Scheduled for release in the second half of 2001, there will be a variety of server versions of Whistler and two desktop versions: Professional for business use and Personal for consumers. Personal, which will replace Windows Me (and the Windows 9x code on which Me is based), will be a functional superset of Windows Me. The version we tested was called Professional, although it had messages related to home networking and some features, namely Microsoft Movie Maker, that make it seem like the consumer version. Beta 1 will go to developers and hardware vendors and will not be generally available.
A New yet Familiar GUI
Whistler has many user-interface changes designed to
make it easier to use. The new Start button and menu,
the most prominent change, didn't make a great first
impression, but that's mostly because it's unfamiliar.
After a while, we got to appreciate some of the features.
For example, the main list of programs on the left are
those most recently used and are therefore the ones
you are most likely to use again. On the right are links
for the other familiar Start options, such as Control
Panel and Help, and folders such as My Music, which
Microsoft thinks you will use frequently. Other familiar
parts of the system, such as Control Panel, have new,
simpler looks, although on our test system Control
Panel reverted to the classic look for some reason and
wouldn't go back. Chalk this up to beta code.
Two important notes about the new Start menu: You can easily revert the system to the classic Start Menu, and Microsoft has assured us that this menu will undergo many changes before its form is finalised (after all, this is just Beta 1). The current one clearly needs work. For instance, the "More Programs" link, the equivalent of the Programs menu on the old Start menu, is too obscure. Also, you can no longer put a program on the Start menu simply by dragging a shortcut to the Start menu.
Getting it Up and Keeping it Running
Microsoft is trying to make the installation process for
Whistler more like the Windows 98 installation process.
The screen has less status information and is
dominated by large messages proclaiming the benefits
of Whistler. Our test installation went smoothly, and all
the hardware on the system was properly recognised.
Towards the end of setup, Whistler checks a special
Microsoft Internet site for updates, none of which were
available when we tested.
Because the Personal version will have to run programs not designed to run on Windows NT or Windows 2000, Whistler recognises some applications that cause errors in Windows 2000 and attempts to create the illusion of a Windows 9x environment for them. Whether or not this will be successful is not clear yet. We tested a single game, Lucas Learning's Star Wars Yoda Challenge; it fails on Windows 2000, and it failed in the same way on Whistler. We installed a dozen applications that work well on Windows 2000, and they worked just as well on Whistler.
The common code base will also create new issues for device driver support. Since Whistler is based on Windows 2000, where the device driver situation has been good but not great, Whistler runs all Windows 2000 drivers but no Windows 9x drivers. But since there is a year to go before the product's released, hardware vendors have ample time to prepare. One clear improvement for device drivers in Whistler is the ability to "roll back" new driver installations to the previous version if the new driver is causing problems.
Microsoft has been making big changes in its Help systems over the last few years, and Whistler makes the biggest changes yet. The overall system resembles the Windows Me help system, is HTML-based, and integrated with support sites at Microsoft.com. But the coolest new feature is called "remote assistance." From the help system you can e-mail an invitation to another user to control your system remotely in a special client program that lets the two of you chat as you work on the computer together. Essentially, this feature is a one-user version of Windows Terminal Services.
An Upgrade for You?
Microsoft expects the hardware requirements for
Whistler to be comparable to those for Windows 2000,
which requires a minimum of 64MB RAM and large
amounts of hard drive space. Users of earlier Windows
versions, with the exception of Windows 95, will be able
to upgrade systems to Whistler, but as is always the
case, fresh installations and preloaded systems will
work better.
Beta 1 code for the server versions of Whistler was not available for testing, and Microsoft's plans indicate that final versions of it will also ship later than the desktop versions. The server versions have numerous features designed for large network installations. For example, you can create image replicas of domain-controller global catalogs and install them on other systems, rather than rely on Active Directory replication. Whistler server versions will make management of large Active Directory installations easy by letting administrators test the implications of policy changes before implementing them.
We didn't test Whistler for a prolonged period, but it's still worth noting that the system was completely stable for the whole time we tested it. Bugs we observed were minor and cosmetic, but Whistler is not feature-complete and not ready for real use. When it is ready, you'll consider yourselves lucky to be rid of Windows 9x.
Microsoft Whistler Beta 1
Company: Microsoft
Rating: 4 Stars
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