Larry Sweat, Director of Technical Support

The Windows 2000 Pro operating system provides excellent system reports in the Administrative Tools Section of the Control Panel. (XP Pro provides the same reports in Programs - Accessories - System Tools.) These reports can be very useful for diagnosing system related problems and will simplify the work of completing a service ticket when contacting our Technical Support. You can view the reports on your screen or print them to a file or on a printer. If you print them to a text file, you can email them to the Technical Support Specialist who can print or view them while talking to you. Or, if you don't have access to email, you can fax them to us at (208) 375-4462. Email is preferable because the text is small and faxes are difficult to read.

To access the System Reports in Windows 2000, go to the Start Menu and select SETTINGS - CONTROL PANEL - ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS - COMPUTER MANAGEMENT - SYSTEM TOOLS - SYSTEM INFORMATION. The first report to look at is the System Summary. Click on SYSTEM SUMMARY. The System information will appear on the screen where you can view it. To print it on paper, select ACTION - PRINT. To save it in a text file, select ACTION - SAVE AS TEXT FILE. The System Summary shows the OS Name, Version, Service Pack, and Build Number. It also shows the System Name, Manufacturer Model, CPU Type and Speed, Locale, and memory information.

The next report is the DRIVES SUMMARY. This information is under SYSTEM INFORMATION - COMPONENTS - STORAGE - DRIVES. It is viewed, printed, or saved to text exactly the same as the System Summary. This report shows you the local drives and information about them such as capacity, free space, file system, manufacturer, and technical specifications. It also shows network drives and the network path for each.

Another useful report is the network ADAPTER SUMMARY. This information is under SYSTEM INFORMATION - COMPONENTS - NETWORK - ADAPTER. This report tells you what adapter is installed and how it is configured. It can be very useful for finding IP address conflicts, since it shows you the IP address for the computer.

The last report of interest is the NETWORK CONNECTIONS SUMMARY. To access this report select - SYSTEM INFORMATION - SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT - NETWORK CONNECTIONS. This report again shows the path names to the mapped network drives which is a duplication of some of the information on the DRIVES SUMMARY, however; it also shows the STATUS and USER NAME for the connections. This information can often provide insight into why a troublesome workstation has difficulty accessing data on a server.

If performance and stability aren't enough, the System Reports in Windows 2000 and XP Pro are another reason for moving from Windows 98 to the newer NT-based operating systems. Take the time to become familiar with these reports and you will enjoy a significant return on time saved diagnosing system problems.