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The Easiest Friendliest Windows Ever?

Yes Windows XP has taken great strides. And SP2 is even better. It's not the 'advanced security technologies' Steve Ballmer claims - it's not even entry level security technologies - but it's better.

If only 'better' were 'good enough'. But in the world of Microsoft that's never going to be the case. Smell the roses.

With XP the command prompt is gone - or at least very well hidden. Installation can (for some) go smoothly. Updating from across a network can take only hours, and not days. And everyone runs XP, right? So if you do have computer problems, you can ask your friends, and they might have run into the same thing, and can thereby help you. After all, it's like a language - Microsoft. And everyone, or at least almost everyone, speaks this computer lingua franca - right?

Right. It's all true. But it's only the 'nice' side of the story. Amazing as it sounds for the adept, a great slice of users out there have never heard of the infamous product activation, the pre-empted UCITA logic, the stealth downloads, and the spyware. Just as amazing, for those who have never heard of this, is learning what all these things are, and that they are going on all the time in Windows XP computers.

'Product Activation'

As an XP user, you might not have even run into this blight - it's called 'product activation' or 'Microsoft Product Activation' (MPA), and your dealer might have taken care of the matter for you.

Basically, MPA licenses one copy of XP for one computer: If you want to try and install XP on another machine, it won't work. Oh yes, it will work for a time, but it will run out - and to stop this, you have to contact Microsoft - either on the net or by telephone. And if you are already running a copy of XP somewhere - for example, the copy on the computer you just bought - Microsoft will know it. If they find out you are trying to make an illegal copy of their precious software, they might get very mad - they might resort to 'self-help'.

'Self-Help'

Self-help is a funny name for something rather dangerous. It's mentioned in UCITA - the consumer code for software licensing that's up for ratification in 48 of the 'united' states (it's been ratified by two). Both self-help and UCITA are meeting with considerable resistance - from amongst others, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM); the IEEE; the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF); and just about every ethical legal expert in the world - but that does not mean that Microsoft will wait for UCITA to use self-help. Microsoft was the major force behind the creation of UCITA, and they're itchy to get the show on the road.

What is self-help? Self-help is the use of any means whatsoever to punish the improper use of software, with no regard for damages caused and no legal liability for the perpetrator. Microsoft, as the licensor of your software, may, if they find you are using their software illegally, enable stealth downloads to your computer to disable not only their own software, but your entire system.

They may purposely infect email messages they send you with viruses; they may install trojans on your computer; they may send you Internet worms - they may, with the full protection of the self-help clauses in UCITA, do anything they please, and cause any damage they wish, to not only your computer software, but to the hardware itself. They may even download faulty disk drivers so that your hard drive controller physically breaks - all this and more is their right, according to UCITA.

UCITA does not limit the scope of self-help: In theory (although hardly in practice) the vendor could literally burn down your office building and still not be indemnified. And as one of the two contributors to UCITA (everyone else was against it), Microsoft have already demonstrated that they are not going to wait for UCITA to pass state legislatures to start using it.

Windows XP and other 'XP' products such as Office XP give Microsoft, for the first time, the physical means to implement self-help: Once any XP product is installed, all the software logic Microsoft need on your computer to enact a self-help measure is already there and waiting to be used.

Stealth Downloads

Lots of systems have auto-update features today. Apple have it - go in their system preferences and load the software update module, and the barber pole will spin, and in a few seconds you'll get a list of what is available for your system. The difference is that Apple - and other vendors, with the notable exception of Microsoft - will not attempt to 'automatically' download anything to your computer - and certainly not without your knowing it.

In contrast, Microsoft's 'Windows Update' feature will start by conducting a few choice 'DRM' stealth downloads to your computer, and only then tell you about what you can overtly download. You are given no information about this stealth activity; it commences as soon as you connect to the Windows Update site - and sometimes as soon as you go online.

Spyware

While Microsoft are getting ready to give you a Windows update, things are moving in the other direction as well. Tec Channel recently completed an extensive study of this traffic, and found - not surprisingly - that a lot of information about your computer - including information on non-Microsoft products you are using - is sent encrypted back to Redmond Washington, to be put in the Microsoft databases for future use.

Ignorance Is No Longer Bliss

Not knowing what is going on is dangerous today. There are ways to keep using XP and Microsoft products and ways to use Microsoft 'auto-update' features without serving up your soul on a silver platter to the Beast, but you must be able to see what is happening on your computer and in your own system. After all, it is yours and not Microsoft's, no matter what Microsoft think about that.

A ten-minute run-through of the Radsoft task managers will give you an idea of what's going on; use of Radsoft's X-file Suite will do the same; so will dozens upon dozens of programs in the Extreme Power Tools. Radsoft reveal, Microsoft hide - that's the essential difference.

It Can Be Done

It is possible to run a Microsoft Windows machine with roughly the same sense of control and security as any other system, provided the tools are in place to watch it and safeguard it. And your system is not going to take care of itself, no matter how many new features Microsoft flash before your eyes. As the information above should have shown you, your best interests and Microsoft's are not the same thing.

Above and beyond the direct threats that product activation, self-help, stealth downloads, and spyware represent, there are countless 'holes' in your system where the 'rot and mildew' set in. You need to keep your Registry clean; you need to keep unwanted programs out of your system; you need to be able to see what traffic is passing in and out of your Internet connection; you need to be alerted as soon as any malicious software tries to attack your Registry; you need to be able to see all the files on your system, and not just the ones Microsoft want to show you.

You need to be able to inspect any file, go into any directory, and see exactly what is going on - not adulterated information Microsoft are willing to filter your way, but the real and total uncensored truth. And you need to be able to act on your information, and counteract anything that threatens you.

That's what the XPT is for: Only with the XPT will you be able to breathe easy while still running Microsoft Windows on your computer.

Still don't believe all that's been said about your friend Microsoft? You've got the world wide web at your disposal: Go out to Google and look yourself. Still don't believe Microsoft are hiding things from you? Take the 100-page XPT Tour and see for yourself. Want to find out more about the XPT? Browse the XPT Product Gallery at your leisure.

But don't let Microsoft own you: It's your computer, and it's time you controlled it.

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