Reduce CD clutter with Virtual CD

Although most programs install from a CD to your hard drive and never require use again unless you add or remove program components or perform a reinstall, CDs have a tendency to pile up.

Also, some programs (typically games) require you to insert the CD each time you want to use the program.

Virtual CD can help you tuck those CDs out of sight. Virtual CD creates copies of CDs on your system's hard disk and enables you to mount and unmount these virtual CDs as if they were physical discs. This enables you to put away the CDs and not touch them again unless you need to recreate the virtual CD. It also offers the side benefit of creating a backup copy of the CD. This is a great solution for situations where you don't want CDs to be damaged by careless users.

Virtual CD also simplifies the use of multiple CDs because you can mount virtual CDs in multiple virtual drives at one time, making it possible to have as many as 23 virtual drives available at one time. In addition, Virtual CD also makes it easy to move CDs from one computer to another--just move the virtual CD folders across the network to the new computer.

You can go to the Virtual CD site to download a trial version, purchase licenses, and obtain related products for server and multi-user environments.

Windows 2000 Server

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Configure cache settings for shared folders

Windows 2000's Offline Folders feature enables users to maintain a local copy of a shared folder so they can work with the folder and its contents when the server on which the folder resides is unavailable. While this feature can help boost productivity, you might need to prevent users from caching a particular folder in some situations. For example, you might want to restrict a folder because it contains sensitive data.

You can configure the properties for a shared folder to restrict offline caching or to control how the system caches the folder.

To configure caching on a particular folder, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the shared folder, and choose Sharing.
2. On the Sharing tab of the folder's Properties dialog box, click Caching.
3. In the Caching Settings dialog box, deselect the Allow Caching Of Files In This Shared Folder. Enabling this setting allows users to cache the folder offline.
4. Click OK to close all dialog boxes.

If you prefer to allow caching but want to be able to control how the system caches folders, leave the Allow Caching Of Files In This Shared Folder option selected, and choose one of the following options from the Setting drop-down list:

• Manual Caching For Documents: This default option allows users to manually specify which files the system will cache.
• Automatic Caching For Documents: This option causes the system to cache any file a user opens from the share. The system doesn't cache unopened files.
• Automatic Caching For Programs: Use this option for programs or other files that won't undergo changes. The system caches files on the user's systems once, reducing network traffic by using the cached copies rather than the copies stored on the server.