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Windows XP What’s in it for you? By Greg Swain M ICROSOFT’S new Windows XP operating system finally puts an end to the 16-bit DOS underpinnings of the Windows 95/98/Me product line. In its place is a stable new 32-bit operating system that’s evolved from the Windows NT/Windows 2000 core but you’ll need a fair bit of firepower to run it. UNTIL NOW, you’ve really had two choices when it comes to a Microsoft operating system (OS) – Windows 98/ Me or Windows NT/2000. Home users have traditionally opted for Windows 98/Me due to its strong multimedia and games support, plus its support for a wide range of hardware and for features such as plug and play (P’nP), USB and Firewire. At least, that was the upside. The down­side was that it was hardly the most stable OS around. Anyone who has used Windows 98/Me has, at one stage or another, encoun­tered system lockups and the dreaded “blue screen of death”. It’s no exaggeration to say that Windows 98/Me system crashes have 14  Silicon Chip caused PC users a lot of frustration. That’s why many businesses (and not a few home-users) have instead opted for the rock-solid stability of Windows NT or Windows 2000. These provided true multi-tasking ability without the frustrating lockups encountered in Windows 98/Me and are a must if you frequently multi-task or run heavy-duty appli­cations such as desktop publishing or large accounting programs. But Windows NT had its own drawbacks. It doesn’t support USB or plug and play, has limited multimedia capabilities and has nowhere near the driver database of Windows 98/Me. It also cost considerably more than Windows 98/Me, was much more demanding in terms or hardware and was harder to setup – especially when it came to networking. These problems were addressed to a large extent in Windows 2000 which added support for plug and play and USB. However, its hardware support, multimedia capabilities and games support were still inferior to Windows 98/Me. HOW XP FITS IN Windows XP supersedes both Windows 98/Me and Windows NT/2000, effectively unifying the two into one. This new “unified” OS boasts extensive multimedia capabilities, supports a wide range of hardware and is built on the rock-solid Windows NT/2000 operating core so it’s a full 32-bit operating system. In a nutshell, Windows XP combines Windows 98/Me’s multimedia and hardware support with Windows 2000’s more stable and manageable kernel. On top of that, Microsoft has done a lot of work on the interface. It’s more intuitive to use than ever before, is far easier to set up than its predecessors and sports a stunning new look that you can tweak to your liking. Naturally, it has full support for plug and play, USB and Firewire and retains useful features such as Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and the Net­work Setup www.siliconchip.com.au Wizard. There are also lots of new features and we’ll look at some of those shortly. You still have a choice when it comes to this new OS, though. That’s because there are two versions – “Windows XP Home Edition” and “Windows XP Professional”. Basically, the two are identical except that the Professional version includes extra networking and administration tools. It also includes multi-processor support, with support for up to two CPUs. The version that you choose will depend on the OS that you’re currently using and your personal requirements. You can upgrade Windows 98/Me to either XP Home or to XP Professional but note that you cannot upgrade from Windows 95. If you’re currently running Windows 98/Me and you don’t have any special administrative requirements or require multi-processor support, then Windows XP Home Edition should do every­thing that you want. Alternatively, if you’re a Windows NT/2000 user, you will need to go to XP Professional. There is no upgrade path from Windows NT/2000 to the XP Home Edition. You can think of Home Edition as the logical upgrade for Windows 98/ Me, while XP Professional is basically an upgrade for Windows 2000. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS You’ll need some pretty decent hardware to run Windows XP, so don’t expect to be able to whack it on anything that’s more than a few years old – not if you want acceptable performance that is. At the very minimum Fig.1: Windows XP features a radically altered Taskbar and a “Start” menu that lists your most recently used applications. The default desktop (shown here) is called “Bliss” and a fresh install places just one icon on the desktop – the Recycle Bin. You can easily add the familiar icons shown at right by clicking the “Customize Desktop” button in the Display Properties dialog box. Microsoft recommends a 233MHz Penti­ um II machine with 64Mb of RAM, a CD ROM drive and 1.5Gb of free hard disk space. Now while Windows XP will run on this minimal system (“crawl” might be a better word), you’ll really want something better – particularly when it comes to RAM. Windows XP likes lots of RAM and a 400MHz Pentium II with 128Mb of RAM will be a much better proposition. In fact, with RAM prices at an all-time low, there’s no excuse for not going to 256Mb of RAM or more. The performance gains with Windows XP will be well worthwhile, particularly if you intend running lots of applications at once or switching between users. You can now pick up 256Mb of PC133 SDRAM for just $70, so there’s no reason to hold back. For multimedia enthusiasts, a 1GHz Pentium III or Athlon-equivalent PC with 256Mb of RAM, a DVD-ROM drive, a CD-RW drive, a sound card and a video card with 32MB of RAM will be necessary to extract the full benefits of Windows XP. Fortunately, PC hardware has moved a long way in the last few years, so perfor­mance with Windows XP will not be an issue if you are buying a new machine. INSTALLING WINDOWS XP Fig.2: you can customise the Taskbar and Start Menu with just a few mouse clicks. www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.3: XP comes with a snazzy new look and there are several new colour schemes to choose from. Barring any hardware incompatibility issues, installing Windows XP is a straightforward procedure. You can check whether your existing hardware is compatible by going to Microsoft’s hardware compatibility list located at www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp before actually buying Windows XP. If you already have Windows XP, December 2001  15 Fig.4: the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard lets you easily transfer your Internet, email & dial-up settings and/or data files between computers or individual disk drives. it’s a good idea to run the compatibility checking program that’s on the installation disk. This will also reveal any software incompatibility problems if you are upgrading an existing system. Anti-virus programs, CD-ROM burning programs and system utilities are the most likely to cause problems here and these should be uninstalled if problems are found. If you have an Internet connection, the compatibility program will also offer to download any updated setup files and drivers before installation starts. There are several approaches you can take when installing Windows XP: • Upgrade “over the top” of your existing OS. This will keep your existing files and system settings (eg, for network and Internet connections); • Install a new copy of Windows XP into the same disk partition as the Fig.5: you can launch the Files and Settings Transfer Wiz­-ard from the Windows XP setup CD or access it via the Start button after Windows XP is installed. existing OS. This will delete all programs and system files from a previous installation); • Install a new copy of Windows XP onto a different partition or disk drive to the existing OS. This results in a dual-boot system that lets you choose between your previous OS and Windows XP each time you boot the computer (ie, a boot menu appears); or • Back up all your data and system file settings, repartition and reformat the disk drive, and do a “clean” install of Windows XP. If you choose any of the last three options, the XP in­staller brings up a partition screen. This lets you create new partitions in any unpartitioned disk space, delete existing partitions and select the target partition. You cannot resize or merge partitions using the Windows XP partitioning utility, though. If you want to do that, you will have to use a third-party partitioning utility such as Partition Magic before in­stalling Windows XP. Assuming that you’re simply upgrading an existing system, you can start the upgrade procedure simply by booting the PC and inserting the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive. Provided “Autorun” is enabled, the CD-ROM drive will automatically start and bring up the installation menu. After that, it really is just a matter of following the bouncing ball – not that you need to do much. One thing that Windows 98/Me users will need to consider is whether to convert the disk to NTFS (NT File System) format or stick with the FAT32 (File Allocation Table) format. In most cases, you’ll want to go with NTFS – it’s faster, more reliable and offers Fig.6: our copy of Windows XP installed on a 1GHz Athlon system without a hitch. Fig.7: setting up local area network (LAN) and Internet connect­ions has never been easier. 16  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.8: Windows XP is strong on multimedia. The new Windows Media Player 8 plays audio and DVD files, tunes to radio stations and makes it easy to copy files to a CD. better security than FAT32. Stick with FAT32 if you are installing a dual-boot system though, as Win98/Me cannot recognise NTFS partitions. If you do go ahead and install to a FAT32 partition, you can always convert it to NTFS format (without losing data) after Windows XP has been installed. It’s a one-way street though – once you’ve converted to NTFS, there’s no going back to FAT32 without repartitioning the disk. CLEAN INSTALL Personally, I always use a new OS as an excuse to reparti­tion and re­format the hard disk. That way, you start with a completely fresh installation without any of the unwanted debris from a previous setup. It also gets rid of any stuff that’s just clogging up the hard disk. In this case, you boot the machine directly from the setup CD (note: you may have to alter the boot order in your system BIOS to do this). This initially takes you to a text-based setup menu which allows you to partition and format the hard disk as required. Setup then copies some system files to the hard disk, after which the machine automatically reboots and begins install­ing Windows XP. During installation, the upgrade version searches for evidence of the previous OS, to confirm that you qualify for the upgrade. However, if you’re starting with a “blank” hard disk, all traces of the previous operating system will be gone. The trick is to “show” the system the setup disk from your previous version of Windows when www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.9: Windows Movie Maker is still fairly limited and allows only basic video editing tasks to be performed. Most users will find it adequate. asked to do so (even an upgrade disk for the previous OS will do). By the way, both the upgrade and the full retail versions of Windows XP install exactly the same files onto the hard disk drive. The only difference between them is that the full version doesn’t do compliance checking. You can also boot directly from the CD if you intend installing Windows XP to a new partition, as part of a dual-boot system. However, it’s not possible to upgrade over the top of an existing system if booting direct from the CD. HOW GOOD IS THE INSTALLER? In a word, it’s slick. The installation takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes on a reasonably fast machine and most of it happens automatically. And provided you have all the settings at your fingertips, you can step through the Network and Internet Connec­tion Sharing Wizards (if required) during setup. Alternatively, you can use these wizards to set up your network and Internet connections at any time after XP has been installed. With Windows XP, you no longer have to be a guru to set up a network. In our case, we installed Windows XP on a 1GHz Athlon machine and it all went without a hiccup. To our delight, the installer correctly identified all the machine’s hardware and installed the correct drivers – including drivers for the DVD-ROM & ZIP drives, the GeForce2 MX video card, the network card, the Creative SB Live! sound card and even the Promise Technology Ultra-IDE controller (Fig.6). We didn’t have to do a thing in that department – you really can’t do better than that. What’s more, we found that we had immediate connectivity to our network and to the Internet. THE NEW INTERFACE Fig.10: Remote Desktop is found only in XP Professional. It allows you to control the XP desktop from another PC so that you can access data and applications from a remote location. The Windows XP interface has a less cluttered look than ever before, with only the Recycle Bin appearing on the default desktop. The Start button and Taskbar look different too, the familiar grey look replaced by a colourful green and blue colour scheme. Fig.1 shows the appearance of the default desktop. In case your wondering, the rolling green hills and blue sky combination is called “Bliss”. Yeeeeeeeshh! Fortunately, there are lots of other desktop themes to choose December 2001  17 Fig.11: the Control Panel has been given a make-over, with the opening dialog listing nine categories in place of the familiar icons. The icons are just a click away, though. from or better still, you can get rid of the desktop theme altogether. There are also some new colour schemes to choose from – “Silver” looks good in our opin­ion. The windows also have an elegant new look, with rounded top corners and colourful new icons and buttons. In short, we really liked the new XP “style” but you can easily revert to the Windows “classic” style if that’s what you prefer (just right-click the desktop, click Properties and click the Appearance tab). Click the “Start” button and you’ll soon discover that Microsoft has put some thought into this as well. The new “fly-up” menu now has two vertical columns, the lefthand side listing your most recently used programs and the righthand side giving you fast access to the main documents folders, Control Panel, Search and so on - see Fig.1. By default, the Taskbar is locked into place (you can unlock it if you like) and you can hide “inactive” icons in the System Tray (or notification area). Clicking a little button arrow “slides” them out for access and they then automatically slide back in again when you’re done (Fig.3). Again you can take the Taskbar back to the Windows classic look. If you do, some additional icons “magically” appear on the desktop – My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places & Internet Explorer. These are not normally shown on the desktop if you use the XP “look”, since you have fast access to them via the Start button, but you can easily add them if you wish. PUMPING UP EXPLORER At long last, Microsoft has done something about the rather anaemic Windows Explorer that’s despised by just about everyone. Now, when you open up certain folders, so-called “Task Panes” appear on the left, as shown in Fig.14. These Task Panes Fig.14: Windows Explorer now features task panes which make it easy to carry out a variety of operations. The task pane options change depending on the folder contents. 18  Silicon Chip Fig.12: the “Search” utility is much improved in Windows XP, with lots of options to choose from in the task pane on the left. Fig.13: Windows XP automatically opens an “actions” dialog box each time you insert removable media or connect a digital media device. The options vary according to the media type (eg, audio or pictures). relate to the contents of the folder (ie, the file types) and make it easy to carry out a variety of operations or to jump to other loca­tions. Fig.15: clicking the Folder button on the toolbar closes the task panes and restores the familiar “tree-like” view of folders and disk drives. www.siliconchip.com.au For example, if you open a folder of picture files, the Task Panes let you quickly print a selected picture, view a series of selected pictures as a slide show, email the selected files or carry out a range of other tasks. If you want to see the familiar folders “tree” instead, you just click the “Folders” icon on the Toolbar. Clicking this icon again takes you back to the Task Panes view. The Search utility is much improved as well and the Control Panel also gets a worthwhile make-over, with the initial display of icons now replaced by nine categories – see Fig.11. Clicking “Switch to Classic View” gives you back the familiar icons if you prefer the old layout. MULTIMEDIA SUPPORT This is where Windows XP really shines, with much of the improvement due to the new Windows Media Player 8.0 (WMP). This versatile tool creates audio CDs, plays streaming audio and video files, tunes into Internet radio stations and can even play DVDs – provided you install either a hardware or software DVD decoder, that is. Copying CD tracks (in WMA format) to the hard disk is a cinch and WMP 8 includes a basic CD burner so that you can make your own music CDs. It’s not quite as comprehensive as dedicated CD burner software but it’s all most users will ever need. You can burn audio CDs in both WMA and MP3 format, as well as data CDs, but note that WMP 8 cannot rip Fig.16: Windows XP includes Internet Connection Firewall (ICF). This blocks ports that can be accessed via the Internet but you can unblock selected ports to provide access to various services (eg, to an FTP server or an HTTP server). audio files to MP3 format unless you purchase a third-party plug-in. You don’t really have to lay out extra cash though – there are plenty of “freebie” MP3 encoders available on-line, such as MusicMatch Jukebox and CDex. Provided they’re on-line and you’re connected to the Inter­net, WMP automatically downloads track titles if you insert an audio CD (see Fig.8). Alternatively, you can add artist and track titles manually using standard ID3 tags before creating playlists. In case you’re wondering, you cannot use WMP 8 with earlier versions of Windows. It’s tightly tied to the new XP interface, so you’re stuck with WMP 7 if you stay with Windows 98/ Me or Windows 2000. Also on the multimedia front, Windows XP includes Movie Maker. It works OK but still allows only basic editing tasks to be performed. LET’S CHANGE USERS Windows XP makes it easy to set up separate User Accounts and allows you to “fast switch” between them without shutting down applications. This is a great feature if you have more than one person using the computer. Among other things, User Accounts also allow you to: • customise the way Windows and the desktop look for each user; • have your own lists of web Favourites and recently visited sites; Fig.17: Windows XP makes it easy to set up user accounts and allows fast switching between them without closing applications or logging off. It’s also easy to change account settings and to provide password protection. www.siliconchip.com.au December 2001  19 Windows Product Activation: Don’t Sweat It To combat software piracy, Microsoft has introduced what is arguably Windows XP’s most contentious feature – Windows Product Activation (WPA). When you install Windows XP, you must activate it – either via the Internet or manually via the phone – within 30 days, otherwise the OS will stop working until you do. Activation involves obtaining a key which is derived from up to 10 hardware components in your PC. When you install Windows XP, it checks the amount of memory and also derives unique serial numbers from devices such as your network card, video card, hard disk and CD-ROM drives, the motherboard and the processor. This information is then used to derive a unique 25-character key which is combined with the 25-character “Product Key” supplied with the Windows XP installation CD to produce the “Installation ID”. In effect, WPA locks each copy of Windows XP to the hard­ware of a particular PC. This ensures that you can use your copy of Windows XP on one computer only and prevents you from sharing it with friends or colleagues in the workplace, or from borrowing someone else’s copy. It also prevents illegal hard disk cloning, whereby an • have your own My Documents folder and use a password to keep files private and protected; and • protect important personal computer settings. There are two different types of User Accounts: “Computer Administrator” and “Limited”. A user with a Limited account has restricted file access and cannot install programs, make system changes or alter other accounts. You can either set up your User Accounts when you install XP or add them later via the Control Panel. The Control Panel also allows you to change User Account names, set up and change pass­ words, and add or delete User Accounts. If you set up User Accounts, a welcome screen appears each time you load Windows and you can then log onto your person­al account. Individual User Accounts can be password 20  Silicon Chip entire image is copied from the hard disk of one PC onto the hard disk of another. Now unless anyone thinks that this is an impost and a horror to LOLs (little old ladies), it’s really no big deal. For starters, Windows Product Activation is fast, no files are scanned and no personal information or serial numbers are sent to Microsoft, so there are no worries on that score. You also have plenty of leeway when it comes to upgrading. For example, if your PC has a network adapter, you can change up to five other hardware items in one go (or eight in a laptop computer) without having to reactivate. Alternatively, you can change the network adapter plus three other components (seven on a laptop) without problems. Adding additional components, such as a second hard disk drive or CDRW drive, has no effect on WPA. And changing the same item several times only counts as a single change, so if you want to compare 20 different video cards, you can do so to your heart’s content without triggering WPA. Of course, if you reformat your hard disk and reinstall Windows XP, you will have to “re-activate”. That’s because the WPA information is stored on the hard disk drive and is destroyed if the protected to keep other users out but if there is no password, it’s just a matter of clicking the account icon. The Fast User Switching feature allows you to leave appli­ c ations running while you switch to another account; eg, if another family member wishes to print something out. When you then switch back to your account, your applications will still be running just as you left them. KEEPING OUT THE BAD GUYS Keeping Internet nasties away is important these days and Microsoft has finally included some basic firewall protection into Windows XP. It’s called Internet Connection Firewall and it’s basically a port blocking firewall that can easily be con­figured to allow certain services; eg, FTP, HTTP & ICMP (echo) requests, etc (see Fig.6). drive is reformatted. However, provided the hardware isn’t changed substantially, you can do this as many times as you like. As a final refinement, WPA automatically resets itself every three months so that you can start the upgrade procedure over again. In addition, Microsoft state that WPA will automati­cally allow reactivation over the Internet up to four times in one year on substantially different hardware. This is so that “power users” can keep up with the very latest technology and regular­ly make substantial hardware upgrades to their systems. Users who buy a new PC with Windows XP preloaded will probably never have to deal with WPA – unless the hard disk is reformatted. What’s more, PC makers can lock OEM copies of Wind­ows XP to the PC’s BIOS, so that users can later swap everything, including the hard disk (but not the motherboard) without re-activating. Finally, businesses that need to install Windows XP on multiple computers don’t have to go through the WPA. Instead, they can obtain a special “volume licence product key” which allows a single hard disk to be cloned across multiple machines, without the need for activation. Blocking incoming ports greatly reduces the chances of being hacked, so ICF should be enabled on any computer that’s directly connected to the Internet. Similarly, if your network uses Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) to provide Internet access for multiple computers, ICF should be enabled on the shared Internet connection. For home users, ICF is probably good enough but a dedicated third-party firewall designed to work with Windows XP should be installed if security is important. You can easily disable ICF is you decide to use a dedicated firewall package. KEEPING XP HEALTHY Ever installed a hardware driver that caused system in­stability? With Windows XP, you can easily revert to the pre­viously installed driver using the new “Device Driver Rollback” www.siliconchip.com.au feature that’s found in Device Manager (see Fig.19). In addition, Windows XP includes “System Restore” which enables you to roll your system back to an earlier “restore point” and undo any harmful changes. As expected, Windows Update has been included which allows Windows XP to look for new updates on the Internet. And like Windows 2000, XP includes Windows File Protection. This prevents the replacement of protected system files such as .sys, .dll, .ocx, .ttf, .fon, and .exe files unless the cor­rect digital signature is found. It runs in the background and protects all files installed by the Windows Setup program. Another useful feature is the Program Compatibility Wizard. This allows you to emulate older Windows OS’es in order to get incompatible programs to work. Once the program is working, you can then save the settings so that it runs properly each time it is used. Of course, it’s better to store an update for the pro­gram if it’s available, so that you don’t have to use the compa­tibility wizard. Fig.18: “Computer Management” console (Start, Programs, Administrative Tools) gives you fast access to a range of administrative utilities. or create a “Files & Settings Transfer Wizard” utility disk (eg, on a floppy disk or ZIP disk drive). The Remote Assistance feature is a useful troubleshooting aid if you get into difficulties. It allows a friend (presumably someone who is computer savvy) or a computer dealer who is also running Windows XP to connect to your computer via the Internet, chat with you online, view your desktop and to work on your computer. OTHER GOODIES By now, you should be getting the idea that Windows XP has a very extensive list of features – far too numerous to cover in detail, in fact. There are lots of features that we haven’t even mentioned, including MSN Messenger (an instant messaging program that works over the Internet), improved support for wireless networking, a “File and Settings Transfer Wizard” and Remote Assistance. Briefly, the “File and Settings Transfer Wizard” makes it easy to transfer your system settings (eg, Internet, email & dial-up THE BOTTOM LINE Fig.19: Driver Rollback allows you to restore the previously installed driver if a new driver causes problems. settings) and/or data files between computers or disk drives when you install Windows XP. You can access it via the Start button, via the menus on the Windows XP installation disk Fig.20: you can monitor the performance of various system parameters and examine performance logs and alerts. www.siliconchip.com.au We have to admit that we liked Windows XP. Admittedly, there’s not an awful lot of incentive to upgrade if you’re currently using Windows 2000 (unless there’s a feature you must have) but Windows 98/Me/NT users should take a closer look. If it’s stability that you’re after and you’re currently using Windows 98/ Me, Windows XP is a very attractive upgrade – just be sure that you have SC the firepower to run it. Fig.21: want to defragment your hard disk drive? Like Windows 2000, Windows XP includes its own disk defragger. December 2001  21