Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
Part 7: Other Technologies
Microsoft Corporation
Published: September 15, 2004
Authors: Starr Andersen, Technical Writer; Vincent Abella, Technical Editor
This document is Part 7 of “Changes to Functionality in Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2” and provides detailed information about other features of Windows XP that have been updated in Windows XP Service Pack 2. You can obtain the other parts of the paper in the Microsoft Download Center, at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=28022.
This document applies to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 32-bit versions of Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition. It does not describe all of the changes that are included in the service pack, but instead highlights those changes that will have the most impact on your use of Windows XP SP2 and provides references to additional information that may be available.
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 Part 7: Other Technologies 5
NetSchedule and Task Scheduler APIs
What do the NetSchedule and the Task Scheduler APIs do?
Who does this feature apply to?
What existing functionality is changing in Windows XP Service Pack 2?
Tightening RPC security in the Scheduler service
Tablet PC Enhancements
What do the Tablet PC Enhancements do?
What new functionality is added to this feature in Windows XP Service Pack 2?
In-Place Tablet PC Input Panel
Context for Handwriting Recognition
Latin alphabet based recognizers: Improved Recognition Rate
Latin alphabet based recognizers: Improved Recognition for Single Characters
Latin alphabet based recognizers: Language Lexicon Improvements
Latin alphabet based recognizers: Improved Recognition of Delayed Strokes
French recognizer: Better Recognition of Characters with Diacritics and Ligatures
French recognizer: Conforms to French Spelling Reform
German recognizer: Better Recognition of Umlaut characters and “ß” Character
German recognizer: Improved Recognition Rate for Compound Nouns
German recognizer: More Post-reform Spellings Added
Lined and Free Mode Support for All East Asian Languages
Cursive support available for all East Asian Languages
Recognition improvements for small and large Katakana and Hiragana characters
Added characters frequently used in Japanese names
Recognition improvements for data elements
Microsoft Data Access Components
What do the Microsoft Data Access Components do?
What existing functionality is changing?
Controlling block storage devices on USB buses
What does controlling block storage devices on USB buses do?
What settings are added or changed in Windows XP Service Pack 2
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
What does Distributed Transaction Coordinator do?
Securing all network communication by default
What settings are added or changed in Windows XP Service Pack 2?
Internet Information Services
What does Internet Information Services do?
Internet Information Services Configuration Options
The NetSchedule API is a legacy scheduling API that uses the remote procedure call (RPC) protocol to communicate with the Scheduler service, either locally on the same computer or remotely on another computer, to allow registration of an action to be activated on a schedule.
The Task Scheduler API is a newer and enhanced scheduling API that provides programmatic control for the Task Scheduler service provided with the Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 family, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 operating systems. It provides the same functionality as the NetSchedule API, but with greater programming flexibility. It also uses RPC to communicate with the Scheduler service.
· Users of computers that are members of a domain
· IT professionals who need to schedule events on client computers
· System administrators
· Developers of applications or components that use the NetSchedule or Task Scheduler APIs
Detailed description
In Windows XP Service Pack 2, security on the RPC interface provided by the Schedule service has been tightened to require authenticated connections. The RPC server startup code in the service is now specifying RPC_IF_ALLOW_SECURE_ONLY in the RpcServerRegisterIfEx() call. RPC_IF_ALLOW_SECURE_ONLY requires that the caller be authenticated or RPC_S_ACCESS_DENIED will be returned. Security checks are being done by the Scheduler service based upon the impersonated token of the RPC call. The binding to the server will succeed even if the client is not authenticated, but the call to the server will result in access denied from RPC before the call ever makes it to the Schedule service.
Why is this change important?
The change will help increase security on computers by allowing only authenticated clients to call into the Scheduler service.
What threats does it mitigate?
This change reduces threats based on elevation of privilege attacks by denying non-authenticated calls.
What works differently or stops working?
· Users of client computers that are running previous versions of Windows will be unable to use AT.exe or other clients that use the NetSchedule API to schedule tasks remotely on a computer that is running Windows XPSP2 or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1. The NetSchedule API in the previous versions of Windows does not set authentication information during the RPC binding process.
· Users running client applications that use the NetSchedule or Task Scheduler APIs in an unauthenticated context will be unable to schedule tasks on a computer that is running Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1.
How do I fix these issues?
· To enable computers running Windows 2000 operating systems to use the NetSchedule API to schedule tasks on a computer running Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server SP1, you must upgrade the computer to the latest service pack of Windows 2000, which contains an updated version of Netapi32.dll that sets the authentication information on the RPC binding. A hotfix will be prepared for users who cannot upgrade to the latest service pack.
· Do not run NetSchedule or Task Scheduler API clients in unauthenticated contexts.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 includes a number of enhancements for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Key improvements include the following:
· A new design for Tablet PC Input Panel, which opens and floats near where you are entering text.
· A redesigned Input Panel correction experience.
· Context-sensitive handwriting recognition (such as URL and e-mail addresses).
· Improved handwriting recognition engines for all languages – most notably the East Asian languages.
· A new lined input experience in the East Asian Input Panel.
· Users of Tablet PCs
· IT Professional who support users of Tablet PCs
The In-Place Tablet Input Panel (IPTIP) is a dynamic and customizable in-place pen input system for the Tablet PC, dedicated to the specific task of text entry and correction. It is a new addition to the Tablet PC Version 2 (V2) feature set.
The IPTIP addresses many of the known issues with the Version 1 System TIP (currently maintained as the Classic TIP) including discoverability, low perceived throughput, and excessive cognitive overload of working with a separate user-maintained window. The overall goal of IPTIP is to provide easy access to text input for pen when and where needed by the end user, without (or only minimally) obscuring other elements of the shell and application user interface.
IPTIP works by monitoring system caret events to determine that text entry is needed, and where text entry is expected, the IPTIP displays its user interface either near the location of the system caret or text — accepting control with focus. This interface is available whenever a pen-up event results in the appearance or location change of the caret.
The IPTIP user interface also has the ability to grow to accommodate extra handwriting when the user is running out of space, as long as space is available on the screen.
Finally, the IPTIP is simple to dismiss with an easy and explicit user interface for closing, as well as intelligent heuristics that auto-dismissal or collapse it when it has not been used after invoking.
Why is this change important? What threats does it mitigate?
The IPTIP is not a security related change.
This change is important because it responds directly to customer difficulties reported while using the Tablet PC version 1 TIP. Collectively, these issues impair the experience of entering text with the pen to the degree that most users avoid this task altogether.
What works differently or stops working? Are there any dependencies?
All Tablet PC version 1 TIP functionality (also known as the Classic TIP) has been maintained. However, the Pen Input Panel (PIP) which shipped as part of the Software Development Kit (SDK) 1.5, has been deprecated in favor of the IPTIP. All applications which previously implemented the PIP will continue to work after an upgrade to Tablet PC V2 and Windows XP Service Pack 2.
The IPTIP is dependent on Soft Keyboard Controls and the Text and Ink Input Services. It also has a software dependency on the Tablet Reco engines.
In Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, version 1.0, the handwriting recognition engine treated all user input as natural text. This resulted in poor recognition accuracy with controls that accept non-natural user input such as numbers, e-mail addresses and URLs. In Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft has introduced a new feature called Context, which allows developers to specify the type of user input that is expected for a particular control. The handwriting engine leverages this extra information to provide dramatically improved recognition accuracy.
User input into forms and application controls is an important scenario for handwriting recognition. This change will significantly improve recognition accuracy for applications that support context.
Application developers must enable context support, either programmatically or through a side-by-side context tagging file. Information about both approaches is contained in the Microsoft Tablet PC SDK. For applications that do not enable context support the user experience will be unchanged.
Developers should consult the Microsoft Tablet PC SDK for information on enabling context support. The Tablet PC SDK can be downloaded from the Microsoft Web site at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=28353.
Handwriting recognition has improved for short prose, making it faster and easier to reply to or compose e-mail messages, annotate documents, or write notes.
Special heuristics were implemented to guide the recognition of ambiguous character shapes. For example, a round shape is recognized as the letter "O" rather than the digit "0," depending on the width of the character.
Improved overall text input and correction experience for the user.
Improved recognition of single characters benefits the user when correcting individual characters. For example, distinctions between lowercase and uppercase characters results in a higher accuracy rate, including pairs of characters with similar shapes in lowercase and uppercase, such as sS and wW.
The recognition rate improved for 94 out of 98 U.S. English characters, including punctuation, such as the comma and the exclamation mark, and special symbols, such as the at symbol (@) or the backslash (\).
Improved text input and correction experience for the user.
Common abbreviations, colloquialisms, neologisms, greetings, IT, and technical terms were added to the lexicon.
Rare words that the recognizer may confuse with more common words have been removed. For example:...
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