Device and hardware support has been improved in many ways for the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system, which brings together the respective advantages of the Windows 2000 and Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) product lines for greater system stability and device compatibility. Windows XP includes Plug and Play support for hundreds of devices not covered by Windows 2000, and enhanced support for Universal Serial Bus (USB), IEEE 1394, Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), and other buses. Plug and Play itself has been improved for Windows XP, resulting in streamlined usability and performance, particularly in the device installation process. And while the driver models are largely unchanged from Windows 2000, Windows XP draws from the Windows Me driver models to add Windows Image Acquisition (WIA), a rich interface that facilitates image acquisition from still image devices such as scanners and digital cameras.
This paper highlights some of the major advances in Windows support for common device classes—such as scanners, cameras, audio devices, high-density storage devices and media (DVDs and CDs), and displays—and explains the power management improvements in Windows XP beneficial to both desktop and mobile computer users.
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