Should You Set Your Sights on Windows XP

Checking compatibility
If 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.