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Improving the Windows experience
By DAVE GUSSOW
TAMPA -- Windows XP is Jim Cullinan's baby. Of course, the lead product manager for the operating system has good things to say about it. But he also doesn't bat an eye when talking about its problems. Drivers needed to make it work with printers, scanners and other devices? Microsoft needs to do better. Security? It has to improve. Rebuilding trust with consumers? It's essential. "I'm not going to mislead customers about the fact that some might have problems," Cullinan said. "I just wish it weren't true. I know I have problems once in a while, (and) the help desk is four digits away. Not every customer has that luxury." Microsoft released XP, the latest version of its operating system for consumers, in October 2001. The computer industry hoped it would give a jolt to slumping PC sales. Though Microsoft says it has shipped 67-million copies just to PC manufacturers, XP has not been the driving force for many sales. Part of the problem has been the economic slowdown, but also contributing have been the widely reported difficulties in upgrading from previous versions of Windows and in compatibility with other devices. Now Microsoft has embarked on a campaign to get consumers to take advantage of all the bells and whistles it keeps packing into its operating system (to the chagrin of would-be competitors for those add-ons). About 80 percent of users surveyed by the software giant still use their PCs for basics, such as e-mail, surfing the Web and word processing. They skip the widely hyped features for digital photos, video and music, apparently because they think using those requires more expertise than they have, Cullinan says. "Why do you want to get a new PC if you're only doing three things?" Cullinan said. "When you're going to spend $800 to $900, a grand, $2,000 on a piece of equipment, at least know what you can do." Cullinan was in the Tampa Bay area recently to promote new Microsoft Web sites designed to help consumers understand how to use XP for photos, music, video and communications (www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/experiences). Unlike some Microsoft Web efforts, such as the knowledge base for looking up problems, these pages are easy to navigate. They include videos, demos and categories such as "How to get started" and "How to learn more." Cullinan also spent time chatting with Tech Times about XP. On some of the well-traveled issues, he gave the company line: The activation process forcing people to register is necessary to fight piracy. And Microsoft is talking about less-expensive pricing plans for families with multiple PCs -- each copy of XP will work on only one machine -- but nothing it's ready to discuss publicly. He couldn't say much about the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, but some of his comments give an indication of where it's heading. Here are other highlights: Drivers. No issue has frustrated consumers more than finding out their old printers, scanners and software don't work with Windows XP. Microsoft built more than 12,000 drivers into the operating system, and it wasn't enough. "There's devices from the mid-'90s that people still just want to plug in and say it should work," Cullinan said. "That's a challenge." Also, some hardware and software companies had gone out of business, so nothing could be done with their drivers. And other companies didn't want to upgrade drivers for older equipment, hoping to encourage people to buy new equipment. Microsoft even tried to write some drivers on its own. All of it combined to confuse and anger consumers. "It's encouraged some of our partners to work with us and fix problems," he said. "If (the industry) doesn't find a middle ground where it makes the consumer happy, we all lose."
Error reporting. Instead of the crashes and error messages about "general protection faults" and the Blue Screen of Death, XP usually closes down only the affected program. Then a little window appears, asking if the user wants to send a report about the problem to Microsoft. Few people choose to send that message, in large part because they don't know what kind of information they're sending and how it will be used. "I think it's minuscule (numbers reporting) because it's a trust issue that we have to improve," Cullinan said. "You send it in, we say thank you, and then we put it into a database where we can figure it out." The information is basically a system snapshot, including items such as the processor and video card, but no personal information that would identify the user, Cullinan says. But people expect action if they report a problem, getting a response, a quick fix or a Windows Update. The individual response is not possible, Cullinan says, because Microsoft doesn't know who sent the report. And it takes time to analyze the data. What Microsoft is working toward is a type of personal error reporting system. It might be something like a secure personal Web page, where users could report problems, check to see how they're being handled and receive fixes, maybe even the same day. But, Cullinan said, "That's the dream world." Networking. One of the features hyped about XP was the ease of networking, connecting multiple PCs in a home to share Internet connections, files and peripherals. This one's personal: I still can't get XP to talk to my son's PC running the previous-generation Windows Me operating system. "The whole networking situation is still way too hard," Cullinan said. "I don't think that in Windows XP even the whole scenario was fully thought through in terms of real-life implementation." In short, "We have to make it better," he said. Security. Microsoft has been hammered for the numerous security holes in its software that tempt hackers and virus writers. "The biggest downside (about XP) is the perception that Windows is anything but a secure operating system and that you have to fear for your life that something's going to come in and either steal your private information or basically corrupt your system," Cullinan said. "We've done a horrible job making customers feel good about constantly getting a new flow of technology." But the older Windows 95 and 98 have their own set of problems. "For security reasons, for reliability, for performance reasons, no one should be on a Windows 95 or Windows 98," Cullinan said. "Those things were designed for when (going online) was in its infancy." Trust. Since a federal judge approved the antitrust settlement between Microsoft and the government, the company has tried to present a softer image to the public after being declared a monopolist. "The antitrust case has had a huge impact within Microsoft," with a message "that the company is not to be trusted," Cullinan said. The first priority, Cullinan said, is to make sure Microsoft keeps it partners and the public informed about its plans and why it's doing things. "The second thing we have to do is build better products," he said. "We need to do something so that the experience that the customers have must be simple, easy and understandable. There's going to be problems, but you know what? The basics and the fundamentals have to be nailed. We have to do them right or people are not going to want to buy, period. And the fundamentals are so much better in XP that that's got to be the floor, not the ceiling." Innovation. XP's release lacked the buzz that greeted earlier versions, mainly because computing for many people has become a routine of basic functions, such as e-mail and the Web. "There's been nothing new in the market that I have seen, at least in the last three, four years," he said, saying Microsoft needs to use its operating system to get developers excited about coming up with new products. Is Windows dead? A number of analysts and competitors have suggested that Windows' future is limited, most recently after IBM announced a $10-billion campaign to change corporate computing. Needless to say, Microsoft disagrees. "I think it's been stagnant for a couple of years, but I think it's not even remotely dead," Cullinan said. "We're at the infancy of what computing's going to do. I think defining Windows by the personal computer would sort of have a short-sighted view of where we're going." The Web, mobile computing and connections, more powerful processors and speech recognition will change the way computing works, he says. "I think Windows as a platform is about to be reborn in the next version," he said. "Just look at things like the Tablet PC and what it's doing. That's a huge investment, and I think that's paid off." -- Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228.
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