Windows is not a single product, it's a family. Some of its older members are now regarded only with nostalgic affection but there are several versions of Windows still in regular use. In fact, there's a whole army of people who have stuck to Windows 98 and NT rather than switching to the Windows Me and 2000 replacements. So why do we need yet another version of the operating system?

We can tell you why, but first we should come clean that Windows XP is not yet in the shops. This is a sneak preview based on Professional Beta 2, which is called 'Professional' because of its advanced security and network management tools, and 'Beta 2' because it's the second version released for testing.

When XP goes on sale later this year there will be Professional and Home versions offering the same core set of features and facilities.

Microsoft and its hardware and software partners will be able to develop standardised components and programs suitable for home or business use instead of having to develop separate products for the Windows NT/2000 business market and the Windows 98/Me home market.

The big-name computer manufacturers will race to offer XP as soon as it is available, and buyers will welcome it, but users who aren't after a new computer might well find the expense and potential problems of upgrading to XP not worth the marginal benefits.

A new approach

Not that XP isn't impressive. After installing it as an upgrade to Windows 98 we were bowled over by its new features and fresh approach.

Familiar friends like the Start button are there, but instead of leading to dull lists of shortcuts it offers you the features you are most likely to need and the programs you use most often.

If you don't like the new Start menu you can customise it, just as you can customise almost everything else in XP, but don't tamper too much or you'll miss out on the many enhancements that depend on the browser-like interface, such as being able to preview graphics files inside any folder.

Not only can you view pictures in the form of a slideshow, you can also zoom in on a single image and perform simple editing tasks before printing, faxing or publishing your pictures to the web.

You can copy music from an audio CD and store it on a hard disk in WAV or MP3 format, and you no longer need to install external fax and Zip (compression) programs. Faxing is as easy as ordinary printing and you can reduce file sizes by dragging files into XP compressed folders.

Images from scanners and digital cameras can be piped straight into programs running on XP without downloading the pictures first, and the contents of a digital camera can be browsed as if the camera were a hard disk. Once files have been stored in a folder they're a breeze to work with because when you highlight them, you're offered a set of actions suitable for that file type.

CD recordings can be made without the need for additional software. Pictures, music and data files are prepared for storage on CD-R or CD-RW discs by copying them to a virtual drive. When you're ready these can be burnt onto a CD or you can save them to be burned in the future. It's a roundabout procedure but it works well in practice.

So too does the System Restore facility, which is designed to fix Windows glitches. By referring to a series of system snapshots it can turn back the clock to a time when the system was working properly.

DirectX and Media Player have both been updated to version 8. The new DirectX makes it possible to play the sort of games that were previously unthinkable on Windows NT/2000 (which underlies XP), while Media Player provides neat features like DVD movie playback with chapter and special feature selection (though only on PCs with an MPEG2 decoder). Tools to create MP3 files and download them to portable players are also provided.

Box of tricks

Games and multimedia programs that balk at XP can be tricked into thinking they're running on an earlier version of Windows by setting a compatibility mode. This is as simple as right-clicking on a program and changing its properties. However, there's no guarantee that every program will run on XP, and you might have problems coaxing older hardware to work.

We had problems with an internal modem trying to set itself up as a COM port. If you can get hold of Windows 2000 drivers for your hardware you should be okay, but older NT drivers won't necessarily work.

Microsoft has not yet declared the full system requirements for XP but a Pentium III processor and 64Mb of Ram have been mentioned. We'd suggest 128Mb of Ram and a 400Mhz processor as the bare minimum. If this doesn't put you off XP the activation process might. When you install it you have to activate it by making a modem connection to Microsoft.

XP generates a unique ID for your PC by combining its product code with details of the hardware inside your machine. This prevents the same CD being used to install XP on another machine and thus protects Microsoft against software pirates, but there's the drawback that if you make significant changes to the hardware in your PC then XP might not recognise it.

You can't dodge the activation process by claiming you haven't got a modem. If you don't carry out a manual activation within 30 days XP stops working. Microsoft says it will be able to cope with requests for reactivation where necessary but when your computer's on the blink and you're up at 3am trying to fix it, you don't want to be chasing Microsoft for a reactivation code.

These worries aside, there is much to look forward to. For example, one XP machine can control another over the phone and two PCs on a home network can share a single internet connection. A family of users can share one machine and keep all their work private, with switching between users being almost instantaneous.

These features, allied to Microsoft's immense marketing clout and XP's compatibility with the latest types of hardware (including FireWire peripherals and DVDRom drives), mean that the PC of the future will develop in parallel with XP, but until you buy into the new technology there's no compelling reason to abandon the version of Windows you're using right now.

FEATURES:

Price: To be advised.

Contact: Microsoft
0845 700 2000
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp