Rating: 
Summary: Here We Go Again......
Review: Well, it's finally here....after all the hype, all the M$ brainwashing, Windows XP is here for the taking. I've been playing with this "greatest thing since sliced bread" that came on my new laptop that I bought three or four weeks ago. My desktop is still running Win98. I've read most of the other reviews that have been posted and as usual, some liked it, some hated it. Personally, I'll take a middle-of-the-road stand on this one. Hence the three-star rating I gave it.OK, I'll admit that it's real artsy-fartsy. Nice and pretty with lots of bells and whistles. You know what they say about bells and whistles...they're the last refuge for the insecure and talentless. Anyway, there's a few things about this that really irritate me. First is this activation thing. I have a problem with M$ telling me what I can and can't do with something that I've paid for. (this is assuming that I buy it for my desktop) I tend to change internal hardware often enough that I see this activation issue as a royal pain in the butt! Microsoft is concerned about privacy, but what about the privacy of my computer? What concern is it of Microsoft's how often I change my hardware that they feel their software should monitor that? Second, I'd rather use Easy CD creator 5 platinum for burning CD's since the way XP does it seems a bit archaic to me. Third, Microsoft's "coincidental" exclusion of support for a few pieces of hardware such as Logitech Mouseware since M$ makes their own mouse. Easy CD Creater isn't supported because CD burning capabilities come with XP. Some DVD player software isn't supported for the same reasons. As for the stability issue, granted, it's probably more stable. It should be...M$ has had long enough to get it right and keep the backwards compatability out of it. But in all honesty, and I swear this on my mother's grave, I never really had any major issues with Win98 crashing on me. Sure, once in a while it would bite the bullet and crap out, but not often enough to be an issue, mostly just a slight inconvenience. Most of what I do on my desktop is graphics and believe it or not, I've had both Photoshop 6 and PhotoImpact 6 open with rather large images open at the same time along with a web page, Word 2000 and e-mail and have not had my machine crash. I'll go for days and weeks with no glitches on Win 98 whatsoever. I'm not a computer expert, but I've been around the block enough times to know that it isn't always the OS or the programs that are open that makes the OS crash. Sometimes the person at the keyboard lends a hand as well. Speaking of graphics and pictures, there's photo software in XP that acts as a browser, editor, organizer,blah, blah,blah. For that stuff, I'll stick with ACDSee 4.0. It's far more functional. Forgetting that XP is in my laptop, I believe I'll hold off on updating my desktop for a while. As with anything Microsoft, I'd bet a paycheck that in three to six months there will be an "XP Second Edition" (or some similar name) that will come out with all the patches and bug fixes that will come along and possibly the inclusion of additional drivers. That will give me time to road test this OS on my laptop. At least at this point I've sort of got the "best of both worlds" for now. There's no doubt in my mind that eventually we'll all end up XP'd as more and more programs come out for it and the older OS's begin to fade away. Win 95 is officially dead already. How much longer for 98 and ME? Time will tell. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not bad-mouthing XP at all. There's some nice, useful stuff in here. But it's only useful if you have a use for it. As I said, my biggest gripe is the apparent continuation of M$ to basically say "play my way or I'll take my ball and go home". So, think carefully and do your homework before you run out and drop a hundred or two on this. Make sure you have enough system and that it's not too old as well as making sure you can get drivers for anything that XP doesn't support. My desktop isn't quite a year old and XP says there's compatability issues. And make sure you need the extras that come with XP. There's not a lot of sense in buying what you never use or something that a separate program you already have does for you and may even do better. (CD burning for example) It might be best to watch, listen, and learn over the next few months and see what happens with the release of an updated XP.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy it excellent software at last
Review: Microsoft did good finally. XP is very stable so far and performs very nicely. Interface is much better over previous versions.
Rating: 
Summary: Not user-friendly!
Review: Although I had initially eagerly anticipated receiving and installing Windows XP as an upgrade to Windows ME, I was soon chagrined to learn that this newest version would hinder more than help! I just happened to run an upgrade test prior to installing XP, and the result was five pages of "blocking issues" that would prevent the program from operating properly. There were hardware as well as software incompatibilities. The bottom line was, I'd be a fool to mess up everything that was working fine, just to bump up to XP! I might add my computer system is only eight months old, a Gateway 1.5 GHz machine with 256 MB of RAM, not exactly ready for the scrap pile. I was very, VERY disappointed that I had spent (money) for a program I can't even use. I don't have the time or the money to do all the upgrades that the printout advised, just to run XP. So, just a word to the wise: Run that upgrade report or test that XP offers you before you proceed with installation of the program. Otherwise, you might be in for quite a few unpleasant surprises.
Rating: 
Summary: A major improvement over win9x
Review: I learned right away about the importance of taking the hardware incompatability check you can run seriously. I was warned about three things, an older sound card, my modem, and my stylus. At the time I wanted to install though I did not have the internet working so I didn't get the drivers before hand. That was a big mistake. I strongly recommend downloading any drivers that the preinstallation check shows you will need and keeping them handy in your My Documents folder. I didn't, and it caused me a lot of grief. After I uninstalled back to ME, I downloaded the drivers I needed. Had I just waited to do that before installing Xp, and not tried to force uncompatible drivers on, I would have avoided a lot of problems. Fortunately, most hardware companies seem to have produced drivers for XP already. I didn't have problems finding the drivers I needed. As far as the OS is concerned, I am extremely pleased with it. I personally like the change in the visual look. I was ready for a new look after being on the win95 change for the last few years. It is far more stable than the 9x platforms, and does run my programs noticably faster. There is one feature I would like to see in the future. The ability to switch users is very handy, but it is too much for my needs. My room mates don't want to bother switching users and I am the only one who wants to restrict access to a few directories. I would love it if you could just put a password on a directory. That would take care of the only reason I would need multiple accounts, and that is to keep my personal files personal. My room mates however don't have any personalized settings or email accounts set up. If you do have multiple users who have their own settings and email accounts etc, the user switch thing is an excelent feature. This is not so much a complaint as it is a wish. Summing it up, I say 4 stars only because my carelessness in ignoring the hardware suggestions from Microsoft caused me a lot of grief. It is my fault but it did detract from the instalation experience for me. I would love it if you could have one user account but put a password on a directory as an alternative to haveing multiple users, although the multiple users thing looks like it would be the perfect thing for people with more complicated user issues than I have to deal with.
Rating:
Summary: A Much More Intuitive Platform
Review: As a content developer, I spend long hours on the computer. When my husband bought me a brand new system, I discovered the bright new world of Windows XP. I love it. Gone are the freezes, stutters, program conflicts and other glitches, I had with Windows 98. It has a fluid intuitive interface with anything I'm doing. Everything from the tutorials to the prompts are designed with the user in mind. This is the best new development Windows had had in a very long time, and one I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: No use for me.
Review: I tried both Home edition and Professional. In general inpression is that: it is more fancy. But I do not really need these funcy function. I do not care whether I need to click few more buttons to connect to Internet or not. I do not care multi user logon, since there are only one screen. No matter how many users are logged on, only one person can really use it. I do not care whether it is more stable or not, since restarting the machine only take one min. I am just an regular user who use win98(which comes with the system) and star office to write something, IE or NS to read news, use webmail to check email, maybe play couple of games. That is all the function that I needed.
Rating:
Summary: Stablity at a price. BEWARE of installation.
Review: I bought Windows XP and I am happy with its interface and its stability. I don't have the fear of crashing that I sometimes had with 95, 98, or ME. However, I am VERY sorry that I bought this product now. It just is not ready for prime time yet because to little is compatible with it. As proof of compatibility problems, check out Microsoft's own web site of appproved hardware. A great example is in Wireless networking cards. Virtually no cards are approved, and I kknow that my card went from working flawlessly to not being recognized by my system as soon as XP was installed. These same problems exist with software as well. XP is not as backwards compatible as the ads would have you believe. Additionally, even software that is supposed to be 100% compatible has some minor bugs that flareup from time to time. I do think that XP is a worthy purchase, but not until the next version when A) they have had the chance to work out more bugs, and B) Other companies have had more time to develop new drivers. As a final note, I would HIGHLY advise that you do a full install and not just an upgrade install. I did an upgrade install, and it just hasn't worked well. Most of my key programs either have to be reinstalled anyways, or they don't work, so why would you want to have them sitting on your system. Doing a full install does solve some of the problems.
Rating:
Summary: FREEZE and Reboot..........................FREEZE and Reboot
Review: I am very upset mith Microsoft! All this OS does is FREEZE up (3-4 times a day)!!! DO NOT BUY THIS UNTIL THEY GET IT DE-BUGGED. I miss Windows 2000 and I miss my (dollar amount)...
Rating:
Summary: A revelation
Review: I'm so surprised by this product that I can't find the words... first of all read my story and then you'll know why I'm so surprised. I bought a new computer last week and tried to install Windows Me on it. You can read my experiences on that page, I was nervous and couldn't understand why my computer didn't work the way I wanted it to work and why an OS that's planned to serve the needs of a player doesn't support hardware that's for playing. I was so confused with Me that I decided to try and buy XP Home Edition. It comes as a total revelation to me. Undoubtedly, it is THE OS that every home user needs. The installation process was easy, I had absolutely no problems with it, it finished in 30 minutes and now it is running. The look is great, everything is easy to install. The most surprising fact is that though the looks are great, this time the core is stable as it comes from Windows 2000 (the NT line). I had Win 2000 before Me on my old computer and I have to tell you that it worked without crashing for 15 months. After taking a look at XP's features I can surely tell it will run without complications for the next 100 years. Though it's demanding on harware you should know that the minimum systems sold nowadays meet the requierments of XP. From the price I bought a computer 3 years ago (P2 350 with 64 MB RAM) I could buy last week a P3 866 with 768 MB RAM. This suits perfectly the needs of XP. This means you don't have to worry if you buy a new computer. On older systems however it won't run so smoothly as on this one, for those systems I wouldn't advise this OS. For new systems anyway this is the choice. Hardware support is simply unbelievable, it recognised everything and didn't have to install any drivers for anything and this includes a video card, a sound card, a CD-ROM, a CD-RW, a webcam, a scanner and a printer. It had all the drivers I needed to run these things and the XP software for the webcam is 1000 times as useful as the one provided by the manufacturer. Unbeliavebale, isn't it? So all Me and 98 users, if your computer meets XP's needs, it's time to change your OS. You'll have the same good expereiences I've had with XP and wonder why Microsoft couldn't make this OS before. It works the way you want it to work, it does the things you want it to do. After Windows Me (which was the most unpleasant surprise from Microsoft) this is a complete revelation.
Rating:
Summary: Expensive but a worthwhile upgrade for Win98/ME users
Review: If your running Win98 or Win ME I would recommend the upgrade to XP. If you just use your PC for everyday email, word processing etc. then you can save money and go with XP Home Edition. However, if you are use to NT or Windows 2000 I would recommend XP Professional for the added administrative features. I've been using XP since RC1 and it has been rock solid. For a home pc it is the operating system of choice. For business users you can stay with Windows 2000 and do just fine as XP is just a more user friendly version of 2000. The XP interface is cleaner but offers nothing special. It takes a little while to find all your favorite old setup features as they are kind of hidden in different areas. Unless your planning on purchasing a new PC I would recommend picking up XP, as long as your current PC has at least 128 megs of RAM.
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