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Ask Dr. Bob Your NT Questions - 01 Mar 1996
Bob Chronister can walk you through the pesky annoyances your NT system throws at you.
Bob Chronister
February 29, 1996
5 Min Read
Q: We have many userssharing common apps and a single interface. Is there any way to copy user groupinformation from one user to another?
You can use GRPTOREG.EXEand REGTOGRP.EXE from the Windows NT 3.5/3.51 Resource Kit.REGTOGRP.EXE creates a Windows NT .GRP file in the current directory for each ofyour Program Manager groups. GRPTOREG.EXE converts a .GRP file created byREGTOGRP and inserts the values into the Registry.
Make the appropriate changes to your desktop environment.
From the command line, type REGTOGRP.
Copy the .GRP files to the new user's directory.
From the command line, type GRP TOREG followed by the groupfiles.GRPTOREG will accept the parameters /o and /c where /o specifies that anyexisting Program Manager group with the same name should be overwritten and /ccreates a Common group from the groupfile (otherwise, a Personal group iscreated). For the /c switch to work, you must be logged on as a member of theAdministrators group. If you want to specify more than one file, separatefilenames with spaces: for example, grptoreg /o /c c:userbobbob.grpc:userbobbob1.grp.
Q: In Windows forWorkgroups, it's easy to eliminate a system maintaining a browser server list.How do you accomplish this in NT?
You can accomplish thesame thing by adding the following information to your Registry (see screen 1).
Traverse the Registry tree until you come to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesBrowserParameterskey.
Select Edit from the menu, and then select Add Value from the drop-downbox.
For Value Name, type in: Maintain ServerList. For Data Type,select REG_SZ. For String Value, type No.
Reboot the system.
Q: I have heard thatthere are switches you can place in BOOT.INI to help with diagnostics andtuning. What are some of these switches?
The /MAXMEM=x switch inBOOT.INI controls how much physical dynamic RAM Windows NT will use when yourcomputer starts (see screen 2). If you add /MAXMEM=12 to a BOOT.INIconfiguration description line, then your machine will act as if it has 12MB ofphysical RAM when you boot the computer using that configuration, regardless ofamount of memory present.
The /SOS switch shows the loading of drivers one at a time so you candetermine which driver is creating boot difficulty. In a multiprocessor machine,the /NUMPROCS=x switch allows you to set the number of processors the systemwill use.
Q: We received thefollowing error in the Server Event Log :
Event ID: 2022
Source: srv
Detail: The server was unable to find a free connection 48 times in the last60 seconds.
How can we fix this?
You have to use theRegistry Editor to work around this problem (see screen 3).
Traverse the Registry tree until you come to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesLanmanServerParameters.
Select Edit, and then select Add Value and add the following values:
Value Name: MaxFreeConnections
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 8
Value Name: MaxWorkItems
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 255From the command prompt, type NET CONFIG SERVER / AUTODISCONNECT:-1.
Reboot the system in order for the changes to take effect.
Q: I have set up a RISCsystem, and I realize that the system files are FAT and non-secure. Can this befixed?
Since the system partitionon a RISC-based computer must be formatted for the FAT file system, there is noway to secure information in individual directories and files on that partition.Therefore, the only way to secure the system partition is to allow access onlyto members of the Administrators group.
To secure the system partition on a RISC-based computer with DiskAdministrator:
From the Partition menu, choose Secure System Partition. A message asks youto confirm this request. When the command is in effect, a check mark appearsnext to it on the Partition menu.
To activate security on the system partition, Disk Administrator initiatesa restart of your computer.
To remove security from the system partition on a RISC-based computer:
From the Partition menu, choose Secure System Partition. The check markdisappears, but security on the system partition is not actually removed untilyou restart your computer.
Disk Administrator initiates a restart of your computer.
Q: I am having troubleusing the Schedule service to start a backup in NT 3.51. How can I accomplishthis?
Define a user account withall the privileges that you want the Scheduler service to have--it must haveAdministrator and Backup Operator privileges. In Control Panel/Services, locatethe Scheduler service and change the Startup to use this account. Set it tologon automatically. Now stop and restart the service.
To schedule a backup, use Notepad to create a command file (BACKUP.CMD)that issues the commands to back up the requested files. The following commandwould back up all the files on the C drive, replacing any files currently on thetape. It will label the backup set "C Backup Files," back up the localRegistry, and log all backup information to C:BACKUP.LOG: ntbackupbackupc:/D"CBackupFiles"/B/L"c:backup.log".
Using the AT command, schedule the command file (BACKUP.CMD) torun when desired. The followingATcommand will schedule MYBACKUP.CMD to executeat 4:00 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: AT 4:00/every:M,W,FDrive:DirectoryBACKUP.CMD.
Q: For some reason I can'tget my network shares automatically reconnected. I have checked "Reconnectat login." What have I done wrong?
The problem may be in theRegistry (see screen 4). Run REGEDT32.EXE and look in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/NetworkProvider.Under this key, there is a Restore Connection value. Make sure it is set to 1,not 0.
Q: I have an Adaptec 2940with BIOS revision 1.20. My motherboard uses Phoenix BIOS version 4.05. Mysystem hangs during startup. How can I solve this?
Usually, the computerhangs after displaying the Adaptec BIOS information, but it has also beenreported to cause problems later in the Setup process. This behavior may alsooccur in systems containing a BIOS which utilizes segment 3000. This problem hasbeen fixed in the 2940 BIOS revision 1.21, which is available from Adaptec. Calltechnical support at 800-959-7274.
Q: Can you explain the wayin which NT uses Novell MAP commands? I tried them and got really weird results.
Not all MAPfeatures are supported in Windows NT. The MAP command doesn't donormal drive-mapping. For example, MAP T:=SYS:PUBLIC should map driveT to the PUBLIC directory. However, it maps T to the root of the SYS volume. TheMAP ROOT command will produce correct results. For example, MAP ROOTT:=SYS:PUBLIC correctly maps T to SYS:PUBLIC.
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