Discover everything you need to know about Windows XP but were
afraid to ask.
The arrival of any new operating system is generally greeted with
caution and worry, or at least it should be going on past
experience in the computer industry. Change generally brings with
it an element of pain.
With the launch of its latest operating system Windows XP,
Microsoft is offering yet more change and more new technologies to
understand. So do users want this change?
When this question was levelled at Microsoft chief executive
officer Steve Ballmer at an event in the UK this year, he looked
bewildered, paused for breath, then said: "Of course you do."
He did, however, have more thought-provoking comments to make on
Windows XP, prompted by questions from the likes of John Parker of
The Infrastructure Forum, whose members are drawn from companies
listed on the FTSE 100. Parker told Ballmer that one of the key
issues for the forum's members is that they seem to be investing in
Microsoft technology that becomes out-dated rather quickly as
software like Windows XP comes along.
Also a cause for concern was the belief that as software appears
with problems in it, users have to wait until the next release for
a fix.
"If there are bugs in our products we will fix them," responded
Ballmer. "And if you have any member who doesn't think we are
fixing bugs and has software that doesn't do what we say it does,
then I'm steveb@microsoft.com."
He added: "In terms of churn. Our job is to put new capabilities
into the market that are of value to our customers. And if all
customers wanted to implement new technologies at exactly the same
rate - that rate being one year, two years and so on - it would be
fine. But every user is at a different phase and what is good
timing for one company is lousy for another."
When asked a similar question by Computer Weekly, Ballmer's answer
was somewhat more direct. "So you want me to stand still? We're in
the market of developing new technologies and that means we have to
launch new software," he said.
So what does Windows XP provide that users need? This is the latest
generation of 32-bit operating systems from Microsoft that spans
the desktop to the server. There is also a 64-bit version that will
run with Intel's Itanium 64-bit processor. Different flavours of
the 32-bit software will serve consumer users, business desktop
users, users connected to servers, line of business applications
that run entire companies and users of powerful workstations.
In many respects this complete family of operating systems replaces
the Windows 2000 set of operating systems, except for the high-end
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. Without a shadow of a doubt this
launch sounds the death knell for Windows 95 and 98 and the
ill-fated Windows Millennium.
Furthermore, the code base of all the Windows XP operating systems
has been synchronised. The troubled 9.x code base - as in 95, 98 -
has been sent to join Dos on the scrapheap. This means that the
difference between the Home and Professional versions of XP is
negligible, the home edition is basically the business one with
several features crippled.
Now having said all of this, it is worth mentioning that more
upgrades of Windows XP are already being planned for next year and
beyond. So if you are considering any purchase of this technology
you should make sure you understand Microsoft's future roll-out
plans - some of which are available while others are veiled in
secrecy - and carry out a lengthy technology evaluation.
Looking at Microsoft's product roll-out over the next few years it
is clear that one of the few constants is change. For the average
IT department such change comes at a cost, both financially and in
terms of staff.
Of you take nothing else away from this article please remember
this: Windows XP is a force to be reckoned with in the enterprise,
on the desktop and on the server. It is far more than a consumer
toy and, as such, will play a major role in business processing
next year and beyond.
If there is money in the budget to upgrade and your staff have the
training to manage the change of platform, the only major issue is
Microsoft's product road-map. This is needs to be monitored closely
as several variants of XP are on the way, each bringing new
technologies which are integral to the evolution of Microsoft's
.net platform and, therefore, central to any online world that
Microsoft will promote in the future.
Microsoft has bet its future on XML as the method of blowing open
the issue of data portability and application interoperability. As
a result any company that buys into Microsoft's vision of the
future must buy into XML.
The knock-on effect is that software like Windows XP - on the
desktop and server - will act as the foundation layer for XML and
therefore will become the standard organisations around the world
will have to accept.
As stated - change is constant. And that will not change.
Windows XP at a glance
- Much easier networking that is as close to plug and play as it
gets
- An improved help system
- A much better user interface - called Luna - which is very
intuitive
- Easier set-up, configuration and management with new wizards
that make complex tasks simple
- Faster performance
- A baseline start for bringing XML to the desktop - but will be
improved upon next year with updates to XP
- The arrival of mainstream 64-bit Intel-based desktop
computing.
Is 64-bit double the trouble?
Windows XP is the
operating system that takes Microsoft into the 64-bit arena, albeit
several years after it dabbled with Windows NT on the Digital Alpha
64-bit processor. Computer-aided design and scientific modelling
will be possible on workstations running Windows XP. On the server
64-bit computing means more performance and staggeringly improved
memory bandwidth that will enable new breeds of enterprise
applications to operate in Microsoft computer platforms.
This operating system will work hand in hand with Intel's Itanium
processor and the next processors that appear in this product
family. In response to early customer demands, Microsoft has made a
pre-release edition of 64-bit Windows XP, called Windows Advanced
Server Limited Edition, for 64-bit Itanium servers.
Analyst firm Gartner said enterprises should exercise caution when
using this software - what Gartner calls a "very public beta test"
- despite the fact that Microsoft offers full support for Limited
Edition and will provide an upgrade path to the full edition when
it appears.
Microsoft introduced the Limited Edition to get a 64-bit variant of
Windows out when Itanium systems started to become available. This
release will be followed by the 64-bit Professional edition
(available from 25 October) and the 64-bit Datacenter Server
version, expected in mid-2002.
The dominant architecture will remain 32-bit possibly into 2006 -
although this is a subject for debate - because of the relatively
high cost of Itanium systems and the requirements for commercial
software. But 64-bit will grow as a proportion of enterprise
servers over time, driven by the declining costs of hardware.
Gartner still warns enterprises to exercise caution in deploying
64-bit Windows until the following things happen:
- It no longer appears as a limited edition
- Key applications have been changed to exploit 64-bit computing.
(Applications running in 32-bit mode on Itanium systems will suffer
a performance penalty.)
- Sufficient reference sites for critical applications become
available.
XP - the bigger picture
Microsoft set the developers
who created Windows XP the challenge of substantially improving on
Windows 2000's performance. This was a double-edged sword: XP had
to run faster than 2000 to be more alluring to customers; but, more
importantly, the core engine inside the operating system had to run
faster to accommodate XP's new features.
To do this the Windows XP performance engineers classified each new
feature, such as shaded icons and the Windows Media Player, as
performance costs that had to be dealt with. The idea was that each
improvement had an associated cost in terms of performance, which
meant it stayed or was dropped in the final version.
One area that survived was speed of boot time and power management,
where engineers came up with Fast Boot and Steady State
performance. Windows XP now handles the computations that determine
the power state of a system in parallel rather than serially. The
effect should be a noticeable decrease in boot times, especially
from a computer in standby mode.
Microsoft has also changed the way it handles applications. The
operating system now constantly monitors application usage, and it
moves the appropriate application files and data files around on
the disc to optimise the performance of the most-used applications.
The result can be a 50% increase in application loads on the
most-used applications.
Fast Boot and automatic application tuning are timely enhancements,
but Microsoft spokespeople say the biggest performance gains come
from disc I/O improvements. Many of the improvements with
application launching and Fast Boot are based on better disc I/O.
One of the more notable boosts comes from pre-fetching - a
technology that's common in microprocessors. As Windows and
applications load, XP begins the pre-fetch process. Necessary files
are loaded into memory at the same time as other devices are being
initiated.
It appears from initial testing that Microsoft has managed to
balance the performance of the operating system against the new
features it has added.
Mobile
One of the most visible enhancements Windows XP
provides comes from support for Microsoft's Cleartype text display
technology. Cleartype triples the horizontal resolution of text
rendered on LCD monitors, delivering a noticeable improvement in
readability.
The ability of the software working within a wireless network is
superb, greatly reducing the burden of the wireless network
interface card (NIC) configuration for mobile users accessing the
corporate network via 802.11b standard. In most cases you can
expect a set-up time of less than five minutes for connecting a
notebook PC, fitted with a wireless NIC, into a 802/11b network.
Mobile users will also be thankful for some of the performance
gains Windows XP delivers including the faster boot times with
Windows XP over Windows 2000, especially when restarting from
Standby and Hibernate modes.
As for the management of mobile machines, two new features in
Windows XP take advantage of Windows Terminal Service technology to
grant users control of remote XP machines. The Remote Assistance
utility lets users request assistance from another XP user via
e-mail or Windows Messenger and allows that user to take control of
a remote machine to make the required changes or otherwise provide
support.
This will be especially useful for IT administrators responsible
for supporting users in disparate locations. Similarly, the Remote
Desktop feature provides remote users with full access to their XP
desktops via another XP machine or a Windows Terminal Service
client.
One thing to bear in mind, however, is that such features could
pose potential security risks and as a result administrators should
be selective about who can and can't use them.
Compatibility
The new operating system has an
application compatibility facility that allows users to run
applications designed for Windows 95, Windows 98, NT 4.0 or 2000.
That said, any non-XP software that relies on specific drivers or
low-level operating system components - such as disc partitioning
utilities and anti-virus programs - will require new drivers or
software updates to work with Windows XP.
The design of the new Windows XP interface, dubbed Luna, emphasises
simplicity. Elements of the operating system are organised into
intuitive groups on the control panel and the task bar. However,
users already familiar with the Windows 2000 Start menu may choose
to revert to that version, and this can be managed centrally by
administrators via the group policy interface.
Windows XP is a compelling reason to migrate for any organisation
still running Windows 9.x on the desktop. The new operating system
delivers all the stability and manageability benefits of Windows
2000 with fewer of the device and software incompatibility issues
that marred Windows 2000 when it first came out.
Product Activation
Retail copies of Windows XP will
include an anti-piracy feature called Windows Product Activation
(WPA). Although copies of XP bought on volume licences will not
include WPA, it is possible that enterprise IT departments will
encounter WPA in some of the machines under their care.
At installation, WPA generates a unique string derived from XP's
product ID, combined with identification data from the components
of the machine on which XP is running. Following installation users
must activate XP within 30 days by transmitting that string to
Microsoft. Users receive in return an ID that tells XP it has been
activated.
However, if the user changes more than six components in his
system, XP no longer recognises the machine as the one on which it
was installed and requires reactivation within another 30 days. WPA
does not appear to involve the transmission of personal data and
does not involve any further communication between a desktop and
Microsoft.