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:  - 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.
Rating: - A must upgrade for Windows 95/98/ME users.
I have been running Windows XP Professional on my computer for about 3 weeks now and I am very impressed with it so far. I upgraded my machine from Windows 2000 professional and as stable, and fast Windows 2000 was, XP takes all of that to the next level mixing the best features of Windows 2000 (stability) and Windows 98/ME (User interface, plug/play, etc).In my opinion, this is a must for home users. Windows 98/ME were average operating systems that never offered anything in terms of stability, scalability, robust networking, etc. One of my favorite features so far is the built-in support for CD burners. In the past, my success at making CD's under Windows 2000 was 60-40. I've made more coasters than I have cups to put them under. A few minor pluses of XP are IE 6.0 and Media Player 8.0 which are available as separate download. Another really cool feature is the support for multiple users logging in concurrently. Windows 2000 users may not jump at XP Professional as they have most of the same features already in their current OS, but Windows 95/98/ME users will find a wonderful operating systems that is so much more stable that their older operating system. Microsoft got it right with Windows 2000 and this is just icing on the cake. Buy it now and upgrade.
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