1) Special Focus: Windows XP

The release of a major new version of Windows is a huge event for everyone dealing with computers because Windows is undoubtedly the "800 pound gorilla" of the operating system world. What happens with Windows--- good or ill--- affects us all (even non-Windows users!).

And the release of XP is momentous not only because it's a new version of Windows, but because it also represents the end of the line for Windows 9x, which was arguably the most important, most successful, most loved and most hated operating system the world has ever known. It's possible that no future OS will ever again have the impact that the Windows 9x line had.

"XP Home" replaces Windows 9x and Windows ME; "XP Professional" is the follow-on to Windows 2000 Pro. Now, instead of having one OS line based on the Win9X core and a second OS line based on the NT/2K core, Microsoft has unified its operating systems into a single entity based on NT/Win2K, and available in Home and Professional versions. 

We'll devote most of this issue to looking at XP from a real-world perspective. In future issues, we'll add XP as one of the items we'll cover in the normal mix: Your next LangaList will return to its regular blend of topics.

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2) XP: Upgrade Facts And Fictions

One thing you'll see touted about the new XP operating system is that it's more stable than Win9x or ME--- and that can be quite true. XP is built on the same "guts" as Windows 2000, and thus sheds a lot of the ancient "legacy" support that's both plagued and benefited Win9x/ME for years.

I say "plagued" because Microsoft--- in striving to make each new version of Win9x/ME compatible with previous versions of Windows and previously-released hardware and software--- ended up with an operating system that tried to be a "jack of all hardware and software versions," and we know how that goes: It was master of none.

But that also was its benefit: Windows9x was and is compatible across a greater total range of systems and software than any other OS--- including Linux and the Mac. Even today, Windows9x can still run software and hardware dating back to the earliest days of computing, while also running on some of today's most modern hardware and software. It's an impressive feat.

But at some point, it doesn't make sense to keep producing new systems that are 100% compatible with--- and share the limitations of--- old hardware and software. Microsoft knew that over a decade ago: That was the original idea behind Windows NT ("New Technology"), which was to be a clean break, a fresh start for Windows, uncluttered by the past, unshackled from the problems of supporting old products.

NT didn't work out quite that way: People weren't going to ditch perfectly good hardware and software just to upgrade an OS, and so NT gained a fair amount of general compatibility. Because it was freed of some of the worst elements of old software design, it was indeed far more stable and secure than Windows9x, but NT gained those attributes at the cost of heavy hardware requirements and lesser compatibility than the Win9x family.

Windows 2000 was built on an improved version of NT's innards, with a more current interface and with better/wider support for existing hardware and software. Part of this was by Win2K's design, and part was simply that enough time had passed since NT first appeared so hardware standards advanced and more off-the-shelf, normal systems were intrinsically Win2K capable. Even so, Win2K still never supported as much hardware and software as did Win9X.

Today, Windows XP is also built on NT's/Win2k's guts, and like NT and Win2K, it continues the tradition of gaining much of its stability by supporting a far narrower, newer range of hardware and software than the Win9x family. Yes, it supports a very large absolute number of products, but it's nowhere near the total number that Win9x does.

Because of that, I think many, many potential XP users are headed for upgrade trouble.

I realize this statement is in sharp contrast to what Microsoft informally suggests: That XP should run fine on most machines two years old, or less.

My assertion also contradicts what many analysts say: For example, a current Ziff-Davis review of XP says "XP... may be the first operating system since Windows 95 that can work adequately with older PCs for the vast majority of consumers."

And at the XP launch last week, a Forrester Research analyst was quoted as saying that XP will run well on existing machines, and that, "I think the majority of users aren't even going to need to upgrade."

In the next item, we'll look at what happens when these rosy predictions meet the reality of some of my systems here.

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3) XPeriment #1: A Micron 1.2GHz Athlon

I have nine PCs here of varying ages and configurations.  Of those, four exceed Microsoft's recommended minimum requirements for XP, and two more meet the rock-bottom absolute-minimum requirements. (XP Pro requirements: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/sysreqs.asp ;
XP Home requirements: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/upgrading/sysreqs.asp )

But of those six total PCs that are theoretically XP-ready, only two fall into the additional and informal "two years old or less" rule of thumb that Microsoft suggests for optimal results. So, I decided to limit my XPlorations to just those two newest boxes. One is a 1.2GHz Micron Athlon, less than a year old, and the other is a two year old Dell 550 MHz PIII. Both have very large hard drives, 256MB of RAM, and are on a small LAN. Both currently run Win98SE (and very well).

But I ran into trouble upgrading both to XP. The problem isn't the basic hardware, but with a wide range of peripherals and essential software I use.

For example, according to XP's own "system analyzer," to get XP to run on my main PC--- the less-than-a-year-old 1.2GHz Athlon--- I'd have to replace or upgrade my printer, my scanner, my digital camera (although XP is supposed to work with most cameras), my sound card, my third-party disk-maintenance utilities, my anti-virus tools, my CDR-burning tools (although XP provides basic CDR capability in the OS), and my folder-encryption tool. No, there's no problem with the core PC itself, but I'm looking at minimally a ton of hassle, and possibly major hassle and nontrivial expense to convert my system--- which works perfectly fine under Windows98SE--- to XP.

If you've gone through any major OS upgrade or change-out before, you'll realize that these kinds of compatibility issues are actually quite normal and to be expected. But they stand in sharp contrast to the "most people won't have to upgrade" lines we're hearing about XP; and to Microsoft's ads showing people floating effortlessly through the sky as a result of XP.

Upgrades aren't effortless, and XP isn't magic: When you upgrade from *any* OS to any other OS, you will almost certainly run into compatibility problems, some minor, some not. The claims of XP being a painless upgrade for machines of recent vintage simply are not true.

But I'm getting ahead of myself because the Micron system was only one data point; so let me tell you what happened with the second machine:

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4) XPeriment #2: A Dell 550MHz PIII

A Dell 550 system is my normal guinea pig for experiments. For upgrade tests, it's set up with a pristine, perfect installation of Windows98SE, is totally current with all patches and updates, and is as well-tuned as I can make it. There's no printer, scanner, etc: The system is ultra-simple to reduce the number of variables in the mix. In effect, the system is a "clean slate." Although this is not a fair real-life test case--- the setup is far simpler than any PC in actual use--- it still can shed light on an upgrade process.

When I launched the XP setup program, the readiness analyzer examined the ultra-simple system and found no problems. But when I got the new OS running, XP couldn't find the system's network card at all. I tried the setup with both XP Home and Pro, but got exactly the same results.

This was ironic: Under Win98SE, the card worked perfectly. What's more, the XP readiness analyzer even used the card during the early stages of the XP upgrade to contact Microsoft for an updated compatibility list; the card worked fine then. But once XP was installed and running, it couldn't see the network card at all, even when I later waded in and tried to enter the correct settings manually.

So, I now can use the XP-equipped PC as a stand-alone system, but can't yet connect to the Internet or to any other system on the LAN here.  I've ordered a new network card, and will try to get the XP-equipped Dell running online soon.

But I have to believe that XP's failing even in this ultra-simple upgrade scenario bodes ill for what average users will encounter with normal, far more-complex setups.

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5) Fred's XP Upgrade Advice

I'll let you know how my ongoing upgrade saga plays out with these two systems. But in the meantime, my upgrade experiences with XP suggest something radically different from the claims being made about it. Yes, XP can be far more stable than Win9x/ME, but that stability can come at a high cost--- not only for the overpriced OS itself, but also for the hardware and software you may have to update or replace, *even if you have a fairly new system that exceeds Microsoft's own recommendations.*

If you're running Win9x/ME and are reasonably happy with it, my advice is to sit tight: Resist the hype and ignore the rosy predictions: Don't bother upgrading to XP because the benefits it offers probably won't offset the hassle and/or costs of upgrading.

If you're running Win NT or 2K, you may have fewer upgrade issues because XP shares so much in common with NT and 2K. But that also implies that there may be even less reason to upgrade there--- especially with relatively new installations of Win2K: You already have most of what XP offers, so why go through the hassle of upgrading?

But if you do decide to upgrade, know what you're getting into: It's extremely unlikely that you'll just be able to plop in the XP CD and have it install smoothly: You're almost surely going to have to update or upgrade at least some hardware and software, just as you would with any other OS upgrade. XP's "effortless upgrade" is a myth. No OS upgrade is effortless.

And although the network-card issue above shows that even the upgrade analyzers may not fully do the job, they're better than nothing: I strongly recommend you use one of several free system analyzers to know what you're getting into before you spend a dime---or a minute--- upgrading an existing system to XP:

PC Pitstop offers a fast analysis at http://www.pcpitstop.com/xpready/default.asp . Although it's not as thorough as Microsoft own analysis tool, it's far, far quicker to run and is good for a first pass analysis of a system's upgrade potential.

Microsoft's own tool--- which we must assume is authoritative--- is at http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWSXP/home/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp . But note it's a 32MB download, and will connect back to Microsoft to download additional components once it's run.

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6) XP Pre-Installs Have Their Own Problems, Too...

One way to ensure that XP will work OK with all the hardware and software on a system is, of course, to buy the PC new, with XP and all other necessary hardware and software preinstalled: This from-scratch approach avoids most of the hassles of upgrading an existing system, and is probably the very best way to move to XP. It's also the most expensive.

But preinstalls of any OS--- not just XP--- can have drawbacks too, as reader Tom Duda discovered:

Hi, Fred. I have a new computer, purchased recently, that is made by Hewlett Packard. It came with Win XP Home Edition pre-loaded. I immediately noticed that there were no recovery CDs and called HPs tech support line. I was informed that recovery is performed from the hard drive and that the recovery engine is accessed by tapping the F10 key during system boot. "What," I asked, "happens if the hard drive fails?" The response was -- and this is a verbatim quote -- "If your computer is out of warranty, then you're out of luck."

The recovery files are kept in a hidden 4 gig partition. fdisk, if it is run (and that utility is nowhere to be found on my system), can seriously mangle things because HP has a custom boot loader. That is also apparently why their version of Win XP does not come with FixMBR. I learned about the custom boot loader and the hidden partition from a tech at Roxio, makers of GoBack.

Isn't that swell? I thought you might want to add this to your trove of knowledge. :-)

That's bad, yes. But even worse is that these recovery files (even if they're out in the open or on a separate CD) often do nothing to protect your data: Many times, these OEM-Recovery tools are a kind of disk-image that restores your hard drive to exactly the way it was when it left the factory. While that can undo problems caused by bad software you later installed, or settings that were changed for whatever reason, it also means that all your data--- every file, document, email, spreadsheet, etc-that you created since you got the machine--- goes away. All your data may get overwritten and become unrecoverable.

And, as Tom says, the OEM recovery tools may be useless if you need to replace a major component, like the hard drive itself.

That's why OEM restore or recovery disks are not to be trusted: You need a separate, independent backup mechanism that you can control, so that you can overwrite only what needs to be overwritten, and/or so that you can put back your data files after using the vendor's recovery method.

And note: The above is not specific to XP or Hewlett-Packard, but applies to *all* similar OEM recovery disks/files.

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7) Making XP More Secure

If you are using XP--- especially the Home version--- you ought to take a look at Steve Gibson's SocketToMe and SocketLock at http://grc.com/dos/sockettome.htm : There, you'll find information and tools that can help close a potentially serious hole in XP's internet plumbing.

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8) An XP/IE "Phone-Home" Issue

An interesting but not hugely serious issue came to light last week regarding the automatic error-reporting tool built into IE and XP: When something goes wrong, the tool asks if it can send Microsoft information about the problem for bug-finding purposes.

Trouble is, the memory dump and system information that the reporting tool wants to send back may contain things like your passwords, encryption keys, and even some content of documents you may have been working on when the crash occurred.

But you don't have to let this happen: If you simply say no when the reporting tool asks to send information back to Microsoft, nothing will leave your PC.

The US DOE's CIAC has lots more info on the error-reporting problem, including info on how you can turn it off: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/m-005.shtml

CNET also ran a story on it: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-7571224.html

This isn't a deliberate effort to snoop on you by Microsoft, but it shows how even relatively innocuous things like bug reports can create a security problem. It's also an interesting issue in light of Microsoft assertions that its other services like Passport and Product Activation are completely safe: I regard *all* these things as unsafe--- fundamentally flawed at the conceptual level. I don't want simply to have to trust that some other entity--- like Microsoft--- is ensuring that my data is safe from bugs, hackers, and malicious misuse. Bugs happen. And deliberate hacking happens, too. That's why I want to maintain control over my own data, on my own system.

(My thanks to the many readers who sent in info about the error-reporting problem!)

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9) Last Days To Enter October's FREE Book Drawing

On October 31st, I'll choose another monthly winner of a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... To have a shot at winning, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a $30 shopping spree! (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

The more times you make a recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning!

Or, if you'd like to try to win $10,000(!), try this link (full details also available here):
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182

Either way, thank you, and good luck!

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10) Just For Grins

Reader Ian Sharpe sends this along. (And please: It's just a joke, OK? No offense meant to anyone.)

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11) Your Own Copy Of All The LangaLists Ever Published!

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus full download information for the subscriber-only downloads of the Full LangaList Archives in automatically-installing Windows Help File Format, and in three alternate formats.

Any way you download them, you get all the LangaLists ever published right at your fingertips, on your local hard drive. It takes only seconds to find whatever you're looking for, no matter how long ago it was published in the LangaList!

All Plus! subscribers automatically get access to this personal copy of the LangaList archives. Sign up today for yours!  http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

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See you next issue!

Best,

Fred

(fred@langa.com)

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)

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