Major Features of Windows XP Professional

This section briefly shows you why you should choose WinXP Professional for
your environment.The decision should become fairly obvious, once you see the
impressive list of upgraded features over Windows 2000 Professional.
User Interface
We start with the new user interface.Microsoft performed many tests with consumers
and used the test results to make significant changes to the Windows 2000
user interface. Most notably, they redesigned the Start menu and changed the
appearance of the standard Windows interface to reflect better usability. Here’s a
tour of what you can expect to see when you start using Windows XP.
Starting with the desktop,WinXP has a new look, as you can see in Figure
1.8. By default, all of the desktop icons are turned off.Yes, that’s right, you can
enable/disable the standard desktop icons, such as My Computer and My
Documents via the Control Panel. Microsoft claims that users preferred to start off
with a clean desktop. Figure 1.9 shows the configuration options for the desktop.
You’ll also notice the color scheme of the taskbar and Start button.
Throughout Windows XP’s user interface,Microsoft made a conscious effort to
use green buttons to represent events that opened or maximized windows, and
they used red buttons to represent events that closed or minimized windows.The
new Start button is the first example of this.
Other new features that you’ll find here are improvements to the taskbar. If
you’ve ever opened a number of applications at one time before, you’ve experienced
shrinking taskbar icons when the OS tried to represent a dozen applications
at one time with miniscule buttons on the taskbar.Windows XP will
automatically group multiple sessions of the same application under one button.
For instance, if you are working on five Word documents at the same time,
Windows XP will consolidate all of the Word sessions under a single button on
the taskbar.To access a particular document, you simply click on the Word
button, choose the appropriate session from a small menu, and your session will
maximize.
Not to be left out, the tray notification area (the area on the taskbar next to
the clock) has been improved.You have probably experienced a user who seemed
to have at least a dozen applications running in the tray, and this row of icons
consumed half of the taskbar by itself.You can now hide these icons by clicking
on an arrow next to the tray.
Figure 1.10 shows the new Start menu.Although it takes awhile to get used
to, the new design actually grows on you. By default, the menu will be configured
as shown in Figure 1.9, with practically all options enabled.The good news
is that you can reduce this menu to only one or two items if you desire. On the
left-hand side of the menu are links to Internet Explorer and your e-mail program
(Outlook Express is configured by default—you can also have Outlook XP
or even Hotmail on the menu). Below these two links are links to your recently
used programs.You can configure the Start menu to display between zero and
nine of your most recently used applications to appear on the menu. Below these
links is a “catch-all” link to All Programs, which gives you a menu that looks
much like the legacy Start menu from Windows 2000.
On the right-side of the menu are links to My Documents, My Recent
Documents, My Pictures, My Music, and My Computer.The middle of the
right-hand panel has links to the Control Panel and Printers and Faxes.To round
out the new Start menu are links to Help and Support, Search, and the Run
command.You can enable the Start menu to automatically expand the contents
of My Documents, My Computer, and the Control Panel.
Continuing on our tour of the new features of the user interface, we look at
the Control Panel. As you can see in Figure 1.11, the Control Panel now groups
related applets under a single icon, which makes finding the appropriate Control
Panel applet easier.
As you can see,Microsoft made a number of improvements to the user interface
in Windows XP.They have done a lot of work to make it more useable and
friendly, but there will always be those users who like the old way.Thus, you can
configure every one of the new features we just discussed to look and act just
like they did in Windows 2000 Professional.
Networking
You’ll find support for 802.11b wireless networking in Windows XP, as well as a
number of other networking features. One new feature is the Internet Connection
Firewall, which provides firewall functionality for individual computers and small
networks. Internet Connection Sharing has been enhanced as well.
What does this mean to the average Windows XP user? If you’re working in
a corporate environment, you are probably already protected by a firewall in the
data center.The Internet Connection Firewall wasn’t designed to provide the
level of protection that a hardware-based firewall can provide. Internet
Connection Sharing will probably not be much of a value-add in the corporate
world either.The environments where these features will shine will be in the
small office/home office (SOHO) market and in the home market.These are
places where you will probably not find a $15,000 hardware firewall or an expensive
T-1 connection for the entire LAN to share. However, if you have a cable
modem or DSL connection, you could easily share this connection with a small
office or with other machines in your home with these new networking features.
Better Performance
Windows XP Professional offers incredible gains in performance over previous
versions of Windows.You’ll experience this performance first-hand from the
moment you boot the system—startup times have been reduced to nearly a
minute, as opposed to many minutes for older versions of Windows.This time
savings translates directly into increased productivity for both you and your
clients and customers.WinXP has also been designed to reduce the number of
reboots. Multiple processor and large memory support (up to 4GB) will allow for
increased workstation performance.
Internet Features
You’ll find the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows XP Professional. Other Internet features include WebDAV support for
publishing directly to the Web, Internet Explorer 6 Administration Kit (IEAK) for
managing the deployment of IE, and Windows Messenger.
Windows Messenger is an instant messenger application that you can integrate
into Outlook XP or Hotmail/Passport to provide simple communications
between users on the local network or across the Internet. For the IT professional,
Microsoft has included the IEAK for IE6 to help in customizing the
deployments of IE6 in a managed environment. Finally,WebDAV, which has been
around for a few years, allows users to publish content directly from Word XP to
their intranet.This will help users to share their documents and information
more efficiently in the workplace.
Remote Assistance
Remote Assistance is certainly one of the neater features of Windows XP.This
allows users to request help from other users or the help desk via the Remote
Desktop Protocol, whereby the supporting user can interface directly with the
user on her desktop or via a chat session.
Here’s an example of how you can use Remote Assistance in the office place.
Let’s say a user has a problem with adding a local printer to her system. Normally,
this would generate a help desk call, and depending on the circumstances, a technician
may have to visit the user’s desk to assist her with this task. Using Remote
Assistance, the user could send an “invitation” to the help desk for someone to
remotely connect to her machine to help out.The user generates this invitation
from the Help and Support link on the Start menu. Figure 1.12 shows this page.
From here, the user can send the invitation via Windows Messenger or e-mail
to the help desk.This invitation will have a description of the problem (the user
types this in the body), and it can also have a time window for the help desk to
connect.This is a security feature that limits the ability of another user to connect
without permission. Once the help desk gets the request, they make a connection
back to the user, and then they can remotely control the user’s session and provide
assistance. Remote Assistance is based on Terminal Services technology.
Reliability Features
Windows XP improves upon the reliability features of Windows 2000 by providing
support for side-by-side DLL support, improved Windows File Protection,
improved code protection, and enhanced device driver signing.
For average users, this means that they should experience less issues with
applications crashing or causing conflicts with other applications. For IT professionals,
this means that they should get less support calls for application errors,
and building managed desktops with compatible applications will be much easier.
Multimedia Features
A proliferation of new multimedia devices are in the marketplace, including digital
cameras, DVD players, MP3 players, and so on.Windows XP keeps the pace
by providing a rich multimedia experience that allows you to fully take advantage
of these new devices.WinXP supports CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD-RAM drives
directly in Windows Explorer.The Windows Media Player will play most
common media formats, such as MP3s and DVDs (with third-party decoders).
You can access digital cameras just like an external drive over a USB interface,
making the transfer of digital images to your hard drive as easy as copying a file
from a CD-ROM.