In Search of XP Applications Making the Move Eric Grevstad
Once you take the plunge and get that new Windows XP PC, you could use the operating system's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to help migrate documents and preferences from your old system to its successor. But you can find third-party tools that offer faster, more personalized, or more complete migration services.
Corporate deployment specialists are eager to help offices move to Win XP. Miramar Systems Inc. is selling 10 licenses for its Desktop DNA 3.0 migration software for the price of five ($245). Altiris Inc. says its new PC Transplant Pro 3.5 is optimized for migrations to Windows XP, Office XP, and Internet Explorer 6.0 and includes RapidDeploy disk imaging software and a new template builder; it's $24 per node for 100 or more licenses.
But if you're the proud owner of just one or two new PCs, check out LapLink Inc.'s updated PCsync 3.0 ($80, or $100 with a speedy USB file-transfer cable). The program not only supports Windows XP but goes well beyond the Transfer Wizard with a "push install" feature (putting PCsync on a connected PC with no need for the original CD-ROM), special functions for fetching files from any Web-connected computer or moving MP3 playlists, and detailed transfer of preferences and settings from over 45 popular applications, ranging from AOL and Adobe Photoshop to RealPlayer and Palm Desktop.
Once you're up and running, you'll want to optimize Windows XP's performance. As long as Microsoft touts it so prominently in Windows Catalog, we might as well mention that Diskeeper 7.0 doesn't boast 90 percent of corporate hard-disk-defrag utility sales for nothing; Executive Software's program has been optimized to meet Win XP requirements such as swiftly handling critical system files that can only be defragmented during boot time, as well as offering site-wide installation from a single IT manager's desktop. Prices start at $45 for a single-user download and rise to $390 for 10 licenses; a 30-day trial is available.
Even Win 95/98/Me/2000 users should look closely at Iolo Technologies' System Mechanic -- a superpowerful but pushbutton-friendly Registry and Internet connection optimizer and hard disk cleaner. It's on sale for 20 percent off (was $60, now $48).
Let's Get Creative
Its WordPerfect Office Suite is listed only in plain type, not the prominent neon of Microsoft Office XP, in Windows Catalog. But Corel Corp. has Redmond's blessing for CorelDraw Essentials, calling it the first graphics package optimized for Windows XP. The bundle of CorelDraw 9 and Corel Photo-Paint 9, positioned as the perfect touch-up/painting/drawing complement to a digital camera, is normally $109 but currently yours for $69.
Other graphics-software bargains abound. Micrografx, now being acquired by Corel, has lopped 10 percent off the price of its new (released in August) Picture Publisher 10 image editor; the Digital Camera Edition, with one-click touch-up and online photo album sharing, is now $44, while Picture Publisher 10 Professional's more potent photo enhancing, color management, and print and Web publishing is now $134.
ACD Systems is offering its ACDSee 4.0 PowerPack -- a bundle of its ACDSee image viewer with FotoCanvas 1.1 touch-up editor, FotoAngelo 1.1 multimedia slide show and screen saver creator, and FotoSlate image printing templates (450 of them, everything from arrays of wallet-size pix to a paper-saving mix of sizes and layouts) -- for $80.
Serious media mavens can save $75 on Equilibrium Technologies Inc.'s DeBabelizer Pro 5; the toolkit for automating multimedia production by drag-and-drop acquiring, editing, optimizing, and converting of images, animations, and video frames has been reduced from $700 to $625 through the end of this year.
There are some brand-new, XP-compliant image manipulation and management packages in the pipeline, too -- ArcSoft Inc.'s forthcoming PhotoImpression 4.1, PhotoPrinter 4.0, Panorama Maker 3.0, and PhotoBase 3.0. Alas, they won't ship until later this year.
Getting Better All the Time
Windows XP's colorful "Luna" interface may look prettier than its predecessor, but its blue, olive, and metallic color-scheme choices are too limiting for true desktop customizers. TGT Soft's Style XP adds more choices, starting with a red-white-and-blue interface called "toothpaste."
More ambitiously, Stardock.Net's WindowBlinds 3 ($20) modifies Windows XP's Display Properties/Appearance tab to let you apply "skins" or redesigned toolbars, title bars, buttons, and other interface elements to the whole operating system, not just Media Player or Internet Explorer. Want to put audio-CD next-track, play, or pause buttons in the title bar of every active application? WindowBlinds is part of Stardock's Object Desktop suite of interface tinkering tools, which promise more customizability than Windows fans have enjoyed since the halcyon Win 3.1 days of Norton Desktop and HP's Dashboard; stay tuned for WinPlanet tests.
You probably know you can choose various skins or appearances for the latest version of Windows Media Player. You can't, however, use it to play DVD movies or rip audio CD tracks to a CD-R as MP3 files (just the WMA format files that Microsoft and its cronies in the music industry like better). The cure is to install third-party MPEG-2 decoder and MP3 encoder software; CyberLink Corp. and InterVideo Inc. released theirs last week, and now Ravisent Technologies Inc. has shipped its CineMaster DVD Pack and CineMaster MP3 Creation Pack for Windows XP. Price-fixing conspiracy theorists will note that all three vendors' Media Player plug-ins cost exactly the same: $10 for the MP3 codec, $15 for the DVD decorder, or $20 for both.
Actually, if you're an MP3 collector, MusicMatch Inc. hopes you'll pass on Windows Media Player altogether. Its new MusicMatch Jukebox Plus 7.0 and Internet radio player combines Windows XP compatibility with a comprehensive CD-burning and label-printing solution (featuring SmartSplit song grouping to reduce angst over how many discs you'll need or how to organize tracks); "super tagging" or automated handling of huge collections of downloaded tracks; and one extra-cool feature -- automatic volume leveling, so you won't be reaching to crank up the volume of an inaudible track and then deafened when the next one starts. Volume leveling and other enhancements made to song files are sent along when each track is transferred or burned, too.
Finally, there's one place you can always find new software for Windows XP: Microsoft's Windows Update site. In the best argument yet for turning off the new operating system's "download and install upgrades without asking" option, Microsoft has already posted over 20MB worth of updates to its week-old OS. The downloads range from security fixes for Internet Explorer 6 and Microsoft's Java virtual machine to enhancements for the CD burning function and Windows Messenger.
