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IS XP’s Update Worth a Download

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DQI Bureau
New Update

More than four years after it was filed, the government’s antitrust case

against Microsoft is finally about to bear fruit for consumers. Al though the

effort by nine states to toughen the deal agreed to by Microsoft and the Justice

Dept. drags on, the software maker has decided to honor part of the original

agreement by modifying Windows XP with an update called Service Pack 1. SP1, now

in final testing, is scheduled to be released as a free update later this

summer.

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SP1 makes it easier for consumers, and, more important, computer makers to

change the configuration of Windows XP and add or subtract applications. It also

includes a collection of bug fixes, many based on the error reports sent to

Microsoft when a program crashes in XP. And it incorporates all the improvements

in security that Microsoft has issued since XP was released last fall.

This update is a sign that Microsoft may finally be growing up. Four years

ago, the company responded to a judge’s order that it offer a version of

Windows without Internet Explorer by saying such a move would keep Windows from

working at all. But the new package goes beyond grudging compliance with the

letter of the agreement, and actually acknowledges the spirit.

The most significant change for consumers is in the control panel. First, you

can use the Add/Remove Windows Components section to get rid of features that

have been mandatory parts of Windows, including Internet Explorer, Windows Media

Player, Windows Messenger, and Outlook Express. Removing them does not just

eliminate the icons or other means of access, but actually removes the features

themselves. However, since virtually all PCs are set up with a copy of the

compressed Windows installation files on the hard drive, the same control panel

can be used to reinstall these features.

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A new feature, called "set program access and defaults," offers

another approach. It controls what will be the default applications–and what

appears on the Start menu–for five classes of what the agreement calls

"middleware." The middleware includes the Web browser, e-mail, instant

messaging, media player, and Java. (The service pack restores built-in support

for Java, which Microsoft petulantly stripped from the original release of XP.)

The "Microsoft" button chooses Internet Explorer and other standard

Windows programs. The "non-Microsoft" choice selects such programs as

a Netscape browser and RealNetworks’ RealPlayer, if installed. The

"custom" option lets you choose your default for each class of

programs. Not many people are likely to delete applications such as Internet

Explorer, since they are useful and disk space is rarely an issue these days.

But gaining an easy way to choose the default program for viewing Web pages or

listing MP3 music is a plus.

These changes are far more important to computer makers and, accordingly, to

buyers of new computers. Manufacturers gain considerable flexibility in how

computers are set up and what customers will see when they first turn them on. I

doubt that any computer maker will eliminate Internet Explorer, or even replace

it as the default, because it is the browser standard. But a manufacturer might

well substitute RealPlayer for Windows Media Player, especially if Real Networks

provides financial incentives.

Should you install SP1? For one thing, it’s huge. While the final product

is likely to be a bit smaller than the 117-megabyte test version I used, most

people will probably choose to order a CD (for a "nominal fee") rather

than download it. More seriously, the installation is almost as complex as an

operating system upgrade, and things can and will go wrong. One of my laptops

refused to boot after I installed the test version. On the other hand, many of

the bug fixes that don’t involve security will be available only with the

service pack. Since these fixes almost always include new bugs, it would

probably be wise to wait a few weeks after SP1 comes out to see what problems

surface before taking the plunge.

By Stephen H Wildstrom

in BusinessWeek. Copyright 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

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