9.3 Root DNS Server in Windows 2000/2003

Windows 2000 behaves in a slightly different way if the DNS server is not configured as root and if the %SystemRoot%\system32\dns\cache.dns file is removed, Windows 2000/2003 does not attempt to contact any root name servers. It does not have, for these purposes, the root name server’s IP addresses hidden somewhere in the DNS server program code.

The documentation for Windows 2000/2003 actually states at least once that if you have a separate DNS in a closed intranet, you just need to delete the %SystemRoot%\system32\dns\cache.dns file. On the other hand, the same documentation recommends in many other places to follow the same instructions as presented here in Section 9.1 and 9.2. In fact, if you are doing the primary configuration of the DNS server, you are asked whether a root name server should be created. In such a case, Windows 2000/2003 will itself create a %SystemRoot%\system32\dns\root.dns zone file and it will edit the other files itself...