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Windows XP
by By O. T. Stoll —NOCCC , ot@stollcomputers.com - April 17, 2001 at 15:15:58:
Windows XP, (code name Whistler), is in beta two testing and will be released in the second half of this year, so says Bill Gates. Windows XP is based on Windows 2000 and will have two versions, Home Edition and Professional.Two more versions in beta two testing are still going under the code name Whistler. One is Whistler Server and Whistler Advanced Server. Whistler Advance Server for Itanium-based systems is also in test. These versions are replacements for Windows 2000 Professional version and Windows 2000 Server version.
I have been testing Windows XP Home Edition and I will tell you what Microsoft says it will do better than Windows 95, 98 and ME; then I will tell you my test results and what I recommend.
Microsoft found that a number of members of a family use the computer and that each has her (or his) own desires for customizing. You can do this with Windows XP by each person having his or her own sign on. One neat thing is that various users can access their own accounts without having to close each others applications. This is the first Windows version to provide these capabilities.
The Start Menu will allow you to organize your programs. Windows 9x and ME provided this capability to some extent, but not to the extent provided by XP. New with XP, the Start Menu can group your most frequently used files for quicker access.
XP has a Search companion that identifies help information relevant to your current task. File Management allows you to arrange your files according to what makes sense to you. These capabilities are new with XP.
Also new with XP, My Music has album view thumbnail and My Pictures allows you to order prints directly from the Internet, links directly to Camera and Scanner Wizard, view images in a slideshow, publish pictures to the Internet, compress pictures for e-mail and optimize printing of pictures.
In Windows ME and Windows XP, you can use the Network setup wizard. You can set up Internet Connection Sharing and an option is provided to remotely disconnect your dialup connection so that you can use your phone and then resume the connection.
You can let Web publishing Wizard walk you through publishing your pictures to the web and the Scanner and Camera Wizard helps you scan images and multi-page documents.
The new Internet Explorer 6 (which can be downloaded from the Internet for Windows 9x and ME) includes a personal bar that allows you to customize information, pop-up menus that let you save images quickly, automatic image resizing that adjusts the images to fit your window, and a Media bar that provides a simple way for you to locate and play media within your browser window.
Since XP is built on a new engine, which merged the best features of its consumer Windows 2000 engineit, it delivers a friendlier, more dependable operating system. This will provide more power, security and reliability. Another new thing in XP, that I like, is that Internet firewall protection is included.
Now let me tell you my experiences with Windows XP beta one and beta two. I have two computers. Computer number one has a lot of peripheral equipment internal and external to the computer. These include, DVD drive, 32 Mg video card, modem and TV card internal, and probably others that I can’t remember. Externally, I have a couple of printers, video camera and scanner. Computer number two is basically a plain Jane.
Before I tried to install Windows XP in computer number one, I disconnected the scanner and camera. I formatted a hard disk in computer number one and installed Windows ME. I could not get Windows XP to load on computer number one. It seems that your hardware, at least in most cases, must have Windows 2000 drivers. I think my major problem is the RAGE FURY MAXX video card. A CD program installs the video card and the DVD CD drive. Checking on ATI’s web, I find that ATI cannot develop a Windows 2000 driver for the video card, so if you buy a video card, make sure it has a Windows 2000 driver along with drivers for 9x and ME.
Windows XP (beta two) loaded easily onto computer two. A statement came up that said my Canon BJC-3000 printer driver was not the right one for XP and that the printer may not work properly. The printer works great in printing in black and white and color. The U.S. Robotics modem also works well. I have not tried to install a lot of software on computer two yet, so I don’t know what software problems I will run into.
Based on the result so far, I would not recommend that you try to install Windows XP (when it is released) on a computer running 9x or ME until you have checked the Microsoft web site for hardware compatibility (the HCL). If you buy a new computer this fall, after Windows XP is released, I would highly recommend that you get Windows XP installed as your operating system.
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