6. Getting Started with NT

6.1 Logging In

Under Windows NT 4.0, you need to log in to your machine whether the machine is part of a network or domain, or even running stand-alone. When starting up NT, first do Ctrl + Alt + Del as prompted, then fill in the login box that appears.

You need to provide three (correlated) pieces of information:

a username
a password
either a domain name (for logging into a domain, the usual case) or the machine name (for logging into the local or other networked machine); a pop-up list is provided

We recommend that you use the same username for all your Fermilab accounts, but different passwords for security reasons. However, if your username (and password) is different for the different systems you may be logging into, just be careful to use the one(s) associated with the selected domain or machine.

Your machine will probably display your username and a domain (FNAL in most cases), therefore all you normally need to enter is your domain password. The values displayed are determined by the most recent login, so if anyone else ever logs on to your machine, the wrong username and domain may be displayed.

Once your login information is correctly entered, press Return or click OK to execute the login process.

6.2 Logging Off

First, an important note about logging off: If your account uses a roaming profile (discussed in section 2.3: User Profiles in the FNAL NT Domain ), you must remember to log off your machine at the end of your session in order to ensure that the updated profile gets copied back to the server.

To log out and leave the machine running, enter Ctrl + Alt + Del and select Logoff . Another way to do this is to select Shutdown from the Start menu (see section 6.4: The Start Button ), and choose "Close all programs and log on as a different user". Both these methods leave your machine at the prompt "Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to log on".

See section 6.6: Booting, Rebooting, and Shutting Down for information on shutting down your machine (recommended before turning power off).

6.3 Changing Your Password

For members of the FNAL NT domain, you are given an initial password and requested to change it the first time you log on to the domain. From the main Windows NT screen, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to bring up the Windows NT Security dialog box. Select Change Password... to bring up the Change Password dialog box.

Choose from the pop-up list or type in the domain (or system) for which you want to change your password. The one where you are currently logged on is displayed. You must first enter your old password, then the new password must be entered twice, for confirmation. Click OK to complete the change.

Tips on choosing a password:

A password can contain up to 14 characters (but note that passwords longer than 8 characters can cause problems with some FTP client programs). Passwords are case-sensitive, and can include upper and lower case letters as well as numbers and symbols. Alt-modified characters and function keys are not allowed.

6.4 The Start Button

From the main Windows NT screen, click on the Start button. It appears on the taskbar, which is a bar displaying all the tasks that are currently open (this is explained in section 6.7.1: Running and Controlling Programs ). Your taskbar is probably at the bottom of your screen, although it can be configured to appear along any of the four screen edges. When you click on Start , a menu similar to that shown below pops up with options to let you start programs, list documents you've opened recently, change settings of system components, search for files, get help, or log out/shut down. For any item that has a little black arrow to the right, just hold the cursor over it and a menu of items for that option appears. Move your cursor along, following arrows from menu to menu as they pop up, and finally click on the item you wish to select.

You can customize your Start menu to include other items. It is useful to include shortcuts to frequently accessed programs, folders or documents. Shortcuts are discussed in section 6.7.6: Creating Shortcuts .

6.5 Temporarily Locking Your Workstation

Locking your workstation keeps your work both unseen and untouched by others while you are away from your desk. To lock your workstation, first enter Ctrl + Alt + Del . Your screen clears and a pop-up window appears with several options. Select Lock Workstation . A second pop-up window appears and indicates that the workstation is in use and is locked. It instructs you to enter Ctrl + Alt + Del to resume work. You will need to provide your password.

6.6 Booting, Rebooting, and Shutting Down

To boot your machine initially, simply turn it on.

To reboot while logged on, click the Start button, choose Shutdown... , select Restart the computer? and respond Yes .

If you just want to shutdown your machine, click the Start button, choose Shutdown... , select Shut down the computer? and respond Yes . We recommend doing this before turning the power off. It prompts you to save any unsaved changes, and it makes sure data in memory is saved to disk. Normally you should shutdown and power off your machine before any planned power outages.

If your machine is frozen, use Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the NT Security window. Choose Shutdown . From there you can select either plain Shutdown or Shutdown and Restart .

6.7 Basic NT Operations

6.7.1 Running and Controlling Programs

Starting a Program

There are a few ways to start programs. The easiest way is to:

Click the Start button
Point to Programs
Point to the program you want
Click on it to start the program

Other ways include (but are not limited to):

Search for a program executable in Windows NT Explorer (discussed in section 6.7.2: Viewing the Resources of your Computer and Domain ), and double-click on it there to start it.
Click the Start button, point to Run , and enter the name or path of the program you want to run (to see where things are on your computer, again see section 6.7.2: Viewing the Resources of your Computer and Domain ). The Run pop-up window also lets you browse for the item you want.
When you really don't know where to look for a particular program, click the Start button, point to Help , go to Index , ...

... type or select a topic, and select Display , as shown above. The Help screen that appears may have a button you can click on to start the program, as shown below.

Controlling a Program

A standard NT window that displays a folder's contents or in which a program is running has three buttons in the upper right-hand corner, as shown below:

a little horizontal line (an underscore) for iconizing
a single square for increasing window size to occupy whole screen, or a double square for restoring window to a size you had set
an X for exiting the program

You can run multiple programs at a time. The taskbar located along the bottom (or other edge) of your screen displays a button for each open task, or program, so that you can switch between them easily. To iconize a program window, click on its iconize button ( _ ). To restore an iconized application window, or to bring to the front one that is hidden by other windows, click on its corresponding button on the taskbar. To exit a program, click on its X button.

If a program stops responding, right click in an empty portion of the taskbar and select Task Manager... from the pop-up menu (or press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the NT Security box, and click on the Task Manager button) to bring up a window that shows which programs are running and which if any are "Not Responding". You can use the End Task button to terminate an unresponsive task. This should unfreeze your computer.

6.7.2 Viewing the Resources of your Computer and Domain

To view all the disks, servers, folders and files available to you, run Windows NT Explorer (under Programs from the Start menu).

Click on the plus sign to the left of an item in the left-hand window to expand its contents below it (individual files are not displayed).
Click on the minus sign (that replaces the plus) to "close up" the contents list.
Click on the item itself in the left-hand window to expand its contents (including files) in the right-hand window.
You can double-click on an executable in the right-hand window to start it up (if the program appears in your Program menu, it's usually easier to execute it from there). Double-clicking on a document file starts up its corresponding application with the document file opened.

You will very likely also find My Computer and Network Neighborhood as icons on your screen, but you can get at everything from one place via the Explorer .

6.7.3 Identifying and Manipulating Objects and their Properties

Every object you use in Windows NT (e.g., files, folders, programs, shortcuts, the taskbar) comes equipped with what is called a context menu . Right click on any object, and its context menu appears. The menu contents, which vary according to the object type, allow you to do things such as find out information about the object, open or start it, edit it, create a shortcut to it, delete it, and so on. For example, right clicking on the Exceed program folder brings up the menu shown here:

A particularly useful menu item which appears on virtually every context menu is Properties . Clicking on Properties brings up a dialog box which allows you to see and in many cases configure the properties of the object. For this example, the Properties dialog box looks like this:

Rather than going into detail here about context menus and properties, we recommend that you spend a few minutes looking at the context menus for objects of various types to get an idea about the menu options that go with them, and the different properties that you can view and manipulate.

6.7.4 Copying and Moving Information

There are a few different ways to move and copy files and folders from one location to another.

Using the Left Mouse Button to "Drag and Drop"

When you use the left mouse button, you have to be aware whether you're moving/copying from one place to another on the same disk, or to a different disk. The following action moves the item when going between folders on the same disk, but copies the item when going between folders on different disks. Note that you can use the Escape key to abort a move or copy operation.

Move cursor to item.
Hold down left mouse button and "drag" item to destination folder.
Let go of the mouse button to "drop" item in.

Using the Right Mouse Button

To move or copy a file or folder from one place to another (on the same or a different disk):

Place the cursor on the item you want.
Press down the right mouse button.
While holding the right mouse button down, drag the item to its destination folder.
With cursor at destination, let go of the mouse button. This brings up a menu from which you can choose Move Here or Copy Here .

Here is an alternate method for moving or copying an item to another place on same or different disk:

Click item using right mouse button to bring up context menu.
Choose Cut (to move) or Copy .
Right click on destination folder.
Choose Paste from menu.

Using the Edit Menu in Windows NT Explorer

To move or copy a file or folder from one place to another (on the same or a different disk):

Select the item you want.
Select Cut (to move) or Copy from the Edit menu.
Select the destination folder.
Select Paste from the Edit menu.

Copying a File to the Same Folder

To make a copy of a file within the same folder, click on item to select it, then press <Ctrl-c> <Ctrl-v> . It will have the file name Copy of filename . To give it a new name, select Rename under the File menu (or do two slow clicks on the filename, not a double-click!), then type in a new name.

6.7.5 Manipulating Multiple Files/Folders

To select and operate on multiple files, first arrange the files in a convenient manner using Arrange Icons under the View menu. Select the first file you want in the usual way. Then:

To select a group of adjacent files, press Shift and at the same time click on the last one you want (if you have icons displayed in a grid, you can select vertically and/or horizontally).
To select a group of nonadjacent files, hold down Ctrl , and click on the desired files individually.

To operate on the set of selected files, continue to hold down Shift or Ctrl , and perform the operation normally (e.g., right-click to bring up a context menu).

6.7.6 Creating Shortcuts

A shortcut is a reference, or a pointer, to a program, file or folder. Shortcuts allow you to open programs and documents from easy-to-get-to places, while keeping the actual files elsewhere. A shortcut icon is distinguishable by a tiny arrow in its lower left corner. You click on a shortcut icon the same way you would any other icon. Shortcuts can go in your Start menu, the Programs folder, any other folder, or on the desktop.

To create a shortcut:

Click the icon of the actual item, and choose Create Shortcut from the File menu. Or, just right click on the icon to bring up the context menu and choose Create Shortcut .
A new icon appears, titled Shortcut to item-name , with the little arrow in the lower left corner.
Move the shortcut icon to the desired location as described in section 6.7.4: Copying and Moving Information .

6.8 Recommended Texts for NT

The Microsoft Windows NT Workstation guide Start Here (Basics and Installation) , which is distributed with new NT systems, describes the standard NT features quite well.
Dummies 101: Windows NT by Andy Rathbone starts with the basic NT operations and works through customizing your desktop and installing programs.
Windows NT 4 Workstation Desktop Companion by Richard Mansfield and Charles Brannon is a good comprehensive reference.
Complete Guide to Windows NT 4 Workstation by Peter Norton and John Paul Mueller is good for the reader who wants more meat. It doesn't spend a lot of time on the basics, but you will most likely find in here anything you might ever want to know about NT 4.0, written in clear English. It also provides a "Windows NT Workstation at a Glance" pull-out reference sheet with lots of handy tips.
To understand more about networking with NT, Windows NT Networking for Dummies by Tittel, Madden and Follis is helpful.