Windows XP Enterprise
Features
A Look at Windows XP's Enterprise Features
By Paul Thurrott, News Editor, thurrott@win2000mag.com
and although I thought the event was rather tired and monotonous, the
new OS is an exciting advance for desktop users, most of whom still
use Windows 9x. In fact, Microsoft said that more than 400 million
users boot Win9x systems every day, compared with about 70 million for
Windows 2000 and Windows NT. Although most XP advances relate to
digital media features, such as photos, music, and video, XP also
offers some exciting new features for the enterprise, which I'll focus
on this week.
First, some advice: If your organization
has already standardized on
Win2K on the desktop or if you're
in the middle of migrating to Win2K,
you can skip XP. Essentially, XP
is Windows 2000.1, with a colorful
(but optional) new interface and
some other minor new features. But if
you still use NT 4.0 or Win98, you
might want to evaluate an upgrade.
XP offers a nice compromise between
the stability and reliability of
Win2K and the compatibility of Win98.
I discuss the various concerns
of upgrading to XP on the SuperSite
for Windows.
That said, here are the XP features
that I think will benefit
enterprise users most.
Task-based Interface
Everyone's talking
about the bold blues of the new "Luna" UI, but
the most compelling part of the
new XP UI is the new task listing that
appears in each Explorer window.
These task lists change according to
what you're viewing or which file
you've selected. For example, if you
open a folder containing image files,
you'll see a task menu that
includes View as a slide show, Order
prints online, Print pictures,
and Copy items to a CD. When you
select an image file, the tasks
change to Print this picture and
Set as desktop background. Microsoft
doesn't get a lot of credit for
innovation, but the company certainly
deserves praise for this feature.
The task list feature works well and
will help make anyone more productive.
Remote Desktop
Microsoft has honed
its Win2K Server Terminal Services software
into a must-have feature, and now
XP offers a single-user desktop
version in a feature called Remote
Desktop. If you occasionally work
at home or if you travel frequently,
Remote Desktop will let you log
on to your primary desktop computer
from anywhere in the world, run
applications remotely, and access
crucial data files on the local
network. You can run Remote Desktop
full screen, which is virtually
indistinguishable from the experience
you'd get sitting at the actual
system, or in a window, where you
can alternate between the remote and
local systems.
Remote Assistance
Although we can debate
the physical gains of getting up and leaving
your desk occasionally, system and
network administrators can be much
more productive if they don't constantly
have to march over to a
user's desktop to fix problems.
And what if that user is in a remote
office, far from the administrator?
With Remote Assistance, a person
can use email, Windows Messenger, or
file transfer to send a help request
that lets an administrator
remotely log on to a user's system
and solve problems on that system.
Better yet, the administrator can
simply take over the system and fix
it remotely, without ever having
to stand up. Presumably, Microsoft
will begin offering gym coupons
if this feature is too successful.
Windows Messenger
Instant Messaging in
the workplace? Yes, and if you don't see the
immediate benefits of this communication
tool, consider a few of the
cool features available in the latest
Windows Messenger client.
Windows Messenger does text chats,
of course, but it also performs PC-
to-PC and PC-to-telephone audio
calls and one-on-one video
conferencing (add-ons from various
third parties add true conference-
call capabilities). You can send
files, work collaboratively on
documents, and sketch ideas on a
common whiteboard, all without
leaving your desk.
This type of functionality is especially
important for organizations
that are spread out geographically.
By the next Windows release, I
expect to be reporting on businesses
that have completely phased out
internal phone calls in lieu of
XP's real-time communications
features. This is a market just
waiting to be tapped.
Stability and Reliability Improvements
In addition to the System File Protection
(SFP) feature that debuted
with Win2K, XP includes System Restore,
which can bring your system
back to a previously stable configuration,
and Device Driver Rollback,
which lets you roll back device
drivers to the previous version in
case of problems. Support for side-by-side
DLLs helps prevent the
infamous DLL Hell problem by making
XP the first Windows OS that lets
multiple versions of the same DLLs
run side-by-side. This support
means that those finicky applications
that require a certain version
of a certain DLL will run just fine
on the new OS.
Mobility
As with Win2K, XP supports
hibernation, Advanced Configuration and
Power Management (ACPI), offline
files and folders, and hot-docking,
although Microsoft has tweaked each
of these features in this new
release. But XP includes a number
of new features that mobile workers
will really appreciate, including
the ClearType on-screen text
enhancer; network location awareness,
for seamlessly switching between
networks on the fly; alternate IP
addressing, for allowing "home" and
"work" network settings for each
network card; and support for 802.11-
based wireless networking. XP's
wireless-networking support is so good
that I expect it to be the catalyst
for a new generation of wireless
networks in corporations, schools,
homes, and public areas such as
airports, coffee shops, libraries,
and, eventually, public
transportation.
Security
Microsoft has come
under fire for including full raw-socket support
in XP, but this OS is arguably the
most secure Windows client ever
made. XP ships with an Internet
Connection Firewall (ICF) that
protects homes and small offices
against common Internet-based
attacks, while offering a platform
on which third-party firewall
makers can build more powerful solutions.
It also supports Kerberos
single-logon features and IP Security
(IPSec) for secure VPNs. And
like Win2K, XP supports NTFS and
Encrypting File System (EFS), which
lets you encrypt data on a per-file
basis.
Next week, we'll discuss how Microsoft
will improve XP post-launch and
look at a few of the more unsavory
aspects of Microsoft's latest
release.
Resources
SuperSite
for Windows (Installation & Upgrading; Launch photos)
WinInfo
Short Takes: Windows XP Launch Special Edition
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Senast uppdaterad 2001-10-31
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