In This Chapter

The "Look-and-Feel" Looks and Feels a Bit Different

Newfangled Internet and Networking Doohickeys

New Tricks for Pics

Other New Features to Write Home About

The Least You Need to Know

There was a scant two-year gap between the release of Windows 98 and the release of Windows Millennium Edition, which is a virtual eye-blink in the normally glacial pace of operating system updates. You usually expect to wait three or four years between major versions of Windows. Does this mean, then, that Windows Millennium isn't a major version of Windows? Is this just some kind of upgrade cash grab on Microsoft's part?

The answer to both questions is a definite maybe. Yes, a cursory glance tells you that Windows Millennium looks almost identical to Windows 98 and, yes, most of the Windows programs available in both versions work more or less the same. So is it the same old, same old? Well, not quite. The Jolt-cola-fuelled Microsoft programmers were doing something over those two years. What they were doing was adding some spit and polish: tweaking the interface to make it a bit easier to use; speeding up the startup and shutdown marathons; and adding new programs and features in a few key areas, such as the Internet, networking, and graphics.

No one with a lick of sense will tell you that Windows Millennium is an earth-shattering achievement that will revolutionize computing (Microsoft marketing types excepted, of course). But as you see in this chapter, Windows Millennium does have a fairly long laundry list of new and improved doodads that make it worth checking out.

New to Windows? If you're new not only to Windows Millennium, but to Windows in general, this chapter will likely sound like so much gibberish and jabberwocky. You hereby have my permission to leap right over the entire chapter and land squarely at the beginning of Chapter 2, "The Shallow End of the Pool: Some Windows Basics." That chapter is a much better place to begin your Windows education.

The "Look-and-Feel" Looks and Feels a Bit Different

When you fire up your machine for the first time after Windows Millennium has been foisted upon it, you notice a few differences right off the bat (see Figure 1.1):

• The most obvious change is the desktop, where the old teal motif has been painted over with a rather nice slate blue.

• The desktop's icon collection has changed, as well. There are several brand-new icons (such as My Network Places and Windows Media Player) and old icons such as My Computer and Recycle Bin have a fancier look.

Figure 1.1
First looks: Windows Millennium sports a slightly different desktop.

Other look-and-feel tweaks become evident after you start messing around a bit. For example, on most systems, menus and ToolTips (the little yellow banners that appear when you hover the mouse over icons and toolbar buttons) fade in and out. Here's a list of a few other changes you'll be tripping over:

• Personalized menus — After you've used Windows Millennium for a while (usually a few days), the various Start menus will suddenly shrink to the point where they show only those commands that you've used so far. Chapter 19, "Remodeling the Start Menu and Taskbar," has the details.

• Easier Start menu customizing — Rearranging the Start menu is a great way to improve your productivity. Windows Millennium helps by giving you even more ways to customize the Start menu, most of which are simple check box toggles. Again, I cover this in Chapter 19.

My Computer is your Windows Millennium tool-of-choice for fooling around with files and folders. To help out with those chores, My Computer comes with some useful new features:

• My Computer's toolbars — My Computer gives you a choice of toolbars to display. Also, the main toolbar is now fully customizable. Chapter 20, "Renovating My Computer," has the details.

• My Computer's Explorer bars — My Computer comes with several panels that appear on the left side of the window and give you access to more features. For example, the Folders bar displays a tree-like list of the drives and folders on your computer. Again, head for Chapter 20.

• Easier file searching — One of those Explorer bars is called Search and it offers an easier file and folder searching experience (see Figure 1.2). I show you how it works in Chapter 6, "Using My Computer to Fiddle with Files and Folders."

Figure 1.2
My Computer's new Search bar cuts a couple of steps from the process of finding files.

• Easier file copying and moving — Although you can still use the standard cut-and-paste or drag-and-drop methods to copy and move files, Windows Millennium offers new Copy to Folder and Move to Folder commands that I think are a bit more straightforward for new users. I talk about them in Chapter 6.

• A simpler Control Panel — Control Panel has always intimidated beginners with its horde of who-the-heck-knows-what-they-do icons. To reduce the confusion factor, Windows Millennium presents a kinder, gentler Control Panel that sports a mere seven icons, as shown in Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3
In its default guise, Control Panel presents a simpler set of icons.

Newfangled Internet and Networking Doohickeys

Most of the major improvements in Windows Millennium are associated with those twin towers of connectivity, the Internet and networking. That's not surprising because those two areas are what everyone seems to be talking about these days.

Let's begin with the new Internet features:

• A streamlined Internet Connection Wizard — Windows 98's Internet Connection Wizard was a welcome addition because it took you step-by-step through the often tricky process of connecting your computer to the Internet. But were there ever a lot of steps! The Windows Millennium incarnation of this wizard has a drastically reduced number of dialog boxes to wade through, so getting connected to the Net is easier than ever. I show you how it works in Chapter 7, "Getting Yourself Online."

• Internet Explorer 5.5 — This version of Microsoft's World Wide Web browser is faster and has a lot of little improvements (better searching, easier Favorites, and so on). I take you through all the new features (and plenty of the old ones, too) in Chapter 8, "It's a Small Web After All: Using Internet Explorer" and Chapter 9, "The Savvy Surfer: More Internet Explorer Fun."

• Outlook Express 5.5 — This is Windows Millennium's Internet email program. Among many other improvements, it offers easier methods for handling multiple accounts, blocking and filtering messages, and working with stationery and signatures. It also lets you set up separate "identities" so that people who share the same computer can keep their messages private. See Chapter 10, "Sending and Receiving Email Missives" and Chapter 11, "More Email Bonding: Extending Outlook Express." Outlook Express also handles newsgroups, which I cover in Chapter 12, "Spreadin' the News: Participating In Newsgroup Conversations."

• Easier Internet connection sharing — Windows 98 Second Edition introduced the world to Internet Connection Sharing—the capability to share a single Internet connection among multiple, networked machines. Setting this up is a bit easier in Windows Millennium because the details are handled automatically by the new Home Networking Wizard (discussed in a sec).

• Keeping in touch with the MSN Messenger Service — Instant messaging involves sending a typed message to another person who's online, that person immediately sending a response back to you, and so on. It's the latest Net craze, and it's now part of Windows Millennium thanks to the inclusion of the MSN Messenger program (see Figure 1.4). I show you how it works in Chapter 13, "Real-Time Conversations: Instant Messages, Net Phone Calls, and Chat."

  
  Figure 1.4
  Use the new MSN Messenger program to send instant messages to impatient types the world over.

• "Look ma, no hands!" updates with Automatic Updates — The Windows Update Web site has been around for a while now. It works fairly well as long as you remember to check it for updates! If you always forget, then you'll certainly appreciate the new Automatic Updates feature that checks for new stuff automatically, and can even download updates behind-the-scenes without interfering with your regular online duties. Automatic Updates is part of Chapter 22, "Smooth System Sailing: Wielding the System Tools."

On the networking side of things, Windows Millennium offers new tools that not only make it easier to make a computer network-savvy, but that also make it easier to work with network resources:

• The Home Networking Wizard — For my money, this addition to the wizard family is one of the best new Windows Millennium features. Its claim to digital fame is that it reduces what used to be an arcane and difficult network setup process down to a relatively simple step-by-step procedure. It ensures that all your networked machines can talk to each other, it sets up shared folders and printers (see Figure 1.5), it configures Internet Connection Sharing, and it can even create a version of itself that will install on Windows 95 and Windows 98 machines. I take you through the wizard's dialog boxes in Chapter 24, "Using Windows Millennium to Set Up a Small Network."

  
  Figure 1.5
  The new Home Networking Wizard: a godsend for amateur network administrators.

• My Shared Documents — This is a folder created by the Home Networking Wizard. You use it to store documents that you want to share with other folks on your network. This is handy because it means you don't have to share any of your other folders, which may contain data you don't want your peers to see.

• Network places — These are icons that represent shared resources from other computers on your network. They're handy because they let you access resources without having to wade through endless network folders. They're all stored in the new My Network Places folder, which takes over for the now retired Network Neighborhood. It's all described in not-too-gory detail in Chapter 25, "Using Windows Millennium's Networking Features."

If the right side of your brain is wondering, "Yo, what's in this for me?", tell it to hold its artistic horses because Windows Millennium has a few new graphical goodies it can play with:

• The My Pictures folder — This special, graphics-aware folder not only displays a preview of the currently highlighted image file, but it also festoons the preview with tools for manipulating the image (zooming in and out, rotating, and more). Figure 1.6 shows the folder in action. Chapter 15, "Image Is Everything: Windows Millennium's Graphics Tools," tells you more.

  
  Figure 1.6
  The My Pictures folder has special graphics features built in.

• Easier image thumbnails — If you have some folders that contain tons of images, you probably love My Computer's Thumbnails view. What's that? You've never heard of it? I'm not surprised because Windows 98 hid this oh-so-useful feature in an obscure dialog box. Windows Millennium remedies that by making thumbnails an easily accessible command on My Computer's View menu. You learn about thumbnails in Chapter 15.

• Scanner and digital camera improvements — Windows 98 understood that scanners and digital cameras exist, but support for them was spotty, at best. Windows Millennium improves things somewhat by recognizing more types of scanner hardware, by making scanner installation a bit easier, and by giving you more ways to scan. For example, you can now scan an image directly into the Paint program. I talk about scanners and digital cameras in Chapter 15.

To close out this litany of Windows Millennium's newly-minted features, here are a few more to file under the "Miscellaneous" category:

• System Restore — This feature protects your system by taking periodic "snapshots" of the current system configuration. If you then install some software or hardware that makes your machine go kaput, you can revert to the pre-installation configuration to make everything well again. I discuss this tool briefly in Chapter 22.

• A slicker Media Player — Windows Millennium's Media Player is a big improvement over the one in Windows 98, as you can see in Figure 1.7. It looks a heckuva lot nicer, supports lots more media (including audio CDs and Internet radio), and it enables you to download music and artist information from the Internet. You learn how to work it in Chapter 16, "The Sights and Sounds of Windows Millennium Multimedia."

  
  Figure 1.7
  Windows Millennium's improved Media Player.

• Games galore — With all of Windows Millennium's work-related programs, it can often feel like a relentless taskmaster that requires your nose to be grindstone-bound at all times. That, of course, would be a recipe for acute dullness. To avoid that, the Microsoft programmers stuffed the Millennium box with no less than 11 games. These include the timeless classics Solitaire, Minesweeper, and FreeCell, as well as a Hearts game, another solitaire game, and the remarkably realistic Pinball game. If you're online, there are even some Net-based games—such as backgammon and checkers—that let you play against other Net denizens.

• Backup is out in left field — The Backup program is the same as it was in Windows 98. The difference is that Windows Millennium now hides Backup in a hard-to-find section of the CD. It's dumb, I know. I tell you how to find and install it in Chapter 23, "Getting a Good Night's Sleep: Backing Up Your Precious Data."

• DriveSpace doesn't do hard drives — DriveSpace is the program that more or less doubles a drive's capacity by squeezing files down as far as they'll go. In Windows Millennium, DriveSpace only works its compression magic on removable drives; hard drives are out of the loop.

• MS-DOS mode is toast — Windows 95 and Windows 98 had a version of DOS called MS-DOS mode that you could use to run DOS programs that resolutely refused to run under Windows. Microsoft, eager to leave these recalcitrant programs behind, cut MS-DOS mode from Windows Millennium.

This chapter gave you the lowdown on the new Windows Millennium features that are of interest to non-nerds. I gave you a preview of those features in four categories: the interface, the Internet and networking, graphics, and miscellaneous.

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