Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Latest, But DEFINATELY The Greatest
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: - Microsoft did it!!
We have seen over the years the different stages since the revolutionary OS of Windows95 over Windows 3.1, to Windows 2000. Windows XP Professional brings everything to a new step. You will find more stability, features, enhancement, etc. It has never crashed since I bought it on October 25. I am very impressed with the environment which is more user friendly. With a lot of wizards, installing my home network was very easy and it took me only 10 minutes. The system restore and driver rollback features are amazing. If you by accident, install a driver which is not supported or a program which conflicts everything, just some clicks in the mouse and you are back where everything was working fine. The welcome screen which lets you choose the users is very cool and it's amazing how a user can leave their session open (password protected if desired) and another user can use the computer. My advice is, this is an excellent new OS from Microsoft. If you are a gamer, developer, professional, home user, etc. Windows XP Professional is your choice. If you want to save some bucks and aren't in the business or developer areas, then buy Windows XP Home Edition. You will be amazed from all the new features that has.
Rating:  - Wait until drivers are available
As many reviews have stated, Windows XP is a significant step forward in features and ease of use. BUT, there are real problems becasue not all the hardware drivers needed to effectively install Windows XP are available yet. Specifically, drivers are not yet available for my 15 month old HP 8250i CD-RW and my brand new Creative Modem Blaster V.92. The general IDE CD driver that Microsoft provides allows me to read standard software and audio CD's; but without the correct HP specific driver for my CD drive, I cannot read my data back-up CD's nor use the CD drive to burn new CD's. The Microsoft generic V.90 modem driver seems to work OK, but I suspect that once a specific driver for my modem is released; hopefully, I will get a little better performance.One other problem I discovered is that my Norton 2001 Anti-Virus and Utilities is not compatable with Windows XP--forcing me to buy Norton 2002 Anti-Virus and Utilities. So the (money) that I planned to spend to upgrade to Windows XP grew to (much more). In spite of these problems, I like Windows XP. My recommedation is to upgrade to XP, but wait 90 days or so until
XP compatible drivers become available.
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