Important Information About This Version of Microsoft Windows XP |
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This release of Microsoft® Windows® XP includes Service Pack 2 (SP2). This means that when you install this release of Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional, SP2 is automatically installed at the same time.
Unless stated otherwise, all information included in these release notes applies to both Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional.
Throughout the remainder of this document, Windows XP is used to refer to Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional unless it is necessary to specifically discuss either operating system.
Important information for all users
Important information for administrators and advanced users
How to Use These Notes |
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These release notes contain important information that was not available when the documentation for Windows XP was published. You should review each of these notes to determine whether any of them pertains to your specific setup. Also review the resources at the end of this document to determine whether they might be useful to you.
To link to the Microsoft Web sites referenced in this document, you must be connected to the Internet.
File Systems |
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To ensure the confidentiality of your transmissions, Windows XP uses the Encrypting File System feature of NTFS to encrypt files locally. However, if you upgraded from Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition without converting the file system to NTFS, or if you selected the FAT file system during your installation, you will be unable to encrypt files on Web servers.
For information about converting file systems to NTFS, see Help and Support Center in Windows XP.
Network and Communications |
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This note applies if you are using a non-Microsoft virtual private network (VPN) application to access your computer remotely.
Many non-Microsoft Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) client applications do not operate properly or install correctly with Windows XP. If your Internet service provider (ISP) requires PPPoE to connect to the Internet, you can solve PPPoE problems by using the PPPoE client in Windows XP, or you can request a Windows XP–compatible PPPoE client application from your software vendor or ISP.
If you use one of the following products, contact the vendor for a Windows XP–compatible version of their software:
To make a connection by using the PPPoE client included in Windows XP
The New Connection Wizard starts.
You can choose to leave ISP Name blank. If you do, Windows XP will attempt to detect the connection.
Windows XP no longer supports some networking protocols because the functionality that these network protocols provided has been replaced by equivalent functionality in the TCP/IP protocol suite.
The networking protocols that Windows XP no longer supports are as follows:
For Telnet clients on VTNT terminals to work correctly with East Asian languages, they must be configured to use TrueType fonts. You should configure this setting before you run the Telnet client. To do so, use the following procedure.
To configure Telnet clients to use TrueType fonts
If you install the utilities from the ORiNOCO Wireless LAN card CD, Windows XP Wireless Configuration Service will not run correctly. This is because these utilities interfere with the control of the card. As a result, the wireless configuration tab in the network properties does not appear, and the card does not configure automatically.
To correct problems with the ORiNOCO Wireless LAN card
To open Device Manager, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System. On the Hardware tab, click Device Manager.
This information applies to wireless devices that use the following standards:
If you use IEEE 802.11 wireless configuration and the network authentication protocol IEEE 802.1X, user information and requests for action are displayed through balloon notifications that appear in the notification area in the lower right-hand corner of your screen.
After you upgrade to Windows XP, however, this icon might not appear. After you complete the installation, check to determine whether the icon appears. If it does not appear, use the following procedure to correct this problem.
To make the network icon appear in the notification area
Software Applications |
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For information about software compatibility issues that can arise with SP2, see Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals on the Microsoft TechNet Web site.
You must ensure that your antivirus software is written for the version of Windows XP that your computer is running. This means that the software must be written specifically for either Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional, or for both operating systems.
Antivirus drivers that are not written to run on your specific Windows XP operating system might cause problems. For instance, the software might not be able to perform real-time scanning for viruses, which could make your system more vulnerable to virus attack.
The problems that can result range in severity from those that are less severe—such as recoverable errors—to problems that are quite severe—such as losing some or all of your data, or having your computer become unusable.
To prevent these problems, check your antivirus software to ensure that it is designed for your operating system. If you have questions about this, or if you discover that you need to obtain appropriate antivirus software, contact your software vendor.
Windows XP supports Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI) version 5.0 engines and programs. To prevent a loss of functionality in Microsoft Agent applications that use SAPI version 4.0 speech input or output engines, you must install SAPI version 4.0a run-time support, and then reinstall the SAPI version 4.0 speech engines. You must do this even if they were working with Microsoft Agent before you upgraded to Windows XP.
Use the following link to install SAPI version 4.0a run-time support:
This note pertains to Windows XP Professional only.
You can configure the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service in Windows XP to require clients to authenticate before issuing mail commands. When you install or upgrade to Windows XP Professional in a workgroup, the authentication options NTLM (formerly called Windows NT LAN Manager) and Generic Security Services API (GSSAPI) do not work because a registry key is set that forces guest-only authentication.
You can solve this problem by setting the force guest authentication registry key.
For more information, see article 304707, "SMTP Authentication Configuration on Windows XP Professional Edition," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
Caution
Storage |
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Local device drive names (each of which is a letter of the alphabet) are usually assigned incrementally, starting with the letter C (C, D, E, and so on). Network drive names are automatically assigned in reverse order, starting with Z (Z, Y, X, and so on).
Conflicts between drive letters and existing network shared drives can arise if you connect digital cameras or other devices that use memory sticks to Windows XP while the computer is running. Similar conflicts can arise if you add external drives (such as USB or 1394 disks). If a naming conflict arises with an existing network shared drive, the device or external drive becomes inaccessible.
To prevent this problem, allow Windows to automatically assign network drive names, or choose letters higher in the alphabet for your drive names.
Windows XP does not support Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 Ftdisk volume sets.
If you are running Microsoft Windows 2000, you must convert all Ftdisk volume sets to dynamic volumes before you upgrade to Windows XP. If you are running Windows NT 4.0, you should break all mirrored volumes and back up all data on stripe, RAID5, or extended-volume sets before you upgrade to Windows XP. Ftdisk sets might be inaccessible after you perform the upgrade.
Other |
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The Microsoft virtual machine is no longer available. If you require Java support when you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, you can acquire a Java virtual machine from another vendor. For a list of vendors, see the Microsoft Web Site.
Note
Additional Resources |
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To review the latest information about application compatibility, and to find other products made for Windows, see the Windows Catalog Web site.
To search for technical support information and self-help tools for Microsoft products, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base on the Microsoft Product Support Services Web site.
To obtain the latest product updates, go to the Windows Update Web site.
Copyright |
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Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. Unless otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious, and no association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.
Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.
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