Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition [Old Version]
by Microsoft Software

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Software Reviews of Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition [Old Version]

Customer Review: Finally Windows 2000 stability for the home user...
Summary: 5 Stars

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:

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. It's quite customizable.

XP Useful features:
Not built on the older DOS engine
- Compatibility mode - allows setting programs, which may no be native to XP, to run in 95/98/ME/NT/2000 "mode". Great feature, and it has worked on all programs I have tried.
- Enhanced battery life for laptops by:
a) Lid Power. Display is shut down when "lid" (screen) is closed.
b) LCD Dimming. When using battery power, the display is dimmed, and brightness is restored when plugged into AC.
- Device driver rollback - a wonderful feature which allows you to "roll-back" to the previous driver, in case you have a conflict with your newly installed one. Allows beta-testing drivers.
- Search Companion - much more advanced (and needed) search feature.
- ClearType - much more precise and clean look for LCD and laptop displays. Also looks great on typical monitors.
System Restore - carried over from WinME, this feature allows "points" to be created, in order to restore system setting in case you run into problems. Timesaving.
- Completely re-designed GUI
- 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.

XP Fairly Useful Features:
- CD Burning - Nice inclusion of basic CD burning capabilities, but it must be said, that "basic" means "basic." Not hybrid Mac/PC burns, no on-the-fly burning, VCD, etc. Get Nero 5.5.5.1 if you want great burning software.
- Windows Messenger - MS answer to AOL Instant Messenger, allows quick connection to friends, and allows file trading. But it's also annoying. It takes a toll on the system resources, so you may find yourself disabling it (like I did ;-).
- Self-contained Firewall - though not as robust as third-party ones (ZoneAlarm, Norton, etc.), it is adequate for most users.

XP Misleading/Irritating Features:
- DVD playback - this would be a nice feature...it existed. As it is, however, you need a third-party CODEC, in order to view DVDs.
Microsoft Media Player - MP3 ripping/playing is relegated to 96-bitrate, due to "protecting copyrights" of CDs. You must get the Plus! Pack in order to do higher bitrate ripping. It's ironic that the WMA (Microsoft's own format) can be ripped to and played at higher bitrates.

Stability:
Anyone familiar with Windows 2000/NT, will be impressed with XP's stability. I have had to reboot only a couple of times, through the Beta and final versions, and then only due to my motherboard settings.

Users of Win95/98/ME will be very happy to know that they will not have the conflicts/crashes which plagues those OSs.

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

From here you are on your own, but believe me, it is quite a bit of fun to get to know this OS. NOTE: Microsoft has release it's first bug fix/update...SP1. Contains numerous fixes, including the SB Live! 5.1...

Description of Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition [Old Version]

The best thing about Windows XP is that, because it belongs to the Windows NT/2000 product family, it's designed from the ground up for reliability, security, and networking. XP Home users will soon see the benefits of this. The dreaded Windows crash-and-reboot cycle really is much less common with XP, and, provided the hardware is up to scratch, XP's performance is better, too. The downside is that using a different code base can make compatibility with old applications less assured. Business applications normally run fine, but older games, MIDI software, and system utilities may well cause problems.

Windows XP is more customizable than previous versions, including its visual themes that let you change the whole appearance of Windows in an instant. Fast User Switching is a neat feature for computers used by more than one person--it lets another user log on without killing the previous user's session, and when you switch back, running applications and open documents are as you left them. This is impressive, but what really counts is that XP understands how to deal with multiple users. Each user has their own special folders, such as My Documents, which cannot be seen by other users. And for those with more than one computer, the network setup wizard simplifies setting up a network.

Windows XP Home has many strong multimedia features. New Media Player lets you copy music from CD to hard disk, create your own playlist, and write your own music CDs if you have a CD writer. You can also play back DVD-Video (but only if a hardware or software DVD decoder is already installed) and play MP3 audio files and MPEG videos (but sadly not the popular RealMedia formats). Admittedly, Media Player does nothing that you cannot also do with free alternatives, but it is slick and nicely integrated. There is also Windows Movie Maker, a basic tool for capturing and editing videos that's fun to use, although too limited for serious work.

For Web browsing, XP Home comes with Internet Explorer 6.0 and MSN Explorer. The most significant new feature for Internet users is the built-in firewall. A firewall protects against one of the most disturbing security risks, in which other users unknown to you might connect to your computer while it is online, reading private files or causing other damage. XP's built-in firewall is a simple affair, but it does prevent most types of unauthorized connections.

The XP user interface is not a radical departure from earlier versions of Windows, but there are a number of small changes that together add up to a significant improvement. For example, you can add and remove shortcuts from the Start menu by right-clicking on the icon and selecting Pin or Unpin from the pop-up menu. Windows online help is integrated into a Help and Support Center that works like an internal Web site, with searchable help, tutorials, and walkthroughs. Laptop or other flat-screen users can set Windows to use ClearType for screen fonts, for a more readable display.

There are, of course, some pitfalls. Windows XP Home is demanding on hardware, and it would be a mistake to install it on less than Microsoft's recommended minimum. Business users note: unlike Windows 98 or Me, XP Home Edition cannot join a Windows server domain, so the networking is peer-to-peer only--see Windows XP Professional Edition for this functionality. There is also no multiprocessor support, and a mildly annoying anti-piracy measure requires you to obtain a code from Microsoft for full installation and any future system changes. But don't let that put you off: this is Microsoft's best Windows yet. --Tim Anderson

Enhancements in real-time voice, video, and data communications will allowthe PC to become a center of communications and creativity beyond juste-mail and instant messaging. Windows XP will also allow the user toconnect back to the desktop from any location, and support for new wirelessnetworks will be built in. Windows XP will unify the user's supportexperience by enabling the user to provide temporary and secure control oftheir PC over the Internet to whomever can best help them.

Windows XP takes an end-to-end approach to how people transfer videos andpictures onto their computer, how they use them on their PC and otherdevices, and how they share them, whether in person or through e-mail, over the Web, or through removable media like DVDs and CDs. It extends this experience through applications that help users buy music and videos, mobile devices, services for saving your music on the Internet, and more. Windows XP will make it easier for households to share a single PC and share pictures, music, files,printers, and other resources.

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