Introducing Windows 2000 Deployment Planning

Windows 2000 Professional

Windows 2000 Professional allows users to be more productive in a variety of work and user situations (such as mobile and remote users), to ensure the highest level of security for user data, and to deliver the performance necessary for a new generation of personal productivity applications. Windows 2000 Professional helps you to lower the total cost of ownership through:

Improved Client Administration Capabilities Windows 2000 allows your administrators to have total control over your client data and application and system settings, thereby helping you to reduce the number of help desk calls. It also ensures that users do not accidentally damage their systems and allows your users to have 24-hour access to the tools they need to get their jobs done, even when they are working from someone else's computer.

Broad Management Tool Support Designed to improve information technology manageability, Windows 2000 Professional includes "client agents" that enable leading management solutions such as Systems Management Server to work effectively.

Ease of Use The user interface has been designed for easier access to information through the use of personalized menus and Most Recently Used lists. (The operating system determines which tasks you use most often and then displays those tasks in the visible portion of each menu.)

Higher Levels of Stability Windows 2000 Professional is designed to be the most reliable client and mobile operating system available. Clients stay running longer, helping you to ensure higher levels of productivity.

Greater Device Support Windows 2000 Professional supports over 7,000 devices, including expanded support for many devices not previously supported by Microsoft® Windows NT® Workstation version 4.0, such as many older printers, scanners, and digital cameras. This represents a 60 percent increase over the number of devices supported in Windows NT 4.0. Windows 2000 Professional also supports Microsoft® DirectX® version 7.0, a group of low-level application programming interfaces (APIs) that give access to high-performance media acceleration on Windows-based computers.

Note

For more information about supported devices, see the Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) link on the Web Resources page at http://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/reskit/webresources.

Easier to Configure New wizards take the guesswork out of configuring and setting up Windows 2000 Professional.

More Language Options MultiLanguage technology provides unparalleled multilingual options for end users and administrators.

For more information about Windows 2000 Professional, see the chapters in Part 6 of this book.