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General Meeting
by By Eric Saca - December 18, 2000 at 18:48:04:
In December, Microsoft appeared and presented the new Windows Millennium Edition or Windows ME–the new operating system for home computers. Adam C. Kovach, a channel marketing representative, flew all the way down from their corporate headquarters in Redmond, WA, to make this presentation for us, and he put on a great show.He announced his presentation topics, as follows:
• Windows ME, Part 1
• Pocket PC
• Picture It! Publishing
• Windows ME, Part 2
He presented the following four key advances of Windows ME over previous versions:
• Improved digital media
• Improved user experience
• Enhanced home networking
• A rich Internet experience
Adam mentioned that there is now a Networking Wizard, which helps to make home network building an intuitive process. There is also an improved Internet Connection Service to help people get online for their first time.
Adam explained that Windows ME supports a hot emerging technology called Universal Plug & Play. With it, you will be able to control typical home appliances through your PC. He demon-strated this by connecting his digital camera to his Windows ME demonstra-tion PC. The PC recognized it immediately.
He then demonstrated a new feature called Windows Image Acquisition (WIA), which allows you to preview pictures from your digital camera before downloading them to your PC. After Windows recognized his camera, he was able to produce a thumbnail browse screen of the pictures on that camera. He was even able to name the pictures and produce a slideshow from them – without even copying them to the hard drive.
Adam announced that the Windows Media Player 7 is built-in. Next he demonstrated it by playing some music. He set up some lovely visualizations– graphic animations which change and move in response to music.
He showed us that Media Player 7 provides play lists, a radio tuner and connections to Internet radio stations. You can download complete songs, without radio DJ chatter, from these Internet stations. When you pop a CD into your computer, the Media Player can download complete information on some or all of its songs from the Internet. This is provided through www.metadata.com. There is also a wonderful media guide selection site to keep track of your favorite artists and movies, and download some of your favorite music and videos. This is at www.windowsmedia.com.
Adam also demonstrated the new ability to provide different skins for Windows Media Player 7. Skins are the outward shell or appearance of Media Player. Several basic skins come with Windows ME itself. But many more can be downloaded off the Internet.
Adam next showed us the new Windows MovieMaker. This component allows you to create your own custom movies by combining video clips, pictures and audio. He demonstrated it with a little project to create a Survivor spoof. He mixed various pictures, video from different sources, including his own video camera, and a music track to produce a custom video. After he mixed these elements together, he played back the result for us.
Next, Adam switched gears and showed us a video on Microsoft’s new Pocket PC, the tiny handheld computer with several powerful features that allow it to rival other handhelds, such as the PalmPilot.
He launched Picture It Publisher! and demonstrated some of its abilities to edit photos, touch them up, cut and paste them, and publish them to the Web.
Adam returned to Windows ME to demonstrate its support and reliability features. He launched Help to present Windows ME’s greatly expanded Help & Support section. He explained that Windows ME could update all its drivers automatically by checking the Internet periodically for updates and applying them when found. Finally, he demon-strated the new Windows System File Protection and System Restore features.
Windows System File Protection keeps track of all Windows critical system files. It warns you when an installation program is about to overwrite a critical system file. It also automatically restores these system files if they are accidentally deleted. To demonstrate this, Adam identified a critical system file, sent it to the Recycle Bin, then deleted it from there. After that, he browsed the Windows\System32 folder again. The file had returned.
Windows System Restore allows you to take a snapshot of your system registry and related files at a given point in time. Then if something, such as a software installation, corrupts your system, you can roll it back to what it was at that point in time. Adam demonstrated this by first taking a snapshot of his system, then deleting the directory for an application program. He attempted to launch that application from the Start—Programs menu, but the shortcut couldn’t find the target EXE file. It had been deleted. Adam rolled back his system to the point where the snapshot was taken, before he had deleted the application directory. This took about two minutes. Then he attempted to launch that application again–it ran.
Windows System Restore is a powerful feature for keeping your system running smoothly, but it requires the necessary disk space to back up your system registry and related files.
Adam answered a multitude of questions from our members, including the following:
Q: How much is the upgrade?
A: About $44.
Q: Can Windows ME work with 16-bit drivers?
A: Yes.
Q: How can you tell if your drivers are 16-bit or 32-bit?
A: In the System applet in Control Panel.
Q: Will System Restore only work for applications in the System Registry?
A Yes.
Q: How much free hard drive space is required to upgrade?
A: At least 220 megabytes.
Q: What must be upgraded to go from Windows 98 SE to Windows ME?
A: Just an upgrade to the System Registry.
Q: Where can we find the latest Windows ME drivers?
A www.microsoft. com/WindowsME.
Q: What bugs are you already aware of in Windows ME?
A: I am only aware of driver incompatibilities so far. The product is very new.
Q: How can we find out more about bugs in the product?
A: Check the Microsoft Support Knowledgebase on the Web, read magazines, ask your friends.
At the end of the presentation, George thanked everyone for their questions, noting that numerous questions are always a compliment to the speaker. Then the raffle was conducted. It included a copy of Windows ME and other nice Microsoft products.
Next Meeting–Our friend Randy Whittle will be back with an informative program covering many aspects of the rapidly exploding field of CD Burning products. This will include a simple and inexpensive program for quickly printing CD Labels to order. He always puts on a great program and brings lots of raffle goodies. Don’t miss it.
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