Windows XP Conversion
Benefits and Improvements
We are upgrading labs to Windows XP for several reasons:
- Our customers, students and faculty, want and need what is current and useful technology for teaching and learning. Most new computers come with XP now, and we expect that by fall, a (slim) majority of end-users will have converted their own machines to XP.
- There are some changes that improve the software publishing features of Windows that will make it easier to maintain and update the suite of software applications available from each public lab an classroom machine.
- We believe XP is easier to use and more appealing to the majority of our users.
- XP is faster for logging on and rebooting than Windows 2000.
- XP as new features such as:
- better "plug and play" for adding devises without rebooting
- new media player, video editor, photo support
- better power management for laptops
- native CD-write capability
- A completely new "image" and operating system gives us the opportunity to move to the next level of user support by having "native" Windows logons and real "roaming profiles". Read more about this on the logon page.
- We must stay with the "current" operating system to get support from Microsoft. While Windows 2000 is still supported, we would definately have to move to XP sooner or later.
Why Now
As for timing, the only opportunity we have to make a major change such as this is the summer time. While this summer may seem a bit aggressive, waiting until next summer means working with Windows 2000 for another year, which we do not want to do.
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This page was last modified: 9/9/2002 2:57:42 PM.