Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade with Service Pack 2

Rating:
Summary: Its time to upgrade from older Windows!
Review: I have been running Windows XP since 2001 and to tell you the honest truth it has been stable ever since. With the introduction of SP2 in this minor update of Windows XP, Microsoft has decided to make the product "secure", than it was thought to be in the beginning. But the past few years have been rough on Microsoft, with consistency in attacks on the product with such vulnerabilities as Trojans, buffer overflows, viruses and the most memorable of the all Blaster (August 2003).


Ever since its debut, Windows XP has been causing a lot of headaches and wreaking havoc on corporate networks because of its susceptibility vulnerabilities that were not fixed in its initial release or Service Pack 1. So Microsoft decided to go back to the drawing board and decided to rethink what Windows XP should mean in terms of Security. At first Service Pack 2 was thought out to only be a minor Service Pack update with usual bug fixes, but because of the aforementioned problems Microsoft took new direction and after 1 year of testing we have finally reached a conclusion.

SP2 is really apparent, based on my experience of installing the update, users displayed a welcome screen recommending Automatic Updates be turned on (and I would recommend too), after which the user is presented with the Security Center where you can configure the new and improved Firewall settings, such as which programs can access your PC. You also have the option of configuring your Anti-Virus program, unfortunately I have not been able to do so because my Anti-virus is not supported, although it seems (Norton Anti-virus Corporate Edition 7.6). Security Center is really the big change here and should have been implemented from beginning, but better late than never.

Other great features which I and many users are undoubtedly thankful for include the Pop-Blocker which should have been included in IE 6 from the beginning (better late than never), its not 100 % percent effective but does a decent job so far of blocking most annoying Pop-Ups. I wish the Windows Team allowed users to train it, so if a Pop does succeed, you can tell the pop-up blocker engine that was a pop-up window and you shouldn't let that pass the next time, maybe Microsoft will let it improve over time. Other great improvements to IE in SP2 is the ability approve programs, so drive by downloads have become a thing of the past, anything you decide to download or accidentally clicked on a webpage has to be approved.

Another wish is, better integration of the ActiveX controls with Microsoft's own technologies, I notice that when I had to do a Office Update, the ActiveX API engine on Microsoft's Office website had to be approved before I run the utility that checked for updates for Office products I needed.

Microsoft has also streamlined Windows Update to be more user-friendly, you the user have the option for a Express or Custom install, Express only installs the most critical updates, while Custom allows to install the entire kitchen sink, including stuff some users can do without on Windows, (go with Express). Windows XP SP2 includes minor enhancements such as Windows Media Player 9, but why didn't Microsoft just wait a little longer and included Windows Media Player 10, which is already out? The blue tooth update is also a needed update, it wasn't intuitive right out of the box, but is more user friendly, all this, you can get for free if you are existing XP owner.

Overall, if you haven't upgraded to Windows XP yet from older versions of Windows, this is the time, but if you are an existing Windows XP user, I say skip this and just order the SP2 CD or download it from the Windows XP Website. I highly recommend users running prior versions of XP especially 95, 98, 98 SE, NT 4 and ME, maybe 2000 also move to XP, since Microsoft is planning on porting any of technologies in XP to those older versions of Windows, plus it has some great new features and you will love the Security technologies that provide a better experience for you the user. Most of all, I highly recommend Windows XP users get this update!



Rating:
Summary: The best contemporary operating system for individual users
Review: I've been using XP Home on various machines for three years, simultaneously with Linux, and it's enough time to say that XP has been excellent while Linux was just so-so.

Some of the reasons why I love Windows XP:

1. It is amazingly stable. Do you remember Windows 95/98 that were crashing several times a day? Maybe you still have these old windows and they're making you upset. Crashing no longer occurs with XP. At the beginning, in 2001, the Internet Exporer was rather unstable and it had to close many times a week. Such things simply do not happen to me anymore, as a result of the updates that have been done. I am getting the blue screen roughly once a year, and it is never unexpected because I almost always do something controversial.

2. It is getting very secure. The Service Pack 2 made the XP the safest affordable operating system. You know, operating systems are not created by God, and therefore there can be holes in them. The same is true about Windows. But Microsoft is a very active company and the hotfixes are available very quickly if it is necessary. The number of bugs that have survived is very small.

The Service Pack 2 provides you with a firewall (protection against hackers, so to say), monitoring of antivirus software (if it's out of date, you're alerted) and of patches, new wireless utilities, and many other things.

3. XP is compatible with all previous software I tried - including very old-fashioned games that used to run under MS-DOS. Although XP is based on the technology of Windows NT/2000 Kernel, which was more stable, it became compatible with the systems 95/98/ME for the home users. XP also works with all modern games and other programs, as well as all external devices that I've tried. Although it is very likely that all necessary software will continue to work, you should check whether your key programs have any issues if you upgrade to XP.

4. XP is very configurable. I've changed the icons of everything - every folder and every file type, as well as all the sounds. It is also very user-friendly, and the international support works smoothly.

5. In the case that something goes wrong, it is still very likely that "System Restore" will save you. It's a time machine that can return all system files on your PC to a moment (checkpoint) in the past. It has been useful several times to fix various small problems with the configurations that appeared because of new programs I installed. Also, I like hibernation - you can turn off your computer quickly in such a way that the memory is saved to your hard disk, and you may then continue exactly where you stopped.

All people who are upgrading should try to backup their key data before the upgrade. Problems are very unlikely, but possible.

Rating:
Summary: This is a must-have upgrade! It is way good
Review: If you're reading this. You want to upgrade, your old computer to Windows XP home edition here are a few things to keep in mind.

256 MB of RAM. I have found is adequate more equals better.
500 MHz or higher will do.

If you're running Windows millennium edition, or 98 upgrade now the stability is vastly improved. Gone are the blue screens of death.

Frequently asked question: is Windows XP Pro better than home edition?

Windows XP Pro has a more high-end networking features that most home users will never miss or would even know were missing. So for most users Windows home edition is fine. They both are based on the same code and are almost identical.

If you're thinking of upgrading from Windows 2000, I did, because I like the GUI interface better. But Windows XP is as stable as Windows 2000. So it's your call.

The plug-and-play ability of Windows XP is totally great! Windows XP will by default find most drivers for video card sound cards, network cards, etc. that is such a bonus gone in the days of having to search for CDs with drivers.

That's about all I can think of this is a recommended upgrade for me

Have some fun and get it done

Rating:
Summary: Works OK but product keys are a pain
Review: The product key stuff is really annoying. You cannot boot the same partition image natively and under VMWare. It records this as different hardware when it's the identical physical partition and the same processor.

Requires a lot of care and feeding to make sure that patches are up to date and you need extra virus scanning software to deal with all the software bugs and vulnerabilities. All of these updates tend to fill up your hard disk. You have to know about the other options in cleanmgr to clean up all the system restore checkpoints.

I avoid running XP as much as possible. It's still not as stable as Linux. Even though you might see a lot of Linux patches too, there are many fewer than Windows if you're running your machine as a desktop and not using the Linux server capabilities.

Avoid the home edition of you have multiprocessor machines. It doesn't use them. You have to send more money to get the "Professional" edition for that to work.

The default user interface is the "Pretty" one. You have to dig through the settings to turn off all the pretty stuff to speed up the user interface.

Rating:
Summary: Latest, Greatest, Gotta Have It
Review: Wow, what an improvement over MICROSOFT MILLENIUM EDITION, WINDOWS 2000, and WINDOWS 98. WINDOWS XP, both the home and professional editions, have finally worked out the electronic glitches in Windows 2000 and ME. Both 2000 and ME were stop-gap products rushed to market to cash in on turn of the century fever. Unfortunately, both products had such teething problems that many buyers, including myself, reverted back to tried and true Windows 98. Eventually I reloaded MILLENIUM EDITION, but had to tie up the phone line for almost three hours to download all of the necessary Microsoft patches in order for ME to work properly.

XP is light years ahead of the former Windows applications. It was easy to load, required no tinkering or patches to enable the program to function, and added options, like audio, digital photo, and CD transfer capabilities, that never before existed. The computer loads much faster and is generally much more user friendly. Additionally, XP is better equipped to deal with the Norton family of computer security programs.

There are a few drawbacks, and XP warns you about them as it is loading. Some programs, particularly older programs, must be reloaded. In my case, I had to reload the software for my HP 800 series printer, Epson Scanner, Photo Shop, and Sonic Record Now. Where the original CDs are available, this is not much of an inconvenience. Unfortunately, some of my computer's software was installed at the time I had upgrades, such as a DVD burner, professionally installed, and I did not have the original CD.

So it goes. Microsoft WINDOWS XP (with Service Pack) is the next logical progression in the ever-evolving Windows applications. Save yourself a lot of headaches and invest in an upgrade now.