I spent a full week in mid-November locked in the mire of Windows 98
because we were going to use USB-based MP3 audio recorders at Comdex
Fall 99 and Windows 2000 didn't support the devices we had acquired.
So I installed Windows 98 SE on my trusty laptop and loaded up all
the apps I use regularly. The weekend before the show, however, we
decided to can that idea and just take notes like the old days, but
by that time I was ready to rip Windows 98 off my system for good
anyway: After using Windows 2000 Professional for more six straight
months now, I've come to love the little improvements it brings to
the Windows user interface. So after a week with Windows 98, I came
up with this list of things I missed most from Windows 2000. This
stuff if purely user interface related, from a user's standpoint; I
don't discuss esoteric topics such as the NT kernel or whatever. But
when it comes to actually using Windows, this where Windows
2000 Professional really kicks butt.
So, in the grand tradition of David Letterman, here is the top 10
reasons that Windows 2000 is better than Windows 98:
10. Global folder options
This is the sort of "set it and forget it" stuff I
love. I don't want Web view, ever. In Windows 98, this is a
hassle, because I have to turn it off one folder at a time, even
after I tell it that I don't want it. But Windows 2000 has a global
Folder Options setting: You turn off Web view and it stays off. I
think I sprouted one new gray hair every time I opened a folder in
Windows 98 and saw Web view because of this stupidity.9.
Keyboard shortcuts in applets
Even the little things, programs such as Notepad, are much nicer
in Windows 2000. Like most Windows users, I use Notepad daily for a
variety of tasks and the version in Windows 2000 actually lets you
use keyboard shortcuts such as CTRL+S ("save") that are
unavailable in Windows 98 for some stupid reason. I'd be hitting
CTRL+S, wondering why the system was honking at me. Right, I forgot:
Because it's inferior.
8. CTRL + ALT + DEL that
actually works
Let's face reality here: Applications crash. Take Internet
Explorer, please. Or Visual Studio 6.0 (yes, especially with SP3).
I'll be browsing around the Web with multiple Web pages open and
--BANG!-- the system hangs. In Windows 2000, this is no problem:
Just hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and a window full of options appears.
Instantly. In Windows 98, you never know what you're going to get.
Sometimes nothing. Sometimes a list of tasks to stop, that doesn't
usually work anyway. Sometimes your system just reboots. It
stinks.
7. Task Manager
Speaking of which, the availability of an actual Task Manager in
Windows 2000, like NT 4.0 before it, is a huge win over Windows 98.
Let's take our previous scenario, where an application has hung the
system: Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL, select Task Manager and choose End Task.
It ends the task! And it does it immediately, no muss, no fuss.
How's that for living up to its description? Meanwhile, over
in Windows 98, I'll be rebooting the system at least half of the
time. I love the Task Manager.
6. My Documents
Even My Documents is nicer in Windows 2000. Despite the fact
that the document-centric user interface has fallen flat on its
face, Microsoft moves forward in Windows 2000 by making My
Documents, not My Computer, the top of the shell namespace. The
distinction is subtle, yet important: When you open an Explorer
window, your documents are what's open, not a view of the file
system. For new users especially, this makes much more sense. For
someone like me (that is, a "writer"), I need this kind of
quick access to my documents. I just wish that the rest of the world
would see the light.
5. Personalized Start Menu
I didn't think I was going to like it at first (Indeed, in my
August 1998 assessment of Windows NT 5.0 Beta 2, I hesitatingly
tried the feature, sure I was going to eventually turn it off), but
the Personalized Start Menu actually works. In fact, I strongly
recommend that all Windows users give this feature a chance before
coldly turning the feature off: The Start Menu can easily grow into
a confused mess and this feature nicely organizes it into a shorter
list of the programs you actually do use. It's great. However,
applying this technology to the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer
was a huge mistake: Favorites are documents, not
programs, and the system should never hide documents. If you saved a
Favorite in your Favorites menu, it should show up. Hell, you
specifically put it there. In this case, the system does not know
best.
4. Uncluttered system views
I've been using Windows 2000 for so long now, I've gotten used
to its cleaned-up and uncluttered system views, such as the
minimalist root of My Computer, which displays only drives and a
Control Panel folder. Meanwhile, the Windows 98 My Computer root is
a mess of icons, including the aforementioned few along with
Printers, Dial-up Networking, Scheduled Tasks, Web Folders, and
others, depending on your configuration. Less is more, indeed.
3. Scheduled Tasks
In Windows 98, you get a Scheduled Tasks icon in your tray
notification area ("tray") whether you use it or not, with
no way to turn it off. In Windows 2000, the Scheduled Tasks applet
is handled more elegantly, as a front-end to the Task Scheduler and
AT services. And there's no stupid icon either. Again, another case
of a little thing making a big difference: The Windows 2000 user
interface is just cleaner (and dare I say it, "simpler")
because of this.
2. Offline Files and Folders
Most of the items in this top 10 list are in no particular
order, but the top two are clearly the ones I appreciate the most.
As a mobile user, I dock my laptop at my home network and access
over 40 GB of data space over the network. But when I'm on the road,
it's just me and the laptop, so I need some kind of feature that
lets me bring documents with me and synch them up with the network
originals when I return. In Windows 98, this meant using the
Briefcase feature, which worked but was kind of half-baked, since
everything was a manual operation. In Windows 2000, we have the
elegant and powerful Offline Files and Folders feature, which is a
technological tour-de-force. Even when I'm on the road, I have
access to the network documents (or anything else) that I've marked
as available offline. And I access them the same way I would if I
were connected to the network. It's wonderful. And when I log on and
off of the network, my files are synchronized automatically. This is
easily the most wonderful mobile computing feature in any version of
Windows and a clear reason why almost all mobile users should
upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional. I salute those who came up
with this solution.
1. Open With
I use a variety of image management programs, including LView Pro,
PicaView32, and yes, Microsoft Paint. Sometimes I want to open a GIF
in Paint, for example, so I can quickly edit it, but I've got that
file type associated with LView Pro. In Windows 98, it's a major
pain in the butt: I have to select the icon of the image file, hold
down the SHIFT key, right-click the icon, choose "Open
With" and then select Paint from the list of applications in
the dialog that appears. And I have to do this every single time I
want to open an image in Paint. In Windows 2000, this process is
amazingly more easy. First of all, the "Open With" option
is a standard choice on the right-click menu, so I don't have to go
through the convoluted "hold down the SHIFT key first"
scenario I mention above. You simply right-click the image file,
choose "Open With" and then select Paint from the dialog
box, as before. But this is where Windows 2000 really shines: Once
I've done this, an "Open with Microsoft Paint" choice is
added to the right-click menu for that file type. I never have to go
through this process more than once! The same is true of all
documents, so if you like to use Word and WordPerfect, or whatever,
Windows 2000 makes it easy. Now if they could only figure out a way
to assign an application to files with no extension, Windows will
truly be world-class when it comes to handling documents. In the
meantime, I'll take this feature any day: It puts Windows 98 to
shame.
Final thoughts
One thing that's particularly embarrassing for me is to go back
and read my earlier review of Windows 98, written at a time when
Windows 2000 (then NT 5.0) wasn't in any state to use on a daily
basis. It's amazing what you can accept when there aren't any
alternatives, but now that Windows 2000 is here (at least in beta
and RC form), I'll never go back: Windows 98 is a joke, both from a
stability and user interface standpoint. OK, maybe that sounds a bit
dramatic, but months of Windows 2000 use have raised my standards
dramatically and there's no way I'll ever go back. I suspect that
this will be the case for the vast majority of people that use
Windows 2000 as well. Sure, there are problems (why does it take to
long to boot and so long to come out of Standby, for example?) but
Windows 2000 makes Windows 98 look sick.
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