Windows Vista Security: Praxisorientierte Sicherheit für Profis

698

|

Chapter 20: Handling Routine Maintenance and Troubleshooting

2. If you want to change the computer name, type the new name for the computer

in the Computer Name text box.

3. Select the Workgroup option and then type the name of the workgroup to join.

4. When you click OK, you’ll see a Windows Security prompt. Enter the name and

password of an account with permission to remove the computer from the

domain, and then click OK.

5. When prompted that your computer has joined the previously specified work-

group, click OK.

6. You’ll see a prompt stating that you need to restart the computer. Click OK.

7. Click Close and then click Restart Now to restart the computer.

You can change the computer name by following these steps:

1. On the Computer Name tab of the System Properties dialog box, click Change.

This displays the Computer Name/Domain Changes dialog box.

2. Type the new name for the computer in the Computer Name text box.

3. You’ll see a prompt stating that you need to restart the computer. Click OK.

4. Click Close and then click Restart Now to restart the computer.

Viewing Hardware Settings

You can use the Hardware tab in the System Properties dialog box to access Device

Manager and Windows Update (see Figure 20-4). You can access the Hardware tab

in the System Properties dialog box by following these steps:

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.

2. In the Control Panel, click System and Maintenance and then click System.

3. In the System console, click “Change settings” under “Computer name, domain,

and workgroup settings.” Or click Advanced System Settings in the left pane.

4. Click the Hardware tab.

I discuss Device Manager and Windows Update Driver Settings options in

Chapter 5. See the “Learning About Your Computer’s Hardware Devices” and the

“How Does the Operating System Obtain Driver Updates?” sections in that chapter

for more information.

Configuring User Profiles, Environment Variables, and Startup and

Recovery

You can use the Advanced tab in the System Properties dialog box to configure appli-

cation performance, virtual memory usage, user profiles, environment variables, and

startup and recovery. I cover configuring application performance and virtual mem-

ory in the “Optimizing Performance” section of Chapter 3. This section looks at

options related to user profiles, environment variables, and startup and recovery.

Maintaining Your System Configuration

|

699

User profiles

When you create a user account on a computer, your computer creates a user profile for

that account the first time the user logs on. A user profile contains the global settings

and configuration options that are unique to a particular user account. Anytime you

make changes to your desktop or other settings that affect only you rather than every-

one who logs on to your computer, the changes are saved in your user profile. This is

also where your computer stores all your personal files. Any documents, music, or other

files you’ve put into your personal folders are actually stored within your profile.

While I could easily spend 50 pages extolling the details of profiles, what you really

need to know is this:

• At the office, your IT administrators will largely control the ways you can use

your profile. If your IT administrators create a special type of profile, called a

roaming profile, for your account, you can use the same profile on every com-

puter you use, and this would ensure that you always have a consistent user

environment. When you have a roaming profile, your profile is stored on a Win-

dows server and a cached copy is stored on your computer.

• At home, you are in complete control of your profile. Your profile contains your

desktop settings and user-specific configuration settings. Your profile contains

all the files and folders listed when you click Start and then click your username

on the Start menu. Because your account settings and your personal data are

stored in your profile, any problems with your profile could prevent you from

logging on and could result in catastrophic data loss.

Figure 20-4. Viewing hardware settings