50 Things You Didn't Know About Windows XP

[ayoub_ibrahim]

By Chris Pirillo

[Novdid]

Nice link!!!

[Paddy]

Nice! Although I couldn't get the 'multiple file renaming' thing to work...

Also... In the hide taskbar icons bit, does anyone know how to remove 'past' items. I have an icon for every file that I've downloaded using GetRight

[Gurm]

Your removable drives are automatically added to the SendTo menu. I can't figure out how to get them out of there, as I never really use my floppy or Zip drives.

c:\documents and settings\<username>\sendto

Is a directory filled with shortcuts. Delete one and it's GONE from that menu. Simple, no?

When you put in a CD with MP3s on it, XP asks you what you want to do with it. It does the same basic thing when you insert a picture CD or plug in a digital camera. Very friendly.

Also, THANK GOD, very easy to turn off. This has got to be the SINGLE MOST IRRITATING new feature. No, wait - the play-doh colors in the UI is the most irritating.

Icons in the System Tray are now displayed in high color. It's about time!

Actually, this worked in Win9x, but not in Win2k. WTF?

Zip file support is finally built into the OS. Yes, I know Me had it, too, but I hate that OS.

You call that "support"? Urk! I've always hated ZipMagic. I hated it when it was in the Plus! pack, when it was an optional install, when it was in ME, and now I hate it as part of XP. And the worst part is, you have to uninstall some hidden stuff (see my post about uninstalling stuff in XP) to get it to go away - even if you install WinZip (which any sane person would), it still treats zip files like folders in the save/open dialogues, which is VERY problematic.

MSConfig is back, baby. Windows 2000 users will appreciate its return.

Just don't use it, or it will plague you on every subsequent reboot until you re-enable what you turned off.

XP's movie maker truly sucks; you can't do ANYTHING with it. No transitions beyond a simple fade, no export options other than Windows Media, and so on. Save your money and get a true video editor. Better yet -- use iMovie on the Mac.

Save my money? You mean if I don't use a free product I save money? Whoa! As for using iMovie... anyone seen that commercial? Where the guy uses his dinky-ass webcam to take a fullscreen 1024x768 movie, that then edits in realtime, converts in realtime to MPEG2, and gets burnt to a DVD? That's some funny shit, man. Since encoding a 640x480 stream to MPEG is about a 7:1 time factor with a 600Mhz cpu (like the one found in most MACs).

Just don't think you're gonna film a businessman flying around your neighborhood and wind up producing an award-winning film using Windows XP. It ain't gonna happen with this crapplet.

Nor with any other program on the PC, and ESPECIALLY not with a MAC. Do people really believe you can do this kind of video editing on a home computer?

While MP3s can be played out of the box, ripping music into this audio format is possible only through (again) third-party software.

Or a quick 'n' dirty hack to disable rights management and re-enable MP3 encoding. No, I won't tell you where to get it. Do your own homework!

Even with XP's built-in Internet Connection Firewall features, I still recommend Tiny Personal Firewall (freeware).

I don't. Nobody needs a software firewall - they just need to close down the open ports in XP. Software firewalls are for losers that still run 16-bit OS'es. Oh, and people on MACs. And Linux.

<thing x> doesn't work yet, <thing y> doesn't, either.

It's not his fault he was working with this before release. None of the MS server integration EXCEPT Windows Update worked until 12:00AM last Thursday. The time server wouldn't talk to us, no MSKB, nothing. Now it's all up (WHEN you can get in).

The Kodak Imaging Application that came with other versions of Windows has been replaced by the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. It has a few built-in options, but you can't easily view the image at its full size. While this replacement is good enough, I miss the Kodak app already.

You MISS that piece of shit? GOOD GOD WHY? You know what MS should have done? Optioned ACDSee. That program is like Mana from Heaven.

Window transparency works much better in XP than it ever did in 2000. Again, this speed difference could be attributed to the video driver being used.

Directly so. At this juncture, only nVidia and ATI cards support ALL the fade and blend modes used by the Windows GUI. I suspect this will change with time. Matrox supports MOST of them. Kyro supports FEW.

Microsoft should have licensed Quicktime and RealMedia decoders. Every one of these companies wants to install its jukebox on my system. Bah humbug! At least they included the classic 6.4 player (accessible by entering MPLAYER2 on the Run command line).

Quicktime has a jukebox? Are you on crack? BUT, this is a valid complaint about Real. WHY CAN'T REAL JUST MAKE AN OPTION TO INSTALL THEIR DAMN PLAYER AND NOTHING ELSE? DAMMIT!?!?!?!

The default search "doggie" is annoying for power users; thank goodness the new TweakUI will allow you to easily switch back to the "classic" Windows 2000 search feature. I don't know if this is a bug I uncovered; when I browse for a folder when I'm doing a Search, it shows me two My Documents folders. They each have the same folder structure inside of them.

The search "doggie" is broken. BROKEN BROKEN BROKEN. I've generated more explorer crashes with that piece of shit than ever before. And what does it do? It TALKS to you. WTF? Who thought this was useful? It's like friggin' CLIPPY, who Microsoft thankfully KILLED recently.

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Overall a good article, certainly great for something released before XP itself.

- Gurm

[Paddy]

LOL! Nice review Gurm

[Paddy]

In 2K you could preview audio/video files using the explorer window.

Does anyone know how to enable this option in XP?

[Gurm]

Hehe. Yeah, to enable that just expand the "details" option in the sidebar. But you don't want to - MS has never managed to fix the "that file is in use" bug... you know, where you select the file, try to move or rename it, but it's "in use" by the preview pane?

- Gurm

P.S. Just enable thumbnails... it'll automagically show you the first frame or two.

[Paddy]

Cheers Gurm.

Its a shame they have got rid of that feature. I used to listen to MP3 file that way

[xortam]

MS has never managed to fix the &quot;that file is in use&quot; bug

That is a pain. I've got to select a separate file then quickly select the multiple files I want to move. I'd rather go through that then get rid of the preview option altogether. I like it simply for the still-frame preview of a picture or video file under W2K.

[MP]

Gurm:

You call that "support"? Urk! I've always hated ZipMagic. I hated it when it was in the Plus! pack, when it was an optional install, when it was in ME, and now I hate it as part of XP. And the worst part is, you have to uninstall some hidden stuff (see my post about uninstalling stuff in XP) to get it to go away - even if you install WinZip (which any sane person would), it still treats zip files like folders in the save/open dialogues, which is VERY problematic.

Actually, you can get rid of zip folders just by unregistering the proper dll. This can be done via command prompt:
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

[Kosh Naranek]

Well .........

I've been using XP for a while now and in the beginning I keept going back to 9x, but not anymore !

I must admit, the more I use it the more I like it !

Sure, it got some issues with different apps and games but if you stick with it you will eventually solve the various problems which occurs with different progs. apps. !

I had one with Unreal Tournament which keept bugging me for some time ( some of the sound - while playing - were corrupt and sounded like a bad connection - distorted and choppy ) but I got around it by changing the latency from 40 to 60 in advanced preferences under audio !

Of course my positive attitude towards XP could also have to do with the fact that i just got myself an Athlon XP 1800+ and an EPOX 8KHA+ motherboard !

[Chucky Cheese]

what a great review Gurm !!!!

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Of course my positive attitude towards XP could also have to do with the fact that i just got myself an Athlon XP 1800+ and an EPOX 8KHA+ motherboard !

nice combo that!

[The PIT]

ayoub_ibrahim Now thats the combo I'm thinking of going for.

[Technoid]

Originally posted by Kosh Naranek
Of course my positive attitude towards XP could also have to do with the fact that i just got myself an Athlon XP 1800+ and an EPOX 8KHA+ motherboard !

By the way you have been talking about the PIV, I'm rather surprised....