Windows NT FAQ

  1. What should I do on my brand new machine?
  2. How do I install Service Pack 4?
  3. How do I access my unix home directory?
  4. Why won't shutter let me log in?
  5. How many passwords do I have now?
  6. How do I keep my drive letters from changing when I plug in a zip drive?
  7. How do I tell NT where to find the installation CD's on the network?
  8. How do I configure the network?
  9. How do I set a login background image?
  10. Where can I get CD's with compilers, etc?
  11. How can I display X (unix) windows on my PC?
  12. How do I switch my Control and Caps-Lock keys?
  13. How do I select a roaming profile?
  14. Where can I get emacs for the PC?
  15. What is going on with the uppercase/lowercase of my filenames?
  16. How do I convert a FAT filesystem to NTFS?
  17. How do I set up printers on my PC?
  18. How can I synchronize the clock on my PC with Unix?
  19. I'm having trouble serving files... (this probably doesn't apply to you)
  20. How do I use Emacs with Visual C++?
  21. Where do I find drivers for XXX?

1: What should I do on my brand new machine?

Answer: You should at least

2: How do I install Service Pack 4?

Answer: You don't need to install any previous service packs, SP4 will install fine on top of a new system.

3: How do I access my unix home directory?

Answer: You can access your unix files by mapping the drive \\shutter\<username>.

4: Why won't shutter let me log in?

Answer: Shutter wants your unix login and unix password.

Answer: Shutter doesn't understand NT's encrypted passwords, and your machine isn't configured to send to plain-text passwords. Open \\telefrag\common\registry and double-click on password.reg to configure the machine to send plain-text passwords when encrypted passwords failed. Of course a reboot will be required.

A. (Coming soon) Your passwords are out of sync. See the next question.

5: How many passwords do I have now?

Answer: Unfortunately, 3:

Unix
your "normal" password. Changed by running /bin/passwd on shutter, and then prompting someone to redistribute the password file.
Windows NT
your Windows password, which you can change on any NT box you log into.
Samba
Samba provides unix files serving into Windows NT land, and maintains, sadly, a third password file. On shutter run /usr/samba/bin/smbpasswd to change your password.

6: How do I keep my drive letters from changing when I plug in a zip drive?

Answer: Run the disk administrator, located under Administrative Tools (common), and for each partition of each disk (including the CD-ROM):

7: How do I tell NT where to find the installation CD's on the network?

Answer: Go to \\telefrag\common\registry. If you are running NT Workstation, double-click on nt4-workstation.reg. If you are running NT Server, double-click on nt4-server.reg.

8: How do I configure the network?

Answer: See the networking instructions.

9: How do I set a login background image?

Answer: The file \\telefrag\common\registry\wallpaper.reg will tell windows to use c:\winnt\lgnwall.bmp as your login wallpaper.

You can create c:\winnt\lgnwall.bmp however you see fit. If you want the same look as a lot of the NT machines, copy \\telefrag\common\registry\stanford.bmp and use whatever paint program to overlay the name of the machine.

10: Where can I get CD's with compilers, etc?

Answer: The vast bloat of current software has made \\telefrag\common no longer the single central repository.

\\boomstick\dev5 Microsoft Visual C 5.0, and MSDN
\\quad\dev6 Microsoft Visual C 6.0 and MSDN98
\\telefrag\os NT4-server, NT4-workstation, Win98 & service packs
\\telefrag\common everything else

11: How can I display X (unix) windows on my PC?

Answer: Exceed supports remote display of X11 windows on your PC running Windows95/98/NT. Exceed3D extends that support to include GLX, the protocol used to remotely display OpenGL applications under X windows. You can find the CD's online in \\telefrag\common\Exceed, along with instructions in readme.txt for installation.

12: How do I switch my Control and Caps-Lock keys?

Answer: Copy \\telefrag\common\registry\ctrl2cap.sys to \winnt\system32\drivers, and then double-click on ctrl2cap.reg. Of course reboot.

13: How do I select a roaming profile?

Answer: A roaming profile will let you use the same profile on all machines in GRAPHICS-DOMAIN.

First select a machine on which to have a home directory: 

  \\bleed\homan == c:\users\homan on bleed
Then, go to Control Panels->System->Profiles and select your profile and save it to somewhere within your home directory. This will become the basis for your roaming profile: 
  \\bleed\homan\profile
Then, go to Start Menu->Program Files->Administrative Tools->User Manager for Domains

Select your user name and go to the profiles.

Set profile location to:

\\bleed\c\users\homan\profile

(where c is readable, I think)

set home directory to:

connect W: to \\bleed\homan

14: Where can I get emacs for the PC?

Answer: There is a pretty/very good port of emacs to WinNT. There is a batch file in s:\unix called emacs.bat that will launch emacs for you. It is also installed in the common menu item.

Emacs will look for a startup file names .emacs or _emacs in the directory specified by the HOME variable. I set mine to \\shutter\eldridge so it will use my normal .emacs file. You can do customizations based on whether you are on irix or NT: 

(if (equal system-type 'irix)
  (setq foo 'bar)
  )
(if (equal system-type 'windows-nt)
  (setq foo 'moo)
  )

In particular, you can get rid of the stupid CR/LF problem (^M) by turning off "translation" on the right filesystems: 

(if (equal system-type 'windows-nt)
    (progn
      (load "untranslate")
      (add-untranslated-filesystem "G:")
      (add-untranslated-filesystem "H:")
      (add-untranslated-filesystem "\\shutter")
      (add-untranslated-filesystem "//shutter")
      ))

You can also get printing to work a bit better from NT with the following snippet: 

    (setq-default w32-print-ps-destination "//blit/backface")
    (load "w32-print" 'noerror 'nomessage)

Take a look at /u/eldridge/.emacs and /u/homan/.emacs for more examples of irix/NT specific configuration decisions.

http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/voelker/ntemacs.html has more information about NT emacs.

15: What is going on with the uppercase/lowercase of my filenames?

Answer: Samba serves files for us from Shutter. Unfortunately there is some sort of case sensitivity problem between NT and Samba. NT is supposed to be case-preserving and case-insensitive, but isn't acting this way. You may discover that if you create "MyFile.txt" you will end up with "myfile.txt".

The short answer is: don't create files that differ only in case, and you may see some filename case damage if you edit files on a PC.

16: How do I convert a FAT filesystem to NTFS?

Answer: If you decide you want to run NTFS (the NT filesystem) instead of the pathetically slow and crippled FAT filesystem which the machines generally run by default, run the following at a command prompt: 

  convert c: /fs:ntfs /v

This will translate a FAT filesystem in place to NTFS. Of course, if you need to run DOS for some reason you'll need to have a FAT filesystem lying around somewhere for that. As of this time NTFS is usable only by WinNT, and Windows95 and DOS use the FAT filesystem exclusively.

17: How do I set up printers on my PC?

Answer: The lab printers are all accessed via samba. They are:

floyd Apple LaserWriter 16/600PS
backface HP LaserJet 5Si/MX PS
gamut Apple Color LaserWriter 12/660PS

We've configured Samba to allow NT to print through Samba to our Unix printers. In order to configure NT to use a printer you have to be logged into Samba on shutter. A simple way to do this is open the run menu and enter \\shutter, which will log you in if you aren't already.

To add the printers:

  1. Open the Settings/Printers window and select "Add Printer"
  2. Tell NT you want to connect to a "Network Printer Server".
  3. In the "Connect to Printer" dialog type in the name of the printer as accessed through samba. Typically you'll be using samba via shutter, and the printer would be specified as "\\shutter\<printer name>".
  4. Tell NT what kind of printer it is, and where it can find the driver. Most of the printer drivers are available with the operating system CDs in \\telefrag\os, the drivers for gamut are available in \\telefrag\common\hardware\Printers\Apple\LaserWriter-NT.

18: How can I synchronize the clock on my PC with Unix?

Answer: To make your PC have the same clock as your Unix box (amen), just grab timesync.pif and put in your startup folder. You'll have to replace \\sambahost with the name of your server (shutter in our case) in the properties dialog. An already modified pif is available at \\shutter\pc\timesync.pif.

19: I'm having trouble serving files... (this probably doesn't apply to you)

Answer: Some of the original machines arrived with some bogus entries in the registry. Run regedit, go to the node HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Enum/Root and delete the following keys: 

  LEGACY_BROWSER
  LEGACY_LANMANSERVER
  LEGACY_MESSENGER
  LEGACY_SRV

As always, a reboot is necessary for changes to the registry to be noticed.

20: How do I use Emacs with Visual C++?

Answer: Go to Tools->Options->Editor and check the "Automatic reload of externally modified files" box. Then files that you modify in Emacs just get snarfed into Visual C++, no annoying prompt boxes to deal with. So you're still stuck with the default display for setting breakpoints, but you can do the actual editing from the comfort of your Emacs session.

There's some much slicker thing where you can actually get the source/debugger display itself to be Emacs, but I haven't figured that out. -Tamara

21: Where do I find drivers for XXX?

Answer: We're trying to accumulate drivers in \\telefrag\common\hardware, so what you want may already be there. If it isn't, please make a directory for it and install it yourself once you find it.

Last update: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 20:39:22 PDT
eldridge@graphics.stanford.edu
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