Windows XP Family

As mentioned earlier,Windows XP represents the combination of the best aspects
of several versions of Windows.Windows 9x and Me were known for their Plug
and Play (PnP) capabilities, their multimedia capabilities, and their home user
“friendliness.”Windows 2000 is known for its security features, its robustness, and
its business-class performance.Windows XP takes the best from both of these
operating systems.
You can choose from two different flavors of Windows XP:Windows XP
Home Edition and Windows XP Professional.The two versions have a large
number of similarities. All versions of Windows XP (including the .NET servers)
are built on the Windows 2000 code base. However, each has a place in the
market—Windows XP Home Edition is designed to replace Windows 98 and
Me in the home environment, and Windows XP Professional is meant to succeed
Windows 2000 in the office. Let’s take a closer look at what each of these versions
brings to the table.
Windows XP Home Edition
Windows XP Home Edition is the next release of Windows destined for the
consumer market. Although XP Home Edition and Professional are very similar,
XP Home Edition contains only a subset of the functionality of XP Professional.
Microsoft is expecting Home Edition to appeal to customers in a home environment,
as well as to business customers who lack a formal IT staff.The key difference
is that Home Edition is not meant to operate in a managed environment.
The best way to describe the features included in Home Edition is to compare
the product to its predecessor.Windows XP Home Edition offers the following
improvements over Windows 2000 Professional:
 Improved multimedia capabilities
 An improved user interface
 A simplified security model
 The ability to quickly switch between user sessions
 Better hardware and software compatibility
Multimedia Capabilities
Microsoft added a number of new multimedia and Internet features to Windows
XP Home Edition, including the following:
 Internet Explorer 6 (IE6)
 Windows Media Player 8 (WMP8)
 MSN Explorer browser
IE6 is the next version of the popular browser from Microsoft. In its newest
release, it contains a couple of interesting features, which are contained in the
Personal Bar.The Personal Bar contains a Search applet, an MSNBC News/
Stock/Weather applet, and a Media Player applet in a resizable window. However,
for the most part, IE6 acts like IE5. From the outside, it has been refreshed to
match the new interface, with redesigned icons and rounded edges.You can see
some of these changes in Figure 1.1.
Another addition to the Windows XP platform is Windows Media Player 8.
WMP8 builds upon the successful Windows Media Player 7 by adding new interface
changes, improvements in copying from audio CD to hard disk (otherwise
known as ripping), and more skins for customizing the look of the player. Figure
1.2 displays a screenshot of WMP8.WMP8 now supports burning of audio CDs
from within the WMP itself.The following files types can be burned to audio
CD: .wma, .mp3 and .wav.
Improved User Interface
The user interface in Windows XP Home Edition has been completely remodeled.
For starters, the Start menu button has changed, as well as the taskbar.A neat
feature of the new taskbar is the option to group similar programs together on a
single taskbar button.When you click on the button to restore the program, you
see a small menu listing the instances of the program, and you can choose which
to restore. Figure 1.3 shows Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.
The Start menu has also been transformed into a panel of links to the various
features within the OS. Figure 1.4 shows an example of the new Start menu with
most of the options enabled.
Security Enhancements
In terms of security,Microsoft has attempted to provide the benefits of the
Windows NT/2000 security model, while still making the system easy to operate
and administer. XP Home Edition has two account types: Computer Administrator
and Limited (refer to Figure 1.5).The Computer Administrator can add, remove,
and change user accounts, make universal changes to the system, and install applications.
A Limited user only has the capability to change his/her password.
Users of XP Home Edition or XP Professional can log on using a
“Welcome” screen that lists the names of the user accounts, as shown in Figure
1.6. A user simply needs to click on her name and provide the password, and she
is authenticated onto the system. (A wise Administrator would be quick to turn
off the Welcome screen and Fast User Switching functions in a workgroup environment
as they present an additional security risk that far outweighs the benefits
of this new nicety. It is important to note that turning off the Welcome screen
automatically turns off Fast User Switching.)
Switching between User Sessions
Microsoft has introduced a concept called Fast User Switching that will allow users
to switch between user accounts while leaving applications running in the background.
For instance, let’s say that User1 is logged into the system. User2 would
like to check his e-mail. So, User2 will perform a “switch user,” log in as himself,
and check his mail. All of the applications that User1 was working on will stay
running in User1’s context.When User2 is finished, User1 can “switch user” back
to herself, and she can continue working on the applications that were open
when User2 logged on. Figure 1.7 shows the Switch User option dialog box.
Hardware and Software Compatibility
Lastly,Windows XP Home Edition has been designed to run many of the legacy
applications that are on the market today. Microsoft achieved this by adding a
compatibility mode to the operating system.This allows you to run an application
in Windows XP and emulate an older OS, such as Windows 95.Windows XP
will try to provide the hardware-level access that is requested by the application
without sacrificing the integrity of the kernel.
In terms of hardware compatibility,Windows XP has the most advanced Plug
and Play features of any Windows operating system. For the end user, this means
that many of the older first-generation PnP devices, as well as a number of non-
PnP devices, will work with WinXP.WinXP also has an improved driver set.
Microsoft made the decision to leave out much of the enterprise features
from the Home Edition, choosing to include them in the Professional edition.
For example, if you need to add your PC to a Windows 2000 or Windows NT
domain, you must use Windows XP Professional.
Windows XP Professional
While Windows XP Home Edition adds a great deal to the feature set of
Windows 2000,Windows XP Professional takes the product to the next level.
Many of the neat things that are part of Windows 2000 Professional are excluded
from the Home Edition, but they are included in WinXP Professional.These features
include the following:
 IntelliMirror technologies
 Group Policy functionality
 Encrypting file system support
 Multiprocessor support
As we mentioned in the preceding section,You can join XP Professional to a
Windows 2000 or Windows NT domain. In a Windows 2000 Active Directory
environment, XP Professional can take full advantage of those features that are
dependent on the domain login.These include the neat features described in the
preceding list, as well as roaming profiles and Remote Installation Services (RIS).
We delve into the feature list in much more detail shortly, but rest assured,
Windows XP Professional offers many advantages compared to Windows 2000
Professional.
The Future of Windows 2000
Server: Windows .NET Servers
What should you expect from the next version of Microsoft’s server product?
Well, the first thing will be another name change. Departing quickly from the
year-based name, the next edition will be named Windows .NET Server, signifying
the tight cooperation with the .NET Framework on the development side.
However, once you get past the name, you should be pleasantly surprised to see a
number of improvements over Windows 2000 Server under the hood of .NET
Server. Here are a few of the features that Microsoft has listed for the next generation
of Windows Server:
 You should expect to see even more improvement in the reliability
of the Server product. Windows 2000 was quite a leap over
Windows NT 4, and you will see another level of reliability in the .NET
Server line.Microsoft is trying to achieve a consistent Five 9s in reliability,
and the .NET server might be close to achieving this level.
 Windows .NET Server will be faster than Windows 2000 Server.
This will be important for those customers who are using .NET Server
to host SQL Server 2000 or other transaction-based products.The next
release of Windows will also include support for 64-bit processors.
 The next version will be easier to manage. This will be thanks to
features such as “headless” server support (no need for a monitor, keyboard,
or mouse), remote administration, and Windows Management
Interface (WMI).