Microsoft Windows XP (Beta 2) Review
New LookThe first thing you notice when you start Windows XP is the complete overhaul Microsoft gave to the look and feel of the desktop, Start menu, Taskbar, Control Panel, and folder windows. For starters, all icons were redesigned, the total look improved by using more colors.
With today's multi-megabyte graphic cards that shouldn't be a problem. The default background is called Red Moon Desert, and it's part of the new built-in theme in Windows XP (which includes the familiar "Windows Classic"). Other backgrounds that caught my attention include Azul, Bliss, Chateau, Follow Me, Gold Petals, Moon Flower, Ocean Wave, Paradise, Snow Trees, Solar Eclipse, and Vortec Space. Expect a flurry of such high-resolution backgrounds to begin appearing on the Microsoft site and other Web sites as well!
Another big plus for Windows XP is the choice you have in smoothing the screen fonts. There is the standard method, and the ClearType method, a new text display technology. ClearType triples the horizontal resolution available for rendering text through software so that the result is clearer display of text on a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen with digital interface. But don't let that lead you to believe it's only good on an LCD display! If you have a good quality CRT display, you may also benefit from ClearType. You can check it out by right-clicking the Desktop, select Properties > Appearance tab, and press the Effects button. Here you can set some effects, including the method to smooth screen font edges.
Windows XP promises a desktop with "less clutter". We all know how all those programs we install want to add an icon to the desktop, and that many are never used. To combat this, Windows XP includes a new Desktop Cleanup Wizard. Periodically (every 60 days by default, but this can be adjusted), the Desktop Cleanup Wizard displays a window listing the desktop icons and the dates they were last used, and if you agree, it moves the icons to a folder called Unused Desktop Shortcuts that appears on your desktop, this way you can get at them (or restore them) at any time.
