Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade - Old Version
by Microsoft Software

List Price: $99.99
Our Price: $74.25
You Save: $25.74 (26%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used and New: from $29.35 (click here)
Category: Software
See more product details and other editions

Software Summary

• Create, share, and enjoy movies
• Secure and private
• Easy to use
• Reliable and dependable
• Fast and powerful

• Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional Upgrade [Old Version]
• Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]
• Microsoft Office XP Standard Upgrade [Old Version]
• Microsoft Money 2002 Deluxe [OLD VERSION]

Software Reviews of Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade - Old Version

Customer Review: The best from Microsoft yet - Windows XP Professional
Summary: 4 Stars

I'm going to go ahead and give my verdict here. I'm rating on three categories, ease of use, compatibility and stability. Ease of use is pretty good; there are wizards for most anything you need to do and first time computer users will probably feel comfortable with Win XP. However, it will take a bit of an adjustment for those used to Windows 9x. When it comes to compatibility XP is not as bad as some have feared, but there are still some problems, which I'll get into later. As far as stability goes, I'm simply amazed. I've yet to see a Blue Screen of Death, or have to reboot because of the OS. Another nice feature is how fast the system boots up (starts). XP allows you to go from a cold start to having programs to work with much faster than Windows98 - no more long waits as little lines roll across the program's launch window.

I will start with ease of use. And when it comes to that I may as well start with the install. It's painless. I've done this install overtop of an old Win 98 SE install, and on a clean disk. Both times went great. When you install it overtop of 98, all your old settings stay the same and no files are deleted. When it is installed on a clean disk, it works just as well, except for one question which someone new to the NT based OS might find strange. It asks how you want the disk to be formatted, and gives choices such as NT or FAT 32. The two things that worry people most about installing XP are product activation and the product key code. Product activation has not bothered me once since the install, and I chose to do it later, never gave me any trouble. And if you are too lazy to type in a key code, then I don't see how you got the motivation to install XP to begin with.

So now you've got XP installed, and you want to know what it does to make your life easier. There are wizards to do anything you want in XP, and the nice thing is that they are easy to follow for people who don't know what they are doing, but don't get in your way either. Another nice touch is the most recently used programs list. Picture the recent documents folder on your start menu, but with programs. You can choose to arrange files in much better ways now, such as in groups, or by track duration for mp3's. Basically, it plays nicer with mp3's and digital devices.

And if a program doesn't run under XP, you can use the Compatibility Mode to fix many of these problems. Gamers will love XP - the speed at which video games operate is noticeably improved.
Another cool feature - Fast User Switching. Five people in your house may use the computer - each with different bookmarks and documents. XP makes it easier to share one machine among a lot of people.

Windows XP will have a revamped interface with rich colours and textures in icons, buttons, toolbars and menus. A larger Start menu automatically displays icons of frequently used applications. The Control panel, My Computer and other system folders link to common file management tasks and organize icons into novice-friendly categories. You can of course disable most of these features and then Windows XP will look similar to Windows ME & 2000.

Windows XP includes all of Windows ME consumer oriented add-ons and improves on some of them. There are Camera & Scanner Wizards and the associated My Pictures folder is bursting with ways to preview, copy & print images from your PC or attached digital camera. Windows XP also supports the new Picture Transfer Protocol for camera connections.

Included is the new Windows Media Player 8 which is more streamlined & customizable than earlier versions and also plays DVD's. It also has the ability to burn CD's.
Windows Media Audio & Video files will sound & look better while using less disk space. Microsoft says it has improved the encoding algorithm for both formats and has added a new 750kbps video stream rate (geared towards cable & DSL connections) that approximates DVD quality.
Windows XP also has Windows ME's System Restore feature which lets you roll back the system to an earlier configuration and has a new safety net. The automated System Recovery wizard in the Backup program will guide you to create a boot floppy/CD-Recordable combo that you can use to recover from a hard disk crash or other problem. This feature is not included in the Home Edition.
Both versions of Windows XP include a personal firewall.
Next up is compatibility. Here is where XP looses points. First, Earthlink software will not work on XP or Win 2k for that matter. Burnt CD's seem to be a problem for XP as well. The OS would not recognize that there was anything at all several different disks full of mp3s. I was unable to install Unreal under XP, but games seemed to work well for the most part.

Stability is where XP really shines. Other than that XP has yet to crash, slow down, or glitch. That's not to say that programs themselves don't crash, but when they do they don't take XP down with them. If you are used to Windows 2000 then XP is every bit as stable. If you are currently running Windows 9x then expect much greater stability in XP. The only reboots necessary are for hardware and some software installs.

Windows XP is not without its flaws however. Like most software when it is first released there are bugs. Many of these can be fixed with Windows Update, and XP's auto update makes keeping up to date on patches simple. The update can be set to download automatically when you are online and install when you are ready. This is not done behind your back, so if you need the bandwidth then the download can be paused and resumed later.

In general I feel that XP Pro is a good investment, but not a must have. It is much better than its predecessors, but high cost, bugs, and some compatibility issues are several reasons to hold off on purchasing XP. If you decide to make the switch then I highly recommend running the Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft. This program will point out hardware and software that are not immediately compatible with XP, but may have patches from the manufacturer.

Overall Windows XP Professional is a bright, colourful operating system with some great added features. It is very stable and reliable and it incorporate excellent user support. I would highly recommend upgrading if you own Windows 98 or any other previous version. I'm still exploring the potential of Windows XP and I seem to find new features every day!

Description of Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade - 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 Upgrade 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.

Microsoft Windows Software

• Software > Categories > Operating Systems > Microsoft Windows