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You use the System Properties dialog box to
manage system properties. The following sections examine key areas of
the operating system that can be configured using the System Properties
dialog box.
The computer’s network identification can be displayed and modified on the Computer Name tab of the System Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 1. As the figure shows, the Computer Name tab displays the full computer
name of the system and the domain or group membership. The full
computer name is essentially the Domain Name System (DNS) name of the
computer, which also identifies the computer’s place within an Active
Directory hierarchy.
A quick way to open the System Properties dialog box is to press and
hold or right-click the hidden button in the lower-left corner of Start
or the desktop, tap or click System, and then tap or click the Change
Settings link. Alternatively, you can type sysdm.cpl in the Apps Search box and then press Enter.
The options on the Computer Name tab enable you to do the following:
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Join a computer to a domain
Tap or click Network ID to start the Join A Domain Or Workgroup Wizard, which guides you through modifying network access information for the computer. -
Change a computer’s name Tap or click Change to change the computer’s name and the domain or group associated with the computer.
Note
REAL WORLD Before you try to join a computer to a domain, be sure that the IP
address configuration, including the DNS settings, are correct for the
network to which the computer is connected. For client computers to use
the DNS, the computer must have an appropriate computer
name and a properly configured primary DNS suffix. Rather than using
names that are cute or arbitrary, you should decide on a naming scheme
that is meaningful to both users and administrators. In DNS, the
computer’s name serves as its host name, and the primary DNS suffix
determines the domain to which it is assigned for name resolution
purposes. Any unqualified host names that are used on a
computer are resolved using the primary DNS suffix. For example, if you
are logged on to a computer with a primary DNS suffix of
tech.cpandl.com and you ping CorpSvr28 from a command prompt, the
computer directs the query to corpsvr28.tech.cpandl.com.
By default, the primary DNS suffix is the domain in which the
computer is a member. You can change a computer’s primary DNS suffix if
necessary. For example, if a computer’s primary DNS suffix is
seattle.tech.cpandl.com, you might want the computer to use the primary
DNS suffix of cpandl.com to simplify name resolution in this large DNS
hierarchy. To change a computer’s primary DNS suffix, tap or click
Change on the Computer
Name tab, and then tap or click More. Enter the primary DNS suffix you
want to use in the text box provided, and then close all open dialog
boxes by tapping or clicking OK three times.
The Hardware tab in the System Properties dialog box provides access to Device Manager and Device Installation Settings.
Open the System
Properties dialog box by pressing and holding or right-clicking the
hidden button in the lower-left corner of Start or the desktop, tapping
or clicking System, and then tapping or clicking the Change Settings
link. The main options you might want to work with on the Hardware tab are the device installation settings.
When you connect a new device, Windows 8 checks for drivers
automatically by using Windows Update. If you don’t want a computer to
check for drivers automatically, tap or click Device Installation
Settings, and then select either Yes, Do This Automatically or No, Let
Me Choose What To Do, and then tap or click OK.
The Advanced Tab: Performance Options
The Advanced tab in the System Properties dialog box provides access
to controls for many of the key features of the Windows operating
system, including application performance, virtual memory usage, user
profile, environment variables, and startup and recovery.
Performance
options are a subset of the advanced configuration settings, which are
configured using the Performance Options dialog box. One way to access
this dialog box is by completing the following steps:
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In Control Panel, tap or click System And Security, and then tap or click System. -
In the System console, tap or click Change Settings, or tap or click Advanced System Settings in the left pane. -
To display the Performance Options dialog box, tap or click the
Advanced tab in the System Properties dialog box, and then tap or click
Settings in the Performance panel.
To open the Performance Options dialog box directly, type SystemPropertiesPerformance in the Apps Search box and then press Enter.
Setting Windows Performance
Many graphics enhancements have been added to the Windows 8
interface. These enhancements include many visual effects for menus,
toolbars, windows, and the taskbar. You can configure Windows
performance using the Performance Options dialog box.
The Visual Effects tab is selected by default in the Performance
Options dialog box, and you have the following options for controlling
visual effects:
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Let Windows Choose What’s Best For My Computer
Enables the operating system to choose the performance options based on the hardware
configuration. For a newer computer, the effect of selecting this
option will probably be identical to using the Adjust For Best
Appearance option. The key distinction, however, is that this option is
chosen by Windows based on the available hardware and its performance capabilities. -
Adjust For Best Appearance
When you optimize Windows
for best appearance, you enable all visual effects for all graphical
interfaces. Menus and the taskbar use transitions and shadows. Screen
fonts have smooth edges. List boxes have smooth scrolling. Folders use
web views, and more. -
Adjust For Best Performance
When you optimize
Windows for best performance, you turn off the resource-intensive visual
effects, such as slide transitions and smooth edges for fonts, while
maintaining a basic set of visual effects. -
Custom You can customize the visual effects by selecting or clearing the visual effects options in the Performance Options dialog box. If you clear all options, Windows does not use visual effects.
When you have finished changing visual effects, tap or click Apply. Tap or click OK twice to close the open dialog boxes.
Setting Application Performance
Application performance is related to processor-scheduling caching options that you set for the Windows 8 system.
Processor scheduling determines the responsiveness of applications that
are running interactively (as opposed to background applications that
might be running on the system as services). You control application
performance using the options on the Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box (which can be opened by typing SystemPropertiesPerformance in the Apps Search box and then pressing Enter).
The Processor Scheduling panel on the Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box gives you the following options:
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Programs To give
the active application the best response time and the greatest share of
available resources, select Programs. Generally, you’ll want to use this
option for all Windows 8 workstations. -
Background Services
To give background
applications a better response time than the active application, select
Background Services. Generally, you’ll want to use this option for
Windows 8 computers running as servers (meaning they have serverlike
roles and are not being used as Windows 8 workstations). For example, a
Windows 8 computer might be the print server for a department.
If you change the performance settings, tap or click Apply.
Configuring Virtual Memory
Virtual memory
enables you to use disk space to extend the amount of available RAM on a
system by writing RAM to disks through a process called paging.
With paging, a set amount of RAM, such as 4,096 MB, is written to the
disk as a paging file, where it can be accessed from the disk when
needed in place of physical RAM.
An initial paging file is created automatically for the drive
containing the operating system. By default, other drives don’t have
paging files, so you must create these paging files if you want them.
When you create a paging file, you set an initial size and a maximum
size. Paging files are written to the volume as a file named
Pagefile.sys.
Note
REAL WORLD Typically, Windows 8 allocates virtual memory in an amount at least as large as the total physical memory installed on the computer. This helps to ensure that paging files don’t become fragmented, which can result in poor system performance. If you want to manually manage virtual
memory, you can reduce fragmentation by setting an initial page file
size that is at least as large as the total physical memory. For
computers with 4 GB or less of RAM, you should set the maximum size to
at least twice the total physical memory. For computers with more than 4
GB of RAM, you should set the maximum size to at least 1.5 times total
physical memory (or the size recommended by the hardware manufacturer).
This can help ensure that the paging file is consistent and can be
written to contiguous file blocks (if possible, given the amount of
space on the volume).
You can manually configure virtual memory by completing the following steps:
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Open the Performance Options dialog box. One way to do this is to type SystemPropertiesPerformance in the Apps Search box and then press Enter. -
On the Advanced tab, tap or click Change to display the Virtual Memory dialog box, shown in Figure 2. The following information is provided:
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Drive [Volume Label]
and Paging File Size (MB)
Shows how virtual
memory is currently configured on the system. Each volume is listed with
its associated paging file (if any). The paging file range shows the
initial and maximum size values set for the paging file, if applicable. -
Total Paging File Size For All Drives
Provides a
recommended size for virtual RAM on the system and tells you the amount
currently allocated. If this is the first time you’re configuring
virtual RAM, note that the recommended amount has already been given to
the system drive (in most instances) and that this is indicated by the
selection of the System Managed Size option.
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By default, Windows 8 manages the paging file size for all drives. If you want to manually configure virtual memory, clear the Automatically Manage Paging File Size For All Drives check box. -
In the Drive list box, select the volume you want to work with. -
Select Custom Size, and then enter an initial size and a maximum size. -
Tap or click Set to save the changes. -
Repeat steps 4 through 6 for each volume you want to configure. -
Tap or click OK, and if prompted to overwrite an existing Pagefile.sys file, tap or click Yes. -
If you updated the settings for a paging file that is currently in
use, you’ll see a prompt explaining that you need to restart the system for the changes to take effect. Tap or click OK. -
Tap or click OK twice to close the open dialog boxes. When you close
the System utility, you’ll see a prompt stating that the changes will
not be applied until you restart your computer.
You can have Windows 8 automatically manage virtual memory by following these steps:
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On the Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box, tap or click Change to display the Virtual Memory dialog box. -
Select the Automatically Manage Paging File Size For All Drives check box. -
Tap or click OK two times to close the open dialog boxes.
Tip
Clearing the page file on shutdown is recommended as a security best
practice. You can clear the page file on shutdown by enabling the
Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile option, located under Local
Policies\Security Options.
Configuring Data Execution Prevention
Data Execution Prevention (DEP)
is a memory protection technology. DEP tells the computer’s processor
to mark all memory locations in an application as nonexecutable unless
the location explicitly contains executable code. If code is executed
from a memory page marked as nonexecutable, the processor can raise an
exception and prevent the code from executing. This prevents malicious
code, such as a virus, from inserting itself into most areas of memory
because only specific areas of memory are marked as having executable
code.
Note
The 32-bit versions of Windows support DEP as implemented by Advanced
Micro Devices (AMD) processors that provide the No Execute (NX)
page-protection processor feature. Such processors support the related
instructions and must be running in Physical Address Extension (PAE)
mode to support large memory configurations. The 64-bit versions of
Windows also support the NX processor feature but do not need to use PAE
to support large memory configurations.
To be compatible with DEP, applications must be able to explicitly
mark memory with the Execute permission. Applications that cannot do
this will not be compatible with the NX processor feature. If you are
experiencing memory-related problems running applications, you should
determine which applications are having problems and configure them as
exceptions rather than completely disabling execution protection. In
this way, you still get the benefits of memory protection and can
selectively disable memory protection for programs that aren’t running
properly with the NX processor feature.
Execution protection is applied to both user-mode and kernel-mode
programs. A user-mode execution protection exception results in a
STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION exception. In most processes, this exception
will be an unhandled exception and will result in the termination of the
process. This is the behavior you want because most programs violating
these rules, such as a virus or worm, will be malicious in nature.
Execution protection for kernel-mode device drivers, unlike
protection for applications, cannot be selectively disabled or enabled.
Furthermore, on compliant 32-bit systems, execution protection is
applied by default to the memory stack. On compliant 64-bit systems,
execution protection is applied by default to the memory stack, the
paged pool, and the session pool. A kernel-mode execution protection
access violation for a device driver results in an
ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY exception.
You can determine whether a computer supports DEP by using the System utility. If a computer supports DEP, you can also configure it by completing the following steps:
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Open the Performance Options dialog box. One way to do this is to type SystemPropertiesPerformance in the Apps Search box and then press Enter. -
The text at the bottom of the Data Execution Prevention tab specifies whether the computer supports execution protection. -
If a computer supports execution protection and is configured
appropriately, you can configure DEP by using the following options:
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Turn On DEP For Essential Windows Programs And Services Only
Enables DEP only for operating system services, programs, and
components. This is the default setting and is recommended for computers
that support execution protection and are configured appropriately. -
Turn On DEP For All Programs Except Those I Select
Configures DEP and allows for exceptions. Select this option, and then
tap or click Add to specify programs that should run without execution
protection. In this way, execution protection will work for all programs
except those you have listed.
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Tap or click OK.
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