Ask the Doctor

SEND US YOUR TIPS AND QUESTIONS.
For answers to more of your Windows 2000 and Windows NT questions, visit our online discussion forums at http://www.win2000mag.com/forums.

I've instructed Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) to store passwords I use for Web sites that I visit regularly. Also, I use Microsoft Outlook 2000 to make POP3 connections to my ISP's mail server. I'm experiencing problems with both setups. When I visit my regular Web sites, IE now generates a Protected Storage Service dialog box that asks for a password. In addition, Outlook 2000 refuses to save my mail account's POP3 password. Can you tell me what's causing these problems

The cause of your problems is the Protected Storage Service and the password cache it creates for your user account. Occasionally, the Registry data associated with this service becomes corrupted and requires reinitialization. The good news is that I have a fix for you. The bad news is that the fix will delete all the passwords residing in the cache, and you'll have to remind IE and Outlook about the passwords later.

Use the Control Panel Services applet to stop the Protected Storage Service. Next, use regedt32 to navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Protected Storage System Provider Registry key. Double-click this key to display its subkeys. As Screen 1, page 184, shows, at least one subkey has a name that is equivalent to your Windows NT user account's SID (e.g., S-1-5-21-36516332-637091160-1803697834-1001). You need to delete this subkey, but you don't have permission to do so. Therefore, you need to add yourself to the Registry key's ACL. Highlight the key that represents the SID, and select Permissions from the Security menu. Next, add your user account to the ACL with Full Control rights. Now you can delete the key and restart the Protected Storage Service in the Control Panel Services applet.

I want to configure RAS to dial an ISP at or after a reboot. Can I write commands to a batch file in the startup folder

Assuming you want your connection to remain permanently established (rather than simply initiated at startup and later dropped), I recommend Basta Computing's RascalPro—particularly on a Windows NT RAS server acting as an Internet router. You can launch the utility as an NT service; therefore, the utility can establish a RAS session (e.g., an ISP connection) independently of a user logon. You have other options, such as using NT's AutoLogon feature in conjunction with an autodialing script, but a service-based method offers better security.

I'm experiencing a problem with my Windows NT Server 4.0 implementation. Often, the server lets manager accounts connect to the domain but won't let domain users connect. Any suggestions

I'm familiar with this symptom—specifically, the domain users' inability to log on to the server. When I encountered this problem, it was because the administrator had installed NT Server from an evaluation or Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) CD-ROM. Most evaluation versions of NT let only a limited number of users connect to the server simultaneously. However, administrators can always log on to the server.

I worked around the problem by adding all my users to the Local Machine Administrators group. Later, I reinstalled NT from a fully functional retail version. If you apply this solution, understand the security risks: All users are temporarily administrators, so everyone has access to all the computer's files. If the server in question is also your PDC, its accounts database is the domain accounts database, giving all administrators access to all servers in your domain.

I've heard stories about Windows NT Server and NT Workstation systems exhibiting a blue screen because administrators used demonstration disks to install the software. How can I determine whether my NT installation is an evaluation version or a fully functional retail version

If you install NT using setup disks that you created with an evaluation CD-ROM—even if you enter a registered product ID code and use a full-version CD-ROM—your installation will expire. The warning that Screen 2 shows gives you an hour's notice, then the blue screen appears, along with the following message:

END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD (0x98)

Your NT System is an evaluation unit with an expiration date. The trial period is over.

If you receive this message, you can restart the computer and run it for another hour before it crashes again.

Microsoft doesn't provide a simple method to determine whether your installation will expire. The lack of such a tool is an annoyance, considering you get only an hour's notice before the system shuts down. However, you can use Win Info 2.3 to find this information. (You can download Win Info from http://www.savilltech.com/ download/wininfo2.zip.) Win Info's Installation type value tells you whether you have a Full Version or a Time Limited Version (nnn days). Screen 3 shows a Windows 2000 (Win2K) beta installation that expires December 4, 2000. Systems Internals also offers an excellent command-line tool, IsTrial, that contains similar functionality. (You can download IsTrial from http://www.sysinternals.com.)

   Previous  [1]  2  Next