As a Web Developer, I need to test on every available platform. Here the account of my upgrade experience from Windows Me (the worst OS ever) to Windows XP Professional.

First, a bit about me. My first computer was a TRS-80 Model I, with a whopping 4K of RAM and a cassette drive for storage. Since then, I've owned/built/used too many to list. I've used every version of Windows since 2.0, and was a beta tester for Windows 95. I've also used OS/2 Warp, Solaris, Linux, Mac OS, and GEM. Today, I have a small home network with 2 Windows PC's, and 1 Linux PC. I use my primary computer for web development and design, so it's fairly beefy. I chose the Dell Dimension 4100 (PIII 933, 256MB RAM, 20GB HDD, DVD-ROM, CDR-W, 64MB video accelerator) as the candidate for XP.

My Dell Dimension 4100 came pre-loaded with Windows Me, which I haven't liked from day one. I find Windows 98, running on a far less powerful machine, to be faster and more stable. Windows 2000, which I previously used at work, was better still. So, rather than upgrade to 2000, I decided to skip a generation and go for XP, which has the NT/2000 engine at its core.

After returning from CompUSA with my copy of Windows XP Professional Upgrage, I backed up my essential data, and slipped the XP CD-ROM into my computer at 8:45pm. Almost immediately, I encountered my first problem: the XP Setup program was unable to connect to the Microsoft Windows Update Web site to download the current setup files. I double checked my DSL connection, and everything was fine, so I concluded it was a problem with the Microsoft site and forged ahead. I figured I could always download the recent updates after installation.

The Upgrade Advisor notified me that my printer (Epson Sylus Color 600) and scanner (Canon CanoScan N656U) were not supported. Additionally, I would need to uninstall the Logitech MouseMan drivers and CD Creator 4 before continuing. I had already uninstalled Norton Antivirus 2001, as I had purchased the Norton SystemWorks/Personal Firewall bundle along with XP. After the special bundle price, upgrade rebate, and XP bundle rebate, I got the new software for only $10. A quick check of the Canon website, and I was able to download updated XP drivers for the scanner. I had no such luck from Epson. I found a posting on a message board stating that the Windows 2000 drivers will work fine with XP, so I forged ahead.

It took about 40 minutes to check for updated drivers and uninstall the incompatible software. At approximately 9:50, I once again started the upgrade. This time I sailed through the upgrade advisor, and XP began its installation. At 10:55pm, I experienced my first reboot into the XP operating system. After logging in as administrator, I noticed that XP had preserved my desktop and quick launch bar, while giving everything the new XP look and feel. So far, so good.

I was about to install the Windows 2000 driver for my Epson printer, when I noticed that XP had recognized the printer, and had already installed a driver. It turns out it can print fine with the XP driver, but I don't have the Epson Status Monitor. Rather than fix what wasn't really broken, I decided to wait for an official XP driver from Epson instead of trying the Windows 2000 driver.

The Canon driver installed easily, and a quick test showed the scanner to be in perfect working order. Installing the Norton SystemWorks, which includes the AntiVirus software, took about an hour. A great feature of SystemWorks is the ability to clean up Windows. A quick scan of my system found 486 bad, broken, or missing entries in the System Registry. SystemWorks made the appropriate repairs, and I'm happy to report the system is much more stable than before.

My upgrade experience was relatively painless, and took just about 3 hours. I'm not sure, however, that a less seasoned computer user would know how to find and download the necessary drivers, and/or uninstall conflicting software.

After putting the new system through its paces for a few weeks, I have noticed a few peculiarities. Overall, the system is quite fast, and pretty stable. But, every time I switch users from one account to another (my user account, the administrator account, or the guest account), I get an error message that COM1 is not functioning. I'm unable to use my Palm HotSync cradle when this happens. If I switch back to whichever account I initially logged in to, everything is fine.

Also, Eudora 5.1 would not run in my user account. It would give me an "unhandled exception error" and stop loading. I could run it just fine from the administrator account, however. When I changed my user account from a normal "limited" account to a full administrator account, Eudora began working perfectly. Very strange.

Well, that's it. I'm pretty happy with the upgrade so far. I would recommend new users to purchase a new PC with XP already installed, but would leave the upgrades to the professionals.

Recommended: Yes