File System

New Folder

Also new to Windows XP are features designed to make the OS more accessible to the common user. Opening "My Computer" no longer results in a few more icons. There is a little tab on the side, normally where the Web page enabled view is. This section now has information and links that are actually useful if you don't know what you are doing. The available options change when the contents of the folders change. Opening a folder full of MP3s yields access to an audio player; the OS even has support for ID3 tags! For regular files the normal commands like delete and rename appear.

ID3 Support

Image viewer

Going to a folder full of images yields something equally useful. One can enable thumbnail view, and even see a smaller version of the picture in the side panel. You also get zoom and slide show functions. XP even shows some intelligence when you try to email a picture that is relatively large. Supposing you accidentally tried to email a massive 20 MB BMP to a friend, XP would realize that you fooched and would remedy by converting to a JPG or something that would provide decent quality but at a substantial drop in size.

Options like these are enabled for a few folders initially. Most people like Gran-mama won't bother making more than one folder beyond that. For the savvy, there is a whole host of options that are opened up for deep customization of folders. Even the arrangement of files is far improved. Aside from the usual methods (i.e alphabetizing, sorting by size), depending upon the files in the folder, other options will be made available. If pictures are there, you can sort by resolution; with MP3s you will be able to sort by almost anything - bit rate, artist, band, whatever your heart desires.

Compatibility Mode 1

Compatibility Mode 2

File Compression

XP also ships with ZIP file support. You can unzip and create compressed archives at will. This marks the first time I haven't had to bother installing tiny programs in order to get my computer functional. One has to wonder what this will do to companies like ACDsee and Winzip. A lot of the more advanced features that those programs have are left out; but for general use, XP provides enough.

Compatibility Mode

One feature that is sure to make scores of people happy is the Compatibility Mode. XP is supposed to be a hybrid OS, meant to be the upgrade path for everyone from Win95 to WinNT. Microsoft wanted to make sure that existing software XP users already owned wouldn't suddenly be rendered useless. Rather than making software manufacturers come up with patches and new versions, Microsoft decided to let XP attempt to make the program think it was running on its native OS, be that NT or 98SE. Short of a program that goes to the core of an OS, most everything will be tricked into working. To give it a whirl, I used a program called NVRefresh. Apparently XP has the same problem that 2K had with refresh rates and games. Playing CounterStrike with a 60Hz refresh rate would render me migraine ridden. That's where NVRefresh comes in. With it, end users can manually set the refresh rate for a particular resolution in games. Unfortunately, I ran into a snag, the program only wanted to work in Win2k. Then I remembered this nifty little feature, and right clicked my way to the properties section. Once there, I selected the program to run in Win2K compatibility mode. Presto, like magic NVRefresh was working just fine. With all my refresh rates set to 120Hz I could play in utter bliss. If only they could do this with drivers!

I still remember contacting Minolta about a Win2K driver for my printer, only to be told it was never going to be made. I put my big head in my big pilla' and cried myself to sleep that night.