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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Should you set your sights on Windows XP? By Matt Lake and Josh Mehlman, Technology & Business October 24, 2001 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Should-you-set-your-sights-on-Windows-XP-/0,130061733,120261421,00.htm
 Microsoft's Windows XP has received a fair amount of hype in the lead up to its release-Matt Lake and Josh Mehlman assess its usefulness for businesses. After a build up of Hollywood proportions, Microsoft has released its final cut of Windows XP. PC makers received final code at the end of September, and you'll be able to pick up your own copy from October 25, although some vendors will most likely release systems with XP pre-installed before that date. So is XP worth all the hype? Grudgingly, we say yes. This major upgrade at long last ends the distinction between the corporate (and more stable) Windows NT/2000 and the consumer-oriented Windows 95/98/Millennium. XP provides similar variations of the same OS for both low-end and business: XP Home and XP Professional editions. On the outside, XP looks radically different from any previous Windows version. It's spiffier, with both aesthetic and functional redesigns, and features log-in screens across both versions-something many Windows 95/98 users have never seen. Like any radical overhaul, XP takes some getting used to--we often lost patience with it--but, after time, it's hard not to like the new design. While its new, hand-holding "task-oriented" design may annoy experienced users, Microsoft nevertheless managed to create an OS that works equally well for novices, corporate users, and enthusiasts. Despite hefty system requirements (a Pentium II-300 or faster, 128MB of RAM, and 1.5GB of free disk space), onerous product activation, and some not-so-obvious touting of Microsoft's business partners, you'll want to consider an upgrade-if not immediately, certainly the next time you buy a PC. For corporate desktops, administrators will find compelling reasons to upgrade, and even to bypass Windows 2000 entirely. Product activation and interface Installing Windows XP will involve less guesswork than previous versions. Microsoft is releasing a compatibility checker called Upgrade Advisor that you can download or get on CD from computer retailers. The Advisor checks system-level software and hardware drivers against a database of compatible products and warns you of any possible problems with your configuration. This is a handy feature, and one that can download an updated list of compatible products when you run it, if you allow it to.
We did encounter some compatibility problems with a few standard-configuration PCs only a couple of months old (modem enumerator software, virus checkers, and Roxio's DirectCD and rollback software GoBack were all flagged as problems). But after uninstalling some apps and getting updated versions of others, the operating system did install OK. (While this was a nuisance, it beat the Windows 2000 experience of installing an operating system and losing hardware altogether.) Activate me If you've ever upgraded a Windows OS, you're probably used to entering a lengthy CD key, or code, to install new Microsoft software. But if you buy XP off the shelf, you'll go through another compulsory step called activation. Most PC vendors who preinstall XP will have completed this task for you, and versions bought under corporate site licenses don't need to be activated. Activation isn't the same as registration (which asks you to provide personal info to Microsoft), but you must complete activation within 30 days of installation, or the OS will stop working. While we understand the intent, it's a slightly annoying roadblock. Expensive extra licenses The activation antipiracy step prevents you from installing XP on more than one computer, and it's a bit of a nuisance, especially if you don't have an Internet connection set up. Online activation is painless, but the telephone method takes 10 minutes or longer and involves reading and typing about 100 digits. The activation scheme checks the IDs of 10 different hardware components to create a special code for your PC. If your hard drive dies or you change your network interface card or reconfigure more than five of these components in your system, you'll have to reactivate your copy of XP. Reactivation is a relatively painless process in which you must call Microsoft, explain your situation, and get a new activation number-not difficult, but it could prove annoying. Under the bonnet Under XP's prettier face, the new OS sports a set of godsends that Microsoft calls PC Health features, rewritten since their Windows Me introduction. There's a rollback feature called System Restore that takes XP's system state back to a previous date in the event of some catastrophic problem, which is akin to, but not as thorough as, Roxio GoBack. There are also two new features to prevent device driver disasters. Microsoft maintains a list of known defective drivers and if one is installed, it won't work and a dialog will tell you why the driver wasn't installed. There's a driver rollback feature, too. Whenever you install a new driver, Windows keeps a copy of the old driver, and if something goes wrong, it's easy to roll back to the original. XP's new Help And Support feature is easier to navigate. It features shorter topic lists that expand as you click them, instead of reams of task-driven help topics, and includes close links to the Microsoft Knowledge Base and online support, Windows Update, and other tools. We put three questions to three versions of Windows-Me, 2000, and XP-and found that XP's help was generally easier to understand, especially compared to Windows 2000's. Easier to manageWindows XP includes enhancements to the IntelliMirror management system that was introduced in Windows 2000. This allows users' data and settings to follow them, no matter which computer they log in from. Policy settings now also allow administrators to adjust how users can use features such as remote assistance or the Windows Media Player. A new set of group policy management tools is expected to be included in Windows .Net Server. The Auto Update feature periodically checks if there are new security patches or other software updates available. It can be set to automatically download and install these updates in the background without any user intervention, or it can have several degrees of manual control. XP Professional also includes Remote Desktop technology, based on Windows Terminal Services, which allows you to access the desktop remotely over a network or the Internet. New features include the ability to access files on the remote computer as if they were on a network shared drive and the ability to access printers and other peripherals attached to the remote computer. Internet and networking Windows XP puts the Internet on centre stage, beginning with its set up routine. Before the installer even begins, XP asks to check online for any updates. After the check, XP offers networking wizards galore, plus remote control tools and a built-in firewall. And, of course, there's the new Internet Explorer 6. Given XP's Net-dependence, you'll get the most out of this OS if you're blessed with high-speed Net access such as DSL or cable.
Network setup wizardry Windows XP uses streamlined new wizards to configure Internet and local networking settings, and they're certainly a big improvement for home users and pros alike. The Network Setup wizard rolls the older Home Networking and Internet Connection wizards into one. It starts with a basic checklist of things you need to do before continuing (such as configuring a LAN, installing network cards and cabling, and turning everything on) and steps you through the rest. Using easy default settings, we hooked up PCs running XP Home and Professional editions to an existing network, then launched the wizard from the XP installation disk and added Windows Me PCs. The whole process went without a hitch, and we were finished in less than half an hour. If you're ambitious, you can network much more with XP. The networking wizard detects whether you're on a gateway computer, one that connects the rest of the network to the Internet, and can set up connection sharing automatically (if you approve the idea). XP also supports network bridging, a complicated business that connects different networking standards such as Ethernet and 802.11b wireless networking on a single PC. In fact, XP's wireless support is greatly improved over previous versions; it automatically detects and configures many 802.11b interface cards without any fuss. This is good news, since configuring network settings ranks right up there with removing pine splinters from your hands after woodworking.
Wider Windows Messenger Once you're online, Windows XP jumps on you to sign up for Passport, a free online proof-of-identity scheme that Microsoft uses to verify your identity for Hotmail, online chat accounts, and electronic commerce. XP throws all kinds of Passport-enabled services into XP, ranging from automatic Hotmail activity notification to a video-and-voice-enabled chat client called Windows Messenger. Pity it doesn't have the real killer feature: compatibility with what everyone's using for instant messaging, ICQ, and AOL Instant Messenger. The bait to lure you to the Passport den is the new Windows Messenger-a beefy revamping of the wimpy MSN Messenger instant messenger. The new Messenger tool (not yet available as a separate download) lards serious conferencing tools on top of the regular, typed chat windows. Messenger adds two-way audio and video, application sharing (in which your chat buddy views and controls programs on your PC), and whiteboarding (the ability to share freehand drawings and other graphics). Messenger even integrates with Remote Assistance, a feature that lets you yield control of your system to a helpdesk operator or friend (with enough password protection and time limitations to allay any fear of hacking). Windows Messenger shares contact lists and a back-end network with MSN Messenger, but it doesn't work with Microsoft's existing conferencing software, NetMeeting. Passport to .NetIf you choose to sign up for Messenger, Microsoft automatically equips you with a Passport account and its authentication, which you already have if you use Hotmail. Passport purports to let you move seamlessly into more of Microsoft's Web-based services and partners. It automatically logs you on to partner sites, such as Hotmail, MSN.com, and many more. Gosh, the whole Internet is like one big Microsoft site! The ultimate goal of Passport is to have you create a wallet that stores your credit card information, and billing and shipping addresses, much like Amazon.com's one-click purchasing. If this all sounds too Big Brother-ish, then Windows XP is probably not the operating system for you. You don't actually have to give up much information to have a Passport though, and you don't have to put your credit card info in a Passport account either. But Passport itself plays a crucial role in Microsoft's much-discussed .Net strategy, and links to online services are all over XP. Every Windows Explorer window, for instance, includes a link for publishing its contents to the Web. Click it, and you can send files to MSN Communities or Xdrive, using Passport authentication. Plug in a digital camera, and a wizard offers to publish pictures to a Web site or send them to partner photo developers such as Kodak and Fuji. This type of online integration is handy if you adore all destinations Microsoft, but it's stifling. For example, we prefer the ability to choose our own FTP or Web sites to upload files to instead of being forced to use Microsoft's limited choices. Open source advocates and the competition are screaming bloody murder about such Net domination.
A sense of security Worried about hackers? You're smart, not paranoid. Automated scripts constantly probe computers on the Internet for back doors, and Windows XP is doing something about it. As a nod to security, Windows XP features a software firewall to block stealthy hack attacks on your network connections, dial-up and broadband alike. XP's Internet Connection Firewall makes your PC invisible while you're on the Net, though it won't stop hackers from sending you viruses over e-mail or through a hacked Web site. Enable the firewall at the Networking control panel for each of your possible connections. (If you have an AOL and a separate broadband connection, for example, you must turn on the firewall for both; otherwise, you'll leave one connection open-and it's not on by default.) We tested the firewall by visiting Gibson Research's site, which tests computer ports for vulnerabilities by using ShieldsUp and a variety of other security-probing Web programs. The results were encouraging. The site detected the IP address of our test system (not unusual even with hardware firewall products), but XP also stealthed, or completely hid, all of our networking ports. By concealing these virtual back doors, XP's firewall prevented most forms of script-based hack attacks-and more power to Microsoft for providing the tool. Its blocking ability matched that of a hardware firewall on our test machine (Sohoware BroadGuard) and software firewalls from Norton and Zone Labs, although it did not keep a log of hack attempts as ZoneAlarm does. So does it replace these third-party options? No, not really, but if you don't have them installed, it's nice to have this option already in your operating system. Hardware and software compatibility Microsoft has admitted that Windows 2000 and NT suffered from huge hardware and software compatibility flaws. It paid for this lackadaisical attitude, too: Windows 2000 never really worked with consumer hardware and games. Thankfully, Windows XP fixes much of the problem. The XP CD ships with built-in support for about 12,000 devices-twice as many as Windows 2000 right out of the box-with other drivers available via the System Update feature, which downloads drivers as part of the installation process. In our tests, formal and informal, XP picked up much of the hardware we threw at it without a hitch, from USB storage devices and keyboards to MP3 players. In some cases, however, we weren't so lucky. XP flagged a newer Lexmark X83 multifunction device as incompatible, so we're holding out for online updates (something Lexmark and Microsoft will have to work out among themselves). As for software, XP promises to support 1200 legacy applications out of the box and offers its Compatibility Mode, which checks to see which version of Windows your software needs, then emulates it. Like Windows Me and 2000, Windows XP is not built on a DOS core, but you'll find a revamped DOS virtual machine for running those old 16-bit games that you should have retired by now. However, XP won't give direct access to hardware such as memory and sound cards, which is how old DOS games used to work, so you can't expect every old piece of DOS-ware to work. But be warned: some programs prevent Windows XP from installing. If you're running deep, system-level programs such as Roxio GoBack, you'll need to uninstall them before you can proceed. In some cases, you can reinstall these programs afterwards, but this will work only if the program is compatible with XP. And you won't know that until you run Upgrade Advisor on your computer and it tells you the current status quo.
Checking compatibilityIf you have any doubts about whether your system's components and software will work under Windows XP, you could go the long route and check Microsoft's hardware compatibility list, which grows by leaps and bounds, or use Microsoft's spiffy new compatibility checker, called the Upgrade Advisor. This tool comes on the Windows XP Professional and Home edition disks but is also available from Microsoft's XP Web site. (Microsoft plans to distribute Upgrade Advisor CDs for free at many retailers so that you can check your PC's hardware and software before you decide to upgrade, or it may offer the program as a 35MB download.) On our test systems, Upgrade Advisor flagged several common programs as potentially incompatible (including Roxio DirectCD, Norton AntiVirus, Logitech Mouseware, MusicMatch Jukebox, and Norton SystemWorks), and recommended uninstalling some of them. There were fewer hardware issues, but it flagged the aforementioned Lexmark MFD as well as some modems and older monitors. Some turned out to be false alarms, since the hardware worked fine after installation. However, take the Upgrade Advisor's recommendations seriously. We suffered some hideous crashes that we eventually traced to an older version of DirectCD software-which Upgrade Advisor flagged and we kept anyway-that clashed with XP. Incompatible software? No problem Software compatibility is a tricky beast, but Microsoft's Compatibility Mode overcomes some of these issues. If a program refuses to run under XP, right-click its icon and select Properties and the Compatibility tab. There, you can choose an operating system to emulate-one that you think the software would run on (Windows 95/98/Me/NT 4.0/2000). Compatibility Mode also offers 256-colour mode and 640 x 480-pixel screen resolution. Once you've set the mode that you think will work, XP keeps track of the settings and runs the program in that mode the next time around. We tested this feature with some old CD-ROM titles from the early 1990s, including some first-release Living Books and corporate databases. The feature worked fine for us.
However, it doesn't end there. Administrators can create custom compatibility databases for individual applications, whcih provides a much more granular control over the various compatibility fixes and even allows the use of custom drivers and DLLs. The compatibility databases can be included in user policies and deployed across the network. The Interface Windows XP looks a lot better than-and very different from-any previous Windows version. From the outset, XP presents login buttons for each of your PC's users-a look that owes a lot to MSN Explorer's interface. Click your name (and enter an optional password), and XP whisks you off to a screen with rounded, 3D-looking taskbar and dialog boxes. By default, only the Recycle Bin icon shows up on the clean desktop. (You can, however, elect to view a 95-style desktop if you switch to the Windows Classic view.) The enhancements aren't just visual; some of them make XP easier to use than previous Windows versions. For example, if you open four or five Microsoft Word or Explorer windows, XP groups all the windows for each application under a single button. Click the Word button, for instance, and you'll see a pop-up window with a list of all your open documents. Far-ranging Explorers Click to open any folder, and you'll see that XP boasts all-new Explorer windows. Each folder window contains a left-hand bar full of links to common tasks. The My Computer folder, for example, sports links in three categories-System Tasks, Other Places, and Details-that let you access the Control Panel, My Documents, the Add/Remove Programs utility, and additional settings. In other folder windows, you'll see options for sharing the folder on a network, publishing it to the Web, or making a new subfolder. As far as convenience goes, this feature is a winner. We like having important options in obvious places. Starting over XP's new Start menu looks completely different, too. The two-column affair links to the usual desktop suspects: My Documents, My Computer, and program folders in the left panel and programs and documents in the right panel. The first time you run Windows XP, the Start menu lists a few preset Microsoft favourites, including Media Player, MSN Explorer, and Windows Movie Maker, with an additional link to your installed programs. As you run software, Windows adds your most recently used apps to the list and drops others as you go. If, however, you want a permanent link, you can right-click a program item to "pin" it to the Start menu. To access the rest of your programs, Windows XP provides an All Programs cascading menu that sorts programs and program folders alphabetically. XP's Explorer window links to additional useful features in its left-hand pane. Also helpful, the Windows taskbar now collects all open windows from the same application into condensed pop-up menus. The new Start menu arrangement takes getting used to, but with a little judicious rearrangement, you can quickly get your work space up to peak efficiency. You can still, for example, drag a favourite program or file from Explorer onto the Start button to put a shortcut into the Start menu, and there's nothing stopping you from dragging My Documents or My Computer from the Start menu to the desktop to make shortcuts.
Super simple searchAlso in the Start menu, XP renames the Windows 95/98 Find feature Search (as it's called in Windows Me). The new version, thankfully, has evolved. Those who understand wildcard searching can still use it, but Search serves up many new hand-holding tricks. It asks a question ("What do you want to search for?") and lets you search under plain-English categories such as "Pictures, music, or video" and "Documents (Word, Excel, etc.)". And you can now search the Web using the Start menu's search form, too-great, although the default engine is MSN Search. Happily, you can change the default engine to one of a fistful of options, including Google, Yahoo, AskJeeves, Excite, and more. For real technophobes, Microsoft also throws in a cartoon doggie to wag its tail underneath the search box, but lets you switch it off, thankfully. Digital media XP has a new name for what we used to call multimedia: digital media. Indeed, XP handles all kinds of digital media, including video, still pictures, and music, with aplomb previously lacking in Microsoft operating systems. XP even has native support for burning CD-Rs and writing to RW disks, and it works better with removable devices in general. Autoplay it again Windows XP boasts a vastly improved autoplay capability. First introduced in Windows 95, autoplay automatically launched audio CDs and CD-ROM titles when they were loaded into the drive. As soon as XP determines the media type or source, be it a digital camera or a blank CD-R, it pops up a dialog box listing the appropriate, associated programs, such as a DVD player or an editing app. Make the appropriate selection, and Windows XP loads it. Check off the option, and XP will repeat the action every time you load that media. Best of all, Windows maintains control over autoplay.
Playing sounds The revamped Windows Media Player for Windows XP looks and works better than previous versions, though it won't rip to MP3 format without a third-party add-on (one that you need to buy separately-an unpopular idea indeed!). You can add lyrics to Windows Media Audio (WMA) and MP3 files using standard ID3, or metadata, tags, and display CD album art as you play tracks. Unfortunately, Media Player relies on AMG for the track listings. Rival Gracenote's CDDB, which is favoured by other jukebox software, offers more complete and accurate data. Better yet, Media Player finally supports CD burning on PCs with CD-R/RW drives. To burn a CD, just click the "Copy to CD or portable device" tab and import a playlist. Alternatively, select WMA, MP3, or WAV files in Explorer and select the Record To CD option, which opens Media Player's CD recording screen. Notable improvements, but you still can't rip audio tracks from CDs in MP3 format. Instead, you have to pay for a third-party plug-in. Until the plug-in arrives, you're stuck with Microsoft's own WMA format. WMA files sound better to our ears than MP3s at a similar rate of compression, so this is more of a concern for MP3 purists. Burn speed XP's built-in CD burner is a big plus and eliminates the need for third-party packages such as Easy CD Creator-if you have simple CD-burning desires. But it won't design jewel case inserts and disk labels, for example, and the wizard hides certain settings, such as those for controlling your drive's burn speed, but you can change the speed by using Windows Explorer. And its handling of UDF-formatted RW disks (such as those created by Roxio's DirectCD) is also confusing. Windows can read DirectCD-formatted disks, but it can't write data to them. In other words, you must reformat DirectCD-formatted RWs to add data to them under Windows XP. More "digital media" features XP easily adds scanners and digital cameras to the list of disk drives and folders in My Computer. But XP organises and stores photos more efficiently than its predecessor. Plug in your camera, and XP launches a wizard that helps you move pictures from the camera onto your hard drive. To get images from scanners, you have to launch the wizard manually and acquire images one by one, but the wizard provides the same image-manipulation functions. It lets you rotate and position photos, download them to your hard drive, upload them to the Internet, or delete them from the camera with a single command. It's the very soul of simplicity. But if you're comfortable with your old TWAIN software, you don't have to abandon it; this wizard just gives you more options. XP's redesigned My Pictures folder kicks a little posterior, too. Turn on the Thumbnail view in the View menu, and even folder icons display thumbnails of photos within. You'll see up to four thumbnails on any My Pictures subfolder that contains graphics. You can also order prints of any graphic directly from within the folder via a link to one of Microsoft's online photo-printing service partners (currently, Kodak and Fuji). Frankly, this feature is superfluous, unless you're collecting referral dollars as Microsoft undoubtedly is, but some people will find it useful. XP numbers your graphics sequentially as they land on your hard drive to ensure that you don't overwrite any pics, and the wizard cuts down on duplicates by letting you know if you've already copied a picture from your camera. Printing graphics is also considerably easier, as the Photo Printing wizard lets you select any pictures you want in hard copy and send the job off in a batch. Windows XP benchmark tests
Case Study: New Equipment for the FarmshedWhile we hear a great deal about how rural Australia lags behind the cities in access to and adoption of the Internet, this hasn't stopped The Farmshed from wanting to be a one stop shop on the Internet for the agricultural sector. More to the point, by providing decision support services, market intelligence, and a marketplace for agribusiness inputs, The Farmshed wants to use the Internet to introduce efficiencies into Australian agriculture. These services include weekly updates, market alerts, and SMS alerts on futures prices and cash prices. "Think of companies like Steggles or Ingham, which are growing at six percent, whereas the rest of the sector is growing at one percent," says Farmshed senior technical architect Glen Andrews. "We hope to get medium-sized agribusinesses to share that same growth by giving them the same support services and market intelligence the larger companies have." Andrews supports the PCs of 30 administrative and technical staff, as well as the production staff from the Web site. Initially, these machines were all running Windows NT and starting to be upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional. Then Andrews received advance copies of Windows XP Professional from Microsoft and rolled it out to the admin and technical staff's PCs. XP cuts out some system administration tasks and simplifies or improves others, says Andrews. The Remote Desktop feature was a key decision factor. "We've got remote sales staff and staff at home who want to access office functionality and work from home. However, because our sales staff are running around the country in rural areas, we still wanted something that used relatively low bandwidth." The integration of videoconferencing and remote assistance into Windows Messenger is assisting Andrews' technical support tasks as well. "For a small business that's often not great help because you're usually in the same room. However, since I have remote staff, I can take control over their machine even if they're in Cloncurry," he says.
Andrews finds the IntelliMirror feature a great time saver, allowing him to push out standard images to all the PCs. "You can create a scripted install file, and that becomes a no-interaction installation, just bung it in and it works. It saved us a hell of a lot of time, we did 20 machines in a night," he says. What's a Raw Socket? If Smart Tags caused the most XP media furore, the raging argument over something called full TCP/IP socket support, or raw sockets support, has created the most sheer confusion. Full socket support means that the entire functionality of TCP/IP, the communications protocol used on the Internet, is built into Windows so that individual programs don't need to include support themselves. Prior versions of Windows 95, 98, and Me did not have this built-in functionality, although it's been in NT and 2000 all along. Steve Gibson and other security advocates screamed that providing full TCP/IP socket support in Windows XP would provide would-be hackers an easy way to exploit PCs for illicit purposes. Full socket support makes it easier for miscreants to spoof or falsify a PC's IP address, letting Trojan horse programs escape detection when they launch denial of service attacks. Using spoofed IP addresses makes it difficult, if not impossible, for system administrators and ISPs to isolate and stop such attacks. Microsoft countered that full socket support is a non-issue and that it enhances XP's own Internet features and makes it easier for others to implement theirs. However, one issue lingers: most XP users will by default have top-level, or administrator, rights to modify their Windows system. Administrator-level users can install, add, modify, or delete apps and files; change other users' access to the systems; and use programs that take advantage of full socket support and address spoofing. That means anyone who breaks into your XP PC can run amok on your system and even use it to launch denial of service attacks. There are good reasons for including full socket support. For one, it already exists in Windows NT and 2000, as it does in Linux, SunOS, and other operating systems. Full support in the OS means that developers don't have to write code for those functions into each and every application they create (as they do for Windows 95 through Me), and that keeps apps smaller and more stable. Besides, hackers had an easy enough time writing Trojan horses into their malicious code and using them to launch distributed denial of service attacks against Gibson's Web site and othersââ,¬"all from Windows machines without full socket support. Gibson's call to action is to limit the number of users who have admin rights on all systems and to avoid working in admin mode as much as possible; instead, be deliberate about setting up non-administrator user accounts for yourself, your coworkers, and your family to use in order to minimise system corruption and maintain security.
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