If you've used previous Windows versions to work with digital images or music files, you've no doubt struggled with cumbersome third-party utilities and complex file-transfer procedures. With an assortment of wizards and new features, Windows XP streamlines the experience of working with all types of digital media.
Windows Media Player 8 is included in both editions of Windows XP. As Figure 1-6 shows, it's especially adept at managing your music collection.
Use Windows Media Player to accomplish any of these everyday tasks:
Figure 1-6. Use Windows Media Player 8 to copy tracks from music CDs to files on your hard disk. Then create custom playlists and copy the music to portable players and even custom CDs.
For detailed information about digital music features in Windows XP, see Chapter 17, "Using Windows Media Player."
Thanks to digital cameras, you no longer have to pay for expensive film developing. Figure 1-7 shows the Scanner And Camera Wizard, which does a superb job of connecting to newer digital cameras and flash memory cards so that you can quickly preview captured images and transfer them to your hard drive. By adjusting a few options, you can automate this process so that transferring digital images requires almost no extra effort from you.
Managing a large collection of digital photos is easier, too, thanks to file viewing tools built into Windows Explorer. Figure 1-8 shows the new Filmstrip view of the My Pictures folder. Each image in the folder appears as a thumbnail along the bottom of the window, with the currently selected image visible in a much larger preview area that occupies the top of the folder window. You can also view the contents of a folder as a slide show.
The My Pictures folder includes links to commercial services where you can order professionally printed copies of digital images. If you have a color printer, use the Photo Printing Wizard (shown in Figure 1-9) to crop and resize images; then use the layout tools to combine multiple images on a single sheet of paper.
Figure 1-7. The Scanner And Camera Wizard walks you through the process of transferring images from an external device to your hard disk.
Figure 1-8. The new Filmstrip view combines thumbnails and a large Preview area to make it easy to quickly inspect the contents of a folder full of digital photos.
Figure 1-9. The Photo Printing Wizard allows you to lay out multiple images on a single sheet, to avoid wasting expensive paper and other supplies.
To learn how to set up a digital camera or scanner and manage image files in Windows XP, see Chapter 18, "Organizing and Editing Images."
If you have the correct hardware, Windows XP gives you access to a passable set of video playback and editing tools.