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Review: Should you be XP-erienced?
By JOHN TORRO and DAVE GUSSOW © St. Petersburg Times,
Windows XP produced much of the promised new and improved computing experience in our tests of the preliminary and final versions, particularly on reliability and stability. In a number of ways, it is one of the most significant changes ever for the home PC user. But the operating system to be released Thursday was not flawless, particularly when it comes to compatibility with older hardware and software. So you'll have to do some homework before upgrading a PC running on an earlier edition of Windows. This new version is built on the more modern and infinitely more stable code base of Microsoft's business products, Windows NT and Windows 2000. Though Microsoft still will make separate versions for consumers and businesses, XP replaces all previous versions of Windows. Though we consider Windows XP to be an important upgrade for Windows users, getting there is going to mean some careful planning and some frustration. People will have to decide whether they need to start from scratch and invest in a new computer system, peripherals and software. (Microsoft has a free download available that will check a PC to see if it can handle XP. Be warned, however, that it's a 32 megabyte download and Microsoft recommends it for people with high-speed cable or DSL Internet access. It can be found at www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp.) And for many people, it may simply come down to this: If your computer is working well and you're happy with the performance, you may not want or need to upgrade. The suggested minimum system requirements of a 233-megahertz processor and 64 megabytes of random access memory are understated, almost a Microsoft tradition. The company's recommended configuration is a 300MHz processor and 128MB of RAM. Although XP has improved memory management, don't even think about running with only 64MB. On the other hand, it seems to do just fine with 128MB of RAM, much better than even Windows 2000 does with the same amount. But 256MB is highly recommended if you intend on getting the most out of your system. It also requires 1.5 gigabytes of hard drive space. Almost any PC bought in the past three years should have enough power to handle it. Those thinking of upgrading should plan on spending 45 minutes to an hour for the installation. Here are some of the new features of Windows XP: -- The look: It's cleaner and more pleasing to the eye. The user interface (unofficially named Luna) has been redesigned and is geared toward novice users, allowing them to perform common tasks more easily. Users can choose the traditional look of icons cluttering the desktop or use the enhanced Start menu to keep the desktop almost icon-free. But even as experienced users, we found some aspects more difficult to navigate, with many things, such as networking properties and individual Control Panel options, filed in new places and harder to access. In fact, it took a short while to track down items that had been safely stored in My Documents in Windows Me but seemed lost after upgrading to XP. -- Stability: Running a PC almost nonstop for two months produced no blue screens of death, the infamous result of a system crash. That kind of performance would have been an accomplishment with previous consumer versions of Windows. Each application running gets its own section of memory. So if a program fails, the program shuts down, not the whole PC. And instead of unintelligible error messages, XP offers a simpler, though no less enlightening, explanation that the system encountered a problem. It also offers users a choice to report the problem to Microsoft over the Internet. Whether that helps solve problems over time remains to be seen. -- Remote assistance: Microsoft tech support has been a sore point for users for years. XP may solve that, assuming people are willing to have a Microsoft tech poke around the machine over a phone or cable connection. With remote assistance, users will be able to invite a knowledgeable friend also using XP to take control of their PC to check out and fix problems. Eventually, Microsoft says it will offer remote tech support. In addition, XP offers an extensive and easy-to-use Help section, with links to online resources. -- Compatibility mode: One would think that an operating system with 12,000 drivers would handle any hardware or software. But that's not the case. (Microsoft claims XP will be compatible with 90 percent of the 1,500 most popular programs.) XP offers a workaround for applications that require past versions of the Microsoft operating system, such as games and DOS-based programs. They can be run within a built-in compatibility mode that allows XP to act like an older version of Windows. Not so with hardware. In our tests, XP couldn't figure out a Samsung ML4500 laser printer that's less than 2 years old. And a 3-year-old Visioneer scanner would not work either. Devices newer than 2 years old will have the greatest chance of getting configured properly. While we're used to searching for and downloading device drivers, newer users probably are not. Unless downloading a fix becomes automatic for all devices, this will be troublesome for many home users. And a caution: We tried to download a firewall using a review copy of XP. It didn't get along with XP and required a boot into Safe Mode to get the firewall uninstalled. The lesson: Double-check anything you want to download for compatibility. -- Multiple users: XP delivers welcome relief for families that share their PC. It allows individual logins, even letting people personalize their own desktop. You can have your Buccaneers wallpaper, while your daughter sees her 'NSync background when she logs on. When switching users, XP saves whatever work you have in progress. When you log in later, everything is exactly where you left it. Even with two people working in the same application -- Microsoft Word, for example -- this worked flawlessly and should help avoid family conflicts over lost work or interrupted games. -- Networking: Theoretically, networking multiple computers is easy with XP. A wizard quickly walks you through the process, with no hassle. In our test, however, the network between an XP machine and one with Windows Me worked sporadically and only briefly. It's one we're still trying to sort out. -- Instant messaging: Windows Messenger adds more powerful elements to instant messages, taking them beyond smiley faces and text. It adds two-way audio, streaming video and application-sharing. Video quality isn't great, even on a high-speed connection, but it was easy to set up. But it's a Microsoft-only affair. You can't exchange messages with friends using the far more popular Instant Messenger offered by America Online. Another major annoyance with Windows Messenger was its refusal to stay turned off. It repeatedly signed us back on, and we couldn't figure out a way to keep it off. And, of course, to use it, one must sign up for a Microsoft Passport account. -- Burning CDs: XP comes with built-in support for ATA100 hard drives, IEEE 1394 (FireWire) and CD-RW devices. You no longer need to load additional software to burn music or data CDs. You can just drag and drop files to the CD-RW icon. When you're done, right-click the CD-RW icon and tell it to burn the CD. The Windows backup utility also allows you to backup your computer files on CD-RWs (it's about time). For photos, My Pictures allows the user to post photos to a Web page or to send in an e-mail message, share them with other users of your computer and print them in customized fashion. Users can even send photos to an online retailer to order prints. The system does not provide photo-editing functions. But it's yet another Microsoft marketing come-on. As with the My Music feature, the desktop links to online services are all Microsoft-related. If you click the Shop for Music link, it takes you to MSN, for example. XP immediately recognized a Kodak DC4800 digital camera when it connected and initiated the photo transfer dialog as part of the Windows Image Acquisition, or WIA system, similar to the tools for imaging in Windows Me. You also can select any of your photos to appear on a directory folder to help identify what's inside. When we copied a Beach Boys CD to a folder, it automatically put a copy of the CD cover picture on the folder. Very nice. -- Power management: Although we had to resort to the Help feature to find out how to put a PC into hibernation (another annoyance in finding our way through the new interface), the shutdown and bootup time is dramatically shortened. The other power management utilities worked flawlessly, a huge difference from previous consumer versions of Windows. -- Activation: You have to activate and register Windows XP with Microsoft over the Internet or by phone after installing it. If you make more than four hardware changes after your initial activation, the system will prompt you to reactivate under the threat that it will lock you out. Just installing and uninstalling a balky printer or CD drive a number of times to get it to work could force you to go through the registration process again. At the least, it will be annoying and inconvenient. - John Torro is a Times correspondent. Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228.
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