XP professional is the latest OS from Microsoft. Well, XP home is the one for home use.

I got the XP professional one and tested it out. I found it much better or user friendly than windows 2000 and/or better than windows Me.

Installation

One good thing about this XP is that before you can upgrade or install to this new system, it will detect all the incompatible software for you first. That way, you don't have to worry about upgrading the software after all the trouble upgrading the OS.

I have couple of pcs. I decided to use one with less software to run it and turned out that I have a couple of issues. Anyway, it will explain further down.

Hardware detection is great, i would say 90% of common hardware can be detected, however, two things of my hardware have problem detecting. Well as of matter of fact, three things.

first, the TV card, I have a pretty cheap HPpauge TV card and it can't find the software
second, I have the video transport and it can't find it.
Third, that machine only has 96 mb ram, and it didn't detect that, and I thought it would tell me that under 128 mb ram, i may have problem installing.

Oh well, I then decided to install to other machine.

---- partition problem

I have a drive with win98 already on it, and I got a couple of partitions there. You have to be carefully when installing with your existing partitions. Somehow two times, I got "Autocheck program does not exist" error because I went back to play with other partition. So, I ended up installing a couple of times and finally got it right.

After installation

XP OS acts like windows NT, it has boot.ini if you have more than 2 partitions. Many things are like NT, you have task manager, different user's profile and so on.

The main thing different is the "Switch User", and "Hibernate"

Switch User basically save all the user info onto the system without logging off and the profile is right outside the log on screen inside inside

Hibernate lets you come back to your pc quicker than usual.

user administration

There is not much on user admin, either limited account or administrator. NT has more than that like power user, backup operator and so on. It can also remind your password on the log on screen. Everyone is administrator in the beginning when created.


FAX and other software

Fax software is one thing I liked the best about XP, it is included and you don't have to waste money getting fax software. Other software including multimedia like how to make movies, keep current pictures in the pc.

Browser
Another good thing about this XP. Let's say you use free internet service like netzero, you probably won;t see the ad. That works for me. Second, if you play any site like iwin.com, all the pop up windows collapse into one group.
so if you close, you can close the group instead of each one. That is a neat idea!
--- however, everything collapsed into one group, you have no choice to make separate groups.


Backup

If you have backup devices like iomega zip or tape drive, it can detect for you and find it for you.

Memory and video memory

XP determines what's best for your video card. Of course you can change it.

As far as memory goes, I have a pentium pro with only 128 mb ram. It's running very decent. I don't know why people say it has to be over 128 or 256. I found it sufficient enough to load. And besides, it loads faster than windows 2000 machine.

Conclusion

I would take XP over windows 2000 because of its friendly interface. However, I really wish Microsoft stops upgrading OS. They should let it sit for at least 5 years.
Every 2 years to have a new OS, I don't think it's good idea. I am not really used to 2000 yet, and xp comes out. What are they going to call the next OS? windows 3000 or windows ZT?






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