This Thursday, October 25, 2001, Microsoft will officially launch their new Windows operating system to the public. Microsoft will have events around the world from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia to Seattle, Washington, USA touting their newest OS dubbed Windows XP. The XP stands for "experience" and regardless of the lack of celebrity presenters (the launch for Windows 95 featured talk show host Jay Leno and the Windows Millennium launch was hosted by childrenÕs TV personality Bill Nye the Science Guy), I didn't want to miss the XP launch.

I contacted the local Microsoft sales office and asked about registering for the Austin launch event. Microsoft has taken some hits about being a big ugly corporation with horrible customer service, but they have always been professional and courteous whenever I have had to deal with them. Microsoft, contrary to what the cult-like minority bent on the companyÕs destruction may say, is NOT a bunch of faceless bureaucrats and corporate drones that despise their customers. No business has ever succeeded with that attitude and you are fooling yourself if you believe that is the case with Microsoft. Whether I was talking to Microsoft as a customer or as an IT professional looking for help, I never had problems getting a favorable resolution. A few days later I was meeting with Mindy from Vollmer PR and Jonathan from Microsoft who gave me a sneak peak of the new features in Windows XP Professional.

With WinXP Pro, Microsoft is improving upon their previous designs in the hopes that customers will return every couple of years to buy the newest and the coolest. Microsoft is not the first business to use this strategy, it is the same thing that GM and Ford do when they come out with new cars every October. WinXP Pro is basically an improved version of MicrosoftÕs previous business-class iteration of Windows, Windows 2000 Professional. Much of the criticism levied against WinXP Pro has been that it offers no real benefit if you are upgrading from Win2K. There is no denying that Win2K and WinXP Pro share the same code base and many of the same features (most notably: encryption and disk quotas) but that assumes that most businesses have upgraded to Win2K. The fact is that most businesses are still using either Windows 9x or Windows NT on their corporate PCs. WinXP Pro is not a big step from Win2K, but will be a major jump for all those NT 4.0 or Win95 users out there.

After my tour of WinXP Pro with Mindy and Jonathan, I found that WinXP Pro offers three major benefits to IT professionals over previous versions of Windows:

1) RELIABILITY. One of the biggest complements for WinXP Pro was when one of the battle-hardened compatibility testing technicians at Dell told me "Windows XP (referring to a pre-release beta version of the OS) is the most stable thing I've ever seen from Microsoft." During my WinXP Pro tour, Jonathan pointed out that upgrading from Win9x or Win NT to WinXP Pro would dramatically increase the stability of PCs, alleviating some of the calls to your companyÕs help desk. Jonathan conceded that companies already running Win95 without much trouble and not in a growth cycle "will find it hard to justify the return on investment" needed to upgrade to WinXP Pro. However, growing companies with PCs running 128 MB of RAM and at least 300-MHz processors should see "performance improvements" after upgrading to WinXP Pro without plunking down money for additional hardware upgrades. Companies with custom-made or older legacy applications benefit from WinXP ProÕs ability to run apps in "compatibility mode." Microsoft independently tested over 1,200 popular consumer and information technology apps under WinXP Pro for compatibility issues. IT managers can run WinXP ProÕs Program Compatibility Wizard that configures the legacy app to run in "Windows 95, 98, NT or 2000" mode. Programs that would not install because of an "improper version of Windows" error installed and ran fine after the Program Compatibility Wizard. Jonathan claims that "over 90%" of the tested apps work in compatibility mode.

2) COMMUNICATIONS. WinXP Pro has enhanced communications abilities that will benefit help desk staffers. The WinXP Pro instant messaging client, similar to MSN Messenger (the Microsoft variant of the AOL Instant Messaging), is a better and more immediate method of communicating problems to a help desk. Why fill out an online form or email a request for assistance when you can voice or video chat with your help desk via the corporate network and the Microsoft Messenger? Once the help desk is contacted through Messenger, help desk staffers can remotely control PCs via the Remote Assistance feature. Remote Assistance allows a "trusted" user to remotely control and fix a PC through a secure connection much like SymantecÕs pcAnywhere software. The growing number of wireless network users can take full advantage of WinXP ProÕs built-in support of the 802.11b and the more secure 802.1x wireless communication standards (just make sure you scrape the parasites off your wireless network first).

3) CUSTOMIZATION. WinXP Pro allows for companies to safely move their users Õ original settings and documents with the Files and Settings Wizard. This allows for users to keep all their original email contacts, desktop backgrounds and other little things that make their computer comfortable to them personally after upgrading to WinXP Pro. From an IT manager standpoint, the Help and Support functions in WinXP Pro are fully customizable. Microsoft also answered the call to implement "Corporate Update" in WinXP Pro. Corporate Update functions similar to Windows Update, a free service that automatically installs needed files and updates onto PCs with a friendly web interface. Unlike Windows Update, Corporate Update allows for IT managers to control the updates that can or canÕt be installed by users. This is VERY helpful when new, untested versions of drivers or service packs are available via Windows Update - IT staffers can now direct their corporate users to a locally managed Corporate Update site for any approved program updates.

IÕm not going to lie and say that upgrading from Win98 to WinXP Pro is going to be an "insert the upgrade CD and walk away" experience. Such an upgrade is going to take a lot of planning to implement properly and may not even be necessary for your company. Frankly, if you spent most of 2001 upgrading your servers and workstations to all Win2K machines with Active Directory, I donÕt see where WinXP Pro is really going to help. Like I said, Microsoft builds upon their previous designs to make the newest and coolest. Trading in your Win2K for WinXP Pro is like trading in last yearÕs luxury car for this yearÕs luxury car. If trading in your Pinto for a new Town Car sounds good to the thousands of businesses who still use Win98 or WinNT, want to take full advantage of low cost PCs and new technologies or are starting a new business, you should definitely go with Windows XP Professional.

Scott McCollum is an independent consultant and tech industry insider living in Austin, Texas. He is a contributing editor for World Tribune.com and his column will be featured in WorldTechTribune, a new publication by WorldTribune.com, which will be coming soon. His opinions have also been featured at Pure Politics, the NewsFactor Network and on the internationally syndicated Cyber-Line radio talk show.

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