Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Rating:
Summary: Smooth, Steady and Solid -- Well Worth the Price!
Review: I recently upgraded to Windows XP from Windows 98 Second Edition, and I have been THOROUGHLY impressed! With Windows 98 I experienced frequent blue screens and crashes. With Windows XP all of those problems are now history. Also, many of the drivers I needed to load AFTER loading Windows 98 are now already included. My video card drivers were loaded, my CD burner functions were all present, and my scanner worked flawlessly without installing any additional software.

The biggest hurdle with this product is successful installation. If you have older components you may have significant problems getting them to function with the new OS. Some older apps are also likely to have difficulty. My hardware and my software are all fairly current, so I had no trouble.

I have upgraded my newer computer at home with Windows XP, but the older computer at my church study has Windows 98, and will have it for some time. I am reluctant to upgrade because of the installation problems inevitable with the older components.

This product is definitely worth the price, but some persons may need to upgrade components BEFORE upgrading their OS.

If you have a newer or brand new computer and are seeking the smoothest, steadiest and most solid OS, I HIGHLY recommend Windows XP.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Horrible
Review: I reluctantly upgraded to Windows XP because certain programs I wanted to run were not supported by Windows Me, my previous OS. It's been nothing less than a disaster. I upgraded two months ago and have yet to restore the functionality I had before. I haven't had this many problems with compatability since my last girlfriend. Be warned: "upgrade" to XP and you're likely to find much of your hardware and software no longer works. How Microsoft became a dominant market force making garbage like this is beyond me. It's almost time for me to retire my old laptop, and I can guarantee it will be replaced by an Apple. Congratulations, Microsoft. I'm through with Windows-based PCs.

Rating:
Summary: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a PIG!!!
Review: I too, survived that inexcusable fiasco known as Windoze ME (Millenium Edition). About 2 and a half years ago, despite my having invested almost a grand and a half on a top of the line PC system with ME as my O.S., I got daily system freezes, crashes, and error messages with Millenium Edition. Clearly, ME was a defective product, and Gates should issue a consumer recall and reimburse those who purchased Win ME. Perhaps there should be a class action lawsuit as well. Of course, civil e-mails and customer service calls to Microsoft were NEVER returned. Not once. Is this the 'respect' that Gates has for his customers?! Out of sheer desperation, and a need to be productive and to preserve my sanity and health, I was told by an 'IT guru' that a clean install of Windows XP Home Edition would solve my problems, so I fell for it. Two hundred bucks later, I have tons of 2 to 4 year old Windows software and games that simply don't work on XP, or cause system errors and crashes! I am now back at square one, and faced with the prospect of having to throw out over $3,000 in Windows 98/ME software that doesn't work well with XP!!! Where is the BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY that Windows is supposed to truly have?!?! I'm not running a 15 year old DOS program on here for chrissakes. All I can say, is after experiencing the various incarnations of Windows, and concomitant headaches this lousy O.S. is responsible for, my next computer is going to be a Macintosh. Gates has lost my respect and Windows business.

Rating:
Summary: The Latest, But DEFINATELY The Greatest
Review: Windows XP does the deed that Microsoft has been aiming to achieve since the milestone release of Windows 95. I have been using Windows XP since pre-beta 2 when the OS was still under the codename Whistler. I have seen the ups and downs, the improvements, the additions and subtractions and have been very please with what as been done with Windows XP.

It makes installing hardware a breeze with enhanced plus and play technology. Simply plug in your camera, usb device, hard drive, external storage, etc and Windows XP will automatically install and set it up for use. Integrated CD Burning will save you time and money from having to purchase 3rd party applications. Remote Desktop is a wonderful feature for administering your Windows XP computer away from the home or office on a separate computer. All you need to do is install the Remote Desktop client on any computer that does not run Windows XP and you are set.

You can also use Remote Assistance to send an invite to a friend, co-worker, relative, anyone you know using Windows XP to control your computer and fix any issue you may be having with it.

Windows Media Player 8 is wonderful, allowing you to encode high quality songs from CD's and also including options to display the Album Cover artwork for identifying your music on the folder.

My favorite thing is the ability to change the appearance with the new XML skinning engine to completely have a custom and unique style from anyone in the world.

There are many wonderful feature to list, and despite the talk that it is just a small step from Windows 2000 is ludicrous. Windows 2000 is similar and on the same codebase, but does outperform and include more useful tools. I would recommend purchasing the full version and not the upgrade, that way if you ever need to install a clean version of Windows XP you will not have to install an OS to upgrade from.

Rating:
Summary: Microsoft need a better grip on their products.
Review: I have been a Windows user and lover from when I was nine years old (I am thirteen years old now). Windows '98 has never disappointed me because I used it for simple things. As I progessed into technology, I bought Windows XP.

Windows XP has more pros than cons, but the cons are really that terrible. Sure, everyone loves fast, easy-to-understand computers with neat programs.

As a review reader, I like to look for cons first, so:
- Too many security flaws. Microsoft needs a definate grip on that. XP, so far, has got to be the most worst off when it comes to security. Honestly, the anti-virus programs can barely help now. I'm tired of installing and restarting my computer every time Microsoft has urgent 'upgrades'.
- If you're a furious file downloader like me, you're going to need more megabytes. XP tends to lag a bit slower, and after uninstalling and deleting over one hundred somewhat files, it's still slow (using a 256 MB system).
- I don't know if it's just me, but it happens so every month; my computer would just automatically restart without warning. Very bad flaw, I have yet to find out why it's even doing this.
- Microsoft Word is good, but it's missing something Windows '98/2000 had: better WordArt options and styles (seriously). This is extremely important to me when I wish to do headers for projects.
- I've tried installing some Windows '98 computer games onto my computer, but ta-da! It didn't work. Some faulty error messages popped-up instead. I had no trouble installing '95 games on my '98 back then, so why now?

As bad as some cons are, I'm not going to recommend Apple or Linux, because Windows, if you don't mind those poor cons, is quite superior with all the new options they give you. I advise considering buyers to wait a while before they purchase a product from Microsoft though... there's a rumour going around of a new Windows version (Windows Longhorn), so hang in there. :)

Rating:
Summary: XP: heavy but very stable too
Review: My overall first impressions of XP (I "road-tested" it today at an IT conference in town) are: it's better to wait before you upgrade, and XP takes up more system resources than ever. The memory occupied by the two of the processes that Windows runs on 2000: Explorer.exe and Svchost.exe amounts to approx. 12 MB. Same two processes in XP take up almost 30 MB. If you don't believe me, press Ctrl+Alt-Del, and select the tab named processes. What this translates into, in layman's terms is: Windows XP is considerably heavier on the machine on which it's running. Don't even consider running it on computers with less than 256 MB, even if Microsoft says that you can run it with 128 MB alone. You'll suffer the consequences of slowness if you do.

Having spoken about memory, I have to say XP solves some issues that home users have been confronting for a while, such as multiple user login management. Some of the add-ons are nice, but nothing you can't work around with a few downloads: Remote desktop = terminal services, just bundled within the OS, for example; integrated DVD-playing and CD-R burning.

Theymoved around stuff, and applied some of the intelligence they've gained over the past few years (remove icons from the desktop, as most people actually don't use them, for example); and they're being extra-careful not to turn ON too many features you might not want (or afford) to have on your machine, all of which are very nice things. It seems that Microsoft was able to pull off the Operating System that all users have been expecting for the longest time.

Now, should you upgrade right away? I recommend that you hold on, much more if you don't even meet the minimum system requirements proposed by Microsoft (plus the tip mentioned above). Every time a new version of Windows has been released, over the course of a few months several patches have been issued to correct issues detected with it, and XP is no exception to this: the day of its release 20 MB worth of patches were ready to be downloaded from the company's web site. Most likely, over the course of the next few years, we'll all end up switching over to XP in time, but if you don't mind, wait a few months before taking the plunge. That's my best piece of advice.

Last-minute tip: watch for a new "feature" that Microsoft bundled with the new OS. It's called Windows Activation(...) In two plates, it's aimed at giving Microsoft a buzz when/if a copy of the Operating System becomes installed in more than one machine, in fact, even if it's only installed in one machine, it warns them about the attempt to install the software in any other machine other than the native one where it was first installed.

Additional notes: I am writing this over three months after the original review. I've taken the plunge and upgraded my wife's laptop (an HP, in case you're wondering) and there's only one thing I have to say: it's Microsoft's most stable OS so far! In the couple of months it's been running, it hasn't crashed a single time. It doesn't run all day long (like my desktop on Windows 2000 Professional does), but it has not given even the slightest problem. One final tip, though: before upgrading, double-triple check with your hardware provider to see if they have a checklist of steps to follow in order to ensure transparency in the process. I did have to uninstall some software HP knew ahead of time that wouldn't work with XP, and later reinstall the XP-compatible versions, but it was worth every single minute of the 120 minute+ step-by-step process. Good luck, and happy XP'ing!!

Rating:
Summary: It's not unusual for Bill
Review: The bugs in WIN 98 were finally worked out, unless you're unfortunate enough to click on "sure OK" when Internet Explorer needs an update. I've had to re format four systems in two months because of that illegal function in Explorer.exe or Kernal.32.
AOL or MSN can cause it to. I now have a Compaq running XP and it has so many Bugs, I get very frustrated...and I'm a very good systems engineer. I feel bad for an average user confronting these problems. Why does he continue selling a Beta program, testing and fixing it out in the Public after charging almost ($)? Then he will put the repaired product out as XP 2 and make everyone stuck with the problem ridden Op system pay for the upgrade.
You will eventually get it running well with persistance, but I just want to do my work and get off the pute. I will give credit though for do it yourself home Network ease. I hooked in a DSL modem with a Router to share with my other computers and was ready for a long night of problems. It set up so fast and works so well I was shocked, even formed me floppy disk network setup for the WIN 98 beasts to be patched in.
The low rating I gave is due to the very poorly designed multimedia programs included in XP. They are not at all intuitive, take many months to figure out and malfunction often. They also tend to be very CHATTY. Often you have to close out pop ups when working on something totally unrelated. If you use msconfig to close all of those programs at the start that bring your system resources dangerously low it asks you at every boot if you intended to change the setting, and then reactivates them on it's own.

Rating:
Summary: Stability is the key feature here
Review: With Microsoft's latest OS offering, XP is a significant improvement, but not for all of the fluffy reasons and marketing add-ins that is hyped.

The key feature is stability, and that's the value of the product.

Since this new OS is built on NT technology, XP is clearly light-years ahead of prior releases (for consumer use) for stability, and is worth buying for that reason alone. Sure, it also has some nice jazzy net-enabled features, but they are definitely secondary. I do recommend XP, but be aware of the following caveats:

1) Some of your drivers *may* be disabled. I can't use my CD writer to burn CDs anymore...and have to wait for new XP approved drivers. Advice: wait for other vendors to be XP ready themselves before buying.

2) XP is large. I have to buy and install a new hard drive, this OS is so big...I question if I'm really going to need all of the new key features.

3) New features. I find that the new features are often nice to look at, but effectively less functional than existing ones with other vendors. For example, Windows Media Player is not as efficient (I find) as transferring files to a blank CD (even once you get the driver!) as the software that came with my CD writer itself.

4) Activation. I think the activation requirement is a little too draconian for my tastes. Sure, I understand the piracy concerns, but now I have to have a different OS on my laptop, or shell out another .... Microsoft should somehow enable a *user* based activation, not an installation based one.

Criticisms aside, XP does deliver the goods. I like the new look, and am happy to forever say goodbye to the Blue Screen of Death.

Rating:
Summary: Good Operating System
Review: I'm from Chile, and i use my PC mainly at my home. I've changed to WIN XP since a week ago. What can i say: it's one of the most comfortable windows enviroments out there (i've used an ATARI ST, Win 3.11, Win 95, Win 98 SE, and now XP). Some programs crash when you open too many windows or some web page sends you some malicious HTML. However, when a program crashes, windows keeps running !!! I've never seen again the infamous "Blue screen of death", or the upsetting Scandisk, and that's a big relief. I upgraded from win 98 and had trouble with 3 pieces of hardware, but with a little internet research i found the newest drivers and only 1 (my Cvideo-mail webcam) it's still not working. It's worth the upgrade ? Yes. Even when you'll have some trouble at first, it's way more stable and will save you a lot of work. I've left it working overnight and nothing happened. Before XP i found many times that a process crashed and hours of work went to the trashbin. My favorite games work without problems (Max Payne !), and i think that hardware incompatibility issues may be solved by the manufacturers when they come up with new drivers for their products.

Rating:
Summary: A whole new OS
Review: Windows XP Home Edition was just what I needed. I have had hardware since Windows 98, and Windows 2000 and ME never supported it, XP has the drivers already installed, i like that, no looking for them driver disks. Second, It never locks up! I have a program that tells me my system Uptime (how long its been on) and i got my PC over 10 days (AMD 500 Athlon, 256 MB Ram system) running all my standard, everyday programs. Third, Windows XP has a new image, I got tired when Windows ME was almost like Windows 2000 Pro, 98SE, Windows 95. Boring OS's are the same, Exactily Like Macintosh, they finally changed with there new OS though (bout time) And the Sound Quality with Windows XP is greater! Rip, Mix, burn, all on one program. Then you can also edit them boring home movies on it (with a Video Input Card or TV Card) also organize them pictures you take with the Digital Camera, edit them too. Only 1 problem with Microsoft Windows XP, if you own a second computer (ex: Laptop) and you want XP on both Systems, Microsoft will only allow one OS Product Key per System, you get 30 days to activate Windows, if you dont activate Windows (Via Phone or Internet) Windows wont let you in the OS (I hate that) But unless your looking for the first Microsoft product that is stable, (unlike Win3.1, 95, NT, 98, 2000 (2000 is stable, but EXPENSIVE!!!), And Windows ME (Worst Stability ever!)) then i recommend this product.
but First, Run Windows Update and fix any bugs :P