Under the Hood

Of all the changes in Windows XP, the biggest one is invisible to the eye. The guts of Windows XP aren't the same guts that were in Windows 9X/Me. Instead, Windows XP uses the underlying engine that is used in the Windows 2000 operating system. If you ignore IBM's old OS/2 Warp (and most people did), this marks the first time a corporate-grade OS has been made available to home users.

A True 32-Bit Operating System

All previous Microsoft home operating systems have evolved from the old 16-bit MS-DOS operating system. The very first version of Windows wasn't much more than a pretty face a graphical user interface, or GUI grafted onto the underlying DOS command structure. Subsequent versions of Windows improved on the original, but still retained the original MS-DOS underpinnings. This was done to ensure compatibility with older applications and believe it or not, a fair number of DOS-based applications are in use today.

Windows NT was Microsoft's first operating system not based on MS-DOS. NT was designed for corporate use, where system stability was more important than MS-DOS compatibility. By using a 32-bit kernel, Windows NT (and its successor, Windows 2000) was less crash-prone and more reliable.

Windows XP completely abandons the 16-bit engine used in Windows 9X/Me. Instead, it uses the same 32-bit operating system last utilized in Windows 2000. The interface on top of the OS is different, but the guts are pretty much the same.

Improved Stability

The result of this switch to a 32-bit engine is that Windows XP has all the stability of Windows 2000. Which is to say that Windows XP should crash a lot less frequently than Windows 9X/Me did.

If you were used to rebooting your computer at least once a day, or of having frozen programs bring down your whole system, then get used to a better way of doing things. Not that system crashes are completely a thing of the past, but when a program crashes in XP, the rest of your system usually stays up. You find yourself rebooting much less frequently, with far fewer crashes, freezes, and the like.

In short, Windows XP features the type of stability and reliability that you've always wished for. Finally, a somewhat-reliable operating system for home use!

System Requirements

This improved performance comes at a price. Like Windows NT and Windows 2000 before it, Windows XP requires some powerful hardware just to get up and running. If you have an older PC, you probably don't have the muscle to run XP. Any PC manufactured in the last four years or so, however, should have more than enough horsepower to run Windows XP and compatible applications.

So how do you know if your old PC can run this new operating system? Table 1.1 describes Microsoft's minimum system requirements, along with my own practical recommendations.

Table 1.1. Windows XP System Requirements

Requirement	Microsoft Recommendation	Miller Recommendation
Microprocessor	233MHz or higher	500MHz or higher
Memory (RAM)	128MB	256MB
Available hard disk space	1.5GB	5GB
Monitor resolution	800 x 600 pixels	1024 x 768 pixels

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For best viewing, I recommend either a 15-inch LCD or 17-inch CRT monitor and bigger is definitely better.

Microsoft also recommends (and I concur) that you have a CD-ROM or DVD drive. Note, however, that these basic system requirements are just for running XP for traditional computer applications (word processing Internet surfing, and so on). If you want to perform other types of tasks, you need to have the right peripherals installed on your system. For example:

• For Internet access, you need either a dial-up connection (with traditional modem) or faster broadband connection (via cable or DSL). Here the faster connection is almost a necessity, given Microsoft's propensity for forcing huge updates down to your computer at least once a month; these updates are often so large as to choke a slow dial-up connection.

• For networking, you need either a network interface card (NIC) or wireless network adapter, and the proper connections to a network infrastructure.

• For Internet telephony (voice over IP), instant voice conferencing, or video conferencing, you need a broadband Internet connection or a network connection, along with a microphone, sound card, speakers or a headset, and a PC camera (if you're doing the video thing).

• For DVD video playback or recording, you need a DVD drive.

• For digital video editing, you need a FireWire connection (for a digital video camera) or video capture card (for older analog cameras), along with a fast microprocessor (2GHz or more), high-end video card, and tons of hard disk space (200GB bare minimum).

Hardware Support

You'll find that Windows XP is compatible with almost any type of hardware or peripheral you can throw at it. In particular, XP now includes full support for the following technologies:

• DVD-RAMs with FAT32 formatting

• IEEE 1394 FireWire connections

• IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b WiFi wireless networking

• Image Mastering API (IMAPI) for mastering CD-R and CD-RW discs via drag-and-drop

• Infrared Data Association (IrDA) wireless connections

• Intel Itanium 64-bit processor (also supported by the 64-bit version of Windows XP)

• Internet Connection Sharing to share a single Internet connection among multiple computers

• Network bridging, which enables home networks to combine different connection technologies

• Universal Disk Format (UDF) 2.01 for DVD-ROM discs and DVD videos

• Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), to support zero-configuration networking and automatic device discovery

• Universal serial bus (USB), including USB interface keyboards, USB microphones, and array microphones (for video conferencing and telephony); SP1 and SP2 add support for the USB 2.0 standard

• Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) for still-image devices

Basically, Windows XP should be compatible with just about any recent piece of hardware you might own or any new hardware you might be in the market to buy. This is primarily due to the fact that XP is built on the Windows 2000 engine. Windows 2000 has been on the market long enough to have built up an ample and battle-tested library of device drivers. Any hardware driver that works on Windows 2000 should work on Windows XP.

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You may be able to use the Windows 2000 drivers that came on your device's installation disk. If not, Windows 2000-compatible drivers should be available for downloading from the manufacturer's Web site.

However and this is important you may need to upgrade older device drivers to the Windows 2000/XP versions of those drivers. I found that when I upgraded from Windows Me to XP, several of my old devices quit working, obviously because I'd installed the Windows 9X/Me drivers. When I installed the Windows 2000 drivers, everything worked fine.

Windows XP also includes a new AutoPlay feature, which should simplify the use of removable media. AutoPlay lets you connect a new device or media including flash cards, Zip disks, and CDs and start using it right away. When you insert the item, AutoPlay determines the content and automatically starts the application. You don't have to start the association applications manually any more.

Learn more about adding new peripherals to Windows XP in Chapter 6, "Adding New Hardware."

Software Compatibility

Where hardware support shouldn't be much of a problem with Windows XP, software compatibility could be a different story especially if you're still running some older applications. You see, many consumer applications that were designed for Windows 9X/Me simply don't run under Windows XP. (They wouldn't run under Windows 2000, either, which is the crux of the problem.) If a Windows 2000 version of a program does not exist, chances are good that you will have problems running it under Windows XP. This is especially true with DOS-based programs, and many older PC games.

If you run into an application that's incompatible with Windows XP, it's probably because many older applications incorrectly detect which operating system is running. Because Windows XP is based on Windows 2000, these Windows 9X-based programs assume they're installed under Windows 2000 and thus refuse to work.

Microsoft tries to get around this version sensing problem with Windows XP's Compatibility Mode. The Compatibility Mode uses a new technology called AppFixes, which automatically detects these older applications and tries to fool them into thinking that they're running on an older, more compatible version of Windows.

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You can also use the AppFixes technology to manually fool applications that it doesn't catch automatically. Just right-click the application's shortcut, select Properties, select the Shortcut tab, check the Run in Compatibility Mode option, and select which OS you want to emulate. You can also apply Compatibility Mode through XP's Program Compatibility Wizard. You launch this wizard by clicking the Start button, then selecting All Programs, Accessories, Program Compatibility Wizard.

Microsoft has also specifically addressed potential compatibility problems with DOS-based PC games. Windows XP includes SoundBlaster-compatible sound support and high-resolution VESA video support, which should help to run these older games.

Adding up the pluses and minuses, Windows XP is probably more compatible with legacy applications than was Windows 95, the last big OS upgrade. Even when you have a program crash, XP seldom brings down the entire operating system. You should be able to move, resize, minimize, or close a frozen application so that you can continue working in other applications. You can also use the old three-fingered salute (Ctrl+Alt+Del) to open up the Windows Task Manager, which now includes more options than you had in Windows 9X/Me, including the often necessary option of ending the current task.

NOTE

Learn more about using Windows XP with various types of software in Chapter 4, "Running Programs."