Windows XP gives you lots more reasons to like it

By Zatni Arbi

Jakarta (JP): Two weeks ago we had our first encounter with Windows XP -- Microsoft's upcoming operating system (OS) that is going to replace Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows Me. I mentioned in my article how I liked the fresh new look and the faster boot-up time. I also liked the new organization of the Start menu and the cleaner Taskbar. But we had barely scratched the surface.

Since then I already received Release Candidate 2 (RC2) CD from Microsoft Indonesia, and I was able to install it without any problem. RC2 replaced the entire RC1 that I had already installed on the Dell machine, it even erased MS Office XP and all the other software programs that had already been on it.

Therefore, after installing RC2, I had to reinstall MS Office XP and the other utilities that I thought I would need. Yet, Windows 2000 Professional, which came installed on this loaned machine, remained untouched. I can still run it any time by restarting the PC.

I wish I had clocked the boot time when the machine was still running RC1, but I could not find a stopwatch for this purpose. My impression was that RC2 took a little bit longer to boot than RC1, although it still loaded significantly faster than Windows 2000 Professional or the other versions of Windows.

On the surface, however, nothing seems to have changed from RC1 to RC2, although the latter must have fewer bugs than the former. This is evident, among others things, in the smoothness of the closing down process.

Unlike the RC1, the updated Windows XP never had a problem when shutting down -- whether we are restarting the system or powering it down altogether.

Easy connection

The Dell PC comes with a 3Com's fast Ethernet card, so I did not have any problem connecting it to the cable modem in my study. Adjusting the adapter's TCP/IP settings is much easier now, as the IP addresses, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS server addresses are all in one dialog box.

The dialog box is now easier to access thanks to the more streamlined grouping of items in the Control Panel. Once I entered the right number sequences, I was immediately able to connect to the Internet using my LinkNet account.

Accessing Detik.com pages, however, required Java Virtual Machine, and it was downloaded automatically by Internet Explorer 6.0 that came with the new OS. Strangely, the downloading process was not completed. As LinkNet's service has greatly deteriorated, I suspected the problem was caused by the slow access. However, when I clicked the Cancel button on the Download box, Detik.com's pages jumped onto the screen very quickly.

Ketty Budiarto from Microsoft Indonesia told me the biggest benefits from Windows XP will not be felt on stand-alone machines, as the strengths of this operating system are its sharing and collaborating over the Internet or over our home network. Users, for example, can access all the files on their desktop computers from anywhere.

Help is everywhere

Learning to get around in Windows XP is easier now thanks to the better organization of the topics. To access information on our hard disk, we simply need to click on Help and Support on the Start menu. It will bring up Help and Support Center for Windows XP Professional, which I prefer to the Help facility of the older versions. Here we can choose which topic we want to learn more about. We can also launch the multimedia Windows XP Tour from here.

And, as our world is getting increasingly connected, reaching out for helping hands is now easier than ever. If you find the right discussion groups and forums for Windows XP, you can gain a lot of undocumented information on what you can do with this new OS, although it will not be officially launched until Oct. 25.

In one of these discussion groups, for example, I learned that running gpedit.msc would call up a dialog box where we could set a raft of parameters for the Group Policy. You can see it in the accompanying picture. Here, for instance, we can turn on the audit logon events, which will record successful and/or failed logon attempts by a user in the group. Here we can also change the text on the title bar of Internet Explorer.

We shall continue to look at the features of Windows XP, including its improved ability in handling digital media such as music and video (even the Professional version is now equipped with tools to handle games and DVD playback). The text to speech tool is particularly exciting to me, as it will enable me to tell Windows to read text for me off the screen.

Clearly, so far there seems to be a lot of reasons to like the new OS. Even the Activation process, which had caused so much controversy, seems to be hassle-free (it may no longer be the case if this process limits our ability to reinstall OS in a heavily upgraded PC, for example).

Although the products will not be available on the retail shelves for seven more weeks, prices are already offered on the Web. According to CNet, the upgrade version of Windows XP Home Edition is offered at US$99 and up, while the upgrade version of the Professional version will cost you $199. The full version will cost substantially more, of course. The Home Edition will cost $199, while the Professional version will set you back by $299. (zatni@cbn.net.id)