Features New To Windows XP - Other Features

Other Features

  • Internet Information Services 5.1
  • COM+ 1.5
  • Speech Application Programming Interface 5.1
  • SAPI 5 support in Microsoft Narrator
  • Paint is based on GDI+ and therefore, images can be natively saved as JPEG, GIF, TIFF and PNG without requiring additional graphics filters (in addition to BMP). However, alpha channel transparency is still not supported because the GDI+ version of Paint can only handle up to 24-bit depth images. Support for acquiring images from a scanner or a digital camera was also added to Paint.
  • WordPad has full Unicode support in Windows XP, enabling WordPad to support multiple languages. Windows XP SP1 ships with the RichEdit 4.1 control.
  • General improvements to international support such as more locales, languages and scripts in Uniscribe, expanded MUI support, improved IMEs and National Language Support
  • Regional and Language Options group East Asian languages, and complex script & left-to-right languages together, installable by checking a single check-box option. There is font fallback support for East Asian languages.
  • Windows XP introduces a new "Location" variable which can be set by the user and queried using the GetGeoInfo API to provide location specific services
  • Full Unicode support in the RichEdit control shipped in Windows XP and used by WordPad.
  • Support for tablet and pen-sensitive screens, portrait-oriented screens in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. It also includes speech recognition to control the operating system and for text dictation in applications using the RichEdit control or the Text Services Framework, handwriting recognition and digital ink support accessible through the Tablet PC Input Panel (TIP). Also included are applications to complement these features such as Windows Journal, Sticky Notes for note taking, a game called InkBall and several additional downloadable Tablet PC applications, extras and powertoys.
  • Microsoft Active Accessibility 2.0 API, adding support for Dynamic Annotation and MSAA Text. The newer accessibility API, Microsoft UI Automation can also be installed on Windows XP.
  • Windows XP supports a total of 1 million card deals in its version of FreeCell. Pinball has been updated to fix a high CPU utilization bug.
  • Help and Support Center is very comprehensive with detailed step-by-step how-to and troubleshooting articles, glossary of terms and an index of all articles. Help and Support Center has Favorites, History and advanced search options. It includes the ability to search across multiple information sources including help sources on the Internet such as the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Users can share and install help content to and from other computers running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 or switch to help for other supported operating system. Help and Support Center is also OEM-customizable.
  • New set of PowerToys to significantly enhance the operating system functions such as Alt-tab switching, fast user switching, slideshow generation, desktop slideshow, ClearType optimization, shell powertoys and accessories and customizing operating system settings.
  • Ability to change the product key using the Windows Product Activation wizard.

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