[201] in sw-release-announce
IS announces support for Windows XP Professional
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan McIndoe Hunt)
Thu Aug 29 15:43:55 2002
Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.2.20020829112158.13053988@hesiod>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 15:44:06 -0400
To: itpartners@MIT.EDU, winpartners@MIT.EDU, sw-release-announce@MIT.EDU
From: Jonathan McIndoe Hunt <jmhunt@MIT.EDU>
Cc: itag@MIT.EDU, infosys@MIT.EDU
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
From: Jonathan McIndoe Hunt <jmhunt@mit.edu>
To: Members of the MIT Community: itpartners@mit.edu, winpartners@mit.edu,
sw-release-announce@mit.edu
Cc: itag@mit.edu, infosys@mit.edu
Subject: IS announces support for Windows XP Professional
Date: Thursday, 29 August 2002
--
Good Afternoon,
Information Systems is glad to announce the first phase of support for
Windows XP Professional. The first phase includes support on new
installations of the operating system, with the standard functionality
including email, printing, MS Office, backup, anti-virus and web
browsing. This phase does not include support for Enterprise applications
such as SAPgui, Roles, Adonnis, COEUS, etc. We are working with the
Enterprise application providers to have support for these applications
ready in phase two by early November. In phase two support we also plan to
support Windows XP upgrades from previous operating systems.
Over the past few months, the Windows XP Release team has been testing and
documenting Windows XP at MIT. Our testing has turned up a few minor
problems, some of which are noted in the Known Issues section of this
announcement. The summary of our testing is available from the Windows XP
at MIT page linked below.
We strongly recommend Windows XP Professional versus Home Edition because
Home Edition lacks several features commonly used at MIT. Information
System will only provide best effort support for Windows XP Home Edition.
Who should upgrade and Why
-------------------------------------------------
At this time we do not recommend that anyone upgrades to Windows XP
Professional. The first phase of support is geared toward those receiving
Windows XP on new machines and those that choose to do a clean installation
of Windows XP Professional on existing hardware.
We strongly discourage people from installing Windows XP on machines that
do not meet the MIT minimum system recommendations. Our testing has shown
that performance on machines below the minimum requirements is painfully slow.
We also do not recommend installing Windows XP on machines that have less
than one year of useful life left. Reinstalling the operating system
requires a considerable investment of time that does not need to be
spent. Instead we suggest waiting to replace the machine when it is
scheduled to be retired with a new computer running Windows XP Professional.
We also do not recommend Windows XP Professional for anyone that relies on
Enterprise Wide Applications to do their job as they have not been fully
tested and in many cases the current versions are not supported by the
vendor on Windows XP. For a list of Enterprise Wide Applications see the
Windows XP Test Matrix linked from the Known Issues and Cautions section below.
Notable Features
---------------------------
- Improved stability
- New Graphical User Interface (GUI)
- Context specific menus and tools (e.g., photo manipulation software in
Windows Explorer)
- built in ZIP file extraction
- Integrated CD burning capability
- Remote Assistance (not supported by IS at this time)
- Remote Desktop (not supported by IS at this time)
Known Issues and Cautions
-------------------------------------------
- TSM 4.1.3 errors on exit and will not restore to original location
- Not supported for use with Enterprise Applications
- Adobe Acrobat must be upgraded to version 5.0.5
- Additional permissions needed to be assigned to limited users for some
applications
For more information on these and other known issues and stock answers to
common problems, see the Windows XP at MIT page linked below. A list of
our test results is available at
http://web.mit.edu/swrt/winxp/test-matrix.html.
How to obtain Windows XP Professional
---------------------------------------------------------------
Information Systems has purchased a quantity of Windows XP Professional
licenses for the MIT Community. We request that you only use these
licenses for machines that will have at least one year of use at MIT so
that the licenses can serve the greatest good for the Institute.
To request a license, follow the MIT/Windows XP Professional Registration
link from the "How to obtain" section of the Windows XP at MIT page linked
below.
Where to get Help for Windows XP Professional
------------------------------------------------------------------
Support for Windows XP Professional is available from the Computing Helpdesk at
email: pc-help@mit.edu
phone: x3-1102
web: http://web.mit.edu/helpdesk/
or from the Residential Computing Consultants (RCC) for students living in
dormitories at
http://rcc.mit.edu/.
The Windows XP at MIT page has documentation including network setup,
printing configuration, requesting a license, security lock down
instructions and stock answers available at:
http://web.mit.edu/is/help/winxp/
Thanks,
Jonathan
Windows XP Release Team Project Leader
___________________________________________
Jonathan M. Hunt
Windows Platform Coordinator and Team Leader
Software Release Team
Information Systems
W92-191 x3-0172
DISCLAIMER:
------------
The Software Release Team does not distribute software releases, updates or
patches through e-mail. Please DISREGARD ANY MESSAGES WITH ATTACHMENTS SENT
BY THIS TEAM. Most likely, they are forged and will contain viruses and/or
unsolicited and potentially offensive content.
