Microsoft Windows XP (Beta 2) Review
By: Arie SlobFiles and Settings Transfer Wizard
This new feature should also eliminate a big grievance of many users, namely the inability to transfer all kinds of documents and settings from one machine to another.
The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard enables the convenient transfer of files, documents, and settings (state) from one computer to another. It does this by providing a Files and Settings Transfer Wizard that is designed to walk users through moving settings from one system to another. This is usually done when the computers are side-by-side, or during a replacement, or for a "clean install." The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard has two paths: state collection and state application.
The state collection portion of the wizard should be run on the old computer (the source). Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows Me, Windows 2000, and Windows XP are all supported sources.
The state application portion of the wizard is run on the new computer (the destination). The only supported destination is Windows XP.
This wizard lets you save items like: Accessibility settings, Browser settings, Display properties, Microsoft Office settings, Mouse and keyboard settings, Network printer and drives, Outlook Express, Regional settings, Sound and multimedia settings, and Taskbar options; specific folders; and a wide range of specific file types (Word documents, text documents, etc.). You can also add new settings, folders, files, and file types (Figure).
If the wizard isn't able to save certain files (when they are in use), it will tell you so, and display a list of them at the end of the process, so that you can save and transfer them manually.
It took me 5 minutes to save my Windows XP files and settings to a secondary hard drive, taking up 19MB of disk space. Importing them in another copy of XP worked like a charm.
To use this on another Windows version, just pop your XP CD-ROM in the drive (while running your "source" windows), and from the first menu choose Perform additional tasks, then from the second menu, choose Transfer files and settings.
Be prepared as it can take quite some time for the information to be collected. I also let it collect my settings from Windows 2000, this task took around 15 minutes before it started copying the data. I had selected my LS-120 drive (120MB floppy drive) as a destination, but I needed 2 floppies (which I didn't have available), so the amount of data was apparently quite a bit more than from Windows XP.
Anyway, it seems a real relief when you want to transfer files & settings to a (new) computer.
Explorer windows have also had their functionality expanded. Explorer windows now are 3-paned windows, with extra information and functionality in the middle window. For example, opening My Computer, gives you a Tasks area, which lets you: Search for files or folders, View system information, Add or Remove programs, Change a setting (which opens Control Panel). You'll also see some links to "Other Places," as well as extra information in "Details." Try also some of the new functionality of the My Pictures (Figure), or My Music windows. This extra pane takes up quite a lot of space though, and if you have a smaller monitor (less than 17"), you might be better switching the extra pane off (by setting Use Windows classic folders in Folder Options). Then again, you might want to order that big monitor after all!
Another improvement is the number of details you can show for any file. Just right-click on the details heading for a quick list (Figure), or choose View > Choose Details from the menu. There's a list of 39 details to choose from!
Windows XP includes folder templates, which can be accessed by right-clicking the folder and choosing Properties > Customize. You can choose from: "Documents," "Pictures," "Photo Album," and 3 music settings, "Music," "Music Artist," and "Music Album."
Windows XP finally allows you to change icons for individual folders, you can set any icon you want.
For viewing and editing images, Windows XP includes an enhanced Preview Applet. Preview lets you view, zoom in an out, rotate, print, save (as), and delete images, and you can annotate a single or multi-page TIFF formatted document with text (commonly used for faxing).
The Preview Applet supports the Windows Bitmap, JPEG, GIF, TIF and PNG formats.
