| Mr. Fixit's PC Upgrade and Repair |
| Windows XP's Features & Improvements |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
There are many new features and improvements in Windows XP, as well as 3 service packs since the release of XP in late 2001. Some
are New Features and the others are improvemts
Start button helps the user access a wider range of common destinations more easily from a single location. The left column focuses on
the user's installed applications. The right column provides access to My Documents, My Pictures and other special folders. The My
Computer and My Network Places (Network Neighborhood in Windows 95 and 98) icons were also moved off the Desktop and into the
Start menu, making it easier to access these icons while a number of applications are open allowing the desktop to remain clutter free.
These links can be configured to expand as a cascading menu. Frequently used programs are automatically displayed in the left column,
newly installed programs are highlighted, and an option to "pin" programs to the start menu so they are always accessible without having
to navigate through the Programs folders. The default internet browser and default email program are pinned to the Start menu. The Start
menu is fully customizable, links can be added or removed; the number of frequently used programs to display can be set. The All
Programs menu expands like the classic Start menu, but can be set to scroll programs. The user's name and user's account picture are
also shown on the Start menu.
Graphics Device Interface Plus (GDI+) subsystem was introduced to replace certain GDI functions. GDI+ added anti-aliased 2D
graphics, textures, floating point coordinates, gradient shading, etc. GDI+ uses ARGB values to represent color. Use of these features
allowed transparent desktop icon labels, drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop, shadows under menus, translucent blue selection
rectangle in Windows Explorer, sliding task panes and taskbar buttons. The total number of GDI handles per session was raised from
16384 to 65536 (configurable through the registry).
ClearType is a subpixel rendering technology, which makes onscreen fonts smoother and more readable on liquid crystal display (LCD)
screens. Although ClearType has an effect on CRT monitors, its primary use is for LCD/TFT-based (laptop, notebook and modern
'flatscreen') displays. ClearType supports the RGB and BGR sub pixel structures. ClearType is turned off by default but can be turned on
if using an LCD monitor.
AutoPlay (not to be confused with AutoRun) was created in order to simplify the use of peripheral devices – MP3 players, memory cards,
USB storage devices and others – by automatically starting the software needed to access and view the content on these devices.
AutoPlay examines newly discovered removable media and devices and, based on content such as pictures, music or video files,
launches an appropriate application to play or display the content.
Filmstrip view shows images in a single horizontal row and a large preview of the currently selected image above it. “Back” and
“Previous” buttons facilitate navigation through the pictures, and a pair of “Rotate” buttons offer 90-degree clockwise and counter-
clockwise rotation of images. Filmstrip view like any other view can be turned on per folder. Aside from the Filmstrip view mode, there is a
'Thumbnails' view, which displays thumbnail-sized images in the folder and also displays images a subfolder may be containing (4 by
default) overlaid on a large folder icon.
Windows Explorer had significant changes with both visually and functionality. For example, the task pane is displayed on the left side
of the window instead of the traditional folder tree view when the navigation pane is turned off. It presents the user with a list of common
actions and destinations that are relevant to the current directory or file(s) selected. For instance, when in a directory containing mostly
pictures, a set of “Picture tasks” is shown, offering the options to display these pictures as a slide show, to print them, or to go online to
order prints. Conversely, a folder containing music files would offer options to play those files in a media player, or to go online to
purchase music. The navigation pane has been enhanced to support "simple folder view" which when turned on hides the dotted lines
that connect folders and subfolders and makes folders browsable with a single click while still keeping double clicking on in the right
pane. Single clicking in simple folder view auto expands the folder and clicking another folder automatically expands that folder and
collapses the previous one. The "Show in Group" pane, on the right, sorts and groups items based on any fields used for sorting. The
search function is similar to Windows ME but it can also be instructed to search only files that are categorically “Documents” or “Pictures,
music and video" (searching by perceived type); this feature is noteworthy largely because of how Windows determines what types of
files can be classified under these categories. Another important addition is that the "Look in" field accepts environment variables. Also,
users can configure whether or not Windows XP searches for system and/or hidden files and folders.
Windows Driver Protection blocks known problematic drivers from installing or loading.
Driver Verifier, when enabled, monitors and stresses drivers to detect illegal function calls or actions that may be causing system
corruption. New verification options have been added for DMA, I/O, SCSI and deadlock detection to Driver Verifier. Driver Verifier
Manager, a GUI is introduced for Driver Verifier with an option to automatically verify all unsigned drivers.
Last Known Good Configuration restores the hardware configuration in the registry control set indicated by the LastKnownGood key
and supports restoring the device drivers of the last working configuration, should a newly installed device driver make Windows
unbootable.
USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller Interface drivers were added in Service Pack 1. Added support for Bluetooth device class, USB
video device class, imaging (still image capture device class) and Media Transfer Protocol with Windows Media Player 10. New
hardware descriptors to distinguish between various storage types so that the operating system can set an appropriate default write
caching policy. For example, for USB devices, it disables write caching by default so that surprise removal of these devices do not cause
data loss. Device Manager provides a configuration setting whether to optimize devices for quick removal or for performance.
CD Burning technology from Roxio allows users to directly burn files to a compact disc through Windows Explorer. Previously, end users
had to install CD burning software. In Windows XP, CD and DVD-RAM (FAT32 only for DVD-RAM) burning has been directly integrated
into the Windows interface. Data discs are created using the Joliet and ISO 9660 file systems and audio CDs using the Redbook
standard. To prevent buffer under-run errors, Windows XP premasters a complete image of files to be burnt and then streams it to the
disc burner. Users can burn files to a CD in the same way they write files to a floppy disk or to the hard drive via standard copy-paste or
drag and drop methods. The burning functionality is also exposed as an API called the Image Mastering API. Windows XP's CD burning
support does not do disk-to-disk copying or disk images, although the API can be used programmatically to do these tasks. Creation of
audio CDs is integrated into Windows Media Player. Audio CDs are burnt using track-at-once mode. CD-RW discs can be quick erased.
API support can be added to Windows XP for burning DVDs and Blu-ray Discs (Mastered-style burning and UDF) on write-once and
rewritable DVD and Blu-ray media by installing the Windows Feature Pack for Storage which upgrades IMAPI to version 2. Note that this
does not add DVD or Blu-ray burning features to Windows Explorer but third party applications can use the APIs to support DVD and Blu-
ray burning.
FireWire (IEEE 1394) 800 support (1394b) was added in Service Pack 1. S/PDIF audio and MPEG-2 video streams are supported
across FireWire from audio video receivers or set-top boxes, DVD or D-VHS, speakers, or TV transmissions. Windows XP supports the
AV/C (IEC 61883 protocol for isochronous real-time data transfer for audio-video applications and non-FireWire devices to be exposed as
virtual FireWire devices. Direct memory access over the 1394 bus from the host to the target allows kernel debugging over FireWire.
Finally, there is support for TCP/IP networking and Internet Connection Sharing over the IEEE 1394 bus.
DualView allows two monitors to host the Windows desktop, while being driven off of a single display adapter.
Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) cards, including those larger than 4 GB but up to 32 GB, were supported starting with Service
Pack 2
Remote Assistance allows a user to temporarily take over a remote Windows XP computer over a network or the Internet to resolve
issues. As it can be a hassle for system administrators to personally visit the affected computer, Remote Assistance allows them to
diagnose and possibly even repair problems with a computer without ever personally visiting it. Remote Assistance allows sending
invitations to the support person by email, Windows Messenger or saving the invitation as a file. The computer can be controlled by both,
the support person connecting remotely as well as the one sending the invitation. Chat, audio-video conversations and file transfer are
available.
Fast User Switching allows another user to log in and use the system without having to log out the previous user and quit his or her
applications. Previously only one user at a time could be logged in (except through Terminal Services), which was a serious drawback to
multi-user activity. Fast User Switching, like Terminal Services, requires more system resources than having only a single user logged in
at a time and although more than one user can be logged in, only one user can be actively using their account at a time. This feature is
not available when the Welcome Screen is turned off, such as when joined to a Windows Server Domain or with Novell Client installed.
Even when the Welcome screen is enabled, users can switch to the Classic logon by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del twice at the Welcome screen.
Forgotten Password Wizard can create a password reset disk. This disk can be used to reset the password using the Password
Reset Wizard from the logon screen. The user's RSA private key is backed up using an offline public key whose matching private key is
stored in one of two places: the password reset disk (if the computer is not a member of a domain) or in Active Directory (if it is a member
of a domain). An attacker who can authenticate to Windows XP as LocalSystem still does not have access to a decryption key stored on
the PC's hard drive. If the password is reset, the DPAPI master key is deleted and Windows XP blocks all access to the EFS encrypted
files to prevent offline and rogue attacks and protect the encrypted files. If the user changes the password back to the original password,
EFS encrypted files can be recovered.
Data Execution Prevention flag certain parts of memory as containing data instead of executable code, which prevents overflow errors
from resulting in arbitrary code execution. It is intended to prevent an application or service from executing code from a non-executable
memory region. This helps prevent certain exploits that store code via a buffer overflow.
Internet Connection Sharing is integrated with UPnP, allowing remote discovery and control of the ICS host. It has a Quality of Service
Packet Scheduler component. When an ICS client is on a relatively fast network and the ICS host is connected to the internet through a
slow link, Windows may incorrectly calculcate the optimal TCP receive window size based on the speed of the link between the client and
the ICS host, potentially affecting traffic from the sender adversely. The ICS QoS component sets the TCP receive window size to the
same as it would be if the receiver were directly connected to the slow link. Internet Connection Sharing also includes a local DNS
resolver in Windows XP to provide name resolution for all network clients on the home network, including non-Windows-based network
devices. ICS is also location-aware, that is, when connected to a domain, the computer can have a Group Policy to restrict the use of ICS
but when at home, ICS can be enabled.
are New Features and the others are improvemts
Start button helps the user access a wider range of common destinations more easily from a single location. The left column focuses on
the user's installed applications. The right column provides access to My Documents, My Pictures and other special folders. The My
Computer and My Network Places (Network Neighborhood in Windows 95 and 98) icons were also moved off the Desktop and into the
Start menu, making it easier to access these icons while a number of applications are open allowing the desktop to remain clutter free.
These links can be configured to expand as a cascading menu. Frequently used programs are automatically displayed in the left column,
newly installed programs are highlighted, and an option to "pin" programs to the start menu so they are always accessible without having
to navigate through the Programs folders. The default internet browser and default email program are pinned to the Start menu. The Start
menu is fully customizable, links can be added or removed; the number of frequently used programs to display can be set. The All
Programs menu expands like the classic Start menu, but can be set to scroll programs. The user's name and user's account picture are
also shown on the Start menu.
Graphics Device Interface Plus (GDI+) subsystem was introduced to replace certain GDI functions. GDI+ added anti-aliased 2D
graphics, textures, floating point coordinates, gradient shading, etc. GDI+ uses ARGB values to represent color. Use of these features
allowed transparent desktop icon labels, drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop, shadows under menus, translucent blue selection
rectangle in Windows Explorer, sliding task panes and taskbar buttons. The total number of GDI handles per session was raised from
16384 to 65536 (configurable through the registry).
ClearType is a subpixel rendering technology, which makes onscreen fonts smoother and more readable on liquid crystal display (LCD)
screens. Although ClearType has an effect on CRT monitors, its primary use is for LCD/TFT-based (laptop, notebook and modern
'flatscreen') displays. ClearType supports the RGB and BGR sub pixel structures. ClearType is turned off by default but can be turned on
if using an LCD monitor.
AutoPlay (not to be confused with AutoRun) was created in order to simplify the use of peripheral devices – MP3 players, memory cards,
USB storage devices and others – by automatically starting the software needed to access and view the content on these devices.
AutoPlay examines newly discovered removable media and devices and, based on content such as pictures, music or video files,
launches an appropriate application to play or display the content.
Filmstrip view shows images in a single horizontal row and a large preview of the currently selected image above it. “Back” and
“Previous” buttons facilitate navigation through the pictures, and a pair of “Rotate” buttons offer 90-degree clockwise and counter-
clockwise rotation of images. Filmstrip view like any other view can be turned on per folder. Aside from the Filmstrip view mode, there is a
'Thumbnails' view, which displays thumbnail-sized images in the folder and also displays images a subfolder may be containing (4 by
default) overlaid on a large folder icon.
Windows Explorer had significant changes with both visually and functionality. For example, the task pane is displayed on the left side
of the window instead of the traditional folder tree view when the navigation pane is turned off. It presents the user with a list of common
actions and destinations that are relevant to the current directory or file(s) selected. For instance, when in a directory containing mostly
pictures, a set of “Picture tasks” is shown, offering the options to display these pictures as a slide show, to print them, or to go online to
order prints. Conversely, a folder containing music files would offer options to play those files in a media player, or to go online to
purchase music. The navigation pane has been enhanced to support "simple folder view" which when turned on hides the dotted lines
that connect folders and subfolders and makes folders browsable with a single click while still keeping double clicking on in the right
pane. Single clicking in simple folder view auto expands the folder and clicking another folder automatically expands that folder and
collapses the previous one. The "Show in Group" pane, on the right, sorts and groups items based on any fields used for sorting. The
search function is similar to Windows ME but it can also be instructed to search only files that are categorically “Documents” or “Pictures,
music and video" (searching by perceived type); this feature is noteworthy largely because of how Windows determines what types of
files can be classified under these categories. Another important addition is that the "Look in" field accepts environment variables. Also,
users can configure whether or not Windows XP searches for system and/or hidden files and folders.
Windows Driver Protection blocks known problematic drivers from installing or loading.
Driver Verifier, when enabled, monitors and stresses drivers to detect illegal function calls or actions that may be causing system
corruption. New verification options have been added for DMA, I/O, SCSI and deadlock detection to Driver Verifier. Driver Verifier
Manager, a GUI is introduced for Driver Verifier with an option to automatically verify all unsigned drivers.
Last Known Good Configuration restores the hardware configuration in the registry control set indicated by the LastKnownGood key
and supports restoring the device drivers of the last working configuration, should a newly installed device driver make Windows
unbootable.
USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller Interface drivers were added in Service Pack 1. Added support for Bluetooth device class, USB
video device class, imaging (still image capture device class) and Media Transfer Protocol with Windows Media Player 10. New
hardware descriptors to distinguish between various storage types so that the operating system can set an appropriate default write
caching policy. For example, for USB devices, it disables write caching by default so that surprise removal of these devices do not cause
data loss. Device Manager provides a configuration setting whether to optimize devices for quick removal or for performance.
CD Burning technology from Roxio allows users to directly burn files to a compact disc through Windows Explorer. Previously, end users
had to install CD burning software. In Windows XP, CD and DVD-RAM (FAT32 only for DVD-RAM) burning has been directly integrated
into the Windows interface. Data discs are created using the Joliet and ISO 9660 file systems and audio CDs using the Redbook
standard. To prevent buffer under-run errors, Windows XP premasters a complete image of files to be burnt and then streams it to the
disc burner. Users can burn files to a CD in the same way they write files to a floppy disk or to the hard drive via standard copy-paste or
drag and drop methods. The burning functionality is also exposed as an API called the Image Mastering API. Windows XP's CD burning
support does not do disk-to-disk copying or disk images, although the API can be used programmatically to do these tasks. Creation of
audio CDs is integrated into Windows Media Player. Audio CDs are burnt using track-at-once mode. CD-RW discs can be quick erased.
API support can be added to Windows XP for burning DVDs and Blu-ray Discs (Mastered-style burning and UDF) on write-once and
rewritable DVD and Blu-ray media by installing the Windows Feature Pack for Storage which upgrades IMAPI to version 2. Note that this
does not add DVD or Blu-ray burning features to Windows Explorer but third party applications can use the APIs to support DVD and Blu-
ray burning.
FireWire (IEEE 1394) 800 support (1394b) was added in Service Pack 1. S/PDIF audio and MPEG-2 video streams are supported
across FireWire from audio video receivers or set-top boxes, DVD or D-VHS, speakers, or TV transmissions. Windows XP supports the
AV/C (IEC 61883 protocol for isochronous real-time data transfer for audio-video applications and non-FireWire devices to be exposed as
virtual FireWire devices. Direct memory access over the 1394 bus from the host to the target allows kernel debugging over FireWire.
Finally, there is support for TCP/IP networking and Internet Connection Sharing over the IEEE 1394 bus.
DualView allows two monitors to host the Windows desktop, while being driven off of a single display adapter.
Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) cards, including those larger than 4 GB but up to 32 GB, were supported starting with Service
Pack 2
Remote Assistance allows a user to temporarily take over a remote Windows XP computer over a network or the Internet to resolve
issues. As it can be a hassle for system administrators to personally visit the affected computer, Remote Assistance allows them to
diagnose and possibly even repair problems with a computer without ever personally visiting it. Remote Assistance allows sending
invitations to the support person by email, Windows Messenger or saving the invitation as a file. The computer can be controlled by both,
the support person connecting remotely as well as the one sending the invitation. Chat, audio-video conversations and file transfer are
available.
Fast User Switching allows another user to log in and use the system without having to log out the previous user and quit his or her
applications. Previously only one user at a time could be logged in (except through Terminal Services), which was a serious drawback to
multi-user activity. Fast User Switching, like Terminal Services, requires more system resources than having only a single user logged in
at a time and although more than one user can be logged in, only one user can be actively using their account at a time. This feature is
not available when the Welcome Screen is turned off, such as when joined to a Windows Server Domain or with Novell Client installed.
Even when the Welcome screen is enabled, users can switch to the Classic logon by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del twice at the Welcome screen.
Forgotten Password Wizard can create a password reset disk. This disk can be used to reset the password using the Password
Reset Wizard from the logon screen. The user's RSA private key is backed up using an offline public key whose matching private key is
stored in one of two places: the password reset disk (if the computer is not a member of a domain) or in Active Directory (if it is a member
of a domain). An attacker who can authenticate to Windows XP as LocalSystem still does not have access to a decryption key stored on
the PC's hard drive. If the password is reset, the DPAPI master key is deleted and Windows XP blocks all access to the EFS encrypted
files to prevent offline and rogue attacks and protect the encrypted files. If the user changes the password back to the original password,
EFS encrypted files can be recovered.
Data Execution Prevention flag certain parts of memory as containing data instead of executable code, which prevents overflow errors
from resulting in arbitrary code execution. It is intended to prevent an application or service from executing code from a non-executable
memory region. This helps prevent certain exploits that store code via a buffer overflow.
Internet Connection Sharing is integrated with UPnP, allowing remote discovery and control of the ICS host. It has a Quality of Service
Packet Scheduler component. When an ICS client is on a relatively fast network and the ICS host is connected to the internet through a
slow link, Windows may incorrectly calculcate the optimal TCP receive window size based on the speed of the link between the client and
the ICS host, potentially affecting traffic from the sender adversely. The ICS QoS component sets the TCP receive window size to the
same as it would be if the receiver were directly connected to the slow link. Internet Connection Sharing also includes a local DNS
resolver in Windows XP to provide name resolution for all network clients on the home network, including non-Windows-based network
devices. ICS is also location-aware, that is, when connected to a domain, the computer can have a Group Policy to restrict the use of ICS
but when at home, ICS can be enabled.