First Look At Windows XP
October 25 Microsoft will release their new operating system Windows XP. They claim it is the biggest upgrade of their operating-system family since Windows 95 was released, both with respect to ‘look and feel’ and the technology behind the scenes.
Windows XP will be available in two versions, Home Edition and Professional, so it is meant as a replacement for both Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000. The Home Edition is simply a subset of the Professional Edition, but we felt that you would be more interested in the Professional release.
We tested the Build 2505 Evaluation Copy of XP Professional. The computers we installed it on had the following specs:
- Pentium 3 running at 876MHz/933MHz
- ASUS CUSL2 815E Solano 2 motherboard
- 256MB/128MB RAM
- Western Digital ATA 100, 18GB
- 3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI
- NVIDA RIVA TNT2, 32MB
- Aopen F50L 15″ TFT LCD Monitor
How Does It Look?
The most obvious change you will notice is the new look of the desktop and task bar. No icons are lined up as default on the left side of the desktop, and the only item present is the recycle bin, which is located in the bottom right corner. Also the Start Menu is quite different compared to how it used to be.
Of course, if you are the curmudgeonly sort who absolutely does not like the new style you can change to the classic 95/…/2000 look-and-feel by setting the Desktop and Start Menu themes to ‘Classic’. Only a few interface details remain to make it apparent that you are using XP, but more about the control panel later.
The start menu immediately shows the most frequently used programs. To access all the other programs you need to click on “All Programs”. This is just a more straightforward way of anticipating your actions then Windows 2000, which did a similar thing by limiting the views of menus and pull downs to most recent actions.
Logging On
When you turn on the computer you will see a screen where all users of that computer are listed.
You simply click on your name and type your password (if you have one). If you have forgotten your password you can see your password hint by pressing the button labeled with the question mark. Hence, you don’t have to type your username and you never have to press Ctrl+Alt+Del to log on. Notice that everyone can therefore see who has an account on the computer. They can even see all the password hints. In addition, the logon screen will give you a reading on how many unread emails you have if you are running Outlook Express.
Switching Users
Several users can be logged in at the same time. This is possible thanks to the “Switch User” feature. You simply hit “Log Off” at the bottom of the Start Menu and choose Switch User from the dialog box that pops up.
You are then returned to the login screen, but under your name it is reported that you currently are logged on and how many programs you have running. Another user can now click on his/hers name and log on, and all of your data and setting is automatically hidden (including email accounts and personal files). After someone logs off the login screen is always displayed.
If someone tries to reset or shut down the computer while other users are logged on and have programs running, they are prompted with a warning.
This “Switch User” feature seem to work very well and it makes it easy for people to share a computer. If you are doing some work on a PC and someone needs to access their personal files on the same PC for a moment, you don’t have to close down anything to let them do so. When they are finished and you click on your name again, the desktop appears identical to how you left it.
Control Panel – Better Knowledge Of Your Hardware
The Control Panel is also organized differently than earlier. Related adjustments are grouped into nine categories.
If you prefer the old organization you can choose “Classic View”:
At first it is a bit difficult to find what you are looking for but as soon as you get used to it you will notice that the grouping organizes the adjustments in a neat way. Shortcuts like “right-clicking” on the desktop and selecting “properties” to get to Display Properties still work.
Here is how the account management is organized:
In the “System Properties” panel the processor is now specified more precisely than earlier, compared to when a Pentium III was classified as an “x86 Family” processor.
Control Panel – Better Knowledge Of Your Hardware, Continued
The properties of the processor have also become accessible through the device manager, and XP supports dual processors directly.
Windows XP can also display an overview of the computer configuration. In our case it was not able to detect the correct amount of RAM. Instead of 256MB it reported 64MB.
This was also the case when opening the System Information panel. The bottom line shows that the total amount of physical memory is 64 MB. Hopefully this bug will be fixed in the final version.
Another interesting feature is that you can choose the action to be taken when the power button is pressed.
The user can also easily choose which icons that are to be displayed on the desktop.
Installation
When installing Win XP the setup program performs a compatibility-test of both the installed hardware and software, and the available disk space. The Preliminary System Requirements is as follows:
- PC with 300-MHz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system); Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
- 128 MB of RAM or higher recommended (64MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
- Super VGA (800 X 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor;
- 1.5 GB of available hard disk space
- CD-ROM or DVD drive
- Keyboard
- Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
All these requirements are subject to change when the final version is released. In our case the generated Upgrade Report looked like this:
The hardware components that caused the warnings had already been removed from the system and did therefore not lead to any problems, but the required 1.5 GB of available hard disk space forced us to install a new hard drive. All present hardware were detected without any problems. When adding new hardware a message simply pops up in the notification area (if XP detects the hardware properly).
Windows Explorer
The Windows Explorer has also gotten a face-lift. Besides the look of the buttons it has also gotten some new features. If you browse a folder and close the “Folders” toolbar, the tree-view of the drives and folders on the computer is replaced with some handy shortcuts.
If you select any item(s) in that folder, additional tasks that is likely to be performed on the selection is displayed.
The most interesting feature is probably its ability to handle compressed zip files. It is no longer necessary to install WinZip to compress or decompress data. Zip files are simply shown as folders with a zipper on, and double clicking them will open them as if they were folders.
To compress data you just select the files and folders to zip, right-click, and choose “Send To -> Compressed Folder”.
Windows Explorer, Continued
If you right click on a file the “Open With” option has shortcuts to some recommended programs for that file type, and in most cases this saves you from having to choose from all programs installed on the computer. Earlier this was quite time consuming because it could take several seconds to display the list of all installed programs.
If you open a folder with images, you can view them as a “Filmstrip”. This displays the images similar to how third party viewers like ACDsee does, so it is no longer necessary to install such programs to quickly browse through pictures.
When you double click on an image it is automatically opened in “Windows Picture and Fax Viewer”. This viewer gives you a larger view of the image and enables some other display and formatting options. If you zoom in on the image it smoothens the enlarged pixels such that it looks like a natural magnification. The image below shows how a snapshot of the start menu looks when it is magnified with “Windows Picture and Fax Viewer”.
If the same image is magnified with Microsoft Photo editor it will look like this:
Taskbar – Easing The Process Of Opening Up Multiple Applications
One new feature of the taskbar is that you can lock it. This prevents you from resizing it or moving it around by accident. After you have customized it (for example set the size of the “Quick Launch” toolbar) you simply right-click on it and choose “Lock the Taskbar”.
If you have a lot of Word Documents open in Win 98/…/2000 one button appears for each of them. In XP these buttons can be consolidated such that only one button is present for each application. A number on the buttons then tells you how many windows/documents is open in each of the running programs. Here five windows of Internet Explorer are open.
When you click on the consolidated taskbar button a list of all the open windows in the current program is displayed.
The area earlier often referred to as the “system tray” is now named the “Notification Area”. In the taskbar properties you can choose to hide icons in that area that you have not clicked recently.
Activation
Windows XP requires you to activate your copy within 14 days after you first install it. Until you do that you will be reminded about how many days are left before you need to activate.
This activation ensures that a licensed copy of XP only is installed on one single computer. If you install it on a second computer and try to activate, you will be notified that the license is already activated. If you activate your copy over the Internet it is just a matter of a few clicks on the mouse. Registering your personal data is still optional.
If you upgrade your system heavily, or format the hard drive and need to reinstall the operation system, you need to contact Microsoft by phone to reactivate the license. This is because the activation software now might think it is being installed on a new computer. According to the End User License Agreement you are allowed to install the same license on a desktop and a laptop at the same time. It will therefore be interesting to see how Microsoft will solve this issue when they release the product.
Check out Microsoft’s Product Activation FAQ.
Notification Of New Programs
When you install new programs their shortcuts on the start menu will be highlighted.
When the other users log on for the first time after new programs have been installed they will be notified that the start menu contains shortcuts to new applications.
Internet Explorer 6.0
One of the new features of version 6.0 is “Smart Tags”, which is somewhat similar to “Tool Tips” but also function as links. They can be recognized by purple dotted lines under words or phrases. By hovering the mouse over them a small box with some info and links appear.
A similar feature is a small toolbar that is displayed in the top left corner of images when you hover the mouse over them. The toolbar contains shortcuts for saving, printing and emailing and the image, and opening the My Pictures folder.
Java Support
As you probably have heard Microsoft decided to not include built-in support for Java applications in Windows XP. Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is the software that enables you to run Java applets, and according to Sun Microsystems Microsoft was distributing a JVM that was not compatible with their version of JVM. After an out-of-court settlement with Sun in January this year Microsoft decided to phase out its own JVM. This does not mean that you cannot display web pages with java content. Microsoft’s JVM is still available for download and the first time you open a page containing an applet or open an application that requires JVM the following message pops up:
If you choose “Download” the JVM from Microsoft is installed, but you can at this point cancel and download any other JVM (for instance from Sun Microsystems).
Windows Media Player
XP comes with the new version 8 of Windows Media Player.
Similar to version 7.1 its features include a Radio Tuner and the ability to rip music from an audio CD. For audio the default decoding is in Windows Media Audio (WMA), which improves upon MP3 by delivering CD-quality music at half the size of MP3. Windows Media Player can of course play MP3 files, but you need to install the upcoming MP3 Creation Pack to rip songs from CDs in MP3 format. You can install support for other encoding technologies, and the Options panel then let you choose the quality (up to 192Kbps for WMA) and which codex to use.
In this panel there is also links to sites with comparison information about different encoding technologies. Sadly Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is not mentioned here at all, which is one of today’s most efficient technologies for digital audio compression. This seems like a swipe at MPEG by Microsoft because, Microsoft’s format is competing directly with open MPEG solutions.
When you rip CDs Windows Media Player automatically organizes the WMA files in artist/album folders. The picture that identifies the Artist folder in Thumbnails view consists of small images of the album covers for the four first albums you ripped by that artist.
When you open an artist folder there is one subfolder for each album, which are imprinted with the album cover.
For Windows Media Player being able to fetch the album information and images, you of course have to be connected to the Internet.
Windows Media Player 8 supports copy protection of music ripped from CDs. This involves that music that has been ripped on one computer cannot be played on anther computer. You are actually able to turn off this feature so the question is how valuable it is for the artists after all.
Windows Media Player is also capable of playing DVD movies, but this still requires a software or hardware decoder from a third-party.
Remote Assistance
XP enables you to let other people take control over your computer remotely. The intention is that you can get remote help from someone you trust, and that they get the same level of control over your computer as if they were present in your office. To use this feature they also need to run Windows XP.
When you invite someone to help you they are notified by email or an instant message (Windows Messenger). It is actually very fast and easy to set up a connection. First you choose whom to ask for help.
When contacting the assistant with Windows Messenger the connection is set up as soon as he clicks on a link reading “Accept” in the message. If email is used a small file is attached, and opening it let him set up the connection. You must provide the password in the email.
Remote Assistance, Continued
The assistance can now see your desktop inside a window on his desktop.
In a window on your computer you can control the connection status and chat with the assistant.
The assistant can at first only view your desktop. When he presses the button “Take Control” you must confirm that he is allowed to do so.
If you want to protect your computer from being controlled remotely (unintentionally) you can disable this feature in the System Properties panel.
Remote Desktop Connection
This is a feature that lets you log into your computer remotely. If you leave your PC at the office on when you go home you can work on it from there just like you were in the office.
The desktop of the computer you are connection to is displayed inside a window. If you choose Full Screen, the remote desktop appears to belong to the local computer. The only thing that reveals that it isn’t is a small auto-hide box at the top of the screen that displays the IP address of the remote computer.
Wizard For Setting Up A Home Or Small Office Network
This feature walks you through all the steps involved in setting up a small network. It even gives you suggestions and tips about how to structure the connections between the computers. The recommended topology in our case was to let one computer connect to the internet and have the other PC linked to this via a hub.
Remember that this particular configuration requires two network cards installed in the computer that is directly connected to the Internet.
This wizard helped us set up a new network with a shared Internet connection and printer in less than one hour (including the installation of the network cards). All computers connected to the network does not need to run Window XP, even though a small setup program has to be run on each of them. This program can be found on the XP installation CD and is compatible with Windows 98 and Me. Windows 2000 has its own network connection wizard.
Integrated Firewall – Finally, the OS gets security conscious.
For the first time Windows has a built-in firewall. A firewall is a program protects the computers in your network from being illegally accessed by unauthorized people (hackers).
When visiting the “Gibson Research Corporation” website (grc.com) and running “Shields Up” our computer running XP was reported to be in stealth mode. Shields Up test if someone easily can access personal information on your computer, or actually take control over it, while you are connected to the Internet. Stealth mode means that the computer is inaccessible.
The Internet Connection Firewall does not have a lot of configuration options, so users that want to be in control over their Internet traffic will still probably find it necessary to install a third-party firewall.
Other Built-In Features
Windows Messenger, earlier named MSN Messenger, is in XP automatically installed. This is an similar messenger service to AOL Messenger.
Windows XP also have an “File and Setting Transfer Wizard” that helps you transfer all your personal data from an other computer. The intended use of this wizard is when you buy a new computer and want to transfer your current system onto that. A system administrator can do this for several accounts at the same time with the User State Migration Tool.
Movie Maker is a program that let you just transfer video from your analog or digital video camera, and edit and arrange the clips to create movies.
Improved Features
Microsoft claims that XP will boot quicker than earlier versions of Windows. In our case this turned out to be true. We also noticed that the time it takes to shut down is reduced, and the stability of the system has so far been good.
The driver support for digital cameras and similar devises is greatly improved. This makes even XP Professional more suited for home use if compared to Windows 2000. The Driver Rollback feature lets you return to the last working driver if installation of a new one fails.
The security is also improved. The most noticeable difference is that you are alerted when a cookie tries to share your personal settings.
Some security issues have also become worse. Since Windows XP has full Raw Socket support, it can be used to “Spoof” the computer’s actual IP address. This is explained in greater detail at www.grc.com, but it makes it easier for hackers to use Windows computers in attacks of different types.
Everything But The Kitchen Sink
With the release of Windows XP it is becoming more apparent than ever that Windows no longer is just an operating system. More and more features are integrated, and the need for third-party software is decreasing, at some levels.
The built-in applications from Microsoft are not always the best ones, but for most users they are good enough. At the extreme, this is going to put a big dent into smaller development houses who come up with the tools and shareware that do the little things people need, like browsing image files. XP would dampen any developers enthusiasm for penetrating the Windows universe, knowing that what they do might eventually end up in the OS.
Considering that Windows XP has all of the following features, there will be a decreasing number of users that will bother choosing similar third-party applications. Maybe not the sophisticated user, but certainly, it can make corporation and home users think twice about investing in certain add-on apps and tools.
- Instant messenger
- Copyright encoding of music
- Browser for images
- Remote access
- CD burning
- CD ripping or audio encoding software
- Digital Audio player
- Video player
- Internet browser
- Firewall
- Data compression
- Moviemaker
- Small games
- Radio
With Microsoft Office installed the list becomes even longer
- Word processor
- Spreadsheet program
- Data base program
- Presentation program
- Organizer (calendar)
- Image Editor
- Web page editor
Conclusions
The most negative part of Windows XP seems to be the activation of the system, which can only be done on one computer per license. The corporate will probably not have a problem with this; he is buying it for or together with a complete system that probably never will need a reinstallation. The biggest problem is going to be for the enthusiast who might change his system such that a reinstallation will be necessary quite often. It might for him become a hassle to reactivate the license via Microsoft’s support all the time.
XP has a lot going for it. It’s a little pointless to compare the performance of XP to previous versions of Windows. The reality is that every operating system from Microsoft uses more resources and takes up more of your hardware than the one preceding it. We wanted to look at it from the point of view of guys who have to sit in front of the screen 10, 12, sometimes 16 hours a day. So, a new interface is welcomed, if it is good. XP’s new look and feel seems to be an improvement.
The other really noticeable feature is that XP’s remote assistance and access tools are going to directly target freebie applications like VNC, and things like pcAnywhere, or GoToMyPC. Microsoft is integrating features into the XP OS that will, in effect, deliver remote support and access technologies to anyone implementing an XP server. The remote assistance and access tools in XP worked very nicely, and are integrated with Microsoft’s Instant Messaging so, they’re pretty user friendly. A boon for help desk staff, and maybe a nice way for the average home user to lend a hand to grandma, or that sibling who never seems to be able to configure his PC.
Maybe one strong argument for XP is that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole so, it’s worth that upgrade price. On the other hand, we’re using XP here in the office on a couple of computers, and heck, it’s not bad. We’d buy into it. Barring the “anything-but-Microsoft” argument, there isn’t a good reason not to take the plunge with XP. Once the full version is out, it’ll be time to test out its gaming performance, and also, to look out how the more popular applications will take advantage of XP’s features.
So, it might be nice to be down on Microsoft because, they are evil capitalists with no soul (or, at least some people say), but that’s not a good enough reason to shun XP. It might also be true that the Justice Department didn’t do much of anything to thwart the barriers that Microsoft’s monopoly puts in front of other PC software developers, but that doesn’t really impact the fact that XP does a good job.
Tough call.