Play with the Vista "discovery" Function

Vista provides a very considerate network function, one of which is called "discovery" by Microsoft and is often ignored. In fact, this function is very useful in the LAN of the Working group environment. It can be used to automatically discover each computer in the LAN. It also provides convenient functions such as Windows conference rooms, backups, and file transfers. The following is an example of a "discovery" journey.

1. the workstation is deployed once.

Deploying workstations in LAN is a repetitive and monotonous task. In particular, when the number of hosts is very large, administrators have to spend a lot of time and effort on deploying workstations. If you have a Vista workstation in your Lan, you can use its "discovery" function to work with related system tools to easily deploy the workstation. The procedure is as follows:

Step 1: Set accounts, programs (mainly Windows built-in programs), Intertnet settings, Outlook (Express) and other information on a Vista workstation.

Step 2: Go to "Control Panel> system and maintenance> go to Backup and Restore Center" on the Vista workstation and click "Windows easy transfer" in the lower left corner ", you can use the "discovery" function to find other hosts in the current Working Group and transfer the settings of the current host to other machines in the Working Group. (Figure 1)

 

Figure 1

Tip: This method is particularly suitable for one-time deployment between computers with the same configuration and software (such as data centers. Transmission methods include USB connection, optical disc transfer, or network.

2. No Password is entered for file sharing

Anyone who has used Windows XP knows that to share files with others, they must set a user with sufficient permissions. This is a little complicated for users who are not familiar with computers. Compared with the 2000/XP system, Vista facilitates shared access between users. If the users in your LAN are trusted, you can use simple settings to allow any users in the LAN to directly access your shared files without entering their accounts and passwords. More importantly, as long as your machine is Vista, other computer systems are not necessarily Vista. (In practical applications, we only need to configure a Vista file server in the LAN to facilitate file sharing between different clients .)

(1). Prerequisites:

To allow computers in a LAN to access each other, the following conditions must be met:

Hardware: connect each computer through a network adapter (or hub) or network cable. The connection method is the same as that in Windows XP.

Software Configuration: Enable the "discovery" function for the same working group.

(1). Procedure:

Step 1: Set up a workgroup. Right-click "computer" in the Start menu and select "properties ". Click Change settings under computer name, domain, and workgroup settings. In the displayed window, enter the workgroup name and computer name. In this example, mshome and pc1. Similar settings on other computers require the same working group name (mshome in this example) and different computer names (such as PC2.PC3 ). (Figure 2)

Step 2: tip: if the service fails to be enabled, click "Custom" after "network" in figure 3 and select "dedicated" from the pop-up window ".

Enable the "discovery" function. Click Start> Control Panel> network and Internet> network and sharing center ". Expand the drop-down arrow after "Sharing and discovery", select "enable network discovery" in the next window, and return. After the last two steps, the computers in the LAN can access each other. Click Start> network to see this. (Figure 3)

Figure 3

Step 3: Enable shared files. Click the drop-down arrow next to "file sharing" in figure 3 and select "enable file sharing" as prompted. Then, return to the main interface. Similarly, change "password protection and sharing" to "Disable password protection sharing" in a similar way ". At this point, the computers in the LAN can share files with each other without a password. You only need to right-click the shared folder and choose "Properties> share> advanced share". Then, select "share this folder. Other users can access you by IP address or computer name. (Figure 4)

Figure 4

3. Local Network System Configuration backup is no longer performed on Ghost

In fact, the backup function has been provided since Windows 2000. Windows Vista has improved it. Before reinstalling the system, we can back up user files, software, desktop settings, and so on. After the system is installed, we can restore it back. Enterprise Users can also maintain the consistency of software and desktop settings on each computer. When selecting the location where the backup is stored, you can also select another computer in the LAN. The procedure is as follows:

Open "system and maintenance> backup and recovery center> Backup File" under "Control Panel", and follow the prompts to back up user files, in addition to saving the backup to the local hard disk and CD, you can also select other computers in the LAN for backup through the "discovery" function. When installing the system, you can choose to use the previous backup. (Figure 5)

Figure 5

　4. "network meeting" starts immediately

"Windows Meeting Room", which is equivalent to NetMeeting in the Windows XP era, used for communication between users. The "discovery" function allows you to easily perform "Network meetings" in the Working Group lan. The procedure is as follows:

Step 1: Click Start> All Programs> Windows meeting room. In the displayed dialog box, select YES to continue setting Windows meeting room ". (Figure 6)

Figure 6 Step 2: Set the user name in the automatically displayed window. Once the preceding settings are completed, the Windows Meeting room window will be opened in the future. (Figure 7)

Figure 7

　　Summary:From the above four instances, we can see that mining and using Vista's "discovery" function greatly simplifies the cost of system maintenance and network deployment, I hope you can find more Vista functions like "discovery ".