Win XP Home is described by one expert, Bill Machrone of ExtremeTech, as "essentially a downgrade from Windows 2000, gussied up with pretty icons and trimmed out with multimedia features that were mostly present in Windows ME," and goes on to call it "deliberately crippled" in comparison to the Professional version. XP Home can't log onto Win 2K domains, which drastically undercuts its ability to be useful in a professional setting.

Tablet PC users also get their own, pared-down version of XP. See below.

Both Home and Pro users should check out their installation CDs for a folder called VALUEADD. Lots of goodies are in here...if your computer manufacturer bothered to include the folder. Both editions contain the Citrix ICA client for connecting to Citrix's terminal servers. Home users get the networking protocol NetBEUI for compatibility with older systems. The Pro folks get a nice backup and restore feature included by default, but the Home users should look in this folder for their own copy. Pro users can look in here for the NT 4.0 Internet Authentication Service, as well as a phone book administrator.

Where the heck did the My Computer, My Documents, Network Places, and Internet Explorer desktop icons go? They're there, but not shown in the default installation. Right-click on an empty area of your desktop, choose Properties, click the Desktop tab, and then the "Customize Desktop" button. You'll see four buttons you can check or uncheck to add or remove these icons from your desktop, as well as options to change the look of each icon.

The whole product activation issue continues to be a thorny one. Although Microsoft has promised to support XP "indefinitely," their recent withdrawal of support for Win 95 and earlier versions of NT makes that promise suspect. (Windows Product Activation is a copy protection scheme that requires upgrade customers to contact Microsoft for an ID number, separate and in addition to the usual product registration number. This involves the WPA taking a "snapshot" of your system's hardware and uploading that info to Microsoft; if the user makes too many changes to his machine and then tries to upgrade XP, WPA may disallow the upgrade. It doesn't take a 'puter genius to imagine the chaos that will ensue from this. As Finnie says, "The longer you keep a Windows XP machine, the more likely you are to run into trouble with it.") If you don't allow XP to register your system within 30 days, the system disables itself until you allow the initial registration. Worse, if you make substantial changes to your PC's hardware setup, you'll be asked to re-register (in the process providing Microsoft with a detailed snapshot of your PC's setup), and if you make too many changes too often, Microsoft may disallow XP's continued functioning. Is this ridiculous or what? Get Scot's take on the whole issue at www.scotfinnie.com/newsletter/best_of/wpa.htm

Here's something else useful to know about WinXP's Activation Info, adapted from another reliable Microsoft-savvy source. The Installation ID is maintained on your Windows XP PC at all times in a file named WPA.DBL. If you ever attempt to reinstall your purchased copy of Windows XP, Microsoft will compare this code with the original system's "fingerprint" and OS serial number created during the initial activation with the current system fingerprint for that product serial number. Should you change any hardware component or setting (e.g. driver), or add a new peripheral to your system, Windows XP will permit up to six modifications before requiring a completely new activation code. You can change the same component, such as an audio board, as many times as you want and Windows XP will only count this as one change. But adding new components, such as a new modem, USB peripheral, additional memory, will not count as a change. Upgrading your system bios from your PC manufacturer, however, will count as a change. Each PC manufacturer who OEM's Windows XP has the option of linking the system BIOS to the activation process. Though most are not tying a particular PC's BIOS to activation, it may be implemented by the PC manufacturer. As long as your BIOS is unchanged, you won't have to reactivate XP. Confused? Yeah, well, me too. Another reason why I'm not upgrading at this time.

A contributor to the LangaList says that the way to get around Microsoft's pesky WPA after performing a full reinstall is to copy the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WPA.DBL file to a floppy disk or a safe place on your hard drive. Reinstall XP as you normally would. After you've reinstalled XP, either boot to a DOS floppy or start in XP's Safe Mode/Command Prompt (i.e. hit the F8 key when your system "beeps" during the boot process, or go through MSCONFIG). Then copy your original WPA.DBL from its safe location back into the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder, and then reboot. Because nothing on your system has changed -- it's the same BIOS, CPU, RAM, etc., and because you're installing the same copy of XP that was previously installed, the "old" WPA key should be accepted as valid, saving you the hassle of re-activating the software. Note that this won't work if you try moving the file to a different machine, so it's not a way to pirate software. But if you want to simply reinstall a valid and already-activated copy of XP onto the same hardware on which it was originally installed, this may save you from having to re-activate the new installation.

According to Microsoft, the bare-minimum system requirements are a 233MHz CPU, 64MB of memory, and a 1.5GB hard drive. Naturally, Microsoft is low-balling. In that environment, Win ME barely runs; XP Professional, the latest NT variant, would plod along at tortoise-like speeds. (Microsoft itself implicitly admits to that situation by recommending a 300MHz CPU speed and 128MB memory size as the actual preferred minimums, adding "or higher" to cover additional bases.) Considering XP Pro's default installation sucks up almost 1.3 GB of space, that recommendation of a gig and a half of hard drive space is ludicrous. If you've got a system that can handle XP, though, you'll be pleased with its speed. It boots up much faster than earlier versions of Windows, saving seconds, entire seconds, of valuable time wasted by the plodders that came before. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but faster booting time is significant in and of itself.) It also touts itself as a "self-tuning& system, which means that it continually reorganizes its file storage structure as you continue using it to achieve maximum efficiency. So far this doesn't seem to be making any dramatic improvements in application performance. Probably the most significant speed gains will be noticed by former 98/ME and older NT users, who will see a general speed increase of somewhere around 15 or 20 percent.

Naturally, hardware compatibility is an issue. Microsoft's page at www.microsoft.com/hcl/ lists a pretty lengthy list of hardware that won't run under XP; there seems to be a preponderance of graphics cards that won't play nice. Software compatibility is also problematic. Some DOS-based games won't run at all, and I wouldn't get too happy about the prospects of transferring that old DOS-based program you're still using. Remember, the reason why the 9x/ME kernel is so fundamentally unstable is because it's designed to run older apps. XP abandons the older code support in favor of stability. Microsoft claims that XP will run fine on any system less than two years old; the Microsoft cheering section at ZiffDavis chimes in, even going further by claiming that "the vast majority" of users will be able to run XP on older hardware. Don't you believe it. Here's one example, provided by Fred Langa: he installed XP on his less-than-a-year-old 1.2GHz Athlon-based Micron PC. According to Langa, to properly upgrade his PC to conform with XP's requirements, he would 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." Feel like that kind of hassle? Me neither. The best I can do is reprint Langa's own advice: "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. ...XP's 'effortless upgrade' is a myth. No OS upgrade is effortless." He does point out that NT/2K users will have a much easier time than us poor 9x/ME users, but if you're running a stable NT/2K platform, why bother? XP just isn't worth the time and money for most of those guys. At least non-fans of Internet Explorer can run Opera, or any other 2K-compatible browser. Note to laptop and notebook fans: installing an off-the-shelf version of XP, or any OS, onto your machine might not work. The little guys tend to fare better when they run a factory-installed version specially configured by the laptop or notebook's manufacturer. And one expert casts serious doubt that Win XP Home will work well on any non-desktop machine.

First tests don't show a lot of speed gains over the 98 system, and significantly slower results than 2K. Hmmm. Worse, the default partitioning system is NTFS and not FAT32 -- an issue of little interest to most home users, but take my word for it, not only is NTFS significantly slower than FAT32, it can prove troublesome to users who aren't aware of its particularities. On the up side, NTFS is a good bit more secure than FAT32, but again, most home users will never encounter the kinds of security issues that make NTFS a better choice. Early indications are that XP moves pretty darn fast when the FAT32 system is used instead of NTFS.

The interface, as mentioned above, can prove confusing to the casual user. Control Panel, in particular, is a mess; you might prefer to use the "Classic" interface over their "Category" view.

One Langa reader says that for Intel machine owners to get the maximum speed out of XP, they should go to the Intel Web site and download the latest chipset drivers for XP along with the ATA IDE drives for XP. Uninstall the video drivers, uninstall any IDE drivers installed on the machine. Reboot, install if INF (chipset drivers) reboot, install the IDE drivers, reboot, reinstall the video drivers, and if your PC maker did not cripple the capabilities of the hardware, you should see some impressive results. If you do try this, let me know if it works.

Outlook users get a thorny introduction to MS.NET by being asked to create a Microsoft Passport account. You actually don't need to sign up with MS Passport to use Outlook or third-party chat and messaging clients, but first-time users may not realize that. Slick, huh? Go to my MS.NET page for more info.

Privacy issues are coming to the forefront rather quickly; EPIC and other organizations are complaining that XP "coerces consumers into revealing sensitive personal information, with little control over how it will be used." They recommend that XP users refuse to sign up for MS Passport accounts, arguing that Passport accounts aren't necessary for XP's functions, but they do allow Microsoft to build "a giant database of millions of Internet users who have little control over how information about them is distributed." Currently XP users are asked five different times during the setup process if they want to create a Passport account; the privacy groups want that changed as well. We'll see how that goes, but my advice is to pay close attention to these groups' concerns, and avoid Passport. You won't need it, and it well may be an easy way for Microsoft to get lots of personal info about you on their vulnerable databases. A tool to close at least one XP privacy hole can be found at grc.com/dos/sockettome.htm. Note: A recent security breach forced Microsoft to shut down its Passport-related electronic fund management system, MS Wallet. Not exactly building confidence in Redmond, are they? Now there's a competitor to Passport called Liberty. 95 companies, including Visa, Novell, GE, and American Express, are working together to provide this "digital-identity platform" for businesses; find out more at www.projectliberty.com..

Get rid of your Passport account by going through Control Panel, User Accounts, selecting your user name, and in the Related Tasks pane on the left, selecting "Manage my network passwords." Delete all the entries that end with (Passport). If you're on a domain, go through User Accounts, select the Advanced tab, and click on Manage Passwords. You don't get deleted from Microsoft's database, but at least the blasted thing is off your computer.

The Service Pack for Win XP is finally out. Most of the changes and upgrades are made for the sake of placating the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Justice Department, but since the changes are largely cosmetic and don't have any real depth, neither does the Service Pack. (The following is again made possible by Scot Finnie, who is both quoted and paraphrased below.) Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) makes it possible for both PC makers and end users to "disable" five Microsoft applications: Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows Media Player, Windows Messenger, and Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine. Note that the operative word is "disable", not eliminate. You'll actually be able to remove some icons from your desktop, Start Menu, and program folders, and be able to allow competing applications to become the default program of their application type; for example, Netscape could be configured as the default browser type that would load automatically, say, when you clicked a URL in an email message. In other words, all Microsoft is really doing is deleting several shortcut icons and making some very minor Registry setting changes. All of its programs will remain installed just as they always were, taking up multiple megabytes of disk space. Moreover, the ability to set non-Microsoft programs as the default application for common program types -- such as HTML editor, email, newsgroup reader, Internet phone, calendar, and contact list -- has been available in most versions of Windows for more than five years. Humbug. SP1 also includes the .Net Framework code base and some security patches and hotfixes, along with enabling technologies for "Mira" and new types of PCs like the Tablet PC and the "Freestyle" enabled PC, which was shown at CES. SP1 also reintroduces Sun's Java 2 Runtime Environment. It's a big download, but since Microsoft plans on abandoning its own aging Java client in 2004, you should probably get on board with the Sun Java engine. Other fixes and updates include support for USB 2.0, MSIE 6.0's Service Pack 1, an updated device driver pack, and various bug fixes. The new version of XP, available by the time you read this, will include SP1 as part of its code. Finnie continues to view XP as a "non-essential" download, noting that most of the critical security patches are available separately, and some patches aren't included. If you choose to install SP1, make sure you use the installation option that allows for a complete uninstall. Don't rely on System Restore to take care of the problem. Find out more at Microsoft's deployment site: www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/Security/News/WXPSP1s.ASP.

According to Steve Gibson, there is a "gaping hole" in XP that is fixed by the Service Pack. He, and many other knowledgeable types, are advising XP users to download and install SP1 right now. Gibson is a reliable sort; if he says it, I'd listen. Gibson also offers a separate utility on his Gibson Research XPdite site that plugs the hole itself: check it out (it's free) at grc.com/xpdite/xpdite.htm.

Update: The Service Pack is causing yea headaches, particularly in performance. A lot of XP users have uninstalled the service pack in order to get their machines moving again. There is a patch, but Microsoft is currently in deep denial about the problem and is coy about letting the patch out. Call them at 800-936-5700 and demand the patch.

Whither XP? Well, in 2006, Microsoft may be preparing to finally unveil the next major OS in their stable, currently nicknamed "Longhorn." Longhorn is the next step in the XP progression. A Microsoft spokesperson says the idea is for Longhorn to be a self-maintaining software: "[W]hen you use the software, it modifies and customizes itself. It downloads patches and installs them, and just gets better." XP's Error Reporting and Windows Update tools are two preliminary elements of this initiative. The aging file system used by present versions of Windows will also be scrapped in favor of the technology featured in "Yukon," the next edition of their SQL Server database. It's possible that Longhorn will be studded with Web-based, pay-as-you-go components such as apps from MSN and other third-party vendors, perhaps featured in the Start menu. Palladium, the Microsoft security initiative discussed in these pages, may be a central feature of the more "Webified" Longhorn. It's pretty well known that Microsoft intends to gussy up Longhorn with even fancier video and display effects than we've seen in XP. Paul Thurrott tracks Longhorn at his SuperSite for Windows at www.winsupersite.com/ -- that's the site to visit to keep track of what's coming down the pike. (Thurrott is skeptical that Longhorn will ever appear, noting that Microsoft keeps pushing the release date back, and now plans to ship some of Longhorn's key technologies separately. Office 12, originally slated to run strictly on Longhorn, will now be released separately, and is XP-friendly.) Yet another OS in the works, "Blackcomb," is supposed to be a reworking of the NT kernel as well as a step in the .NET initiative, but due to legal snags and problems with Longhorn, we may not see Blackcomb until 2011. Sounds like a lot of operating systems, doesn't it? My question is, why do we need all these OSes? And are we ever going to see them?

A related next step is Microsoft's upcoming set of security protocols called "Palladium," now renamed Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB). This one is already being howled about in the computing community. It's supposedly intended to increase general security and mitigate virus risk, but in practice it's designed primarily to give a surprising amount of control over your ability to load and operate various software to Microsoft, not the least of which is locking out non-commercial software. The virus protection comes about by the NGSCB-enabled PC not running any software not first vetted by Microsoft. We'll see what comes about as this initiative develops.

If you're experiencing problems running XP's Search/Find facility, read the article at support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309173 for some hints on overcoming this little bug. Seems like in Windows XP there is something called "filter components" which can prevent a search from returning correct results even if a file exists with the phrase/string being searched for. Also read the related article at support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309447.

Want some critical info for XP? Visit TweakXP at www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/ for lots of tips and tricks. More XP tips are available at www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011204S0009. and other sites listed in my Technical Links page.

If you're already using Win XP, you might be interested in the new XP-compatible version of TweakUI, available at www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp. Tweak UI XP (version number 2.00.0.0) is significantly updated in this version, which, by the way, is the first to run as an .EXE file instead of as a Control Panel applet. It looks significantly different, and adds a lot of XP-only features to its usual bag of tricks. Note that the XP version will NOT work on any other version of Windows.

Of course there's a Plus! package for XP. This one bundles some desktop themes, screen savers, icons, and snazzy pointers, along with a tool that converts MP3 files to the proprietory WMA format and a label-making utility for XP's CD burner. A few games round out the package. Why weren't these included with XP itself? Definitely not worth the $40 it'll cost you to take home.

It's easier to run DOS programs under XP than you might think. Right-click on your DOS program's icon and select Properties. Check the Compatibility tab. You can set the program to run in 256-color mode, 640x480 display, and disable the default visual themes that XP likes to run but sometimes interfere with an older program. You can also create customized CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files for older programs by copying the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32/CONFIG.NT and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.BAT files to your DOS program's directory, and edit them to reflect the proper configuration. Save them with a new name, and go to the aforementioned Properties tab. Under Program, Advanced, enter the new filenames. XP will run the programs in a customized environment. You can even slow your system down to accomodate older programs that can't handle modern system speeds.

Hate XP and wish you'd never upgraded? Here's how to turn back the clock, documented on Microsoft's Knowledge Base: "How to Manually Remove Windows 2000 and Windows XP and Restore Windows 95/98" at support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q250/4/56.ASP.

The new, highly touted Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is basically a notebook or subnotebook PC with Win XP Professional with extensions for PCs that include a touch screen and a stylus. The design and look will vary depending on the maker (Acer, HP, NEC, Toshiba, and four others are currently signed on to produce Tablet PCs). The Tablet PC Input Panel allows text entry with a stylus, either by handwriting or by touch-screen keyboarding, while the Journal utility lets you create and manage handwritten notes. As of this writing, the handwriting recognition software isn't 100%, and from comments made by executives within Microsoft's Tablet PC division, Microsoft isn't worrying overmuch about improving it right away. First impressions for me: I'll never use it. When I want to perform computer tasks, I'll sit at my desktop, and when I want to take notes, I'll use a legal pad. But what I think doesn't matter, it's what you think. Is it a toy, or is it a worthwhile device that will earn its keep? We'll know more as time goes on.

There are three new "sub-flavors" of Windows XP: Media Center Edition, Tablet PC Edition, and Windows Powered Smart Display (the last, though based on Windows CE.net, requires an XP Professional desktop). Each is a hardware-specific platform; the only way you can get Windows XP Tablet Edition, for example, is by buying it on a tablet-format PC that meets Microsoft's minimum hardware requirements. Tablet PCs, as discussed above, are ultraportable systems that have high-end digitizer screens and styluses designed to work with the OS's powerful digital-ink and handwriting-recognition engine. They're intended for business users who want to enter handwritten data at meetings and other away-from-desk locations, or perhaps students who want a high-tech way to take notes in class. Smart Display is basically a specialized monitor upgrade for home users who want to work with their apps on an existing Windows XP Pro desktop as they roam about the house. When docked to its included PC-connected base, a Smart Display functions the way an LCD touch-screen monitor does, but when you detach the screen, it turns into a Windows CE.net-powered terminal that accesses the PC via a wireless WIFI network. Microsoft may have an easier sell with XP Media Center Edition, given that users are already accustomed to treating the PC as a media hub. The first Media Center PCs should be on the shelves as you read this.