Microsoft® Windows® XP

Release Notes for Microsoft® Windows® XP
Important Information About This
Version of Microsoft Windows XP

How to Use These Notes

File Systems

Network and Communications

Software Applications

Storage

Other

Additional Resources

© 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Important Information About This Version of Microsoft Windows XP Back to Top

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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

To install Windows XP, see "Step by Step: Setting Up Microsoft Windows XP."
For more information about the service pack, see the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Web site.
Important information for administrators and advanced users

For information about the updates included in SP2, see article 811113, "List of Fixes included in Windows XP Service Pack 2," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
For information that was not available to be included in these release notes, see article 835935, "Release Notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
For detailed technical information, including information about software compatibility issues, see Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals on the Microsoft TechNet Web site.


How to Use These Notes Back to Top

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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 Back to Top

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Web Publishing and File Encryption
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 Back to Top

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Compatibility Issues with Non-Microsoft PPPoE Client Applications
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:

WinPoET version 2.1a or earlier
EnterNet 300 version 1.34 or earlier.
To make a connection by using the PPPoE client included in Windows XP

Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Network and Internet Connections.
In Network Tasks, click Create a new connection.
The New Connection Wizard starts.

Click Next.
Select the following options, clicking Next after each selection:
Connect to the Internet
Set up my connection manually
Connect using a broadband connection that requires a user name and password
Follow the steps in the wizard.
You can choose to leave ISP Name blank. If you do, Windows XP will attempt to detect the connection.

Networking Protocols That Windows XP No Longer Supports
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:

NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI), a non-routable protocol
Data Link Control (DLC), a non-routable protocol
AppleTalk, a protocol used with Apple computers
Telnet Client Applications on VTNT Terminals for East Asian Languages
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

Open a command-prompt window.
Right-click the title bar or system menu of the command-prompt window, and then click Properties.
On the Font tab, select a TrueType font, and then click OK.
Select Modify shortcut that started this window, and then click OK.
Click Start, click Run, and then type the following:

telnet
When the Telnet window appears, repeat steps 2 through 4.
Wireless Networking Devices
ORiNOCO Wireless LAN card
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

Remove ORiNOCO Utilities through Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.
Use Device Manager to uninstall the ORiNOCO 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.

Reinstall the drivers to redetect the card through Scan for hardware changes in Device Manager or by restarting Windows XP.
Wireless LAN display messages
This information applies to wireless devices that use the following standards:

IEEE 802.11 wireless Ethernet LAN standard
IEEE 802.1X port-based network access control authentication standard
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

Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Network and Internet Connections.
Click Network Connections.
Right-click the wireless connection, and then click Properties.
On the General tab, select the Show icon in notification area when connected check box.


Software Applications Back to Top

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Software Compatibility and SP2
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.

Antivirus Software
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.

Microsoft Agent
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:

Install SAPI version 4.0a run-time support
SMTP Authentication
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

Incorrectly editing the registry can severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer.


Storage Back to Top

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Logical Volume Manager
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.

Volume Management
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 Back to Top

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Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java
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

Microsoft does not offer support or warranties for non-Microsoft products.


Additional Resources Back to Top

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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 Back to Top

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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.

© 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

This product contains graphics filter software; this software is based, in part, on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Acknowledgements
Portions of this product are based in part on the work of Mark H. Colburn and sponsored by the USENIX Association. Copyright © 1989 Mark H. Colburn. All rights reserved.

This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.

Portions of this product are based in part on the work of the Regents of the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors. Because Microsoft has included the Regents of the University of California, Berkeley, software in this product, Microsoft is required to include the following text that accompanied such software:

Copyright © 1985, 1988 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation, advertising materials, and other materials related to such distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Portions of this product are based in part on the work of Greg Roelofs. Because Microsoft has included the Greg Roelofs software in this product, Microsoft is required to include the following text that accompanied such software:

Copyright © 1998-1999 Greg Roelofs. All rights reserved.

This software is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In no event shall the author or contributors be held liable for any damages arising in any way from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, disclaimer, and this list of conditions.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, disclaimer, and this list of conditions in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgment:
This product includes software developed by Greg Roelofs and contributors for the book, PNG: The Definitive Guide, published by O'Reilly and Associates.

Portions of this software are based in part on the work of Hewlett-Packard Company. Because Microsoft has included the Hewlett-Packard Company software in this product, Microsoft is required to include the following text that accompanied such software:

Copyright © 1994 Hewlett-Packard Company

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. Hewlett-Packard Company makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

Portions of this software are based in part on the work of the University of Southern California. Because Microsoft has included the University of Southern California software in this product, Microsoft is required to include the following text that accompanied such software:

Copyright © 1996 by the University of Southern California. All rights reserved.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation in source and binary forms for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that both the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies – and that any documentation, advertising materials, and other materials related to such distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed in part by the University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute. The name of the University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Portions of this software are based in part on the work of Luigi Rizzo. Because Microsoft has included the Luigi Rizzo software in this product, Microsoft is required to include the following text that accompanied such software:

© 1997-98 Luigi Rizzo (luigi@iet.unipi.it)

Portions derived from code by Phil Karn (karn@ka9q.ampr.org), Robert Morelos-Zaragoza (robert@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu) and Hari Thirumoorthy (harit@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu), Aug 1995

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Re-distributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Re-distributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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