Active Directory Features Supported
Windows 9x and Windows NT 4 based
clients lack many of the features of
Windows 2000 Professional and
Windows XP Professional that are
related to Active Directory. The
Active Directory client extension is
an upgrade or patch for Windows 95,
Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0,
which enables the following Active
Directory features:
-
Site awareness -
This includes the ability to log
on to the domain controller that
is closest to the client in the
network and the ability to
change passwords on any Windows
2000/2003-based domain
controller, instead of the
primary domain controller (PDC).
In order to benefit from this
new functionality the computer
object where the Client
extension is installed must
exist in a Windows 2000/2003
domain.
Note:
Active Directory
Client for Windows NT4.0 does
not change the NT4.0 WinLogon
change password behavior. The
WinLogon change password still
contacts the PDC. However,
Active Directory Client
extension provides necessary
APIs to change the password to
any Windows 2000 based domain
controller.
-
Active Directory
Service Interfaces (ADSI) -
ADSI allows scripting to Active
Directory and provides a common
programming API to Active
Directory programmers.
-
DFS fault
tolerance client -
This provides
access to Windows 2000/2003
distributed file system (DFS)
fault tolerant and fail-over
file shares specified in Active
Directory. In order to benefit
from this new functionality the
computer object where the Client
extension is installed must
exist in a Windows 2000/2003
domain.
-
Active Directory
Windows Address Book (WAB)
property pages -
These allow users who have
permission to change properties
on user objects (for example,
phone number and address) by
means of the user object pages,
which can be accessed by
clicking the Start menu, and
then pointing to Search and For
People. This also includes
support for display specifiers
that allow rendering of new
schema elements stored on the
user object in Active Directory.
-
NTLM v2
authentication -
The client extensions take
advantage of the improved
authentication features
available in NTLM v2.
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