The New York times


Windows XP: Microsoft's New Look for Fall, in Size XXL


September 6, 2001

CIRCUITS

Windows XP: Microsoft's New Look for Fall, in Size XXL

By DAVID POGUE

IF you could choose only one word to sum up Windows XP, "big" would come
to mind. Microsoft's new operating system is physically big, requiring
two gigabytes
of hard-drive space and more than an hour to install. It's big in scope,
too: XP is Microsoft's attempt to merge its home line (the friendly but
cranky
Windows 95, 98 and Me) with its corporate line (the unattractive but
rock-solid Windows NT and 2000) into a unified operating system that
offers the best
of both.

But above all, Windows XP is big for computer companies. It is designed
for very young, high-octane PC's - 128 megabytes of memory and up, less
than two
years old - and if it's a hit, the net effect is likely to be a wave of
PC buying and upgrading. No wonder that executives at PC makers are
walking around
with dilated pupils and moist palms, hailing Windows XP as the savior
that will deliver us from the tech slump, the recession and probably
world hunger.

Windows XP goes on sale Oct. 25, and it will begin showing up on some new
computers this month. But Microsoft has been supplying test versions for
evaluation
for several months, and last week it delivered the final product. It
turns out that even the good news is big: Windows XP is very attractive
and extremely
stable.

Rugged at the Core

At the core of Windows XP is the same stress-tested, highly secure engine
that drives Windows 2000, which has been the system of choice in
corporations,
where rebooting crashed PC's is an unacceptable waste of time. Sure
enough, it looks as though Windows XP may go months without locking up.
That's not
to say that individual programs won't still bomb now and then - they
will - but they'll no longer take down your whole computer.

The implications of a truly stable Windows are staggering. Think about
how much time, emotion and money has been expended over the years on
unhelpful error
messages, "blue screens of death" and frozen PC's. Windows XP could be
the dawn of a new, error-free era.

The trouble with Windows 2000, of course, is that it is incompatible with
many hardware and software add-ons, including such essential titles as
Tomb Raider
and Barney the Dinosaur CD's. Fortunately, Microsoft knocked itself out
in its efforts to improve XP's compatibility quotient; where Windows 2000
worked
with 6,000 hardware add-ons, Microsoft boasts that XP works with 12,000.
As with any Windows upgrade, this one will most likely require updates
for utility
programs like virus checkers and disk formatters. But otherwise, a vast
majority of programs, including games and even most elderly DOS programs,
run smoothly.
And if the unfamiliarity of Windows XP chokes a particular program, a
clever "compatibility mode" menu in the Properties window of each program
lets you
trick it into thinking it's running on Windows 95, Windows NT 4, or
whatever.

As with Windows 2000, Windows XP is also designed to keep the files and
settings of everyone who uses a particular PC separate and secure. Every
time you
use the computer, you must log in with a name and a password, so that
Windows will know whose desktop to bring up; it even returns you to
whatever programs
and documents you had open the last time you used the machine.

That's great in offices, schools and computer labs. But if you don't
regularly share your PC, it seems silly and even annoying to have to log
in to your
own machine. By declining to set up a password, you can reduce the
inconvenience to a single click on your name. But even so, for the home
user, Windows
XP is like a spouse who won't let you into your house each night until
you show some ID.

Cosmetic Surgery

The stability of XP will take you some time to appreciate, but the
cosmetic changes will hit you instantly. The emphasis on good looks
represents a huge
reversal for Microsoft, whose earlier design attempts are unlikely to
wind up under glass at the Louvre.

The XP taskbar and window borders are now a shimmering backlighted blue;
the redesigned icons have a 3-D shadowed look; tiny animations liven up
the desktop;
and the Recycle Bin is now in the lower right corner. In these and many
other ways, Windows XP couldn't look much more like Apple's Mac OS X if
you ran
it through a copying machine.

Even so, design surprises, most of the pleasant sort, await at every
turn. For example, the taskbar automatically consolidates the window
buttons of each
program when conditions become too crowded. If you're working on six Word
documents, you might see a single Microsoft Word button on the taskbar,
which
you can use as a pop-up menu to switch to a specific document.

The Start menu is now a better organized, two-column affair: recently
used programs are listed in the left column, and everything else (My
Documents, My
Computer, Control Panel, Search and so on) is in the right. The one
misfire here is the All Programs menu (the equivalent of the old Programs
listing);
it superimposes itself awkwardly on top of the Start menu. Fortunately,
if you can't stand this change - or, for that matter, any of the XP
cosmetic changes
- you can turn it off, which makes your desktop look and work just as it
did in previous versions of Windows.

Someone at a Microsoft focus group must have complained about clutter,
because when it comes to obsessive clean-freak tendencies, Windows XP
makes Jack
Nicholson in "As Good as It Gets" look like a slob. A new installation of
Windows XP presents you with an immaculate desktop - filled with the
photo of
a gentle sunlit hillside resembling the set of "Teletubbies" - graced by
only a single icon, the Recycle Bin. (Of course, computer companies may
still
install desktop icons on new PC's.)

The software even interrupts you every few weeks, offering to sweep away
rarely used desktop icons into a special folder. You can almost hear it
muttering,
"And for heaven's sake, tuck in your shirt."

New Tricks

If you had a dollar for every new feature in Windows XP, well, Bill Gates
would still be richer than you. But there's still enough to keep you busy
for
months.

Some of the enhancements are useful everyday timesavers. For example, you
can burn a CD just by dragging folders and files onto your CD burner's
icon. A
new "E-mail this file" button offers to shrink digital photos to a
reasonable size (like 640 by 480 pixels) as you send them, so that you
don't clog your
hapless recipient's phone line and In box. A Remote Assistance feature
lets invited PC gurus or help-desk technicians see and even manipulate
what's on
your screen over the Internet.

Windows XP comes with Internet Explorer 6, whose subtle enhancements
include an XP-like cosmetic makeover, along with improved security and
reliability.
(Anyone can download this new Web browser at www
.microsoft.com.) And frightened Web users can take some comfort in the
built-in automatic firewall software that blocks hacker invasions from
the Internet.
(Unfortunately, it's only a one-way firewall; if you worry about software
and viruses that send information from your PC to the Internet, keep
worrying.)

Every desktop window now has a left-side panel that offers one-click
access to functions and windows you might want. These commands are
sometimes extremely
useful ("Set as desktop background" when you click on a picture file);
other times, they're nothing more than commercials ("Shop for music
online," "Order
prints online"). Either way, it's too bad that you can't adjust the width
of this window panel or hide it selectively.

But not all of the new features have such universal appeal. For example,
the features that Microsoft is most likely to promote in its $1 billion
marketing
campaign for XP are aimed at a certain kind of customer: young
electronics fans who have digital cameras, MP3 music players and time to
spend in online
chats.

If you fall into that category, get psyched: XP offers spectacular
features for managing photo and music files. In any folder containing
photo or music
files, window controls appear that let you conduct a slide show, or a
concert of your MP3 files, right there on the desktop. Indeed, the simple
act of
plugging a modern digital camera into your PC produces a dialogue box
that offers to copy the pictures to the PC, print them or display them as
a slide
show.

Equally showy is Windows Messenger, a new program that lets you exchange
instant messages with people on your MSN, Hotmail or Windows Messenger
"buddy list"
over the Internet. If your PC has a microphone and speakers, you can also
talk to your pals, toll-free; if it has a video camera, Windows Messenger
even
turns your PC into a videophone.

Politics of a Product

If technical and design merit were the only criteria for judging an
operating system, the release of Windows XP would be cause for
jubilation. Unfortunately,
the inability to separate Microsoft's products from its business
practices tarnishes what could have been an exhilarating release.

For example, this is the first Windows version that's copy-protected. If
you try to install your copy onto a second computer - say, your laptop -
you'll
find yourself locked out of the second machine after 30 days. News of
this feature alone has driven many enraged PC owners to consider moving
to the Macintosh,
Linux or Amish country.

Furthermore, in the wake of Microsoft's legal squabbles with Sun
Microsystems (
news/quote),
Windows XP omits support for the Java programming language, which Sun
created. To use Web sites that require Java, like online banking and
investment sites,
you must download and install Java yourself. And although Windows Media
Player 8 looks better than ever, it still can't play QuickTime or
RealPlayer files.
(Microsoft says Apple and RealNetworks (
news/quote),
respectively, denied it the necessary rights.)

There are privacy questions, too; at every turn, Windows XP tries to send
information about you back to the mother ship. During installation,
you're first
asked if you're ready to "activate" your copy of XP (send information
about your PC's configuration to Microsoft), and then if you'd like to
register it
(send your address and phone number to Microsoft). If you try to use the
Windows Messenger program, you're told you must sign up for a Passport
(send your
e-mail address, city and ZIP code to Microsoft).

Microsoft swears that it will use your information only to serve you
better, but it's easy to be alarmed by the notion that a single company's
database
may soon list 90 percent of the world's computers.

The Upgrade Question

The best way to get Windows XP is on a new PC. That way, you're spared
the hassle of upgrading and the $100 cost of the Windows XP Home Edition
upgrade
kit. (Another $100 buys you the Professional Edition, which adds
corporate security and network features as well as Remote Desktop, which
lets you control
your home PC remotely over the Internet.)

But if a new PC isn't in your immediate future, you can upgrade your
current copy of Windows 98, Me or 2000 (but not Windows 95). The good
news is that
the Windows XP upgrade installer neatly preserves all of your settings,
desktop icons and so on.

The bad news is that XP is power-mad. Microsoft's official minimum
requirements are a 300-megahertz processor and 64 megabytes of memory.
But that's like
saying that the minimum requirements for marriage are two adults and a
blood test; in real life, there's more to it than that.

Without at least 400 megahertz and 128 megabytes of RAM, Windows XP
exhibits all the spunk of tomato paste. Note, too, that if your computer
is more than
about 18 months old, you may have to update its BIOS (a core nugget of
computer code) before installing XP, a procedure about as user-friendly
as a wet
cat.

To get a feeling for what the masses are in for, last week I assumed my
secret identity as the Upgrade Fairy, flitting from volunteer to
volunteer in my
neighborhood. My victims were the owners of laptops and desktops running
every upgradable version of Windows, including the technical staff at
Quintet
Systems, a multimedia production company in Connecticut.

Each time, the installer claimed to find incompatible hardware or
software; each time, we ignored the warning and wound up having no
problems, other than
having to upgrade virus checkers. When the hourlong process was complete,
we found only tiny glitches here and there. A copy of Outlook now asks
for the
Microsoft Office CD each time it's opened; a computer's name was
inexplicably changed from "Dell 4100" to "DEFAULT-COMP"; an Internet
connection icon had
to be recreated.

Had my guinea pigs reported more severe compatibility problems, they
could have used XP's system-restore function, which can undo the upgrade
and reinstate
the earlier Windows version. Fortunately, they generally expressed
delight with the new system.

The XP Experience

Microsoft says that XP stands for experience, the good one that you're
about to have using your PC. (Why does XP stand for experience? "Windows
EX" must
have sounded too much like a glass cleaner.)

True, the consolidation of Microsoft's home and corporate versions of
Windows results in some curious juxtapositions: most home users will be
baffled by
the need to log in every day, and corporate users may wonder about XP's
emphasis on chatting and music functions. And you may hear plenty of
grousing about
the policies and politics of Windows XP.

But you'll hear few complaints about the operating system itself,
especially when it's compared with previous versions. No matter what you
think of Microsoft,
using Windows XP on a new or very recent PC feels sure, swift and
satisfying. And that's a big deal.


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