Windowns XP Professional P2

Security EnhancementsIn terms of security,Microsoft has attempted to provide the benefits of the Windows NT/2000 security model, while still making the system easy to operate and administer. XP Home Edition has two account types: Computer Administrator and Limited
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Windowns XP Professional P26 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Security Enhancements In terms of security, Microsoft has attempted to provide the benefits of the Windows NT/2000 security model, while still making the system easy to operate and administer. XP Home Edition has two account types: Computer Administrator and Limited (refer to Figure 1.5).The Computer Administrator can add, remove, and change user accounts, make universal changes to the system, and install applica- tions. A Limited user only has the capability to change his/her password. Figure 1.5 Windows XP User Account Types Users of XP Home Edition or XP Professional can log on using a “Welcome” screen that lists the names of the user accounts, as shown in Figure 1.6. A user simply needs to click on her name and provide the password, and she is authenticated onto the system. (A wise Administrator would be quick to turn off the Welcome screen and Fast User Switching functions in a workgroup envi- ronment as they present an additional security risk that far outweighs the benefits of this new nicety. It is important to note that turning off the Welcome screen automatically turns off Fast User Switching.) Switching between User Sessions Microsoft has introduced a concept called Fast User Switching that will allow users to switch between user accounts while leaving applications running in the back- ground. For instance, let’s say that User1 is logged into the system. User2 would like to check his e-mail. So, User2 will perform a “switch user,” log in as himself, and check his mail. All of the applications that User1 was working on will stay running in User1’s context.When User2 is finished, User1 can “switch user” back to herself, and she can continue working on the applications that were open when User2 logged on. Figure 1.7 shows the Switch User option dialog box. www.syngress.com Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 7Figure 1.6 Welcome ScreenFigure 1.7 Logoff Screen with Switch User OptionHardware and Software CompatibilityLastly,Windows XP Home Edition has been designed to run many of the legacyapplications that are on the market today. Microsoft achieved this by adding acompatibility mode to the operating system.This allows you to run an applicationin Windows XP and emulate an older OS, such as Windows 95.Windows XPwill try to provide the hardware-level access that is requested by the applicationwithout sacrificing the integrity of the kernel. In terms of hardware compatibility,Windows XP has the most advanced Plugand Play features of any Windows operating system. For the end user, this meansthat many of the older first-generation PnP devices, as well as a number of non-PnP devices, will work with WinXP.WinXP also has an improved driver set. www.syngress.com8 Chapter 1 • Next Generation Windows Microsoft made the decision to leave out much of the enterprise features from the Home Edition, choosing to include them in the Professional edition. For example, if you need to add your PC to a Windows 2000 or Windows NT domain, you must use Windows XP Professional. Windows XP Professional While Windows XP Home Edition adds a great deal to the feature set of Windows 2000,Windows XP Professional takes the product to the next level. Many of the neat things that are part of Windows 2000 Professional are excluded from the Home Edition, but they are included in WinXP Professional.These fea- tures include the following: s IntelliMirror technologies s Group Policy functionality s Encrypting file system support s Multiprocessor support As we mentioned in the preceding section,You can join XP Professional to a Windows 2000 or Windows NT domain. In a Windows 2000 Active Directory environment, XP Professional can take full advantage of those features that are dependent on the domain login.These include the neat features described in the preceding list, as well as roaming profiles and Remote Installation Services (RIS). We delve into the feature list in much more detail shortly, but rest assured, Windows XP Professional offers many advantages compared to Windows 2000 Professional. The Future of Windows 2000 Server: Windows .NET Servers What should you expect from the next version of Microsoft’s server product? Well, the first thing will be another name change. Departing quickly from the year-based name, the next edition will be named Windows .NET Server, signi- fying the tight cooperation with the .NET Framework on the development side. However, once you get past the name, you should be pleasantly surprised to see a number of improvements over Windows 2000 Server under the hood of .NET Server. Here are a few of the features that Microsoft has listed for the next gener- ation of Windows Server: www.syngress.com Next Generation Windows • Chapter 1 9 s You should expect to see even more improvement in the relia- bility of the Server product. Windows 2000 was quite a leap over Windows NT 4, and you will see another level of reliability in the .NET Server line. Microsoft is trying to achieve a consistent Five 9s in relia- bility, and the .NET server might be close to achieving this level. s Windows .NET Server will be faster than Windows 2000 Server. This will be important for those customers who are using .NET Server to host SQL Server 2000 or other tr ...