Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE, November 11, 2002

Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE—brought to you by the Windows & .NET Magazine Network and the Windows 2000 FAQ site
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(below COMMENTARY)

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November 11, 2002—In this issue:

1. COMMENTARY

2. FAQS

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS

4. CONTACT US
See this section for a list of ways to contact us.

1. COMMENTARY
(contributed by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected])

This week, I describe the system and boot partitions and tell you which value to use for the interface when adding a static IP route. I also explain how to set the state for the Function Lock key on Microsoft's new keyboards, how to use Windows 2000's Disk Cleanup Wizard, and how to start the Disk Cleanup Wizard from the command line without any user interaction.

Around the industry this week, Microsoft has released a cumulative update to Microsoft Outlook Express 6.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1), which you can download. A beta version of Movie Maker 2 for Windows XP is also available. Finally, Microsoft has also released several critical Windows updates, so please check the Windows Update Web site to ensure your system is up-to-date.

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2. FAQS

Q. What are the system and boot partitions?

A. Windows uses a system partition and a boot partition during start-up. The system partition contains core files (i.e., Windows NT Loader—NTLDR—boot.ini, ntdetect.com) that the OS requires for the first stage of system start-up. The system partition is always partition 0 (active), which is typically the C drive. The boot partition contains the OS files, which are typically located in the winnt folder, the windows folder, and the system32 subfolder. On a dynamic disk, the system and boot partitions are known as the system and boot volumes.

The system and boot partitions or volumes can be the same partition, but they don't have to be. There can be only one system partition. However, you can have multiple boot partitions in a multiboot environment—one boot partition for each OS you install on the system.

Q. When I add a static IP route, what value do I use for the interface?

A. The Windows IP subsystem uses IP configuration information (e.g., subnets, gateways) to automatically create a routing table that dictates how the OS will send IP packets to other host systems. To view the routing table on your system, open a command prompt and type

route print

You'll see a routing table similar to the following sample table:

==================================================================

Interface List0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface0x2 ...00 10 a4 8b 4b 8e ...... Intel(R) PRO/100+ MiniPCI - Packet Scheduler Miniport0x4 ...44 45 53 54 42 00 ...... Nortel IPSECSHM Adapter - Packet Scheduler Miniport0x20003 ...00 04 5a 0c 96 db ...... Instant Wireless - Network PC CARD #2 - Packet Scheduler Miniport

====================================================================================================================================

Active Routes:Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.100 30 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.100 30 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 30 192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.100 30 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.100 30 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.100 2 1 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.100 1 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.100 4 1Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

==================================================================Persistent Routes:None

Occasionally, the automatically generated routing table will be inaccurate and you might want to use the Route Add command to force a particular route for some IP traffic. You can obtain information about this command by typing

route /?

at the command prompt, but the basic syntax is

route [-p] add  mask  metric  if 

For example,

route -p add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 metric 1 if 0x20003

This sample command uses the -p option to add a persistent route (i.e., 0.0.0.0) that will still be in place, even after a reboot, to all destinations. This persistent route will use the 192.168.1.1 gateway with the highest priority (i.e., metric 1) on interface 0x20003 (i.e., wireless network). The last piece of this information is the interface. Determining which value to use for the interface can sometimes be confusing. Basically, you use the Interface List value that appears in the first part of the routing table. In the sample table above, the valid values are 0x1, 0x2, 0x4, and 0x20003. Although this information is easy to obtain, the first part of the routing table often scrolls off screen, leaving users unsure of what value to use.

Q. How can I set the state of the Function Lock key on my new Microsoft keyboard?

A. The new Microsoft keyboards assign actions such as Save or Open to the function keys. To enable the default functionality of a function key without performing the action that Microsoft has assigned to the key, you must press the Function Lock key before you press the function key. Unfortunately, the new keyboards don't contain a programmatic way to set the state of the Function Lock key. Therefore, you can't configure the keyboard to enable the Function Lock key by default; you must press Function Lock every time you start your machine.

Q. How can I use Windows 2000's Disk Cleanup Wizard?

A. Win2K introduced the Disk Cleanup Wizard, which checks a specified volume and estimates the amount of disk space you might be able to recover and use. The wizard can identify space savings in several areas, including

To run the Disk Cleanup Wizard, perform the following steps:

Depending on the volume you select, the wizard will display different elements. For example, a nonboot partition or volume will exhibit options related to the Recycle Bin, compressed files that you haven't accessed recently, and the content-indexer intermediary catalog files. After you click Yes on the action confirmation, a dialog box will appear that displays the progress of the disk cleanup. The wizard will exit after it finishes the cleanup.

Q. How can I start Windows 2000's Disk Cleanup Wizard from the command line?

A. To start the GUI version of the Disk Cleanup Wizard, open a command prompt and type

cleanmgr

You can also create a configuration set to run the wizard without any user interaction at a future time. To create a configuration set, open a command prompt and type

cleanmgr [/d:] /sageset: 

The /d option specifies the drive you want the wizard to clean up. If you don't specify a drive, the wizard will act on all volumes. If the volume you specify isn't the system partition or volume, the wizard will check for space that it can recover by performing actions only on the Recycle Bin and content-indexer intermediary catalog files. The /sageset argument dictates which parameters appear in the dialog box in which you select the cleanup options that you want to perform. The different numeric values associated with the /sageset argument correspond to different sets of parameters. Make your selections in this dialog box, then click OK.

Windows will save your configuration in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerVolumeCaches registry subkey. To run the Disk Cleanup Wizard without user interaction, use the command

cleanmgr /sagerun: 

The only visible indicator that the wizard is running will be a dialog box that shows the disk-cleanup progress and gives the user the opportunity to cancel the task. However, the user can ignore this dialog box and the wizard will perform the cleanup without requiring user confirmation. You can define up to 65536 sets of parameters; however, I don't think that many combinations actually exist.

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS
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4. CONTACT US
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