, medium, low, or none) is used for sites that you visit on the Internet or an intranet.
You can assign Web sites to any of four predetermined security zones, which automatically determines the level of security assigned to that site.
Outlook Express is the updated version of Microsoft's Internet Mail and News client. Multiple e-mail accounts, HTML mail, encryption, an Inbox Assistant, and other new features make Outlook Express an effective tool for sending and receiving e-mail and newsgroup postings.
NetMeeting offers the capability to conduct video conferences and share files and applications over the Internet, whereas the Chat program enables you to choose a character and interact with other chat participants in a graphical environment reminiscent of a comic strip. The VRML viewer will enable you to view virtual worlds on the Internet, whereas the Microsoft Wallet control makes it safer for you to transfer address and credit card information with merchants from whom you're buying goods on the Internet.
The Windows Scripting Host enables you to construct scripts in VBScript and Jscript that can be executed on your computer without the need of running them inside a browser. These scripts can be executed either from within the Windows NT shell or from the command prompt, making them excellent candidates to replace batch files and other types of scripts used on computers to log on to networks and perform other functions.
The Internet Explorer Administration Kit enables you to create a customized version of Internet Explorer and distribute it, along with any add-on components that you select, to recipients such as other people on your network or to your customers (if you're a software developer or ISP who wants to distribute Internet Explorer with any other products you provide).
Windows NT will include the latest version of Internet Information Server (IIS). Version 4.0 of IIS was in beta testing when this book was being written. IIS comes in two versions for NT 5.0: IIS for NT Server and Personal Web Server (formerly Peer Web Services) for NT Workstation. This new version of these Web servers contains improved Active Server Pages (ASP) support, Index Server 2.0, a news server, virtual Web server capabilities, better capability to shut down faulty applications, the capability to issue and manage X.509 digital certificates, a limited version of Site Server and other management tools (including integration with the Microsoft Management Console), and is reportedly faster than IIS 3.
Windows NT 5.0 is a complete platform for developing and hosting content for an Internet or intranet site. Beginning with NT 5.0, both NT Workstation and NT Server will include HTML authoring tools, as well as Web servers (Personal Web Server for NT Workstation, Internet Information Server for NT Server). Additionally, Internet Explorer 4.0 introduces several new types of content that you can provide on your Internet or intranet site, such as Dynamic HTML and channels.
In NT 5.0, both NT Workstation and NT Server will feature the FrontPage Express HTML authoring tool that can be used to create Web pages for your site. Additionally, NT Server is expected to contain the latest version of the FrontPage authoring and site management product.
If your site uses Active Server Pages, or if you want to add advanced features such as database connectivity to your site, consider using Microsoft Visual InterDev. Available both as a separate product and as part of Microsoft's Visual Studio development tools suite, Visual InterDev, is designed to add more powerful capabilities to your Web site and will automatically generate much of the code needed to complete these tasks. Similarly, if more than one person creates content for your site, consider using a management tool such as Microsoft Visual SourceSafe to make sure that you don't have more than one person working on the same page at a time.
The Active Directory is one of the most important advances in NT Server 5.0. Although the directory services structure in previous versions of NT works reasonably well for local area networks which have only a handful of servers, NT Server's directory services become complicated and hard to manage when moving to networks comprising many servers. Indeed, the current directory structure in NT is one of the main reasons that NT Server has not been widely adopted in large enterprise-wide networks.
The Active Directory moves NT Server directory services from a domain model to a domain organizational unit model. The organizational unit is based on the Internet-based LDAP protocol. Planning organizational units is fairly straightforward because you can break up different departments in your organization into separate organizational units that are then made part of the directory no matter where they are located geographically within your network.
Unlike the Active Directory discussed in the previous section, the Distributed File System (Dfs) does not replace anything in your network directory structure but rather gives you a method of organizing the appearance of data so that it makes more sense to your users. Most NT networks are made up of multiple shares, often on multiple servers. Rather than trying to map each share with a separate drive letter on your user's computers, you can use Dfs to logically organize all of these different shares under a single share name, which is called the Dfs root volume.
By using Dfs, network users no longer have to remember which mapped drive a file is on but rather where in the logical directory structure it's located. Using the leaf and tree directory layout, you can create an organized directory that makes it easier for users to find the file or resource that they are looking for. After you have created the Dfs directory tree for your network, by installing the Dfs client software on your users' computers you give them the capability to view and use this new Dfs tree.
Designed to be a messaging middleware product, Microsoft Message Queue Server (MMQS) is a new NT Server product that handles message routing between applications. By taking advantage of the features available in MMQS, software developers can create distributed applications that can perform multiple tasks on several computers concurrently (or between several applications on the same computer) without having to wait for one task to finish executing before moving on to the next task.
MMQS enables software developers to better use asynchronous communications between computers and applications. Asynchronous communications mean that an application can initiate an event and then continue processing while the event itself runs concurrently either remotely or on the same computer. Because MMQS takes care of making sure that the event is properly communicated to the other application, your application can get back to work on other tasks. In addition to being included with one or more versions of NT Server 5.0, MMQS is also a part of the Enterprise version of NT Server 4.0.
Although Microsoft was able to obtain C2 certification for Windows NT, as a practical matter, this degree of security disappears when you connect an NT computer to a network. Because hackers have exploited several security holes in NT and because Microsoft wanted NT to be as secure as reasonably possible, Microsoft is implementing new security standards in NT 5.0. The main changes include the following:
Appearing in both NT Server 5.0 (in at least the Enterprise version of that product), as well as the Enterprise version of NT Server 4.0 is the new Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS). Originally code-named Wolfpack, this product will ship in at least two phases: (1) dual-node failover clustering and (2) multi-node clustering.
The version of MSCS that will likely be available in NT 5.0 is the first phase of Microsoft's clustering technology. This version is designed to be used by up to two nodes and provides failover capabilities for those nodes. Although each node normally would be a separate server, it's also possible to configure your hardware in such as way as to provide dual-node clustering on a single computer.
Clusters are seen by clients as a single virtual server. The failover capabilities enable one server to take over services performed by another server in the cluster if that other server fails or is taken offline for any reason. After the services are restarted on the original server, the server that took over those services stops providing those services, which are then restarted again on the original server through a process called failback.
The second phase of Microsoft's clustering technology is expected sometime in 1998, although it's unclear whether it will be available in time for inclusion in NT Server 5.0. It's possible that Microsoft might delay the Enterprise version of NT Server 5.0 until such time as this second phase is available, although a more likely alternative is that it could be added onto NT Server 5.0 through a service pack. When this second version of MSCS is available, it will extend clustering capabilities beyond two nodes and will provide increased load capacity and processing capability by spreading work across multiple servers.
Through the use of MCSC, network administrators will be able to add capacity to their systems as it's needed by adding additional servers to their clusters rather than having to replace existing equipment with a minicomputer, mainframe, or similarly large computer system. Indeed, when combined with other new products such as the Microsoft Message Queue Server and Microsoft Transaction Server, MCSC makes it clear that Microsoft is trying to make a serious effort to compete at the enterprise level in corporate networks.
Formerly code-named Steelhead, Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) is Microsoft's answer for providing low-cost, software-based LAN and WAN routing services in NT Server. Available as an add-on to NT Server 4.0 and incorporated into NT Server 5.0, RRAS replaces the Remote Access Service and Multiprotocol Router previously found in NT Server.
Traditionally, routers have been expensive, proprietary pieces of hardware that were required to build corporate LANs and WANs. RRAS enables network administrators to bring router functionality onto the network operating system, where it can run alongside file, print, and application services. Although RRAS will not be able to replace all routing currently done by hardware, RRAS provides network administrators with a low-cost means of providing routing capabilities on their network.
In addition to the subjects listed in the previous sections, Windows NT 5.0 includes many other new features, such as a new network client setup tool called EasyNet, NDIS 5.0 and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) support, improvements to the NTFS (NT File System) and other file systems used by NT 5.0, the Virtual Memory Manager, and tighter integration between NT 5.0 and the BackOffice suite. This book address all of these topics and more to give you the broadest possible perspective into the capabilities that are coming in Windows NT 5.0.
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