The future of Windows! (Microsoft Windows XP (Whistler))

Member Name: Retron

Product:	Microsoft Windows XP (Whistler)
Date:	01/08/01 (6266 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stable, Good compatibility, Easy to use

Disadvantages: Product Activation is currently a thorny issue

For years, Windows for most users has meant crashes, hangs and the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) - largely due to the fact that Windows runs on top of DOS, the operating system that celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. Successive versions of Windows have taken more functions away from DOS, but even in Windows ME, DOS is still needed. This does mean that you'll get superb backwards compatibility - a 1981 spreadsheet will run as well as Wolfenstien 3D (from 1992), but the price is that any errant application can take the whole system down.

Back in 1992, Microsoft started work on what was to be the future of Windows - Windows NT. NT does away with the DOS kernel, instead it uses a fully 32-bit kernel - it's not a 16/32 bit hybrid like Windows 9x. Windows NT needed 12MB of RAM when it was released, so was out of reach for most people. While Windows 95 developed into Windows 98 then ME, Windows NT has been developing too - Windows 2000 is the current version of NT. Ever since the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft has been trying to move people over to a single OS, based on NT, originally to be called Cairo. For various reasons, Microsoft never managed it - until now, that is. In October, Windows XP is set to be released - the first consumer level OS to be based on Windows NT. I'm using Release Candidate 1 to write this - meaning all the features of the final version are locked in place; the only big things to change between now and the final version are the fixing of bugs. (In fact, RC2 has just been released, which allows you to uninstall Internet Explorer).

The main thing this will bring is increased stability - if an application crashes in XP, you can just shut it down and carry on. In theory, Windows 9x was meant to work this way, but sometimes you'd just get a lockup or a BSOD. Hardware has finally caught up to the demands of NT in general, meaning any PC less than a couple of years old will be able to run XP, although 128MB or
more of RAM is strongly recommended. Windows XP works fine speed wise on my 30 month old P3-450, so there shouldn't be any problems if your PC is faster than this.

Installing XP involves either booting from the CD, or installing it from Windows 9x / 2000 - as a last resort, you can also install from plain DOS. If you install from Windows, you're asked whether you want to upgrade or install a fresh copy (while keeping your existing OS), whether or not you want to format your hard drive to NTFS (NT's native file system - although FAT32 and 16 work as well), plus country settings - after typing in your key code, you'll be able to sit back and wait for up to 60 minutes as files are copied over and everything's installed. Installing from the CD is similar, except you're prompted for the key code and regional settings near the end of the install process. The setup process is much more automated than it used to be - although you can still tinker with network settings, by default everything is autodetected for you. Not all hardware has drivers supplied with XP, though - my Miro TV card, Creative DVD decoder and Voodoo 2 SLI setup had no drivers as default, although Windows NT / 2000 drivers from the Web work well.

After the final reboot, you're treated to some relaxing music as the much talked about Activation process starts - you're asked to validate your copy of Windows with Microsoft within 14 days of installing it. This can be done seamlessly over the Internet, or over the phone by quoting a code to Microsoft. You can also register your copy by sending your personal details to Microsoft, although this part isn't compulsory. Although this is still being finalised, it's currently looking like you'll have to phone Microsoft to reactivate if you install lots of new hardware - currently more than 3 pieces in a given period (likely to be between 60 days and 6 months, after which the counter resets). Adding RAM, ch
anging your motherboard or installing Windows to a new hard drive are example of what counts as upgrading - to be honest, most home users won't ever come into contact with this. There's lots of anti-MS feeling on the Internet about this, though - I'll update this review when the final details are known. The idea of this is to stop people like myself installing Windows XP on two computers - each activation code will tie Windows to one PC, meaning you'll need 2 copies if you've got 2 PCs.

Microsoft has finally made the default colour depth 16-bit, and Windows will try and run at 800x600 resolution when first started - as new PCs since 1994 or so have been able to manage this, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. As a result, most of the icons have been redesigned, featuring lots of pastel colours - they look quite nice after the old Windows 9x icons. Not everything has been changed, though, as even relics such as Program Manager remain if you want them. Once XP's fully installed, you're confronted with an almost empty desktop, containing only the Recycle Bin. Apart from this, the interface is still very much the same as Windows 9x, although the default 'Luna' look adds large blue title bars, colours the close button red and makes scroll bars blue. Other refinements include automatic hiding of unused icons in the tray area (next to the clock) on the taskbar. The Start menu has also undergone a change, becoming larger as it has an extra column listing the last few programs you've launched, plus the default Web browser and email programs (yes, if you install Navigator, it will take the place of IE on the menu). By default, things such as the Control Panel and My Computer look different to the traditional view (the Control Panel has icons groups in tasks, like WinME, while My Computer has a new 'group' view, where all hard drives are shown together, then any removable drives, then network drives. The default
view for Explorer windows is a new 'tile view', which just displays more details for each icon, while taking up a lot more space. The find files dialog by default displays an animated dog (as in MS Bob ages ago, and Office 97 onwards) - this only serves to make it take longer to conduct file searches. Purists will be pleased to know that these new things can be turned off selectively - you can even revert to a Windows 2000 type of GUI if you really dislike the new Luna look.

As XP is targeted at the home user, as well as corporations, there's lots of hand holding - there's a Home Networking Wizard to set up Internet connection sharing, for example, as well as integrated support for scanning, hooking up digital cameras and burning CDs from Explorer - all with plenty of help in the form of the main Help and Support Start menu option, again developed from the similar feature in WinME.

For the first time, DOS support has been given a real boost. While Windows NT up to 2000 have in fact contained a version of DOS 5 (running on top of Windows, rather than the vice-versa approach of Win9x), support for DOS games has been poor - no SoundBlaster support or VESA screen modes were allowed. This is because Windows NT/2000/XP stop any program from talking directly to the hardware - meaning you gain a lot of stability at the expense of compatibility. Third part products have appeared, but these in effect emulate a SoundBlaster card, meaning you get poor performance. Windows XP has SoundBlaster emulation built into the NTVDM (NT DOS Virtual Machine - the part of XP that runs DOS apps), meaning that you get almost full support for sound in old DOS games. It's not perfect (for those that care, you don't get OPLx emulation if your sound card doesn't have an OPLx chip on it, and some DSP functions don't work), but it works for most things. When used in conjunction with SoundFX NT (the 3rd party SoundBlaster emulator), you get almost p
erfect emulation. I expect this will improve by the final release. Some newer DOS games (such as Duke Nukem 3D) use VESA, the nearest DOS has to DirectX, for high resolution graphics. As with SoundBlasters, using VESA requires talking direct to the graphics card, bypassing Windows. Microsoft have implemented VESA support in the XP kernel, meaning most DOS games will run flawlessly - a magnificent feat of engineering. An option has been added to make a bootable DOS disk (not present in NT up until now), which creates a boot disk with DOS 8 (from WinME) on it - meaning you actually get 2 versions of DOS with Windows XP!

Windows compatibility has been improved, too - lots of even fairly recent games will detect you're using Windows NT and refuse to install. If you right click on a problematic program's EXE file, you're given the option of forcing it to run under a compatibility mode (which basically means Windows XP will lie to the program, telling the program it's really Windows 95 or whatever you've selected). Under this tab, you're also given the option of running the program in 640x480 and/or 256 colours - neither of these options are available from the Display control panel option any more.

Safe Mode has been improved, too - by using the VESA support of your video card, you now get 640x480 or 800x600 in 32-bit colour, plus USB mice and keyboards now work in Safe Mode (as they do in Win2K, but not in Win9x).

Windows XP is basically a souped-up Windows 2000, but for the home version things such as encrypting your files and support for dual processors have been removed. A good place to get information is from Microsoft's own website (currently plugging XP). In this review I've concentrated solely on the new features in XP - I'd suggest looking for a Windows 2000 review to learn about the myriad of other features carried forward from Win2K.

Overall, providing you've got the hardware, Windows
XP is a highly recommended upgrade, even in its current near-release state. It truly is the future of Windows.

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