Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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.

The only good thing about this OS is that its "pretty". It LOOKS a lot better than windows 2000 and other previous versions, and also it seems to load a lot faster than windows 2000. Which warrants my 2 star rating.

The new set up in Windows XP is very cumbersome and sometimes downright confusing. For those of us that are familiar with Win 2K you will find that many things are not in places where we are used to them being. This is a small problem and im sure that I will become comfortable with it. My main gripe is the constant application lock ups in this OS for no apparant reason. For example if you happen to mistype a URL in Internet Explorer, then be prepared to have IE lock up for at least 45 seconds before windows decides to allow you to control IE again. Same goes true for Outlook. Sometimes Outlook will just lock up for no reason and either you have to wait it out, or just do a control-ALT-Delete to end the task which is believe it or not a lot quicker than waiting on windows. Keep in mind my inbox only has 20 messages since I just started my job Monday. Yet it still locks up and crashes for no reason. To add fuel to the fire sometimes applications will just terminate with fatal errors and come up with a message box stating "sorry for the inconvience" and an option to send the error report to microsoft. HA! It looks like Microsoft expected this OS to have a lot of problems (and that it does) and are using the customers to find all their bugs for them. I wouldn't mind doing this for a pay check, but for free? I don't think so.

I've only used XP for 4 days and already having a multitude of problems with constant lock ups and crashes. I haven't had the oppurtunity to do software installations on this OS, and frankly I don't want to, im sure that is also littered with bugs. As much as I hated windows ME, I think I am beginning to hate XP even more.

If you have 2000, then stick with it, don't waste your money on XP.

The go back to a previous date feature is tremendously useful for when something goes wrong, but I could do without the snoop-doggy-dog in the file search section. Looks a bit unprofessional to me. It's also good to be able to use the familiar Windows themes instead of the XP ones, if you want to.

Users of the latest graphics cards and Adobe multimedia applications will have to upgrade to XP to have the required system support, or even get an installation to proceed. Be sure to check this before buying anything current. Avid DV Express, etc, is also only XP compatible.

Any hardware such as printers, scanners, modems, etc install very easily.

An anti-virus and firewall are essential additions, Sophos and Kerio Personal Firewall work well for me. Also be sure to never be on the web in Administrator mode. Instead, set yourself up as a user with Power User attributes. A Restricted User profile is also available, but if you have Screenwriter 2000, or other Screenplay products installed, they may not launch or function properly.

XP Pro will give a great deal of satisfaction. XP-Home is much less expensive, but is little better than Win 98.

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