Windows XP Sneak Peek

Written: 2/16/2001
Written by: Tron

Microsoft has tried and tried and tried for years to ditch DOS once and for all. WindowsNT of course did away with DOS entirely, and many power users are content with Windows 2000 Workstation right now. Windows XP will be the culmination of many years of effort by Microsoft, to finally migrate users away from the 9x/DOS codebase, and into the considerably more robust and stable NT derived environment.

For the purposes of this sneak-peek, we'll just be taking a look at Windows XP Personal Edition. Specifically, Windows Codename Whistler, build 2428, Personal Edition. While I'll not be going into a great deal of under the hood depth, there are a few significant changes to the OS, especially from a cosmetic standpoint, in relation to it's true predecessor, Windows 2000.

One point to get out of the way initially, because I know people are going to ask about it, is that the Personal Edition WILL NOT support SMP (symmetric multi processing.... i.e. dual/quad ect CPU configurations). SMP support will be reserved for the Professional and Advanced Server versions of XP. Personal is designed to replace Windows Millineum as the consumer operating system of choice, and as such doesnt really need SMP.

So, what's new and different? Quite a bit, but today's focus will be greatly on the new GUI.

Next page: Very GUI

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