Windows File System Types

As Windows has evolved, so has the way it stores data. Advances in the file systems have come about primarily due to limitations of their predecessors.

FAT - File Allocation Table, was introduced with DOS and is named after the file used to keep track of all the other files on the disk the file allocation table. FAT was later renamed FAT16 so as to differentiate it from its successor FAT32. The main limitations of FAT16 were the 8.3 naming convention, which limited file names to 8 letters with a 3 letter file extension, and the maximum disk partition limit of approx 2GB.

VFAT - Virtual File Allocation Table - This was more of an enhancement to FAT than a new file system. It was released with Windows 95 and allowed for longer filenames (up to 255 chars), but for backward compatibility created an 8.3 name for each file. The 2GB disk partition limit still existed in VFAT.

FAT32 - FAT32 was based on VFAT and was released with an update to Windows 95 (Service release 2), it was required to allow Windows to work with disk sizes larger than 2GB, which were becoming common place. It allowed for maximum partition sizes of 2048GB. FAT32 is supported in Windows 98/Me/2000/XP.

NTFS - NT File System - This file system was not based on either FAT16 or FAT32 and was released with Windows NT, it is the file system of choice for Windows NT/2000/XP. NTFS is a journalling file system and features advances in file security and compression as well as providing RAID support.

What Filesystem do I Choose?

When you are installing Windows, depending on the version you may be asked to choose a filesystem to use. Generally speaking with Windows NT/2000/XP you would choose NTFS for its stability and high performance, for Windows 95 Service Release 2 and Windows 98 opt for FAT32, and any OS prior to that, FAT.
If you intend to dual boot your system the choice of filesystem becomes somewhat more complex, since you potentially have to have more than one filesystem on more than one disk or partition, which introduces compatibility and data access problems.

Windows Hardware Minimum Requirements

According to the A+ exam objectives you need to be able to verify hardware compatibility against Microsoft's minimum requirements. Probably the best way to remember these specifications would surely be to see them side by side for comparision, so I've tabulated Microsoft's own minimum requirements below side-by-side.

Remember these are the absolute minimum specifications. Running Windows with these minimum specifications will not prove very fruitful.

Hardware	Win 98	Win Me	Win NT Workstation	Win 200 Pro	Win XP Pro
Processor	486DX 66Mhz	Pentium 150Mhz	486 33MHz, Pentium, Pentium PRO, 150Mhz Alpha	133Mhz Intel Pentium or compatible	233Mhz Intel Pentium/Celeron, AMD K6/Athlon/Duron
Memory	16MB	32MB	16MB	64MB	64MB
Hard Disk Space	140-335MB	320MB	110MB	650MB	1.5GB
Floppy Disk	3 ½" Disk drive	3 ½" Disk drive	Required if installing from boot disks	Required if installing from boot disks	None
CD-ROM	Required if installing from CD-ROM	Required	Required	Required	Required
Video	VGA	VGA	VGA	VGA	SVGA (800 x 600)

Preparing to Install Microsoft Windows

Whether you are installing Windows from scratch or performing an upgrade you'll need to prepare your computer and determine methods, options and requirements.

The A+ exam focuses on Windows 98, Me, NT Workstation, 2000 Professional and XP Professional operating systems.

The following tasks need to be performed before you begin installation.

• Hardware compatibility
• Installation options
• Installation method
• Prepare computer

Hardware Compatibility

The first thing you need to do is check Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). Here you'll find out if all the hardware in the machine is compatible with the version of Windows you want to install.
For each version of Windows Microsoft releases it produces a minimum and recommended hardware specification. From experience however take the recommended specs as the absolute minimum unless you don't intend to use the machine for anything useful.

Installation Options

Once you've checked over the hardware you'll need to decide on a number of installation options. These include network configuration for connecting to a network, file system type which will depend on which version of Windows you'll be running and possibly backward compatibility, and finally dual boot support, incase you have applications that don't support newer versions of Windows.

Installation Method

The next thing you'll need to decide is how you plan to install Windows. Depending on the version you'll be installing this will be either floppy disks, floppy disk(s) and a CD-ROM, just CD-ROM(s), a network installation or an installation from an image. Generally speaking the newer the version of Windows the easier it is to install. If you are using just CD-ROMs you'll need to make sure your BIOS is set-up to boot from the CD drive first otherwise you'll have to use a Windows startup disk.

Preparing a Windows PC before connecting it to the Internet

With the number of Windows viruses and worms increasing year-on-year, a number of anti-virus companies have published infection times for unprotected and unpatched Windows machines, all are within an hour of being connected to the internet.

It's no longer necessary to visit a website hosting a nasty script to get infected, there are scripts which find vulnerable machines using techniques like port scanning.

So what's the best way to prepare a PC from these threats and give you some piece of mind?

I'm going to concentrate on Windows XP, because this is now the most popular Windows operating system, and the one most likely to be targeted by virus and spyware writers.
Windows XP was the first Windows OS to come with a built-in firewall and it definately needs some sort of firewall, whether it be a corporate hardware firewall or a software variety.

Since the release of Windows XP in 2001 there have been lots of patches and hotfixes, many purely to fix security holes in the OS. In 2004 Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 2, this wasn't a ordinary service pack though. It was an attempt to bolt down the hatches, close some open doors, Service Pack 2 contained a new security centre which helps the user configure and monitor their anti-virus and firewall products. The Windows firewall was also turned on by default, and a host of other security prevention techniques were put into place, like the pop-up blocker in Internet Explorer.
Generally speaking Service Pack 2 has been a success, however there can be some hardware and software incompatibilities. Check the manufacturers websites for the latest drivers etc.

Ok, so you've installed Windows XP from scratch, somehow you need to patch the system without connecting to the internet before you've had a chance to install a firewall or anti-virus solution.
The best solution is to download the service packs on another machine, there are special service packs for network installation, these can also be burnt to CD-ROM, on this CD also burn a copy of the excellent ZoneAlarm firewall and AVG anti-virus, both products have free versions available from their respective websites, unless you have alternative products.

You're now ready to patch the new machine from CD or the local network. Once you've done this install the firewall, then the anti-virus.

You may need to disable the Windows firewall once you have an alternative product.

Finally configure your machine to connect to the internet, run Windows Update to get any patches released after the latest service pack then update your anti-virus solution with the latest definitions.

You should now enjoy hassle free internet access, however you may also want to install an anti-spyware application, but I'll cover that in another post.

VER, WINVER, SETVER and MEM MS-DOS Commands

MS-DOS has a few commands to check what version of Windows/MS-DOS you are running. There is also a command to help with compatibility issues with applications running in DOS.

VER - Prior to Windows the VER command would return the version of MS-DOS you were running, however running the VER command in Windows returns the version of Windows you're running.

The following output is from a Windows XP machine:

C:\>ver

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

WINVER - Windows also has another command which returns the version of Windows you are using, however the WINVER command output is in the form of a Windows GUI. It provides a little more information than the VER command such as:

• Windows version
• Build and Service Pack version
• End User License
• Registration Name and Company
• Physical memory available to Windows

SETVER - This MS-DOS command is used to resolve compatibility issues with applications. SETVER will set the version number that MS-DOS reports to a program so that it may run under a newer version of DOS.

MEM - The MEM command displays the amount of used and free memory in your system. There are also a number of useful switches to display memory usage.

C:\>mem /?
Displays the amount of used and free memory in your system.

MEM [/PROGRAM | /DEBUG | /CLASSIFY]

/PROGRAM or /P Displays status of programs currently loaded in memory.
/DEBUG or /D Displays status of programs, internal drivers, and other
information.
/CLASSIFY or /C Classifies programs by memory usage. Lists the size of
programs, provides a summary of memory in use, and lists
largest memory block available.

C:\>mem

655360 bytes total conventional memory
655360 bytes available to MS-DOS
592544 largest executable program size

1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

C:\>mem /c

Conventional Memory :

Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
------------- --------------------- -------------
MSDOS 12080 ( 11.8K) 2F30
KBD 3296 ( 3.2K) CE0
HIMEM 1248 ( 1.2K) 4E0
COMMAND 3920 ( 3.8K) F50
DOSX 34720 ( 33.9K) 87A0
KB16 6096 ( 6.0K) 17D0
FREE 112 ( 0.1K) 70
FREE 1120 ( 1.1K) 460
FREE 592544 (578.7K) 90AA0

Total FREE : 593776 (579.9K)

Upper Memory :

Name Size in Decimal Size in Hex
------------- --------------------- -------------
SYSTEM 229360 (224.0K) 37FF0
DOSX 128 ( 0.1K) 80
MOUSE 12528 ( 12.2K) 30F0
MSCDEXNT 464 ( 0.5K) 1D0
REDIR 2672 ( 2.6K) A70
FREE 1104 ( 1.1K) 450
FREE 15760 ( 15.4K) 3D90

Total FREE : 16864 ( 16.5K)

Total bytes available to programs (Conventional+Upper) : 610640 (596.3K)
Largest executable program size : 592544 (578.7K)
Largest available upper memory block : 15760 ( 15.4K)

1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

The MS-DOS ATTRIB command

This DOS command displays the attributes of a file and can be used to modify attributes of files too.
A file can be set to a number of different states such as read-only, which as the name suggests only allows the file to be read NOT modified or deleted.
A file can also be set to a hidden or system so it can't be seen and deleted in Windows Explorer unless the user has specified to view hidden and system files, which is disabled by default.
The ATTRIB command also features an archive bit which when set tells any backup software installed that this file needs to be backed up because it has been modified.

The following example shows the ATTRIB command being used to make a file read-only:

C:\>attrib +r myfile.txt

This command now removes the read-only setting:

C:\>attrib -r myfile.txt

What PC Should I Buy? - Real World Scenario

The world of PC's can be daunting to anyone who doesn't come into contact with them on a regular basis. Even if you use a computer at work it can still be daunting going into a computer shop and trying to look beyond the marketing hype to find a machine that's suitable for your needs.
This is no doubt a question you'll be asked more than once in the computer profession, so what's the best way to answer it and give advice?
One of the first things to ascertain is the users level of computer knowledge. Afterall you don't what to baffle them with techy terms and abbreviations.
The next thing you should do is find out what the user intends to do with the machine, this should give you some understanding of what kind of processor power they'll need and storage capacity.

Future proofing

Because computer technology moves at such a fast rate it's almost impossible to predict future PC technology and therefore know what kind of features to look out for. One thing we can be certain is that computers will get faster and allow you to store more data.
The best way to think about future proofing is assume a computer has a lifespan of 5 years, and make sure that the specification you provide will still be able to cope with a users computing needs 5 years from now.

Will the user be upgrading their operating system at some point?

If so this will no doubt require more computing power if the preview releases of Windows Vista are anything to go by.
Applications that perform operations like:

• Computer graphics
• Animation
• Audio sequencing
• Video editing

All require a fair amount of processor power and a Pentium or high end Athlon CPU's would be advisable.

Laptop or Desktop

Due to advances in operating systems such as Windows and ever decreasing hardware costs, laptops are now becoming a very popular choice as a replacement to chunky desktop systems. Because of the size restrictions with laptops however the user should be aware of the difficulty in upgrading, and future maintenance costs due to manufacturers propriety parts.
Laptop parts are always more expensive than their desktop counter-parts, your money will go further and allow you to buy a more powerful desktop machine than a laptop.

Laptops generally have a shorter lifespan than desktops because they are portable and are prone to knocks and drops. They have batteries with relatively short life, and while we're on the topic of batteries it should also be made aware that a notebooks battery charge can be very short (as low as 15 minutes) and that mobile processors such as Intel's Pentium-M, Celeron-M or AMD's Mobile Sempron are better choices providing up to 3 hours battery life than laptops with desktop processors.

Confusion surrounds the Intel Centrino brand. Intel have created such a good marketing campaign that people buy into a brand without actually knowing quite what it is. The Centrino is not a processor, nor is it a chipset. It is in very basic terms a combination of Intel's components that perform well enough in a mobile environment to earn a flashy Intel sticker. More about Centrino.

This site weighs up the pros and cons of desktop computers versus laptop PC's.