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MAIN MEETING
by Eric Saca - November 30, 2001 at 17:47:20:
At the November meeting, Microsoft presented its new operating system, Windows XP. This was presented by a talented new speaker, Dana Berkoski.President Alan Pearlman opened the meeting and announced that we have a powerful new projector. The previous one had failed and insurance helped to pay for a new one.
For job searchers and those seeking employees, Cathy Grammer-Margolin announced a new Job Networking Group meeting from 11:30 to 12:30 PM in the Cafeteria.
George Margolin introduced Dana Berkoski, who announced that Windows XP is the best PC operating system ever, due to its reliability.
The kernel in Windows XP combines the speed and flexibility of the Windows ME kernel with the power and rock-solid dependability of the Windows NT and 2000 kernels. Statistics demonstrate that Windows XP is 50 times more reliable than Windows 98 and 17 times more reliable than Windows NT. It also starts up 25 to 30% faster than Windows 2000.
The Windows XP family includes three versions of the product. For home users, there is the Home Edition. For the office, there is Windows XP Professional. Finally, for high-level technical applications, such as CAD design, there is the 64-Bit Edition.
Dana outlined the many benefits of Windows XP. Besides its great reliability, Windows XP is easier to use than earlier versions, the user interface has an intelligent new design and the operating system has been streamlined for high performance.
Home PC users can enjoy enhanced capabilities for digital photos, music and video. They can also remain connected to their system at work with a new remote operating system feature.
Windows XP supports the new era of real-time communications with enhanced features for voice and video communications, collaboration, instant messenger presence, notification and more. Dana also noted that there are many exciting features available in the new Microsoft Plus!
Dana discussed the new Product Activation feature, made to combat software piracy. This is completely different from product registration. It does not require any personal information to be sent to Microsoft. Only two (2) items are needed to complete Product Activation the product ID that comes with the software and the country in which Windows XP is installed.
You are not required to complete Product Activation during installation. However, if you do not complete it, you will be reminded to do so every few days. After thirty days, the operating system will stop functioning. There are two ways to complete Product Activation over the Internet (recommended) or through an 800 number that is available 24x7.
When you activate your product, Windows XP retains information about your computer hardware configuration. It will stop functioning if that configuration changes significantly or if it detects that it is running on a totally different computer. When this happens, the user merely needs to re-activate the product by calling Microsoft, then completing the Activation process again. This can be done as many times as necessary, free of charge. Dana pointed out that this ensures compliance with the main provision of the license agreement that the software can be used on only one computer at a time.
Dana addressed the issue of hardware compatibility. To determine if your system will work with Windows XP, Microsoft has developed a useful utility called the Upgrade Advisor. It will automatically determine if any of your hardware needs an upgrade. This utility can be acquired by free diskettes in retail stores or downloaded from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/upgrading/checkcompat.asp. When performing hardware upgrades in the future, there is a new item in the Windows XP All Programs menu called Windows Catalog. This links you to a current hardware compatibility list on the Internet.
Dana then launched Windows XP for her demonstration. It came up quickly. A login screen appeared with several username choices. There was a convenient icon to click for each user. Dana said that each workstation can hold settings for up to 100 users. These settings are entirely unique for each user, including Start Menu configuration, desktop icons, wallpaper, task bar icons, screen saver, application program settings and more.
Next she demonstrated the new fast user switching feature. She logged in as one user. A screen momentarily appeared to indicate that Windows was loading the user's settings. Then the user's desktop and wallpaper appeared. She logged out. Then she logged in as a second user. Windows took another moment to load the second user's settings. When the second user's desktop and wallpaper appeared, she logged out again. Then she logged back in as the first user. Without hesitation, the first user's desktop and wallpaper instantly appeared! Windows had cached the first user's settings in memory in case they were required again.
Dana showed us the new Start Menu, now twice as wide because it contains several more items than before. These now include the Internet and e-mail clients, My Computer, My Network Places, My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, All Programs, Control Panel, the user's name and corresponding icon at the top and Log Off and Turn Off Computer buttons at the bottom.
Dana indicated that the Internet and e-mail clients do not have to be Internet Explorer and Outlook, respectively. You can choose which clients you want by customizing the Start Menu. You can add programs to the All Programs menu or to the Start Menu itself. You can also change the look of the Start Menu just like with an Explorer window to large icons, small icons, list, etc.
Dana demonstrated how you can hide the clock, using the taskbar properties (a feature that was also available in earlier versions of Windows).
She showed how you can clean up the taskbar using its properties. A tab in the properties sheet allows you to select which icons, if any, you want on the taskbar. Any that you do not want will be hidden. When you hide its icons, the taskbar will display a button that can be used to make those icons reappear any time.
The desktop now also has a cleanup feature just like the taskbar. You can use the desktop properties sheet to select which icons you want hidden from view. When you hide your desktop icons, they are placed in a single desktop folder called Unused Desktop Icons. Like any folder, Unused Desktop Icons can be hidden.
Dana showed us how folders can be organized, using My Documents. She first alphabetized it. Unlike with previous versions of windows, however, the files were not just in alphabetical order they were under subsections in My Documents for each letter, A, B, C, etc.
Next, she organized the files by size. The folder now contained subsections with headings like Tiny, Small, Large, Huge, etc. Then she organized the files by application program type. Subsections appeared with each program's name. Finally, she organized them by time period. Subsections for each period appeared.
Dana demonstrated how to organize the taskbar by converging several instances of the same program into one icon. She used Microsoft Word for this demonstration. She opened five documents in Word, producing five taskbar icons. Then by clicking an option in the taskbar property sheet, all five icons became one. The single icon displayed a number 5 in parentheses to indicate how many program instances it had. When Dana clicked this icon, a pull-up menu appeared above it, allowing her to choose which instance of Word she wanted. She finally demonstrated how to close all instances by right-clicking the one taskbar icon, then choosing Close Group from the context menu.
Next, Dana touched on the new multimedia features. She showed us the new My Music window. When she opened it, it was in thumbnail view. It showed icons of the several artists loaded on her demonstration system. When she double-clicked an artist's icon, it opened up to another window containing icons of some of that artist's albums. She was then able to double-click an album and it would begin playing in Media Player.
Dana also demonstrated some of the new features in the Windows XP Media Player. She showed off some of the new skins available. She played both music and video. In full-screen video mode, she showed how all the menus were still accessible to provide complete functionality. A member asked what the Media Player version was. Dana said that it is a special Windows XP version and cannot be downloaded off the Microsoft website.
A member asked if Windows XP was downward compatible with software for earlier versions of Windows. Dana replied that it may not be compatible with some older software. This was the case with all versions of Windows. However, by placing Windows XP in Compatibility Mode, you can emulate Windows 98 to run older software if it is not compatible. The member then asked exactly how compatible that is with Windows 98. Dana suggested getting Upgrade Advisor from the Microsoft website http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/upgrading/checkcompat.asp.
George Margolin noted that he had already upgraded one of his systems to Windows XP and had to download patches for some of his Windows 98 software. Cathy suggested that you can get most, if not all, of the patches you'll need at the PC Pitstop website (www.pcpitstop.com).
A member asked if you can uninstall Windows XP. Per Cathy, there is an Undo feature but she had never tried it.
According to George, the Windows XP upgrade took some time with the patches he had to download, but when it was finished, his system ran much faster. XP literally doubled or tripled the boot-up and graphics processing speeds.
After Dana's informative presentation, there were two parts to the raffle. First, there was a Microsoft part in which Dana gave away copies of Windows XP Professional, Flight Simulator 2002, Microsoft Money 2002 and Streets & Trips 2002. Second, there was the standard NOCCC raffle.
Next Meeting: Super Speaker Richard Katz will inform and regale us with information on Ulead graphic and video products. His presentations are ABSOLUTELY NOT TO BE MISSED. He is both hilarious and very informative.
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