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System Shutdown

Like all multiuser operating systems, Windows NT needs to be shut down gracefully to avoid losing data. The shutdown process ensures that all data is flushed to disk before the system displays a message that it is safe to switch off the system.

To shut down Windows NT, the Shut Down The System user right is required by default. With Windows NT Workstation, this right is assigned to the groups Users and Everyone, so each user can shut down their particular workstation. You can remove this right from these groups if you do not want users to shut down their workstations. If you do, the right will still be assigned to the Administrator, Operator, and Power user groups. When using Windows NT Server however, this point is academic, as the default policy is to not allow users to log on locally to the server.

When you are logged on to Windows NT, the operating system can be shut down or restarted in several ways, including using the Shutdown option on the Start menu. Also, a Shutdown button can be displayed on the Logon box to shut down the system; this button is available as a default on Windows NT Workstation but is disabled on Windows NT Server. This configuration can be changed to suit your working practices by using the System Policy Editor (see Figure 3.6) or the Registry editor Regedt32.exe. The Shutdown button is controlled by the Shutdown without the logon registry entry contained within the \Microsoft\Windows NT\Current version\winlogon key of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software. The practical guide in the next section of this chapter contains an example for changing this configuration.

Figure 3.6  The System Policy Editor.

Projects:
Practical Guide TO Startup And Shutdown Administration

The following is a real-world guide to managing the system startup and shutdown configurations.

Changing The System Selection List Display Time

You have multiple operating systems on your workstation. (Yes, I know, it’s a pain, but do you really want to have to rewrite that DOS application that’s used twice a year to file some accounts?) Anyway, each time you restart your system to start MS-DOS, the phone rings or you go to grab a cup of coffee and the system automatically goes into Windows NT, which means you have to restart again. This happens to me all the time and drives me nuts. To fix this, we’ll need to adjust the length of time that the selection list is displayed.

1.  Choose Start|Settings|Control Panel.

2.  Double-click the System icon. The System Properties window will be displayed.

3.  Choose the Startup/Shutdown tab. In the System Startup pane, change the display time in the Show List For dialog box; the default is 30 seconds. Once set, click OK, and the BOOT.INI file will be modified.

You can also decrease the display time to speed up the start time of a system; this is frequently done on servers. (If you do decrease the display time, remember not to make it too fast, or you won’t have time to select the VGA Boot option should you ever need to.) You can press the Enter key when the timer is counting down. Whichever operating system option is highlighted will be the one used to start the system immediately.

Setting The Default Operating System

You have a Windows NT workstation that most of the time runs MS-DOS to communicate with some old laboratory equipment. This equipment collects data 24 hours a day, but some of the data was recently lost due to a power outage. When the computer restarted, it automatically started Windows NT, and that’s how it stayed until you showed up in the morning.

The chief egghead tells you that the UPS will be budgeted for next year (honest!), but in the meantime, you need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. You’d better change MS-DOS to be the default operating system on startup.

1.  ChooseStart|Settings|Control Panel.

2.  Double-click the System icon; the System Properties window will be displayed.

3.  Choose the Startup/Shutdown tab. In the System Startup pane, the current default startup operating system will be displayed. Select the required operating system from the drop-down list.

4.  Click OK to save your selection and to exit the System Properties window.

Now when you start the system, the specified operating system will be highlighted as the default.

System Hangs During System Startup

You just couldn’t leave things alone, could you? You just had to mess with a perfectly adequate configuration and now the system hangs on startup. You have three courses of action:

•  Restore the operating system from backup.

•  Start the operating system with an SOS switch and see if a particular driver is causing the problem. Perhaps you deleted it, or it is corrupted.

•  Start the system using the Last Known Good configuration—or, the configuration before you screwed it up.

As usual, the system hasn’t been backed up for a while, so it’s down to SOS or Last Known Good. Let’s start with SOS.

Because the system is hanging, no changes can be made to the BOOT.INI file if it is on an NTFS volume. However, if the volume is FAT, you could start MS-DOS and edit the default start line in BOOT.INI to include the SOS switch. Either way, this is really unnecessary, because the VGA-mode start command in BOOT.INI will already include the SOS switch. This line is created by default when Windows NT is installed, so it’s a very good idea to leave this line in.

1.  When the operating system start list is displayed, use the up or down arrow to select the VGA-mode startup. Press Enter to continue.

2.  As the drivers are loaded, the file name and path name of each driver will be displayed.

3.  If there is more than one profile available, a selection list is presented, allowing you to choose the relevant profile.

4.  The file system volumes are then checked with the boot time version of CHKDSK, and the file systems being checked are displayed.

The SOS start option won’t cure any start problems you might have, but it might show you where a particular problem lies—particularly if the problem is being caused by a missing or corrupted device driver.