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PC Q&A
by Jim Sanders - November 30, 2001 at 17:52:38:
This months SIG dealt with my personal first impressions of Windows XP Professional (Upgrade version). I paid $200 +tax for the privilege of installing this OS on my computer and being able to use it for 30 days before I have to decide if I want to relinquish my rights to privacy if I want to use it for longer than that. My impressions are only somewhat negatively colored by other reviews that I had read, heard or viewed. The first thing that I looked at was the EULA (End User License Agreement). Not many people actually read this agreement, but you MUST agree to it in order to install WinXP. Maybe YOU should read it You do not have to start an install in order to read the EULA. On a XP CD-ROM, in the I386 subdirectory, is a file "EULA.TXT", that is 29 Kbytes long. If you view it with Notepad in a full screen, 800x600 mode, there are eleven pages of it. I have quoted two of the paragraphs (from the EULA, copyright Microsoft Corp.) and the beginning of a third.********** "* Installation and use. You may install, use, access, display and run one copy of the Product on a single computer, such as a workstation, terminal or other device ("Workstation Computer")........." There is a piece of humor about the person that says "No, thank you" to a sales person that ignores the "NO" and just keeps on pushing their product. Then, at the next pause, the sales person is asked, "Just what part of NO do you not understand"? There is no humor involved when Microsoft asks YOU, "Just what part of SINGLE, do YOU not understand"? But, you say; "I have my main desktop computer and my laptop, or my wife's, or my kid's, or my backup computer, can I put XP on both of them?" Cup your hand to your ear and listen carefully, you will hear Microsoft asking, "What part of NO do YOU not understand"? I can almost hear you thinking, "Well, I know I agreed to that, but it is not fair, an just like in the past, I will go ahead and put it on my desktop and my laptop"......WRONG! Read the following paragarph carefully.
********** "* Mandatory Activation. The license rights granted under this EULA are limited to the first thirty (30) days after you first install the Product unless you supply information required to activate your licensed copy in the manner described during the setup sequence of the Product. You can activate the Product through the use of the Internet or telephone; toll charges may apply. You may also need to reactivate the Product if you modify your computer hardware or alter the Product. There are technological measures in this Product that are designed to prevent unlicensed or illegal use of the Product. You agree that we may use those measures."
Microsoft defines installing the same copy of XP on two computers as illegal and labels you a criminal if you do. To enforce that viewpoint, Microsoft is now using product "Activation" and "technological measures". I do not know what those "technological measures" are, but what ever they are I had to agree to them in order to install WinXP. Maybe, every time you get on the Internet a spy program sends a secret message to Microsoft asking if this computer is registered. One of the first things that I installed on my machine was the Zonealarm firewall program. Zonealarm intercepts programs that try to get on the Internet and asks if you want to allow it. I was surprised at how many different pieces of WinXP in addition to Internet Explorer, either wanted access to the Internet or to be allowed to be a "Server". With the exception of IE, I told Zonealarm to NOT allow the other attempts to gain access to the Internet. I have not had thirty days to find out what kind of time bomb message you get if you don't activate within thirty days. My guess would be that the system starts to boot and comes up with a Raspberry message that informs you that it will not continue to boot until you "activate" the product. What I have read, is a part of WinXP is designed to snoop around your computer and make a list of the names and serial numbers of the different pieces of hardware and software. For instance, if you have a ethernet card on your computer to hook up to a Cable/DSL modem, that card has a unique serial number that nobody else on the planet has, as well as a vendor ID. The snoop program combines these into a big, long, number that defines that particular computer. You then have a choice of going onto the internet and letting the snoop program send that data to Microsoft, or you can call up Microsoft, read off the number and get an authentication number (also big and long) read off to you to enter into the computer. So, if you did a second installation of WinXP on your laptop, the authentication number from the desktop wouldn't match what the snoop program found in the laptop. So you could run it for 29 days, format C:, and install it again, and run for another 29 days.
********** "* Consent to Use of Data. You agree that Microsoft and its affiliates may collect and use technical information gathered in any manner as part of the product support services provided to you, if any, related to the Product. Microsoft may use this information solely to improve our products or to provide customized services or technologies to you. Microsoft may disclose this information to others, but not in a form that personally identifies you."
"information gathered in any manner", does that mean that if Microsoft sends a Ninja team to bust into my house and examine my computer, that I agree to that being OK? "in any manner" sure sounds like it covers all bases. It almost seems redundant, but, if you decide to go for the automatic product update feature you further agree that in order to use that feature, Microsoft has the right to go onto you computer and get the following data: Operating-system version number, Internet Explorer version number, Version numbers of other software, Plug and Play ID numbers of hardware devices. Now, since the update program is not clairvoyant, the only way it can know an update is needed, is to call home, identify itself and ask the Microsoft server if there are any new updates that it doesn't have. My guess would be that this happens every time the computer is booted and the Internet is available or at least once during that day. Does that provide Microsoft a time/day usage pattern for your computer and data about what new software or hardware you have installed? Seems possible.
Oh, yeah, the OS itself, it is pretty to look at. If you are a Win95/98/ME user, you are going to have to re-learn how to do a lot of things that are different in XP. For instance, look forward to finding the equivalent of scandisk and the fun of finding out how to change your mind after deciding to check the disk for bad sectors.
After years of touting how handy it was to be able to put stuff on the desktop, it seems strange that Windows has turned into a "neatnic" with a special wizard for cleaning up your desktop. So far I haven't had any problems with applications that I have run. I like the fact that the X box that closes a window is highlighted in red. I don't like the cartoon strip style talking bubbles that pop up from the task bar and natter at me to activate XP, to signup for net, to signup for auto-update and I forget what else
The fact that my CD-ROM drives are now listed before the partitions of my second hard disk in the tree window of Windows Explorer, seems like a pointless change even if I do know how to fix it. I found it interesting that after taking over an hour to do a "clean install" (blank hard disk) on my 1 GHz machine that when I checked the properties of the hard disk, it showed 2.5 GIGABYTES used, but when I added up the individual folders it only totaled a little over 1 GB. What the hidden space is used for, I don't know. Over all, I would say that if Win98 SE is not working for you look at Win2K. If you have Win2K, you are not likely to see much improvement with XP. If you don't like the concept of having your privacy involved in "activating" your operating system, check the Internet for alternatives. They are out there. Do a little "Google" searching. Check out "Win4lin".
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