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Summary: do you do windows?
Review: When I bought a new computer last year it came with Windows ME. I had nothing but problems with it (which I blamed on the computer). After a year of fighting with low resources, blue screens etc... I bought Windows XP. The install was very smooth, and the system immediately seemed to run nearly flawlessly! It had all of the drivers that my system needed to run, so I didn't even have to use my "recovery disk"! I was VERY impressed! The WORST thing was that I discovered that some of my software AND hardware simply won't work with XP (no drivers made). BIG BUMMER! I use Netmeeting A LOT and I had to upgrade that to the XP version.. which is fine EXCEPT that the person that I video conference with would then also have to have the XP version in order for us to video conference! BAD! Microsoft seems to have us painted into a corner. soooo... I ended up setting my computer up with both operating systems so that I can change between the two. I like XP enough, and dislike ME enough to switch between the two in order to be able to use my stuff. Well.. what other choice do I have?!
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Summary: BEST WINDOWS YET
Review: I've been using XP since it came out. It is simply the best. My system "Never" crashes anymore. It always messed up with Windows 98 2nd edition. I reccommend "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade" to everyone. And it's very easy to use.
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Summary: Warning this OS is totally unreliable
Review: Save yourself the headache and avoid windows XP. It lacks anything that approaches consistency. Sometimes your peripherals will work but generally they will not and if they do it will only be after fork out more money to get a program that might operate on XP. Just because you got it working this morning does not mean that it will function an hour later. THIS OPERATING SYSTEM IS SIMPLY NOT READY FOR RELEASE. Microsoft is more concerned about its image that its ability. If they had put as much into fixing their errors as they put into graphics and marketing this would be a much better product, one that might be worth buying.
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Summary: get XP Pro instead
Review: WinXP Home Edition is fine operating system, but bit too simplified and crippled for my taste compared to Win2k & XP Pro.If you plan to use your PC on the network or need networking capabilities beyond basics or if you want to backup your files with built-in backup, or need some security & and user rights fine tuning to name just a few things, you will miss these features in XP HomeEdition... I got this version as a free upgrade from Dell for my laptop, have both Win2k and XP Pro on my desktops, and compared with these OS's HomeEdition lacks a lot. I'm myself going to replace this version with either XP-Pro (love the ClearType), or may install new SuSE 8.0 Pro to dual-boot with XP HomeEd, to compensate for missing HomeEd features... Still, if you have any version of Win 9x/ME now, XP Home will most likely please you. If you're used to full featured NT system, stay away.
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Summary: upgrades
Review: I've already installed windows xp pro. at my pc and i just want to upgrade it if possible.
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Summary: Windows XP is a Solid Home-Run
Review: Microsoft has hit a home-run with this operating system. I have installed it on 7 different systems--HP, Dell, and custom-built units--ranging from a 5-year old Pentium II 266MHz with 224 MB RAM to P4 1.6 GHz with 512MB RAM. I have four more lined up for installation. All the XP systems are stable and vastly improved over NT, '98 or ME. The users are unanimously happy. And, no, I don't work for Microsoft! Several things should be done before you decide to upgrade to Windows XP. 1. Run the diagnostic that you can download from Microsoft (it is also on the XP CD) and determine which of your hardware and software might not be compatible. Make sure that you have at least a Pentium II 233MHz with 256MB RAM. You can get by with 192MB, but I would not go lower. RAM is cheap... 2. Go to the websites of the manufacturers of your peripherals and see whether they have new Windows XP drivers, or whether XP contains native driver support. Download the new ones if they have them and put them on a CD-RW for later use. Check the websites of your favorite software and see whether it is compatible or whether there are XP-related patches. 3. Back up your data. If you use Outlook Express for e-mail, save your entire Outlook Express directory. Export your address book to a CSV text file. Export your Favorites from Internet Explorer. Save all your directories with your own data files. Use a CD-RW to do this if you have one. The export functions are under File/Export in most applications. 4. Always do a clean install so you can completely get rid of all the corruption in your current setup. This means booting from the Windows XP CDROM. To do that you will probably have to enter the BIOS/Setup and change your boot sequence to put the CD-ROM drive first. 5. Once you have booted to the XP CD-ROM, follow the instructions to delete your existing partition(s), create a new partition, and install XP on the new NTFS partition. I recommend a single NTFS partition for the entire hard drive. 5. When installation is complete, go to Start/Windows Update, and go online and get the latest Windows XP updates, including all current security patches for Internet Explorer. 6. If your motherboard has on-board sound chips, XP might not support the sound. You might have to disable the on-board sound (in the BIOS) and install a sound card. You can probably use an ISA or PCI SoundBlaster card from an old computer if your have one. Otherwise, you can buy a SoundBlaster Live Value PCI (OEM) card on-line at several places ... 7. Once you have completed the XP installation, using that CD-RW you created in step 2, just use the import functions in Outlook Express (Import Other Address Book, and Import Messages from an Outlook Express Store) and Internet Explorer to import them into the new setup. The Import wizards are in each application at File/Import. Use the Help button if you have questions... Update: July 5, 2002
I have done several more installations since my original review, and my overall evaluation has not changed. This is a terrific operating system. Virtually all the problems that I read about here are because people did not do their preliminary steps and prepare for the upgrade. Here are a few more guidelines that will help with your installation: 1. If you have a laptop that will connect to a corporate LAN, don't use XP Home Edition, use XP Professional. 2. If you have a home Peer-to-Peer network with extensive file security/privacy requirements, use XP Professional. 3. ALWAYS check the website of your PC manufacturer or motherboard manufacturer, as appicable, to see if there is an updated BIOS available BEFORE you install XP. If there is one, carefully follow the instructions to flash/update your BIOS. Then, go to step 1 in my original review and follow those steps.
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Summary: Windows XP too "mac-like"
Review: XP overall the most stable of the "home-type" windows operating systems. It is based more on the "NT" architecture than win9X. My biggest gripe is that a lot of games will not play on it that would play on 95/98/ME. Also if you are an advanced user, many of the "user friendly enhancements" seem awkward, and frustrating. It takes a good hour or so to go through and make the GUI act like NT or Win2000, and not ask you "are you sure you want to do this?" 1,000,000 times. If you are a regular everyday user, you will probably like it, but if you are more advanced and know your way around Windows you may find XP annoying.
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Summary: Its Great
Review: This is by far the best Windows ever! but it dosent have Micrsoft Office so you will have to buy it extra and it takes for ever to install but other than that it is the best thing my computer has ever seen.
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Summary: Finally -- Windows Works
Review: I bought Windows XP because my computer was constantly freezing up with Windows ME when I went on the internet. I was told this would solve my problem and so far (for a week) it has been a welcome delight! I did have problems installing but worked through it and it finally installed -- but that is another story.
I would highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Upgrading to XP is a bad idea for Win98 users
Review: If you have a Windows 98 machine and it is running fine it is best to leave it alone. After upgrading to XP MANY of my programs no longer ran and required expensive upgrades to make them compatible with XP. I spent a few hundred dollars in upgrades with very little (if any) performance gain. In addition, my Intel print servers, which I purchased less than a year ago, do not and will never support XP. (FYI- do not buy Intel products if you require long term support.) So I need to purchase new print servers. After the upgrade I was rewarded with more blue screens (fatal errors) then I have ever seen with all of the previous versions of Windows combined. And this is for a standard off the rack HP machine. I can't imagine what happens to a custom built box. If you want to try the upgrade, good luck. Be prepared to send several hours getting your machine to run properly.
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