Network Software

Operating Systems

A workstation is a computer that is a member of a network. At homes and small businesses, the most regular operating system, at the time of this writing, is probably Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. Other regularly used operating systems from Microsoft are Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows 9X, and Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional. On this site, we will mostly cover Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

When preparing to get or acquire your workstations, you may be in one of the following scenarios.

Using New Computers

If you get a contract to build a network for a small business or you are going to create a new network for a home, you may decide to purchase brand new computers. If you haven't bought the computer(s) but are planning to, refer to our section on purchasing or acquiring new computers in the Lesson 4.

Using Existing Computers

If you already have one or more computers that you plan to use as workstations, in the previous lesson, we reviewed how you can get it ready for Microsoft Windows XP Professional. Once the computer is ready with the appropriate hardware, you can prepare the operating system. Because Microsoft Windows 9X, Windows Me, and Windows XP Home Edition have only limited security, on this site, we will mostly consider only Microsoft Windows XP Professional. Based on this, if you have a computer with Microsoft Window 9X, Windows Me, or Windows XP Home Edition but plans to apply a good level of security in your network, you should upgrade it to either Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional.