Large organizations will be interested in the new Active Directory feature, but be warned that implementing it requires a lot of planning. This is Microsoft's opening salvo in the directory services war and is key in fully using a Windows 2000 network. For instance, Windows 2000 servers will not enable Domain Controllers without Active Directory in use. Active Directory allows users to locate such resources as computers, printers and shared folders, using search criteria stored in the directory. To use Active Directory, the Windows 2000 version of NT file system must be used.
Installation is very simple.
This operating system is gargantuan, consuming 750 megabytes. Upgrading from another Microsoft OS was almost perfect, although, in one instance, some fiddling was necessary to properly set up a network card. Playing nice with other Microsoft platforms turns out to be better in theory than in practice. Installing legacy software is usually, but not always, problem-free with Windows 2000. Help is presented in a familiar, Web-like, interface.