Rating: 
Summary: The best there is today from MS
Review: I am amazed at some of the recent negative reviews, but you cannot please everyone. Simply put, Windows XP is the BEST operating system to ever come out of WA.To those folks who chose to upgrade to XP from ME, the problems you experienced and the bitterness you feel, is more a result of the fact that you had a virus (ME) on your system. And you can complain that the upgrade from ME to XP isnt fun, because it isnt. ME is a pain. My in-laws bought a new Dell, with ME, and ME actually nuked the hard drive. When the Dell service guy learned he would need to replace the drive, he told them 1-go to XP, ME is a virus, and 2-they got lucky in that its a fresh drive, because ME to XP conversions have HUGE issues.
I just was doing one for a neighbor, and it crapped out midway through, because ME kept fighting the upgrade. Had they not cared about settings and whatnot, I would have taken WipeDrive to the hard disk and started fresh. The only other Windows OS i would run is 2000, but XP is a solid choice and with good reason. to the complaints about some legacy software not supported, or not supported well? Yes, it sucks. But MS needed to move on and up past some previous issues, and to do so in some cases meant needing to cause some compatibility issues. In the long run, it will be a good thing. but in the event of 3rd party compatibilities, it is not MS's fault if a 3rd party vendor cannot meet more stringent requirements for XP certification. Bottom line, if my mother-in-law can navigate XP safely and easily, its as good an OS as there could be for a home user.
Rating: 
Summary: NO BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
Review: Okay, I tried to run Morrowind on this system which is plugged up around the school, and it wouldn't work. Because Morrowind is such a high-end game as far as PC requirements I figured as much, until I noticed they said I needed a Pentium 3 and I had a Pentium 4. Anyway, Morrowind wouldn't run properly, even though it was advertised to work up to Windows XP. It at least worked, but it was extremely slow and had a problem since it was mouse based. In short, every time I used a menu, it took 15-20 minutes to select something as the mouse jammed and then skipped. The same was true for my DVD, and the DVD itself would jam in the middle of playing, whereas at home on my Windows 98 computer, all games and programs ran smoothly. This is only the first problem.
2)Bad graphical processing
Like I said, the DVDs often don't even work, or they lag in playback. Also, games don't even work that well
3)Poor DOS handling
I tried to install this game called Daggerfall on my dorm computer, and the installation used DOS. The computer was Windows 2000 with XP "enhancements." It blacked out and froze before it started. I tried XP computers, and they were just as bad. Then I tried a Windows 98, and within 15 minutes, the huge sized installation was mostly done.
True, there are a few things good about this:
1-> Faster download (maybe)
2-> Built-in programs (including one that unzips files)
However, number 2 leads to problem 4.
4) Limited programs
That unzip program may only do one unzip at a time, whereas winzip can at least try to do more. This program on the other hand, opens a separate window, insuring the futility of this endeavor.
3-> Faster 2-D/ small-scale graphic programming
If you want to play emulated games, sure go ahead, it will have no problems with it, but this too is a problem, as it speeds through stuff much faster than its normal rate was supposed to be. Anything computer rendered however, will likely lag on you. In conclusion, Windows XP is more of a virus than an OS, so one would be wise to avoid it.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't like it
Review: 1st, unlike other reviewers I do not like the "look" of windows xp at all. It looks like someone turned up the saturation of a bad cartoon. The startmenu pulls up a complicated box instead of the simple list of all the older windows. I liked the list of the older windows. 2nd Constantly asking me for microsoft passport passwords. It makes you miss constantly blue screening in previous windows. 3rd Pop up "reminders" are annoying 4th various microsoft control measures that many writers have already talked about at length. Why should I call microsoft to ask permission to activate their software? 5th less keyboard shortcut ability -- minor complaint. I used this operating system on school and work computers to the extent that I know that I don't want it. Wind 2000 is just fine if you want a modern win os. W 95, & w 98 are much more flexible if you like dos games. W 98 is getting awful hard to find, though. I don't know anything about how it compares with Win Me. If choosing between w 2000 and XP, I would pick w 2000. 2000 was a very stable OS and layed out fine. To say something good, I do like the "biggerness" of the icons, etc. I like seeing things better.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T BE SPOOKED......
Review: ......by some of the scary reviews here. I just did an effortless upgrade of a Compaq 800mhz Celeron Presario which had been running ME. Needless to say, XP is a MUCH MORE STABLE operating system. I did choose to do a "New Installation" after installing the upgrade CD; essentially it wipes your hard drive clean. The upgrade provided necessary drivers for my modem, and I therefore had no trouble getting into the Net, where I FIRST downloaded Norton AntiVirus 2004. Then I went to the Microsoft site to download a LARGE package of XP security updates. I then added in my software, which I had already checked for compatibility by downloading the Microsoft XP Upgrade Advisor several days before my XP installation.( You also can check compatibility with the XP upgrade CD, but I wanted to know ahead of time which software I'd need to replace) XP ran quite well on the 128mb which were originally on my machine, but I chose to add another 128mb after looking at my system information. Don't hesitate. For less than $100, XP upgrade is a GREAT bargain. It's certainly much cheaper than buying a new machine!!
Rating:
Summary: Should have upgraded a long time ago!
Review: Wow! Those are the only words I can use to describe my new Windows XP Home Upgrade. My computer is about 2.5 years old and originally came installed with Windows ME. It was always locking up and becoming unstable and I would have to reboot it quite often. I actually reinstalled ME twice and when it was a fresh install it worked pretty well. I read all the reviews about how great XP was etc so I decided to give it a try. Since installing it my system works so much better. It's almost like I have a new computer. I've had very little problems with programs becoming unstable and locked up and the very few that I've had I just close them down and they don't affect the rest of the computer system. Installation was easy. It took about 2 hours for my computer to install this program. I had to go to HP's web site to get a couple of drivers for an old HP scanner that I had but that was no problem. Overall I wish I would have gotten this upgrade a long time ago. Definitly worth the price of the upgrade!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice improvement, but....
Review: When I installed my Windows XP OS, it was pretty flawless until... my sound card (C-Media) didn't work at first. There were drivers available for it, and it worked well. My motherboard wasn't all that flawless, until I found the drivers on the manufacturer's website. The thing is my machine was built with Windows ME-2000 on my mind, so XP had its share of problems. On behalf of XP, I have to say my printer worked fine from minute 1, and the overall stability of the system is improved. Too bad the Blaster virus was invented, you need to download the vaccine asap. RedHat Linux is a better choice in my opinion, but I can't listen to baseball games since there's no good Real Player available for it, and I couldn't make my Alcatel DSL Modem to work in it. If you're an average user, XP is recommendable but be aware you might find several problems, even more if you're trying to run older software or using older hardware. The best solution is buy a new one and pop it into it. And please, if you're going to upgrade, REFORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE AND CONVERT IT INTO NTFS!
Rating:
Summary: Crashed much less than Win98, but not worth the $
Review: In Windows 98, 2000, and XP, I get the BSOD daily, but I think there's a problem with my AMD Athlon XP (CPU). I've never had compatability issues. As far as stability goes, it's much stabler. The price of $269 is unbelievable. Gates is already an incredibly rich man, so cutting the price in half would be a reasonable decision. If you're interested in servers, Unix/Linux/BSD would be a better decision because it's open source, more stable (it's been stable almost forever, unlike Windows XP that finally became stable after 10 years of development), better security (it doesn't connect to various servers for no aparent reason), it's free (public domain, so you save $269), and has (IMO) better technical support. People around the world can help you out for free via the Internet. But of course, if you want to play cool PC games, you have to have Windows. Shame shame.
Rating:
Summary: Don't you just hate mediocre, corporate mush?
Review: Kind of like driving a Ford Fairmont. It'll get you there, but that's about it, with a very good chance of crapping out on the side of the road. Plus, you get to proclaim that you've got the taste of a herd animal. Fun!
Rating:
Summary: Modern Windows!
Review: Microsoft Corporation has been on the top of the software/os world for a decade now. Their true reign started in 1993 with the debut of Windows 95, and ever since there's been no stopping to their innovations. Windows Xp (Professional) is the cream of the Microsoft products. It is more stable than ever. It runs faster on compatible machines, and it has a rather easy installation. I agree that an up to date hardware is a requirement for WinXp, but that's a small price to pay for convenince. Whatever the user wants to do from searching through files, listening to music, or surfing internet is made easy with MSWINXp. The recent study shows that 92% of desktop users currently take advantage of Windows. 68% of servers also use Microsoft OS. I notice that some of my colleagues recommend Mac Os for Desktops, but that is unacceptable. Mac os is not compatible with Intel Pcs and only 1% of people use it as their primary OS. I recommend this Windows to anyone with a compatible Pc that is a pentium 3 700mgz or higher and 256 Mb Ram. Join Microsoft fans and enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Not a fan of XP
Review: I was an expert on the 97 Windows system and for the time I gave that system a 4 out of 5 stars. It had some glitches but for the most part it allowed me to do what I had to do. Once I stepped up to XP I liked some of the new features, and definitely liked the new look. However, I find that a lot of things have been made more difficult and the simpler ideas from 97 have been made more complex. Hey, my job is hard enough as it is, the last thing I need is difficulties from my Operating System. I do like a lot of the updates to Outlook, and I feel they need to improve on their updates to Excel.
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