Windows 2000

Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on business desktops, notebook computers, and servers. Released on February 17, 2000,[3] it was the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the final release of Microsoft Windows to display the "Windows NT" designation. It was succeeded by Windows XP for desktop systems in October 2001 and Windows Server 2003 for servers in April 2003.[4]

Four editions of Windows 2000 were released: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server.[5] Additionally, Microsoft sold Windows 2000 Advanced Server Limited Edition and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Limited Edition, which were released in 2001 and run on 64-bit Intel Itanium microprocessors.[6] While each edition of Windows 2000 was targeted to a different market, they share a core set of features, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console and standard system administration applications. Support for people with disabilities has been improved over Windows NT 4.0 with a number of new assistive technologies,[7] and Microsoft increased support for different languages[8] and locale information.[9] All versions of the operating system support the Windows NT filesystem, NTFS 3.0,[10] the Encrypting File System, as well as basic and dynamic disk storage.[11] The Windows 2000 Server family has additional features,[12] including the ability to provide Active Directory services (a hierarchical framework of resources), Distributed File System (a file system that supports sharing of files) and fault-redundant storage volumes. Windows 2000 can be installed through either a manual or unattended installation.[13] Unattended installations rely on the use of answer files to fill in installation information, and can be performed through a bootable CD using Microsoft Systems Management Server, by the System Preparation Tool.[14]

Microsoft marketed Windows 2000 as the most secure Windows version ever,[15] but it became the target of a number of high-profile virus attacks such as Code Red and Nimda.[16] Over nine years after its release, it continues to receive patches for security vulnerabilities nearly every month.

The Active Directory ESE database, NTDS.DIT, consists of the following tables: * Schema table

the types of objects that can be created in the Active Directory, relationships between them, and the optional and mandatory attributes on each type of object. This table is fairly static and much smaller than the data table. * Link table

contains linked attributes, which contain values referring to other objects in the Active Directory. Take the MemberOf attribute on a user object. That attribute contains values that reference groups to which the user belongs. This is also far smaller than the data table. * Data table

users, groups, application-specific data, and any other data stored in the Active Directory. The data table can be thought of as having rows where each row represents an instance of an object such as a user, and columns where each column represents an attribute in the schema such as GivenName.

No. Windows update doesn't update drivers automatically in any circumstance. When installing a device, you can instruct the OS to go online and find the driver, but it's a manual process, not an automatic one.

Haven't confirmed this myself, but, according to Microsoft Official Academic Course, Windows 7 Configuration, Pg 139, "If Windows 7 is configured to use automatic updating, the system will download device drivers only for hardware that does not have a driver installed."