According to a report in ENT, the Independent Newspaper for Windows NT Enterprise Computing, Windows 2000 Release Candidate 1 (RC1), which was released last week, includes a few new features in addition to the expected bug fixes.
Reporter Thomas Sullivan writes that the "Configure Your Server" tool in Windows 2000 Server has been edited for clarity while the Server administration snap-ins for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) have also been tweaked and enhanced. Terminal Services now offers two modes of installation: Remote Administration, which requires less resources on the server, and Application Server, which allows Terminal Services to enable remote application execution from clients.
In Windows 2000 Advanced Server, the installation of Cluster Services has been simplified and doesn't require a reboot. The NetBIOS SMB protocol is also supported.
Sullivan notes that Professional Edition, which replaces the high-volume Windows NT Workstation, supports far more hardware than Beta 3 and includes full DirectX 7.0 compatibility. New drivers include Voodoo3 and ATI Rage 128 video cards and over 25 additional printers, he says. Microsoft has also revamped several dialogs for clarity.
As reported in ENT, Microsoft plans to release new Release Candidate builds every 5-8 weeks until Windows 2000 ships in the fourth quarter