dacs.doc electric

 

My Own E"XP"erience

By Richard Corzo

 

Windows XP Desktop.Windows XP is the long-awaited merger of Microsoft’s consumer and business versions of Windows. The consumer line started with Windows 95, then Windows 98 and last year Windows Me. Though it ran 32-bit applications, for compatibility with older software it still had some 16-bit DOS code underneath. The business line of Windows began with Windows NT followed by Windows 2000. It was fully 32-bit and was more reliable due to its memory protection and preemptive multitasking. In other words, it was better at running multiple programs at once without risk of a system crash, but had to sacrifice some compatibility with older software.

My computer is about three years old, a Pentium II 266 MHz with memory upgraded to 192 MB RAM. It barely meets the absolute minimum requirements of a 233 MHz processor and 64 MB of RAM. Microsoft actually recommends at least 300 MHz and 128 MB of RAM. The computer industry would consider my computer already obsolete, but I find that with proper maintenance (for example, a weekly defrag using Raxco’s (www.raxco.com) (PerfectDisk 2000) it runs fine for most things I do. Microsoft has also suggested elsewhere that Windows XP will run best on computers manufactured since January 2000. However, since I had tried Windows XP Beta 2 and Release Candidates 1 and 2, I had reason to believe that it would run fine on my machine.

Windows XP comes in Home ($99 upgrade or $199 full) and Professional ($199 upgrade or $299 full) editions. Both use a common code base. XP Professional is a superset of XP Home, and any program or driver that runs on XP Home is guaranteed to run on XP Professional. This couldn’ t be said of Windows Me and Windows 2000, or most certainly of Windows 95 or 98 and Windows NT 4.0. XP Home has all the features a typical home user would need, while XP Professional adds business-oriented features such as the ability to log in to Windows NT/2000 servers, and encrypt files and folders. One feature in Professional that might be of interest to some home users is the inclusion of Microsoft’s Web server called Internet Information Server. A Web server was included in Windows 98, but not in Windows Me, or the new XP Home. Of course, rather than spending the extra $100 on Professional you could run a free Web server like Apache (www.apache.org).

Installation

I chose to try Windows XP Professional, since I was already running Windows 2000 at home. You can upgrade an existing Windows 98 or Me, but not 95; installation with either XP Home or Professional.Professional can also upgrade NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 Professional. Most users like the idea of upgrading their existing operating system rather than doing a clean install, because they don’t have to reinstall all their programs, or somehow save and restore all their settings and files. However, this is not the way to achieve a system with the highest reliability or fewest problems.

The Windows XP CD comes with an upgrade advisor that will analyze your existing software and hardware for compatibility with XP. There is also a File and Settings Transfer Wizard that can transfer your needed files and settings from an old computer to a new computer, or from your original partition to a new installation. The wizard gathers up everything into a single package folder. You just need a place to put it so that you can transfer the package, perhaps a Zip drive, a CD that you burn, a network drive, or another partition if you will be installing XP on the same machine.

I initially upgraded a partition that was running XP Professional Release Candidate 2 and that seemed to go pretty smoothly. However, I was interested in doing a clean install, so I deleted an extra partition that I no longer needed. I was able to use the File and Settings Transfer Wizard to transfer things like my Internet Explorer Favorites from the original to the new installation.

Blue Skies and Green Pastures

Windows XP Control PanelWindows XP has a redesigned "task-oriented" user interface. Cosmetically, you’ll notice the use of bright primary colors. The initial desktop picture is one of blue skies and green pastures, a metaphor for what Microsoft hopes you will experience. Functionally, you’ll notice the new Start menu, which is now divided into two columns. The left column contains icons for your default Web browser and e-mail program, other programs you specifically choose, your most frequently used programs, and an access point called All Programs. If you hover or click on this, you will see a cascading menu with all your program folders like Accessories and Games. The right column of the main Start menu has icons like My Computer and My Documents, and you can customize it to add more like My Network Places.

The Control Panel is accessible from the right Start menu column, and has been redesigned to conform to the new task-oriented interface of Windows XP. You’re asked to pick a category such as Appearance and Themes, and then pick a task such as "Change the screen resolution." Alternatively, you can switch to Classic view from the "Pick a category" view and choose one of the traditional Control Panel icons such as Display.

The task-oriented design also becomes evident when you browse certain folders such as My Pictures. In addition to the Thumbnails view seen in recent versions of Windows, there is a new Filmstrip view, where the picture icons are arrayed horizontally at the bottom of the window like a filmstrip, and a selected picture can be viewed in the preview area above it. Folders under My Pictures are shown with small thumbnails of four representative pictures superimposed on the large folder icon, so you have an idea of what kind of pictures the folder contains before you open it. The left side of the window is the task area with groupings for Picture Tasks, File and Folder Tasks, Other Places, and Details. Pictures Tasks are picture-related tasks such "View as a slide show", "Print pictures", or "Order prints online"

A similar strategy is used for the My Music folder, which is designed to hold music files that you have "ripped" from a CD or downloaded from the Internet. You can organize your music in nested folders by artist and by album within artist. If you’ve downloaded the album art to go with the music files in an album folder, this will appear as a small thumbnail on the folder in thumbnail view. Music Tasks that appear in the left column are "Play all" and "Shop for music online". You can use Windows Media Player to encode music CDs as WMA (Windows Media) format files, but if you want to encode in the more popular MP3 format you will need some other program like MUSICMATCH Jukebox (www.musicmatch.com), or you can buy an MP3 Creation Pack (www.microsoft.com/ windows/windowsmedia/windowsxp/experience.asp) for $9.95 from several companies that will enable Windows Media Player to create MP3 files. In order to save licensing fees (and promote their own Windows Media format) Microsoft did not include this capability in Windows XP. Similarly you can buy a DVD Encoder Pack that will enable Windows Media Player to play DVD movies on your DVD-ROM drive.

Support for CD burners is now built into Windows, in that you can use Windows Explorer to copy files from your hard drive to CDR media using a staging area.

Windows XP is broadband-friendly for those who have high-speed Internet connections. It has a built-in PPPOE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) client for making DSL connections, and a new firewall capability. Be forewarned that the Internet Connection Firewall is not enabled by default. You will need to go in to Network Connections, open the Properties for your Internet connection, and enable the firewall from the Advanced tab of the dialog.

I like the new Help and Support component. When I search for keywords, it not only finds relevant information in the local help system, but also finds items from Microsoft’s knowledge base on the Internet. There is a new Remote Assistance feature that lets you invite someone to remotely inspect your computer, but I did not personally try it myself.

Windows XP is customizable almost to a fault. If you don’t like some aspect of it, there is almost always some way to change it, if you can find the control. For example, I was used to having an "X" delete icon on the toolbar of Windows Explorer folders and found myself missing it, but found that I could add it back by going into View > Toolbars > Customize\'85.

Performance and Compatibility

Although my machine is near the minimum requirements for Windows XP, I found performance to be quite good, and boot time significantly faster compared to Windows 2000.

To achieve reliability Microsoft stresses the need for drivers that have been certified for Windows XP. Many drivers are included with Windows XP, but support is not universal. You need to check the Microsoft site, or your vendor’s site for compatibility of your hardware components, printers, scanners, etc., with Windows XP. I have tried to choose components and vendors that provide good driver support, so I had mostly good luck with driver support. Others I know have not been so lucky. For instance, someone I know bought a scanner within the past year, upgraded to XP recently, and found that the scanner is not supported and that the vendor has no current plans to add support for that model scanner under Windows XP. In my case a certified driver was not available for my modem, but the existing driver from previous versions of Windows seems to work fine. Secondly, my Hauppauge TV tuner card does not yet have a certified driver from the manufacturer, despite the fact that they display a certified for XP logo on their Web page. I’m using an uncertified driver downloaded from their Windows XP support page. Occasionally I have seen an error message when I start my TV viewing program, but it doesn’t seem to prevent the program from working.

During the holidays I tried out my sister’s new computer running XP Home edition. I tried installing one of my brother-in-law’s favorite DOS games, but was unable to get the sound to work. There is a compatibility wizard that may help run some Windows programs that were designed for older versions of Windows. I tried it on IBM’s VisualAge for Java, which isn’t compatible with XP, but I still couldn’t get the program to run. All other Windows programs that I’ve tried are working fine. Note that you will need to buy new Windows XP-compatible versions of low-level utility programs such as antivirus and disk utilities.

Recommendations

Windows XP is the best operating system that Microsoft has ever produced, but it does raise the bar on hardware requirements. Some people tend to be happy with what came with their computer and shouldn’t feel compelled to upgrade. If you’re unhappy with what you’ve got (particularly if it’s Windows Me), you have a fairly new computer, you’re comfortable with installing things on your computer, and you're willing to leave behind unsupported hardware or software, then Windows XP may be a good move for you. Certainly if you’re in the market for a new computer, make sure it has Windows XP installed. You’ll thank yourself later.


Richard Corzo is a computer programmer currently working in Ridgefield, CT. He has contributed past articles on PC operating systems and utilities. You can contact him at rcorzo@earthlink.net.

BackHomeNext