Rating: 
Summary: Eric Lahti
Review: Microsoft is an interesting company that has pretty much given us what we wanted all along. We wanted a GUI, we got it (after Mac, granted, but still there). We wanted pretty pictures, we got 'em with Win95. Strangely enough, we never really requested stability in our home and work OSs, for that we turned to *nix variants. After the recent blasts at MS for stability, the company has once again given us what we wanted in Windows XP. I've been using the various pre release versions for about six months now and have even found B2 to be more stable than any previous release. Faster, too. Win2k drivers work fine and Win9x apps have given me nary a hiccup. The only thing I don't like about WinXP is it may be too easy to use and some of the flexibility has been dropped out (or at least, hidden from me). NTFS permissions have been moved, share permissions have been moved and I'm still not quite certain where they put them. I still think it's the best thing they've put out to date and find it to be a great OS, on par with other OSs I've used (and I think I've used all of them).Eric Lahti
MCT, MCSE+I, MCDBA, A+, Net+
Rating: 
Summary: WIN XP Pro Preview
Review: To make a long story short. If this program - in its final form is as bad as the preview I think I will stick to my WIN 2000. While the ease of installation was a very easy from there on it was down hill for me. The program is presented with a very unfamiliar menu to follow and with grafics that I might expect to find on the Disney Channel or for kiddy play time proagrams. My copy dosn't seem to hold it's Network settings from each shutdown to startup. All setting have to be reset on each start up. Many companies have not upgraded their code to the XP profile thus necessitation the purchase of new programs or upgrades at an additional cost. At least in the preview program tech help is amost non existant and I understand that MS will only allow limited calls without a significant charge. The cost of the program for use on one computer is high enough but if you have more tan one computer for this program be prepared to pay a hefty license fee. MS has also fixed it so that the program can't be run on additional computers without a license. So if you have a desktop and laptop be prepared to pay double for the program. Don't forget the maintenance from MS tech at around fifty bucks a call or higher.
Rating: 
Summary: The stablest, securest, compatible Windows OS yet!
Review: Imagine a world where workstations don't crash. A world where installing software is as simple as pushing a button. Adding a peripheral is as difficult as finding a free port. Where an essential upgrade to the OS itself is broadcast to you, and walks you through the upgrade. Where editing, watching and listening to movies and music is intuitive and simple. WHere scanning a picture takes a single click. Where cutting a CDR is as simple as drag and drop. The world exists. It is XP. Windows XP. I have been testing it for months, and am incredibly impressed with Microsoft's attention to detail. The interface is simple t o use (ask my mother!) and the power behind it is immense. I have been with MS since DOS 3.3 and Windows 286, and I think this time they might just have got a .0 release down the first time. It wont change your life, but it will certainly make it alot easier.
Rating:
Summary: Huge facelift for a very stable (Windows 2000) foundation...
Review: I have been fortunate enough to be a beta tester for this product, though I did not initially install the beta on my drive, after hearing about the "activation" clause. I won't get into that 'feature,' since it's the most talked about... I have been a user of DOS, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, 98, and Me. My favorite OS, however, has been Windows 2000 Professional. After severe crashes, and abysmal memory management in 98 and Me, Win2000 provided a staple platform, which ran my most used applications (Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Office 2000, Flash 5) without a problem. It could be said that XP is the culmination of the best of WinMe and Win2000. Now, I had never been a fan of the 'appearance' of Windows, (Mac OS 9 - and 10- had the trophy for the most attractive GUI) but the look had grown a bit stale'until Windows XP. On installation, you notice that the beginning has a look of WinMe ' with it's installation wizard ' but the second part of the installation looks like Windows 2000 ' with it's DOS look. That is the end of the physical similarities. During the installation, it picked up all of my components with no problem, and had all of the drivers needed, including my Network card, and monitor. At first boot-up (which is about half the Windows 2000 wait on my Athlon 1.2Ghz), you notice an attractive boot splash screen, which then brings you to the first major feature: Customized Desktops ' allows multiple 'profiles' to be set up (husband, wife, and kids for example) which retain settings for icon placement, wallpaper, icons shown, and more. This is great if one of you likes a cluttered (i.e. save everything to desktop J) desktop, and another likes a clean one. In my case, my wife doesn't want to see all of my icons for my programs, just the one little game she plays all the time. This feature gives XP some personality that has been missing. After setting up and selecting your profile, you come to the main screen. Built with a cleaner, highly customizable GUI, Windows XP can be either exciting for someone who loves to tweak, or a bit intimidating to those who don't (Be aware of that before going in). The start menu is different (though you can revert to the 'Classic' style), in layout and function. It provides full access to the main parts you need. The requisite 'Start' menu has been revised to include My Computer, Network Neighborhoods, and/or whatever else you may want. Some other features:
FTP protocol client
CD-Burning/MP3 tool via an upgraded MS Media Player (took only 16-18 sec. To rip a 4:50 song form my CD)
DVD playing software
Remote access Compatibility info:
Some of my Software (all but one worked with no problem):
Photoshop 6
Dreamweaver 4
Fireworks 4
Flash 5
Cute FTP 1.0 Pro
NTI CD
Easy Creator 5 Deluxe (Problem. Error pop-ups (missing file) when opening. Re-installed WITHOUT Direct CD program. Fixed) Some of my Hardware (all but one worked with no problem):
Asus Geforce MX 7100 video card
KDS VS-190 monitor
Netgear FA311 NIC card
Sony 4x4x32 CDRW
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 sound card (I did have a problem with this card at first. System would reboot with page-fault errors. I removed-rebooted-reinstalled-rebooted, and updated the drivers ' Fixed the problem)
Athlon 1.2Ghz CPU
Asus A7V133 RAID motherboard On the Professional edition, you have many more security features available, but most users will not need anything other than the Home edition. The "Restore" feature (from WinMe) is a great one. It allows full system restore, by using "restore points." Timesaving. From here you are on your own, but believe me, it is quite a bit of fun to get to know this OS. Microsoft has provided a powerful answer to Mac OS X, in both appearance and function.
Rating:
Summary: Huge facelift for a very stable (Windows 2000) foundation...
Review: I have been fortunate enough to be a beta tester for this product, though I did not initially install the beta on my drive, after hearing about the "activation" clause. I won't get into that “feature,” since it’s the most talked about... I have been a user of DOS, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, 98, and Me. My favorite OS, however, has been Windows 2000 Professional. After severe crashes, and abysmal memory management in 98 and Me, Win2000 provided a staple platform, which ran my most used applications (Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Office 2000, Flash 5) without a problem. It could be said that XP is the culmination of the best of WinMe and Win2000. Now, I had never been a fan of the “appearance” of Windows, (Mac OS 9 - and 10- had the trophy for the most attractive GUI) but the look had grown a bit stale…until Windows XP. On installation, you notice that the beginning has a look of WinMe – with it’s installation wizard – but the second part of the installation looks like Windows 2000 – with it’s DOS look. That is the end of the physical similarities. During the installation, it picked up all of my components with no problem, and had all of the drivers needed, including my Network card, and monitor. At first boot-up (which is about half the Windows 2000 wait on my Athlon 1.2Ghz), you notice an attractive boot splash screen, which then brings you to the first major feature: Customized Desktops – allows multiple “profiles” to be set up (husband, wife, and kids for example) which retain settings for icon placement, wallpaper, icons shown, and more. This is great if one of you likes a cluttered (i.e. save everything to desktop J) desktop, and another likes a clean one. In my case, my wife doesn’t want to see all of my icons for my programs, just the one little game she plays all the time. This feature gives XP some personality that has been missing. After setting up and selecting your profile, you come to the main screen. Built with a cleaner, highly customizable GUI, Windows XP can be either exciting for someone who loves to tweak, or a bit intimidating to those who don’t (Be aware of that before going in). The start menu is different (though you can revert to the “Classic” style), in layout and function. It provides full access to the main parts you need. The requisite “Start” menu has been revised to include My Computer, Network Neighborhoods, and/or whatever else you may want. Some other features:
FTP protocol client
CD-Burning/MP3 tool via an upgraded MS Media Player (took only 16-18 sec. To rip a 4:50 song form my CD)
DVD playing software
Remote access Compatibility info:
Some of my Software (all but one worked with no problem):
Photoshop 6
Dreamweaver 4
Fireworks 4
Flash 5
Cute FTP 1.0 Pro
NTI CD
Easy Creator 5 Deluxe (Problem. Error pop-ups (missing file) when opening. Re-installed WITHOUT Direct CD program. Fixed) Some of my Hardware (all but one worked with no problem):
Asus Geforce MX 7100 video card
KDS VS-190 monitor
Netgear FA311 NIC card
Sony 4x4x32 CDRW
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 sound card (I did have a problem with this card at first. System would reboot with page-fault errors. I removed-rebooted-reinstalled-rebooted, and updated the drivers – Fixed the problem)
Athlon 1.2Ghz CPU
Asus A7V133 RAID motherboard On the Professional edition, you have many more security features available, but most users will not need anything other than the Home edition. The "Restore" feature (from WinMe) is a great one. It allows full system restore, by using "restore points." Timesaving. From here you are on your own, but believe me, it is quite a bit of fun to get to know this OS. Microsoft has provided a powerful answer to Mac OS X, in both appearance and function.
Rating:
Summary: Something good, something bad
Review: Consider Windows 2000 Pro. Stable, can use computer resources quite well. Add tons of bug fixes that come ready out of the box. Also add some new (mostly multimedia related) features and compatibility layers for Windows 98 and such. Your computer will most likely work really nicely with this software, even the old DOS games are rumored to work very nicely. Betas have been out for a while and they feel nice indeed.
Windows XP series would get 5 stars straight if they didn't have couple very huge drawbacks: Pricing and marketting policies. What I mean is that if you update your computer slightly you have to actually call Microsoft and beg for an unlock code. Also the price is too high, especially when you don't get to actually OWN it. You just get the right to run it for certain period. Next year or later you have practically to pay again for the same software - or it won't unlock. Bah. Hop into this wagon people and after couple years you are completely on Microsoft's mercy. Shame, such a good software..
Rating:
Summary: what's the difference
Review: from what i hear it's supposed to be the best yet from
windows ME! and it does many things to help you with your---- home pc and buisness applications as well as many other---- things.Ile say that it's well worth the upgrade.
Rating:
Summary: Windows XP
Review: I've been using XP's rc2 scince it came out it work's great allthough it is a little bit bubbley you can change the way it looks if it soots you to the more familure classic 9xor2000 sceam.I've read the revue from the UK and he has one thing about it wrong the Windows media player 8.0 dose not need prexisting decoder software or card all you need is a dvd rom drive and it plays the movies just fine.It is increbibly stable if an app. crashes it doesn't crash XP the app. shuts down and you don't lose any of your work,wich is a great improvement.And for those of you who want great sound and video it had all the drivers needed preinstalled even the ones for my voodoo 5.The media player allso sounds great by itself,to hear it with a decent sound-card and speakers is just increadible. for home or office this is a home run for MicroSoft.It's fast reliable and has a host of improvments,like a small firewall it's nothing speacle but it works.The drag and drop cd burning capability is wonderfull and time saveing.This is just the prevue can't to see the real thing.
Rating:
Summary: Very Stable......and full of features
Review: I was very leary of using this Operating System (I have XP RC2 beta) but have really taken a liken to it. First off there is no need to buy any additional software. Firewall? built in. CD-Burning? built in. Movie Maker? built in. Did you use PC Anywhere? those feature and more are built in. The only thing that isnt included it an anti-virus program. Stability has been bar-none. I am a Windows 2000 Professional and Advanced Server user and can say that XP is even MORE stable than Windows 2000. I plan on buying XP for all of my computers, save the server. I will wait for .Net server to come out. Yes folks...XP is that good.
Rating:
Summary: Windows FINALLY does what it promises
Review: As a longtime Mac user, I can safely say that Windows XP is just as good, if not better, than Mac OS. First of all, Windows XP is incredibly easy and friendly. Icons, windows, and buttons have all been redesigned to be friendlier and more intuitive. For example, the 'close' button of windows is now red, so you don't close your program by mistake. The start button has been enlarged and colored green, so new users no where to click. The Start Menu has been redesigned, so as to be less cluttered and easier to use. There are two big icons, "Internet" and "e-mail" which will do just that. Windows Media 8, the built-in MP3 jukebox/DVD movie player, is fantastic. It is a powerful utility, able to rip, play, and burn MP3s, and even send them right to a digital MP3 player. It also plays DVD movies, and can look up album information automatically when you insert a CD. The only problem is that Windows Media Player will attempt to encode your ripped CD files in its semi-proprietary WMA format instead of MP3s. This could be a problem if you would want to use a music player that doesn't support the WMA standard. The whole operating system is incredibly fast and stable. It actually has yet to crash on me! There is one major drawback to Windows XP, however, and that is that its system requirements are staggering. I run WIndows XP with 192 megabytes of RAM, and I STILL get low memory warnings. But, if your computer has enough RAM for the job, then by all means, upgrade to Windows XP.
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