Product Reviews

By the time you read this, Windows XP should almost have arrived. And if Bill Gates and his cohorts are to be believed, then this is the operating system we've all been waiting for. It is - if the pre-launch hyperbole is to be believed - the best version of Windows, ever. So, what is all the fuss about?

Until now, new home computers have arrived with Windows Millennium Edition because it offered the best support for hardware and software. But Millennium is still, essentially, a heavily tweaked version of the less-than-perfectly-reliable Windows 95. For this reason, sensible business users have opted for a version of the bullet-proof Windows NT system, the last incarnation of which was called Windows 2000 (reviewed in issue 108).

Roughly speaking, then, if you want flexibility, drivers for bags of different hardware, and the ability to play most games, you should currently be using Windows Me. However, if your job demands stability and security, your PC should be running Windows 2000.

But now Microsoft claims to have combined the best of both worlds into XP, and it should allegedly make everybody happy. Well, almost - because there is a twist: Microsoft has released two versions of XP - Home and Professional.

Home or Professional?

There's a difference of £80 between the upgrade versions of Home and Professional, so it's worth knowing what the differences are. Professional contains everything that the Home Edition does, plus numerous, generally large company-oriented extras. Below is a table which looks at Professional's extras and examines when they're actually beneficial.

A new look

For XP, Microsoft has given Windows its biggest scrub up since Windows 95. Though not a total overhaul, the changes are still significant, and for the better. The first thing you'll notice about the new blue look is that all the icons are bigger, bolder and clearer. In fact, everything has a pleasant rounded, 3D look, thanks to a number of new graphical effects. These effects are processor-intensive, but Windows intelligently adjusts how many it activates, depending on your specifications.

Beginning with a fresh installation, you'll discover the desktop is now totally bereft of icons, save for the Recycle Bin which now appears in the bottom right. For a clutter-free look, the rest have been moved onto the revamped Start menu. Similarly, the Task Bar has been slimmed down with similar programs grouped to save space.

The Start button now brings up two columns. The left one displays your most recently accessed programs, while the right contains all the 'My' folders, such as 'My Documents'. The My Music folder is a great new addition, ordering files in a number of ways, such as by artist. Best of all, you can display album covers simply by placing a .jpg in the folder.

This also works in the My Pictures folder, making it easy to identify each folder's contents.

Thankfully, Windows is also less intrusive with its suggestions. Me's frustrating dialog boxes have been replaced with discreet balloon messages from the System

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Tray.

New features

XP is positively brimming with new features and improvements. And Windows Media Player - now up to version 8 - is only available as part of XP. It loads faster, takes up less space and handles full-screen playback far better. Encoding CDs to the efficient WMA format is also more attractive now that the player will number tracks for you, and it's even possible to add lyrics and have them displayed as the track plays.

Internet Explorer has been updated again, too. Now running at version 6 (available free via download), its new Image Toolbar instantly captures images from Web sites, for resizing and e-mailing with little loss in quality, while the all-new Media Bar lets you play video and music files inside Explorer. This negates the need to open another application such as Media Player.

Digital camera buffs will love the way XP automatically picks up images when you plug in a camera or memory card, and there's also a genuinely useful wizard which helps you name and save the pictures you extract from the device.

CD burning is well catered for, with built-in software letting you copy straight onto a CD-R or CD-R/W without having to fire up a program like Easy CD Creator.

XP also promises good support for games that use DirectX 8.1. Older programs and games that wouldn't previously work under Windows 2000 can now be 'fooled' into working with the new compatibility mode.

Another major improvement for XP is how easy it is to keep files, documents and e-mails away from the prying eyes of different users. Separate password-protected accounts could be set up under previous versions of Windows, but now it only takes seconds to switch users - and you don't even have to log off first!

System stability is important, and Windows 98 users will notice how XP warns you if you attempt to install drivers that haven't been digitally signed - that is, tested and approved by Microsoft. XP actually prevents problem drivers from loading. Me drivers, incidentally, don't work under XP, but if XP doesn't have the correct drivers for your hardware built in, you could try using 2000 ones.

The clever System Restore utility has been carried over from Windows Me, allowing you to roll back your PC to an earlier, trouble-free state. But System Restore is just a part of the clever new Help and Support Center. It also brings Help files from your hard disk and the Internet together in one location. Searching will not only display local help, but also shows results from the online Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Saving the best for last, I have to praise the potentially revolutionary Remote Assist-ance program. A technical support person, or a knowledgeable friend with an XP computer, will be able to connect up to your computer via the Internet and control it as if they were sitting in front of it - PC nightmare over.

Is it for me?

So should you make the upgrade? For Windows 98 and Me users, the Home Edition is an excellent buy. Its various improvements, most notably stability, make the £90 upgrade price well worth paying - just make sure your PC is up to running it first. In my experience, I'd be only be inclined to go for the upgrade if my PC was around double Microsoft's minimum recommended specification.

For those with Windows 2000 Professional, the main benefits of XP are its support for more multimedia and games. If you're running 2000 you won't be able to upgrade to Home Edition, and it'll actually be cheaper to go for an upgrade to XP Professional. And if you're buying a new computer, Windows XP is the only way to go - no self-respecting PC will leave the factory without it.