What s New in Windows XP Professional?

What's New in Windows XP Professional?

Now that you know Windows XP's family history, you're ready to find out what new features Windows XP Professional brings to the Windows family. One of the questions people ask me as I write books about each new version of Windows is whether the new version is different enough to justify upgrading. The Windows XP family is a major upgrade from any previous version of Windows, and the jump from Windows 98 or Windows Me to Windows XP Professional is as massive a jump as the one from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 was a few years ago. Windows XP Professional isn't just a much-improved version of the Windows 2000 family, preserving Windows 2000 Professional's corporate networking and security features, but is also a superset of Windows XP Home Edition, which integrates improved versions of multimedia and recreational features originally introduced by Windows 98 and Windows Me. Thus, whether you want an operating system ready for the corporate desktop or are looking to add multimedia and recreational features to your corporate operating system, Windows XP Professional can do the job. Thus, Windows XP Professional can be used to replace both Windows 2000 and the long-lived Windows 9x family on corporate desktops.

How big a change is Windows XP? Estimates are that by the time it was released, it contained about 40 million lines of code (see Table 1.1). That's more than one-third more code than its immediate predecessor, Windows 2000, and plenty of room for its new and enhanced features.

Table 1.1. Lines of Code Comparison
Operating System	Lines of Programming Code
Windows NT 3.1	6.5 million
Windows NT 3.5	10 million
Windows 95	10 million
Windows 98	13 million
NT 4	16.5 million
Windows 2000	~29 million
Windows 2000 Advanced Server	~33 million
Windows 2000 Datacenter	>40 million
Windows XP	~40 million

Windows XP is much bigger than Windows 2000 because it adds new multimedia and entertainment features absent from Windows 2000 Professional and because it also contains improvements to features carried over from Windows 2000.

Because Windows XP Professional offers so many improvements and new features when compared to Windows 98, Windows Me, and even Windows 2000, in this section we'll highlight some of the new and improved features and what each feature does. Table 1.2 highlights some of the key improvements found in Windows XP Professional and points you to the chapter in which it is covered.

Table 1.2. Coverage of New and Improved Windows XP Professional Features
Feature	Covered in Chapter
New setup process	3
New interface: My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, custom toolbars, intelligent Menus, new help system, search function	4
Multimedia improvements: DVD, DirectX 9.x, image color management, scanner and digital camera support, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Media Player 9, CD burning, Web Publishing Wizard	4, 7, 13
Hardware support: Plug and Play, multiple monitors, FireWire	25
Active Directory	15
Enhanced Web browsing and security with IE including pop-up blocking and add-in management	9
Safer email and news reader with Outlook Express 6	10, 11
Improved mobile support and power management	18
New Microsoft Management Console (MMC)	27
Improved Installer/Remover	24
Kerberos security	17
Security Center	21
Internet Connection Sharing	17
Fast User Switching	28
Windows Messenger, NetMeeting	12
Remote Assistance	33
Files and Settings Transfer Wizard	5
System Restore	27
Network Setup Wizard	16
System File Protection	33
Windows Firewall	19
Credential Manager	16
Task Manager	27
Personalized Welcome Screen	28
Taskbar Grouping	23
File Management	4
Compatibility Mode	23
Dual View	27
ClearType	4
Windows Help	4
Device Driver Rollback	33
Network Bridging	17

Interface Improvements

Although some might disagree, Windows XP really is the best-looking version of Windows ever, but the improvements are more than just skin deep. Windows XP takes full advantage of today's widespread support for high-resolution, 24-bit (16.8 million color) displays to provide subtle shading and animation effects to make working easier, but it also provides a more intelligent and customizable interface compared to previous Windows versions.

Startup and Start Menu Improvements

After you get to the splash screen, Windows XP Professional looks like no other Windows version. Before the splash screen loads, pressing F8 brings up a troubleshooting options menu that most closely resembles the one provided for Windows 2000, although Windows 9x/Me users will also find it familiar. This Advanced Options menu lets you boot into alternative modes such as "safe mode" to do troubleshooting (see Figure 1.1). Normal boot processes display a splash screen that is more compact than the previous full-screen one used by Windows 9x/Me and has an easy-to-see progress bar in the middle of the screen.

Figure 1.1. New startup options in Windows XP Professional offer various troubleshooting options if you simply press F8 at boot time.

NOTE

If you upgraded from an earlier version of Windows, your system will also display a "Return to OS Choices Menu" option after the "Reboot" option when looking at the troubleshooting options.

Windows XP shortens the startup time by using a technique called prefetching, which loads major portions of the operating system at the same time that devices are being initialized, rather than performing loading and device initialization in series, as with earlier versions of Windows. And, Windows XP learns which hardware and software you use during the first few times you boot your system, and moves the files used by your hardware and software to the fastest parts of your drive to further improve boot time.

If you're bringing up your system from a sleep mode, standby and hibernation are both much faster with Windows XP Professional. Newer notebook computers can restart from Standby, which shuts down power to peripherals but maintains power flowing to your RAM, in as little as two seconds. Hibernation, which stores the state of your system (open files and programs) on the hard disk before powering down, is also faster. Newer systems can emerge from Hibernation in as little as 20 to 30 seconds. After you've booted your system, the Windows XP Professional Start menu makes it easier to use the most popular programs. It shows you the major new features, and a link called All Programs displays the rest of the programs ready for your use.

If you need help through the Internet or email, or with your system's configuration, the Start menu items Control Panel, Help and Support, Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express are all available as soon as you click the Start button.

Right-click on the taskbar, select Properties, Start Menu, and Customize and you can control the appearance of the Start menu and the programs and features that will be displayed (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2. Customize your Start menu by selecting the number of popular program shortcuts, icon sizes, and default Web browser and email programs.

Select large icons for better visibility, or small icons to show more programs at a time. By default, the Start menu displays six programs you use most often, but you can set the number yourself or clear the list of programs. By default, Internet Explorer is displayed as the standard Web browser, and Outlook Express is the standard email program, but you can remove them from the Start menu or choose alternatives you've installed.

Click Advanced to specify other Start menu features (see Figure 1.3), including

Disabling features such as submenus opening when you pause over them
Disabling the highlighting of newly installed programs until you run them for the first time
Whether to display the Control Panel, Favorites menu, Help and Support, My Computer, My Documents, My Music, My Network Places, My Pictures, Network Connections, Printers and Faxes, Run command, Search, and System Administration tools

Figure 1.3. The Advanced dialog box lets you choose which Windows XP folders and tools to display on the Start menu, which display options to use, and other customizations.

You also can select whether to scroll the Programs menu, select how to display some menu items, and whether to display recently opened documents. Figure 1.4 shows a typical menu on a Windows XP Professional system.

Figure 1.4. The Windows XP Professional main menu on a typical system just after initial installation. As you use different programs, the contents of the lower left-hand side of the menu will vary.

As you can see in Figure 1.4, the menu also adapts to your recent selections, placing shortcuts to the last six programs you've run into the blank space at the left side of the Start menu, as discussed earlier in this section.

Windows XP also launches your favorite programs up to 50 percent faster after you've run them a few times. It stores information about frequently used programs for faster loading in the future.

The following is the rundown of a few other interface niceties that are new or improved, especially if you previously used Windows 9x or Windows Me:

New wizards Several new wizards have been added to simplify common tasks such as printing photos, copying photos to a CD-R or CD-RW drive, running older programs under Windows XP, and others.
Easier-to-use multiple-tab menus and properties sheets As you move your mouse from tab to tab, the tab currently under the mouse pointer is highlighted with a colored bar across the top of the tab. This feature makes it easier to click the correct tab on properties sheets such as the System properties and many others.
My Music A new My Music folder has been added for MP3 and WMA digital music files you download or create. You can play the music in this folder by clicking the Play All button, and shop for more music online. This complements the My Documents and My Pictures folders for unified storage of all types of media files.
Customizable toolbars You can drag toolbars, such as the Web address toolbar, around on the desktop or add them to the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Additional personalized Start menu and taskbar settings are available from the Taskbar Properties dialog box shown in Figure 1.5 (right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties).
Figure 1.5. In this dialog box, you can choose new options for taskbar properties.
Media toolbar In all Explorer windows, you can add a Media toolbar. From this toolbar, you can easily choose music or radio stations to listen to while you work, and you can view current movie previews.
Taskbar icon grouping If you have multiple instances of the same program running (such as several Internet Explorer windows), Windows XP saves room in the taskbar by displaying a single icon for the program with a number listing how many instances are stored under the icon. Click on the icon and scroll to display the instance you want to display. You also can close an entire group of windows at the same time.
Smarter Open dialog boxes Many dialog boxes, such as the ones you use to open and save files, now remember the most recently entered filenames. Open dialog boxes also sport an iconic representation of the common locations in a new left pane, called the Places Bar (see Figure 1.6). Not all applications support the Places Bar, but those that do make it easier to save files to different local or network drives.
Figure 1.6. New Open dialog boxes include the Places Bar at the left side of the window.
Customizable Explorer toolbars The toolbars are customizable, just like in IE or Office.
Improved topic-based help system in enhanced HTML The Windows XP Help and Support Center most closely resembles the hugely remodeled help system introduced in Windows Me. To save search time, major topics are displayed on the left side, and common tasks are listed on the right side. The index is a click away on the top of the screen, and a Favorites button makes it easy to collect help pages you use frequently, and display them instantly. Click the Home button to return to the main Help and Support Center menu at any time.
New display options in Windows Explorer You can group related files in Windows Explorer with the Show in Groups option, view Thumbnails of picture files, use a Tiled view to combine large icons with file detail, and use Filmstrip view in picture folders to see a larger view of the selected picture and navigate with directional arrows to other pictures in the folder.
New balloon help tips Novice users will appreciate the new balloon help tips that pop up, such as when you let your mouse pointer hover over certain icons, when network connections are made, reporting the connection speed, or to report immediate problems that require quick action (see Figure 1.7).
Figure 1.7. The Windows XP Help system makes it easy to move within the current topic or to switch to related topics, and balloon help pops up to provide immediate warnings.

Enhanced Search Feature and History

The Windows XP Search option is familiar to users of Windows 2000 and Windows Me, but is greatly enhanced compared to the Find feature used by Windows 9x; you can search from any and all Windows Explorer windows. When you search the Internet, the LAN, or your local hard disk, you use the same dialog box now. You can search for a file, folder, network computer, person, Web topic, help topic, or map. You can display a thumbnail view of search results to see what files or other items have been found. If the network you're on is using the MS Index Server, the discovered items are also ranked according to closeness of match, just like search engines do. A friendly animated dog provides minimal levels of entertainment during Search, but you can banish the dog off-screen by changing your search preferences.

Pressing the Windows key + F or choosing Search from the Start menu brings up the box you see in Figure 1.8. This integrated, easier-to-use search feature helps you find information on your computer, your network, or on the Web. Select the type of search you want to perform, enter all or part of the name, and start the search. If you search the Internet with plain-text questions, Windows XP will choose a search task and web site best suited to your search.

Figure 1.8. The Windows XP search tool works within Explorer and supports file, media, computer, Internet, and Help searches.

Enhanced Accessibility Support

Using computers is hard enough for those of us who have full mobility and physical abilities, considering how cryptic and idiosyncratic Windows is. For many folks, just the physical act of using a computer poses an additional challenge. Windows XP Professional provides the following accessibility features through the Accessibility Options icon in Control Panel:

Onscreen keyboard Allows text entry via the mouse
StickyKeys Allow keyboard combinations to be entered one keystroke at a time
FilterKeys Adjusts repeat rate and helps Windows ignore brief or repeated keystrokes
ToggleKeys Plays tones when keys such as Caps Lock are pressed
SoundSentry Displays your choice of visual alerts when your computer plays a sound
ShowSounds Provides captions for programs' speech and sounds
High-Contrast displays Choice of a variety of extra-large text sizes and high-contrast Windows desktops
Adjustable cursor blink rate and cursor width Makes it easier to find the text cursor onscreen
MouseKeys Enables the numeric keypad to run the mouse pointer
Serial keys Enables alternative keyboard and pointing devices to be attached through serial ports

The following accessibility features can be started from the Accessibility folder (Start, All Programs, Accessories, Accessibility) or by pressing the Windows key + U:

Magnifier Provides an enlarged view of the area under and near the mouse cursor
Narrator A simple text-to-speech program (English only) for onscreen events and typed characters
Onscreen keyboard

Internet Connections and Related Software

Windows XP Professional makes Internet use easier than ever. Its New Connection Wizard provides a one-stop interface for setting up Internet, home networking, direct serial/parallel/infrared connections (Direct Cable Connection for you Windows 9x fans), and remote office network connections through either dial-up or virtual private networking (VPN) connections. If you have an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) adapter, you also can use it for networking with this wizard.

Windows XP Professional also supports Internet Connection Sharing, using either a conventional modem (for the Internet) and a network card (for the rest of the network) or two network cards (the second one is for use with broadband connections) in the host system. And, if you're already running ICS on a Windows 9x/Me/2000 system, you can connect your Windows XP computer to it easily.

Internet Explorer 6.0, an improved version of the browser Microsoft has used to take over the browser market from one-time leader Netscape, is standard in retail and upgrade versions of Windows XP; hardware vendors who preinstall Windows XP on new computers can choose to omit it, although it's unlikely that most will. It now offers 128-bit encryption straight out of the box, meaning that you no longer need a strong encryption upgrade before you can go to some online banking, stock brokerage, or shopping sites.

Internet Explorer 6.0 is visually different than IE 5.5 in its icon display. For example, the Stop icon is now a red X in a page, rather than in a circle. The Favorites icon is a star instead of a folder. Beneath the surface, more significant differences include

Integrated MSN Messenger support
New Privacy tab in Internet Options to control cookies and personal data
New Clear SSL State option on the Content tab to flush SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates from the SSL cache for security
Automatic resizing of images too large to be displayed in the browser window without scrolling
Enhanced Internet setup options
New Reset Web Settings option on the Programs tab

As of Service Pack 2, IE includes

A configurable tool that prevents pop-up ads from appearing (pop-up blocking).
An add-in manager to help you see and control any plug-ins, toolbars, and other extra features that have been added to your IE browser with or without your consent.

IE 6.0 also retains the integrated search tool used in previous versions of IE, integrates it with the Explorer Search tool, and offers a much wider variety of search engines from which to choose. IE's Search acts as a front end to popular search tools. Initially, it searches using the default search tool (MSN) or your preferred replacement (I like Google.com). After completing that search, you can send the search to other major search engines, one at a time. Type in two or more words, and the Search tool treats it as a phrase to get you more accurate results in most cases and fewer non-relevant hits. You can remove IE 6.0 from your system if you absolutely prefer another browser, but even if you're more of a Netscape or Opera fan, you'll probably want to keep IE 6.0 around for its tight integration to Windows Update, the online feature Microsoft uses to keep Windows up to date.

Windows XP Professional provides these enhancements and brand-new features to its networking and Internet feature set:

An integrated Internet Connection Firewall This feature (as of SP2 renamed Windows Firewall), which is controlled from the network connection properties sheet, helps protect your connection from hacking by outside users, and is especially useful for full-time, always-on broadband connections such as cable modem, DSL, and LAN-based. Service Pack 2 increased the effectiveness of the firewall by monitoring both incoming and outgoing messages for suspicious activity. Monitoring outgoing activity can expose "spyware," "Trojan horses," and other such nefarious programs.
Automatic adjustment of receive window size to achieve better performance on ICS when a dial-up connection is being shared.
Support for Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE), an increasingly popular connection method for broadband modems.
A protocol stack that supports IP version 6, which will eventually replace the version 4 protocol currently used on the Internet and almost all home and business networks. IPv6 can address a larger universe of IP addresses, and is easier to configure and manage.
Program Access and Defaults A tool for easily choosing which company's programs you want to use for Web browsing, email, media playing, instant messaging, and running programs in Java (via the Java "virtual machine"). The inclusion of this tool is a concession Microsoft made to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its antitrust settlement. See Figure 1.9.
Figure 1.9. The Program Access Defaults tool lets you easily choose third-party "middleware" programs to replace Microsoft's own apps such as Media Player and Internet Explorer.
Outlook Express protection Outlook Express now has the ability to block images in HTML emails and isolate potentially dangerous email attachments (such as those with the .exe extension).
Security Center Due to the increased importance of security when systems are connected to LANs and the Internet, Microsoft has now provided a one-stop shop for displaying and altering the system's security settings. Now up front and center, the Security Center provides even the most inexperienced newcomer with the information they need to get their system secure when it's not. The Security Center interface shows settings for your firewall, Automatic Updates, and virus protection, as well as giving you quick access to Internet Options and System control panel.

All in all, Windows XP Home Edition makes Internet access, local area networking, and system security features more powerful and easier to adjust.

Hardware Improvements

Although Windows XP Professional is built upon the foundation of the "all-business" Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 versions, it is still designed to be a replacement for the consumer operating systems (Windows 9x/Me). Therefore, Microsoft is determined to support a much broader range of hardware in Windows XP than in previous versions. Windows XP ships with drivers for hundreds of hardware devices not supported by Windows 2000, making it easier to install a broad range of hardware with Windows XP than with Windows 2000.

Drivers for many popular devices are supplied on the Windows XP Professional CD-ROM or are available from the vendor; Windows XP Professional will check Microsoft's Windows Update Web site for new drivers if it doesn't locate the right driver for your hardware. Both Windows XP Professional and Home Edition use the same Windows driver model (WDM) technology originally developed for hardware drivers in Windows 98/Me/2000. Thanks to the widespread preinstallation of Windows XP on new PCs, however, users should have a wider assortment of drivers to choose from initially than Windows 2000 users did.

If you can't get a Windows XP-specific driver for your hardware, most Windows 2000 device drivers will work with Windows XP Professional. And, because Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition share a common code base and have common multimedia and imaging features, the same device drivers will work on either version.

In the meantime, if you have rare, discontinued, or otherwise nonstandard hardware, be sure to check Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx before upgrading.

To learn more about hardware support issues, The following is the lowdown on the newly added hardware support, help, and troubleshooting:

The Device Manager can be launched as a part of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and offers online help, more ways to view devices, and easier driver updates.
The Add Hardware Wizard has been enhanced to make installing drivers for new hardware easier and more reliable, and to make it harder to install drivers for "phantom" devices not already installed in or connected to your system.
The Scanner and Camera Wizard introduced in Windows Me has been included and now supports flash memory card readers used by digital cameras, using a new technology called Windows Imaging Architecture (WIA). WIA is a Component Object Model (COM)-based architecture that incorporates device drivers supplied by the manufacturer and imaging applications supplied by third-party software vendors into its design. WIA supports both older TWAIN-based imaging devices as well as newer imaging devices supported specifically by WIA drivers.
Enhanced audio playback is supported with separate volume controls for each speaker in a multichannel configuration, Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) to improve signal processing with USB microphones in particular, and Global Effects (GFX) to add support for newer USB-based audio technologies such as USB array microphones.
DirectX 9.x is included for full support of the newest 3D games and multimedia programs. It supports USB, digital joysticks, more realistic 3D graphics effects, and better sound than previous DirectX versions.
After you install a third-party DVD decoder, you can use the Windows Media Player as your DVD playback program.
Support for both CD-R and CD-RW drives without the need to install third-party software for both data storage and music CD copying.
An enhanced version of multiple-monitor support called Dualview, which enables separate video displays on multi-monitor video cards and the built-in screen and external video ports of notebook computers.
Improved power management, with support for wake-on-event, an improved user interface, and support for power management in applications.

Plug and Play and Other Goodies

Windows XP Professional supports Plug and Play (PnP), meaning you can add new stuff to your computer, such as a printer, video card, USB port, and so on, and Windows will attempt to automatically assign it resources and add drivers. It does so, assuming the add-on hardware is Plug and Play compatible and the computer's BIOS is Plug and Play compliant. Windows XP Professional's version of Plug and Play works better than the Windows 9x/Me flavor, locating new hardware faster and mapping more PCI-based hardware to the same IRQ than Windows 9x/Me could do. This reduces hardware conflicts considerably.

Windows XP Professional also supports ACPI's enhancements to Plug and Play, USB devices, IEEE-1394 (FireWire/i.Link) devices, AGP video cards, DVD, and CD-ROM drives on a par with Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000.

New hardware supported in Windows XP Professional includes

Portable audio players
CD-R and CD-RW drives

Windows XP Professional offers wizards to make copying files to these devices very easy.

File System Improvements

Realizing the inherent security and efficiency limitations in the old DOS (FAT 16) file system, Microsoft has developed two improved file systems over the last several yearsFAT32 and NTFS. NTFS was introduced with NT 3.1; FAT32, with Windows 98. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. FAT32's big advantage is that it's highly compatible with FAT16 yet supports larger disk drive partitions and divides the drive into smaller clusters than FAT16, thus economizing on disk space. However, it's not nearly as secure as NTFS.

Microsoft's updates and tweaks to NTFS in NT 4 service packs pushed NTFS's security even further, and Windows XP Professional uses the same enhanced NTFS 5.0 version originally introduced with Windows 2000. Now file caching for networked and shared drives is an option, and 128-bit file and folder encryption is built in. Caching speeds up access to the files as well and allows users to work with them offline.

NOTE

You can still use FAT16 and FAT32 file systems with Windows XP Professional, but you might want to convert to NTFS either during the installation process or later for more efficient and more secure file storage. You can convert either FAT file system to NTFS, but you cannot convert FAT16 to FAT32 with Windows XP (as you could with Windows 98/Me).

More Stability

Windows XP Professional inherits its stability in performance from Windows NT and Windows 2000. What makes the Windows NT/2000/XP family more stable than consumer Windows (3.x/9x/Me)?

Windows XP Professional is more stable than Windows 9x/Me (not to mention old Windows 3.1!) because its internal design protects the system kernel, which is the core of the operating system. Windows XP Professional's system kernel never interfaces directly with applications or hardware, which could corrupt the kernel and crash the system. Instead, applications and hardware make requests to subsystems, which then request attention from the kernel.

Windows XP Professional's stability also comes from its use of preemptive multitasking, which uses a scheduler to tell each program running how much CPU time it can use. Windows XP Professional divides tasks into four priority rankings and provides the most CPU time to real-time processes, followed by high-priority processes, normal priority tasks, and, finally, idle tasks. While Windows 9x and Me also support preemptive multitasking, their reliance on old 16-bit code made multitasking a much riskier process.

To make multitasking work even better, Windows XP Professional also uses multithreading, which enables a single program to be divided up into separate threads (or subprocesses) which can be managed and run separately for greater efficiency.

Finally, Windows XP Professional is more stable because it prevents "DLL Hell," that all-too-common problem for Windows 9x/Me users who installed different programs that used different versions of the same DLL (Dynamic Link Library) program files. When programs used the wrong DLL files, they crashed, and sometimes took the whole operating system down with them. Microsoft has been aware of "DLL Hell" for some time, but fixes to this problem have been slow in coming.

Windows 98 Second Edition provided for a feature called "side-by-side DLLs." This allowed a developer to use the particular version of DLLs required by a particular program without overwriting system DLLs (those stored in the \Windows\System folder). This feature worked only on Windows 98SE and only if the program developer took advantage of the feature.

Windows 2000 introduced Windows File Protection, which restored system files automatically if they were overwritten by an application when you installed it or ran it. This protected Windows from crashing, but didn't do a thing about a program which needed a particular system file version to run. Microsoft's solution in Windows XP is called Fusion, which allows programs to install whatever system files (DLLs and others) they need, and redirects any files which would replace system files to the program's own folder. When such a program is run, Windows XP creates a memory-protected virtual machine to run the program with its own DLLs. The end result is that even if two or more programs are running at the same time, using different versions of DLL or other system files that would "break" the system in past versions of Windows, both programs will now run properly. No other programs can touch the area of memory granted to each program. Nor can that program or other programs gain access to the area of memory in which the basics of the operating system are running. This prevents the kinds of crashing well-known to Windows 9x/Me users.

Other Windows XP features that promote stability include

Shutdown Event Tracker This optional feature can be enabled to allow you to enter the reasons for a shutdown or restart of Windows XP and takes a detailed technical snapshot of the system's condition. The snapshot records the processes running on the system, system resource usage, pagefiles, and drives. You can use this information to determine causes for problems and their solutions. The Shutdown Event Tracker can be enabled via Group Policy by editing the Local Group Policy for the computer. This is a safer and more effective way to change this item than via Registry editing.
Easier shutdown of unresponsive applications You no longer need to open the Task Manager to shut down a program that's no longer responding; just click on the window (which states if the program is not responding) and click the Close button, just as with a normally responding application.
Windows Driver Protection This feature prevents installation of defective drivers and provides an online link for more information and possible updates. It also blocks defective drivers that are installed via Registry keys or the CreateService API set.
Device Driver Rollback You can return to the previous version of a device driver with all devices except printers. This feature is accessed through the Driver tab of a device's properties sheet in Device Manager.
Automatic updates Provides background updates for Windows with the ability to resume an interrupted download. You can choose whether or not to install the update once it's been downloaded.
Dynamic updates This setup option, if selected, checks for newer drivers and fixes online than those available on the Windows XP CD-ROM, assuring you of an up-to-date version of Windows when first installed. A Dynamic Update package is available for network administrators to assure that all users get updated files when they install Windows XP in a corporate environment.
New Shadow Copy feature in Backup The Windows XP Backup program can back up open files and create volume snapshots while users are working. This prevents open files from being skipped during a backup.
Enhanced Last Known Good Configuration The Windows XP version of this startup option restores the device drivers used by the last known good configuration as well as the registry information. This enables you to recover from defective device drivers without the need to reinstall the originals.
Automated System Recovery (ASR) ASR enables the Windows XP Professional backup tool can back up applications, the current condition of the system, and critical boot and partition files and restore them. ASR replaces the Emergency Repair Disk used by Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, and supports PnP devices.
Enhanced System Restore feature Originally developed for Windows Me, System Restore (which enables a user to return the system to a preset past condition) has many enhancements in Windows XP, including better performance and better use of disk space, support for NTFS compression, warning messages when disk space is running out, and the ability to remove all but the latest restore point to save disk space.
Better error handling Windows XP's error messages are easier to understand than those in previous versions of Windows, and provide better help for recovering from the error without rebooting the system. Also, Windows XP has a new Online Crash Analysis feature that logs details about a shutdown or "blue screen" crash to a file. When you restart the system, you can open an Internet connection and send the log to Microsoft Product Support Services for help within 24 hours. A companion Web site (oca.microsoft.com) allows you to check the status of your report.

Improved System Management

Now let's look briefly at what Windows XP Professional has to offer you as a manager of either a single computer or hundreds of machines in a large office setting. Will your work life really be less complicated, and should your company's operating costs be lower? Most likely, because Windows XP Professional provides you with centralized control over all the PCs in your organization. You'll also be able to use a new class of applications that are easier to deploy, more manageable, and more reliable. As a result, you will be able to provide better service with less hassle. Following are a few examples of Windows XP Professional's features that can improve an IT administrator's work life.

The most important management tool in Windows XP Professional is called the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or Computer Management.

Computer Management provides a single interface for managing hardware (System Tools), drives (storage), and services such as indexing. It replaces the hodgepodge of programs and features found in Windows 9x and Me with a single interface (see Figure 1.10). It's also extensible with new "snap-in" modules provided by Microsoft or other companies.

Figure 1.10. Windows XP Professional's Computer Management tool offers many different system services under one roof and accepts plug-in modules.

The Microsoft Management Console is a one-stop shop that you can use from your own desk to do the following:

Check the status of remote machine
Automatically install new applications
Upgrade old applications
Repair damaged applications
Manage devices
Manage security
Prepare new hard drives for use

In addition to MMC, an improvement to the Windows Management Architecture alerts administrators to possible impending hardware or software problems. Microsoft has implemented industry standards called WBEM (Web-based Enterprise Management) and WMI (Windows Management Instructions) that empower help-desk teams to diagnose problems using a variety of third-party management tools. These tools gather information about a workstation to aid in diagnosing problems.

Another big area of annoyance for administrators is keeping track of updates for deployment across a whole sea of users. This is version control management. Management tools have been added to Windows XP Professional to help in service-pack slipstreaming, so a company can keep one master image of the operating system on a network and deploy it to individual PCs as necessary.

Windows XP Professional also uses the Windows Update feature introduced by Windows 98, enabling managers and users to keep their systems up-to-date via a simple connection to the Web. Just click Start, All Programs, and choose Windows Update. Windows Update now supports both individual users with automatic gathering of device information and immediate downloads and corporate users, who can manually specify the updates needed and download an assembled package of desired updates. Post SP-2, users are directed to a new version of the Windows Update Web site, which has been streamlined to make the choices simpler and more obvious. A new Express Install provides all of the available critical updates in a single easily accessible package.

The Windows XP Control Panel now offers a choice of Classic View (resembling its default in previous Windows versions) or the new default, Category View. Category View groups Control Panel options by typical uses in a task-centric approach, and provides quick links to other related Control Panel options in its Other Places window (see Figure 1.11).

Figure 1.11. The default Category View of Windows XP's Control Panel is designed to display the most common tasks.

View and Remove Windows Updates Easily

New as of SP2, the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel now lets you easily view or hide XP system updates. This is a useful and thoughtful feature, because it separates the arcanely named system software additions from user-recognizable applications such as "Microsoft Office." A single check box on the Add/Remove Programs dialog turns on or off the system updates, service packs, and hotfixes from the list for potential removal.

New and Improved Wizards

Windows XP Professional features improved versions of wizards originally found in Windows 9x, Windows Me, or Windows 2000, including

Network Connection Wizard This wizard lets you start up network connections on-the-fly, whether in the office or at home (phoning into the Internet via your ISP), creating a Virtual Private Networking (VPN) connection to a LAN in another location, or whatever. The Network Connection Wizard is also used to set up direct connections to other computers, directly through infrared, parallel, or serial connections (see Figure 1.12). Note that infrared connections between computers are now supported for an ad hoc instant (slow-speed) cable-less LAN.
Figure 1.12. You can use the Network Connection Wizard to create several different types of connections.
Add Printer Wizard This wizard makes it easy to set up and connect to local and network printers, even from an application, right from the Print dialog box (see Figure 1.13). No more fishing around for the Printers folder. The wizard automatically tries to determine the make and model of your printer without forcing you to scroll through a list of options.
Figure 1.13. You can choose or create a new printer without opening the Printers Control Panel.
Files and Settings Transfer Wizard This wizard helps you move settings for Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, desktop and display, dial-up connections, and document folders (such as My Documents and My Pictures) to a different computer running any 32-bit version of Windows; you can also use it to transfer settings from your old computer to a computer running Windows XP. While you still need to install matching applications on the target computer, this wizard saves valuable setup time and helps you get back to work faster with your new system.