Description
Que Publishing Upgrading And Repairing Microsoft Windows (2Nd Edition) 2008 Edition by Scott M. Mueller
The ultimate guide for anyone who wants to know how Windows ticks and how to keep it ticking.Upgrading and Repairing Microsoft Windows, Second Edition, is the book hardcore Windows Vista and XP users have been clamoring for. Mueller, author of the bestselling Upgrading and Repairing PCs, and Knittel, famous for his bestselling Special Edition Using Windows books, now bring you an equally in-depth guide to Windows troubleshooting and repair. This comprehensive resource includes information on:InstallationLicensing issuesManaging securityOptimizing performanceBacking up and recovering dataNetworking your Vista and XP computersDealing with annoying User Account (UAC) promptsConfiguring settings and the registryProtecting Windows from viruses and spywareMultibooting Vista with other operating systemsAutomated Windows deployment for IT professionalsTouted as the greatest operating system to ever be released, Vista is considered by many to be a vast improvement over its predecessors, such as XP and 95/98. All that power, however, comes at a price. As with most major OS revisions, Vista is rife with usability and compatibility issues that frustrate even the most seasoned system techs. If you only buy one book on Windows, this is the one. You won't find tried and true Vista coverage anywhere else. Find out how to make Windows work with you and not against you with Upgrading and Repairing Microsoft Windows, Second Edition.On the DVDThe DVD contains two hours of all new, studio quality video-playable in your set-top DVD player and your computer! Scott digs deep into both Windows Vista and Windows XP. Topics include the differences between all of the various Windows editions and versions, coverage of the most important improvements in Vista, and reasons why you might even want to stay with XP instead. Also covered are Vista and XP installation tips and tricks, updating Windows, dealing with product activation, .Scott Mueller is the most trusted, authoritative hardware voice in the industry. In addition to teaching hardware repair to thousands of computer professionals and enthusiasts, he has sold more than 2.2 million copies of Upgrading and Repairing PCs, making him the most world-renowned hardware author in history. Scott has taught hardware repair to a host of agencies in the U.S. and foreign governments and to corporations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Scott also has appeared on Computer America, TechTV, and numerous local and national radio programs and serves as an industry expert for the news media.Brian Knittel has been a software developer for 30 years, with more than 20 years of real-world experience with MS-DOS, Windows, and computer networking in the business world. Previously, he wrote Windows XP Under the Hood: Hardcore Scripting and Command Line Power and is coauthor of several other Que books including Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows editions covering Vista, XP Home, XP Professional, and Windows 2000 Professional.www.informit.com/upgradingIf you don't have a DVD player or only have a set-top DVD, visit the site to download all the video from the DVD in Windows Media Player format!Category Windows Operating SystemCovers Microsoft Windows Vista and XPUser Level Intermediate-Advanced Introduction 11 Windows Version History 5A Brief History of PC Operating Systems......................... 5DOS History............................................................... 5Evolution of DOS....................................................... 6MS-DOS Versus PC DOS...................................... 10DOS Versions.......................................................... 12MS-DOS Alternatives............................................... 18The Evolution of Microsoft Windows............................... 1916-Bit Windows....................................................... 20The Windows 9x Family.......................................... 26The Windows NT Family......................................... 30Alternative CPU OS Versions: Intel, Alpha, MIPS, and Motorola 40Service Packs, Hotfixes, and Rollups..................... 422 Windows Boot (Startup) 45System Layers................................................................. 45Hardware Layers..................................................... 46BIOS........................................................................ 46Hardware Abstraction Layer.................................... 48Device Drivers......................................................... 50File Systems and Filters.......................................... 51Services................................................................... 52The Startup Process....................................................... 52BIOS Startup............................................................ 52Bootstrap Loaders................................................... 54Windows XP/2000/NT Startup................................. 56Windows Vista Startup............................................ 57The Windows NT Kernel......................................... 58The Logon Process................................................. 60Windows Boot Options.................................................... 63Boot.ini and the Boot Menu (Windows NT Through XP) 64Windows Vista Boot Configuration Data Store....... 71Adjusting Boot Options with MSConfig.................... 76Windows Advanced Options Menu (Safe Mode)..... 77Installing a Multibooting System............................... 82Windows Services........................................................... 83List of Windows Services........................................ 87Using the Services Manager.................................. 125Managing Services from the Command Line........ 127Device Drivers and the sc Command................... 1283 Installing Windows 129Preinstallation Considerations....................................... 129System Requirements for Windows XP Professional 130System Requirements for Windows Vista............ 131Checking Hardware and Software Compatibility... 131Known Compatibility Issues for Windows XP....... 132Known Compatibility Issues for Windows Vista.... 132Migrating Files and Settings to New Installations.. 135Getting the Network Configuration......................... 139Choosing a File System........................................ 141Installation Types........................................................... 144Upgrade Installations to Windows XP................... 144Upgrade Installations to Windows Vista................ 147Clean Installations.................................................. 148Repair Installations................................................ 149Using Installation Switches for a Windows XP Installation 151Using Installation Switches to Install Windows Vista 154Clean Install Procedures............................................... 158Windows XP Clean Install..................................... 158Windows Vista Clean Install.................................. 164Multibooting Other Operating Systems......................... 169Using Multiple Partitions......................................... 169Using a Single Partition.......................................... 170Using a Third-Party Boot Loader........................... 171Using Virtual Machines.......................................... 171Clean Install Summary.......................................... 176Installation Problems with Windows...................... 177Automated Deployments............................................... 177Adding and Using the Deployment Tools for Windows XP 178Windows Installation Tools for Windows Vista..... 188Installation Tools for Windows XP and Windows Vista 195Windows Copy Protection............................................. 204Product Activation for Windows XP....................... 205Windows Vista Product Activation with MAK and KMS 211Windows Genuine Advantage for Windows XP and Vista 2124 Upgrading Windows 215Windows XP Upgrade Installations............................... 215Deciding Whether an Upgrade to Windows XP Is Worthwhile 216Upgrade Scenarios................................................ 218Troubleshooting a Failed Upgrade......................... 224Uninstalling Windows XP....................................... 225Windows Vista Upgrade Installations............................ 226Deciding Whether an Upgrade to Vista Is Worthwhile 227Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista... 230Troubleshooting a Failed Upgrade to Windows Vista 234Reverting to Windows XP After Upgrading to Windows Vista 235Migrating Existing Installations....................................... 237Moving to a New Drive........................................... 237Moving a Windows Installation to a New Motherboard 240Moving Data to a New System.............................. 242Moving Applications............................................... 248Installing Service Packs................................................. 252Installing Service Packs for Windows XP............. 252Installing Service Packs for Windows Vista.......... 255Uninstalling Vista SP1............................................ 258Making Vista SP1 Installation Permanent.............. 2585 Tweaking and Tuning Windows 259Configuration Settings................................................... 259Display Settings..................................................... 261Start Menu Settings............................................... 270Tuning System Properties..................................... 272Managing Startup Programs.................................. 283Internet Explorer..................................................... 287TweakUI and TweakVI................................................... 288Using TweakUI to.................................................. 289Other Useful XP PowerToys................................. 291Vista Tweaking Tools............................................. 291The Windows Registry.................................................. 291Structure of the Registry........................................ 292Backing Up and Restoring the Registry................ 293Editing the Registry................................................ 296Editing the Registry Remotely............................... 297Editing a Hive File.................................................. 298Deploying Registry Settings.................................. 299Managing Windows Services........................................ 302Managing Services with the GUI............................ 303Managing Services on Another Computer............. 307Managing Services from the Command Line........ 307Running Your Own Program as a Service............ 308Monitoring Your System to Identify Bottlenecks............ 310Using the Task Manager........................................ 310Using the Performance Monitor............................. 311Tuning for Maximum Performance................................ 314Installing Sufficient Memory (RAM)........................ 315Placing the Page File............................................. 318Defragment the Disk.............................................. 319Disk Interface Tuning............................................. 320What to Enable and Disable.................................. 321Improving Startup and Logon Time....................... 3226 Networking Windows 325Setting Up a Network..................................................... 325Network Hardware......................................................... 326Wireless Versus Wired......................................... 327Network Interface Adapters................................... 328Cabling................................................................... 328Hubs and Switches................................................ 329Wireless Access Points........................................ 330Gateways and Routers.......................................... 330Wireless Networking...................................................... 331Wireless Network Basics...................................... 332Wireless Network Security.................................... 333Creating a Random Encryption Key...................... 334Setting Up a Wireless Network Access Point....... 335Using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard........... 336Joining a Wireless Network................................... 340Configuring a Workgroup Network................................ 341Setting Up a Network on XP.................................. 341Setting Up a Network on Vista............................... 344IP Addressing Options........................................... 347Configuring Additional Useful Network Services... 351Designating a Master Browser.............................. 355Simple File Sharing........................................................ 356Sharing Resources........................................................ 358Sharing Folders and Drives................................... 359Sharing Printers..................................................... 362Sharing Fax Modems and Other Devices............. 364Avoiding Firewall Issues........................................ 364Providing Shared Internet Access................................. 365Adding a Connection-Sharing Router.................... 367Using Windows Internet Connection Sharing........ 369Setting Up Remote Access to Your Computer............. 3707 Protecting and Securing Windows 371It Takes More Than Just Software................................. 371Reduce Your Exposure......................................... 372Take Advantage of the Tools You Have................. 373Keep Abreast of Updates....................................... 374Be Skeptical........................................................... 375Keep Backups....................................................... 376Apply Defense in Depth......................................... 376Windows Passwords.................................................... 376Setting Up a Password.......................................... 377Improving Password Security................................ 378User Account Control.................................................... 379Windows Update........................................................... 382Using Windows Update......................................... 383Configuring Automatic Updates............................. 384Firewalls......................................................................... 386How Software Firewalls Protect Your PC from Attacks 387Windows Firewall.................................................. 388Third-Party Firewalls.............................................. 391Antivirus and Antispyware Software-Which Do You Need? 393Antivirus Software.................................................. 396Third-Party Antivirus Programs............................. 396Antispyware Software.................................................... 398Windows Defender................................................ 398Third-Party Spyware Removal Programs............. 401Cleaning an Infected Computer..................................... 402Identifying Spyware................................................ 402Installing and Running Antispyware Software....... 403Recovering from Browser Hijacks......................... 404What to Do If the Automated Utilities Fail.............. 405Bootable Tools........................................................... 4078 Managing Windows 409Managing Users............................................................. 409Domain and Workgroup Environments................. 410Account Types....................................................... 412Which Type of Account to Use?............................ 414Default Accounts and Groups............................... 415Security Principals................................................. 417Account Permissions............................................ 419Adding and Deleting User Accounts from the Control Panel 425Setting Local Security Policy................................. 432Local Accounts and Password Reset Disks......... 432Managing Users from the Management Console.. 433The Windows 2000 User Manager, for Vista and XP, Too 435Managing Users from the Command Prompt....... 437Automating User Management.............................. 438Managing User Profiles.......................................... 439Controlling How Users Log On and Off................. 445Logging on as Administrator.................................. 447Showing and Hiding Accounts on the Welcome Screen 448Fast User Switching.............................................. 450Enabling Automatic Logon..................................... 451Dealing with a Lost Password............................... 452Managing Hardware....................................................... 454Using Device Manager........................................... 454Forcing Detection and Reinstallation..................... 457Dealing with the Blue Screen of Death.................. 457Updating Device Drivers........................................ 458Replacing Hardware.............................................. 461Using Driver Rollback............................................ 461Disk Management.......................................................... 462Partitioning and Formatting with the Disk Management Console 464Moving Dynamic Disks to Another Computer....... 470Resizing Partitions................................................. 470Converting FAT16/FAT32 File Systems to NTFS. 472Hard Drive Cleaning............................................... 473Defragmenting for Greater Speed......................... 475Backing Up Your Disk.................................................... 478Backup Integrity..................................................... 479Volume Shadow Copy........................................... 480Backup Files and Folders on Vista........................ 482Previous Versions.................................................. 487Complete PC Backup on Vista.............................. 489Automated System Recovery on XP..................... 493Using NTBackup Backup on XP............................ 493Third-Party Backup Solutions................................ 499System Restore............................................................. 500What Restore Points Actually Restore.................. 500Creating Restore Points........................................ 502Restoring a Restore Point..................................... 5039 Windows Commands and Scripting 505The Windows Command Prompt................................. 505What the Command Prompt Really Does............ 506Environment Variables........................................... 507Executable Program Types................................... 509Program Subsystems........................................... 510Interpreting Command-Line Syntax....................... 513Environment Variable Substitution......................... 515Input and Output Redirection................................. 515Command Pipelines.............................................. 518Command Separators........................................... 519Command-Line Quoting........................................ 520Escaping Special Characters................................ 520Editing Command Lines........................................ 521Name Completion.................................................. 522Copy and Paste in Command Prompt Windows.. 523DOSKEY Macros................................................... 525Command Extensions........................................... 527Printing in the Command-Line Environment......... 528Stopping Runaway Programs............................... 530Configuring the Command-Line Environment............... 531Console Window Properties.................................. 531Changing the Search Path.................................... 531Predefined and Virtual Environment Variables...... 532Setting Default Environment Variables.................. 535AutoRun................................................................. 537Configuring the MS-DOS Command Environment 538User Account Control and the Command Line............. 548Opening an Elevated Command Prompt.............. 549Useful and Important Commands................................. 550cd........................................................................... 550pushd and popd..................................................... 551dir........................................................................... 551more....................................................................... 552runas...................................................................... 553start........................................................................ 554control.................................................................... 555net.......................................................................... 557findstr..................................................................... 560Other Programs..................................................... 562Batch Files..................................................................... 562Creating and Editing Batch Files........................... 563Batch File Programming........................................ 564Argument Substitution........................................... 565Argument Editing................................................... 566Conditional Processing with if............................... 568Processing Multiple Arguments............................. 571Working with Environment Variables..................... 574Processing Multiple Items with the for Command. 576Using Batch File Subroutines................................ 580Prompting for Input................................................ 581Running GUI Applications from a Batch File......... 583Scripting with Windows Script Host.............................. 583Script Languages................................................... 584Creating and Editing Scripts.................................. 585Security Issues...................................................... 586Running Scripts..................................................... 587Scripting and COM Objects................................... 588Sample Scripts...................................................... 590Learning More About Scripting............................... 592Windows PowerShell.................................................... 592PowerShell Concepts............................................ 593Downloading and Installing Windows PowerShell 595Learning More About Windows PowerShell.......... 59610 Windows File Systems 597Disks, Partitions, and Volumes..................................... 597Basic Disks and Volumes..................................... 598Dynamic Disks and Volumes................................ 598Creating Partitions......................................................... 599Assigning Drive Letters to Volumes...................... 601Running FDISK...................................................... 605Drive Partitioning and Formatting with Disk Management 607Drive Partitioning with Aftermarket Utilities............ 610High-Level (Operating System) Formatting........... 612File System Tool Limitations................................. 614Drive Capacity Limitations..................................... 615Boot Sectors.................................................................. 619Master Boot Record............................................... 620Primary and Extended Partitions........................... 621Windows Disk Probe............................................. 627Volume Boot Records........................................... 632The Data Area........................................................ 638File Systems.................................................................. 638Clusters (Allocation Units)..................................... 639File Allocation Table....................................................... 640FAT12.................................................................... 641FAT16.................................................................... 642VFAT and Long Filenames.................................... 644FAT32.................................................................... 647File Allocation Table Tutorial.................................. 652Directories (Folders).............................................. 656FAT File System Errors......................................... 659NTFS.............................................................................. 663NTFS Architecture-The MFT............................... 666NTFS 3.0/3.1.......................................................... 668Creating NTFS Drives........................................... 670NTFS Tools............................................................ 670File System Utilities....................................................... 672CHKDSK Operation............................................... 672The RECOVER Command................................... 673SCANDISK............................................................. 674Disk Defragmentation............................................ 675Third-Party Programs............................................ 67811 Windows Data Recovery 679The Windows Recycle Bin and File Deletion................ 679Recovering Files That Are Not in the Recycle Bin 681Undeleting Files Under NTFS................................ 681Retrieving Data from Partitioned and Formatted Drives 682Norton Unformat and Its Limitations...................... 683Recovering Lost Partitions and Files..................... 683Using a Disk Editor........................................................ 686Types of Disk Editors............................................ 686Using a Disk Editor to Recover an NTFS Volume Boot Sector 687Using a Disk Editor to Undelete Files.................... 693Retrieving a Deleted File from a Disk.................... 701Data Recovery from Flash Memory Devices................ 704FAT File System Troubleshooting............................. 705NTFS File System Troubleshooting.......................... 70612 Windows Troubleshooting 709Troubleshooting Basics................................................. 709What You'll Find in This Chapter........................... 711A Word About Viruses and Spyware..................... 711Windows "Sickbed" Symptoms............................. 712Windows Installation Troubleshooting........................... 713Legacy/Unsupported Hardware Devices............... 713Windows XP Upgrade Advisor.............................. 714Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor........................... 714Updating Computer Firmware............................... 715Other Common Windows Installation Issues........ 716Pre-Windows Startup Troubleshooting......................... 717Common Boot Error Messages and Solutions..... 718Windows Startup Troubleshooting................................ 720Windows Advanced Options Menu....................... 721Using the System Restore Tool with Windows XP and Vista 725Recovery Console for Windows XP...................... 728Command Prompt in Windows Recovery Environment 746Automated System Recovery with Windows XP.. 746Troubleshooting Problem Devices with Device Manager 750Parallel Windows Installation......................................... 756The Blue Screen of Death: Interpreting STOP Error Messages 757Make a Record of STOP Errors............................ 758Common STOP Errors......................................... 759Windows XP and Windows Vista Troubleshooting Tools 764Reading the Event Log.......................................... 764Dr. Watson............................................................ 769Windows Troubleshooters.................................... 771CHKDSK................................................................ 772DirectX Diagnostic Tool (DXDIAG.EXE)................ 773Program Compatibility Wizard.............................. 775System Configuration Utility................................... 776Installing Additional Windows XP Support Tools... 779Windows Vista Troubleshooting Tools.......................... 780Windows Recovery Environment.......................... 780Problem Reports and Solutions............................ 788Reliability and Performance Monitor...................... 789System Health Report........................................... 791Using the Microsoft Knowledge Base............................ 792Bonus ElementsA Windows Tool Reference A1B Windows Command Reference B1C Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance C1TOC, 0789736950, 9/3/08