XP'S Extras
Edited By The News Staff
First came a paint program. Then a memory manager, a defragger, a disk compression program, a media player, and finally a Web browser. Every new version of Windows accumulates more tools. Users generally like them, and most pose no threat to full-blown applications from other vendors, but at least some have contributed to the demise of third-party products. With its latest, Windows XP, Microsoft continues these traditions.
As it has in the past, Microsoft has integrated the Internet Explorer browser into the forthcoming OS--a practice courts have declared anticompetitive. Windows XP also boasts a CD burning capability, a firewall, and support for remote access--new features that previously required installing free or commercial third-party software.
However, perhaps in response to ongoing litigation that might delay the planned October 25 XP launch extravaganza (see page 27), Microsoft has removed some features from the OS. In a clear, albeit small, nod to the courts, the company will allow users to uninstall IE. Most of the new add-ons are feature-light, and often are licensed from the very vendors that sell more-capable commercial packages.
Burning Questions
For example, Roxio, the Adaptec spin-off that publishes the popular Easy CD Creator CD-mastering package, wrote and licensed the software that gives XP the ability to burn CD-Recordable and CD-Rewritable discs. Roxio also left out most of the best features of its $100 Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum version.
Windows XP's software can create an audio CD compilation of songs you've copied with Media Player. It can write batches of data files to CD-R or CD-RW, and it can back up data to CD-R or CD-RW.
On the other hand, Windows XP's software lacks a packet-writing driver for writing files to and erasing them from CD-RW discs in real time. That's a far cry from Easy CD Creator's extensive capabilities, which also include sound editing and noise removal, high-quality MP3 ripping and playlist editing, CD-label printing, video editing, and Video CD creation.
Then there's Windows Media Player, first introduced in Windows 95, which has gradually become more sophisticated and capable. The latest version, Windows Media Player for Windows XP, will be available only as part of Windows XP (Media Player 7.1, a recent update for other Windows versions, offers fewer features but plays the same media file formats). XP's player offers many features available in RealNetworks' RealPlayer and in MusicMatch's MusicMatch Jukebox, including the abilities to rip (copy) CD tracks to a hard disk and to play streaming audio and video files from the Internet.
Plays Badly With Others
Unfortunately, many of Windows Media Player's advanced features work only with Microsoft's own Windows Media Audio and Windows Media Video file formats and with their streaming versions, which some popular media players, including RealPlayer, do not support. Microsoft's player does support other formats, such as MP3 audio and MPEG video, but it doesn't always produce the highest-quality audio with these. The media player for Windows XP will, for example, create MP3 files only at a low-quality 64-kbps bit rate. To get superior-quality MP3 ripping and DVD viewing, you'll have to download (and possibly purchase) third-party applications.
Webnoize analyst Ric Dube says that people who already feel comfortable with another media-player application will just stick with what they have. Microsoft insists that the quality of its file formats is better than the competition's. The company certainly stands to make an e-commerce killing if it can somehow drive people to its media formats and license its digital rights management scheme to media vendors. Whether Microsoft will succeed--or whether its bundling of Windows Media Player is adjudged anticompetitive--remains to be seen.
Windows Messenger, an improved version of the MSN Messenger instant messaging program used in previous versions of Windows, will compete against AOL Instant Messenger and other free IM programs. But America Online's program is likelier than Microsoft's to receive scrutiny for anticompetitiveness, due to AOL's habit of closing its system to competing products.
Send a Message
At this point, it's unclear whether Windows Messenger will end up being a threat to third-party alternatives or simply a seldom-used Internet gadget along the lines of NetMeeting, Windows Movie Maker, and WebTV for Windows. If Internet telephony and videoconferencing were to suddenly take off, Windows Messenger's new voice and video capabilities would give it a marked advantage over competing IM programs, which so far are limited to text chat and file transfers. Of course, both machines must use Windows XP: Messenger's voice and video features don't work with other versions of Windows, much less with other OSs. In contrast, AOL Instant Messenger can run on Macintosh, Linux, and even Palm devices.
Competition or Cooperation?
Not every extra that Microsoft bundles with Windows XP is a repackaged, licensed, or limited-functionality program. For the first time, Windows includes a firewall to ward off Internet hacking. And although Windows has long permitted traveling users to log in remotely and transfer files, Windows XP Professional's Remote Desktop lets you connect to and take full control of other Windows XP Professional desktop systems over the Internet. The new features compete directly with third-party remote-control and firewall products like Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall ($50) and PC Anywhere ($180).
But you won't hear Symantec complaining too loudly. "Symantec has always succeeded in extending the functionality of the Windows operating system," says Sarah Hicks, the company's vice president of product management. Windows XP is nothing new, according to Hicks. "The products [included in XP] are fairly rudimentary," she adds.
For example, PC Anywhere offers multiple levels of encryption and various types of authentication, as opposed to one of each in XP's Remote Desktop. The Symantec program is also better suited to corporations because it offers logging, remote management, and support for multiple operating systems. In contrast, both computers in a Remote Desktop session must run Windows XP Professional or a Windows Terminal Services client (these are available for Windows 9x, Me, and CE).
Anson Lee, Norton Personal Firewall product manager, points out that Windows XP's Internet Connection Firewall blocks only inbound traffic and isn't enabled by default. Symantec's firewall, on the other hand, controls which local applications can pass through to the Internet--a crucial feature for preventing Trojan horse applications from handing control of your computer over to hackers. Symantec's product also monitors outgoing traffic for sensitive personal data.
Zone Labs' $40 ZoneAlarm Pro and the company's free ZoneAlarm firewalls likewise offer bidirectional control of your Internet connection, plus something Microsoft can't claim: years of practical experience securing PCs from online threats. Gregor Freund, Zone Labs CEO and founder, is confident that his product--widely deployed in the real world and repeatedly updated in response to how the protocols are applied, how applications use protocols, and what kinds of attacks are possible--will continue to attract buyers who are interested in strong security. "That's not stuff that you can just pick up and implement; it's stuff that you experience and refine over time," Freund says.
Gartner analyst Michael Silver doubts that software makers have much to fear in Windows XP. "For consumers, a lot of this stuff may be good enough. Some of it users get for free anyway, bundled with their new PC." But in contrast, Silver says, businesses typically need stronger features than the bundled utilities in XP have--an industrial-strength firewall, for example.
It's the same story with regard to the CD-burning utility and the other new tools in XP, Silver says. "For users who are just trying to put a couple of songs on a CD, it might be good enough. For something fancier, they're still going to have to buy a third-party product." With little firm evidence that Microsoft's utility bundling tactics will effectively reopen the browser wars on a new front, the courts and Senate committees may have to live and let Windows XP live.
The Apps of Windows Past
Like a teenager decorating an old bracelet with new charms, Microsoft has traditionally buffed up successive versions of its operating system by adding utilities, applications, and games. Here are some examples:
Windows 3.0 (1990): Macro Recorder, Solitaire, File Manager, extended memory management
Windows 3.1 and 3.11 (1992-1993): TrueType fonts, fax utility (Windows for Workgroups), networking software (Windows for Workgroups)
DOS 6.0 (1993): File compression, disk defragmentation and backup, automated memory management, disk caching
Windows 95, Windows 95 OSR2 (1995-1996): Quick View file viewer, Internet Explorer browser, Dial-Up Networking, Windows Media Player, system monitoring tools (Net Watcher, Resource Meter, System Monitor)
Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (1998-1999): TV broadcast services (Wavetop, WebTV for Windows), speedup utilities (Fast Boot, Application Launch Acceleration, Map Cache), system maintenance utilities (Disk Cleanup, Registry Checker, System File Checker), Internet Sharing (Windows 98 SE)
Windows Millennium Edition (2000): PC Health tools (System File Protection, System Rollback), multimedia tools (Scanner and Camera Wizard, Movie Maker)
Can This Os Be Stopped?
As a posse of government antitrust lawyers seeks to delay the scheduled October 25 launch of Windows XP, Microsoft claims it will deliver its Swiss-army OS on time. Meanwhile, major computer vendors were privately saying they expected to start shipping systems with XP preloaded by the end of September or early October.
Down to the Wire
Nevertheless, as we went to press, the U.S. Department of Justice appeared resolved to seek an injunction to block Windows XP's release (over its "commingling" of browser and operating system code) until courts can determine a remedy for the antitrust violation found in earlier litigation. Microsoft says it will permit users to remove Internet Explorer via the Add/Remove Programs utility, but the Remove option will expunge only the browser's user interface, leaving the underlying code integrated with Windows XP.
Meanwhile, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) has called for hearings to investigate whether Windows XP forces buyers to use Microsoft's media player, its instant messaging program, and its other applications. Simultaneously, a consortium of privacy advocates, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission requesting an investigation into the way Microsoft's Passport authentication system--an integral part of XP's version of Windows Messenger--collects sensitive user data.
On the other hand, many PC and software vendors are looking to XP as a tonic for slumping sales, and Microsoft knows it.
"Frankly, the industry needs this product," Jim Allchin, vice president of the Microsoft Platforms Division Group, told a press conference. Allchin said the company has no contingency plans for changing Windows XP if an injunction is issued.