Product Description

Puts the exciting experiences of the digital age at your fingertips. From digital photos, music, and video to building a home network, you'll enter the digital age with ease and more dependable computing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1312 in Software
• Color: 1-user
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: N0900050
• Released on: 2001-10-25
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 98
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 2.25" h x 9.75" w x 11.50" l, 1.00 pounds

Amazon.com Review
Packed with multimedia features, Windows XP Home Edition aims to unlock the full potential of your personal computer. It also looks great, with rounded window corners, larger and more detailed icons, and a clean-look desktop.

The best thing about Windows XP is that, because it belongs to the Windows NT/2000 product family, it's designed from the ground up for reliability, security, and networking. XP Home users will soon see the benefits of this. The dreaded Windows crash-and-reboot cycle really is much less common with XP, and, provided the hardware is up to scratch, XP's performance is better, too. The downside is that using a different code base can make compatibility with old applications less assured. Business applications normally run fine, but older games, MIDI software, and system utilities may well cause problems.

Windows XP is more customizable than previous versions, including its visual themes that let you change the whole appearance of Windows in an instant. Fast User Switching is a neat feature for computers used by more than one person--it lets another user log on without killing the previous user's session, and when you switch back, running applications and open documents are as you left them. This is impressive, but what really counts is that XP understands how to deal with multiple users. Each user has their own special folders, such as My Documents, which cannot be seen by other users. And for those with more than one computer, the network setup wizard simplifies setting up a network.

Windows XP Home has many strong multimedia features. New Media Player lets you copy music from CD to hard disk, create your own playlist, and write your own music CDs if you have a CD writer. You can also play back DVD-Video (but only if a hardware or software DVD decoder is already installed) and play MP3 audio files and MPEG videos (but sadly not the popular RealMedia formats). Admittedly, Media Player does nothing that you cannot also do with free alternatives, but it is slick and nicely integrated. There is also Windows Movie Maker, a basic tool for capturing and editing videos that's fun to use, although too limited for serious work.

For Web browsing, XP Home comes with Internet Explorer 6.0 and MSN Explorer. The most significant new feature for Internet users is the built-in firewall. A firewall protects against one of the most disturbing security risks, in which other users unknown to you might connect to your computer while it is online, reading private files or causing other damage. XP's built-in firewall is a simple affair, but it does prevent most types of unauthorized connections.

The XP user interface is not a radical departure from earlier versions of Windows, but there are a number of small changes that together add up to a significant improvement. For example, you can add and remove shortcuts from the Start menu by right-clicking on the icon and selecting Pin or Unpin from the pop-up menu. Windows online help is integrated into a Help and Support Center that works like an internal Web site, with searchable help, tutorials, and walkthroughs. Laptop or other flat-screen users can set Windows to use ClearType for screen fonts, for a more readable display.

There are, of course, some pitfalls. Windows XP Home is demanding on hardware, and it would be a mistake to install it on less than Microsoft's recommended minimum. Business users note: unlike Windows 98 or Me, XP Home Edition cannot join a Windows server domain, so the networking is peer-to-peer only--see Windows XP Professional Edition Upgrade for this functionality. There is also no multiprocessor support, and a mildly annoying anti-piracy measure requires you to obtain a code from Microsoft for full installation and any future system changes. But don't let that put you off: this is Microsoft's best Windows yet. --Tim Anderson

Amazon.com Product Description
Designed for reliability, security and privacy, high performance, and ease of use, the Windows XP operating system provides a host of benefits forbusiness and home users. A clean and simple desktop, rock-solidreliability, and easy-to-use features that take advantage of the digitalage all contribute to the value of Windows XP.

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.

Customer Reviews

Uninstall works great!
I installed Windows XP Upgrade on my home computer to replace my current ME operating system, but have now uninstalled it. My advice is, if your current operating system is basically satisfactory, don't make the move to Windows XP unless you've made sure your older programs and hardware are compatible with XP and there is some feature you feel you really, really must have.

In the words of the XP instruction manual, "The Windows XP Setup program will automatically check the hardware and software already installed on your computer for potential conflicts." "Potential conflicts" is a nice way of saying that certain programs and hardware items may not work well or at all with XP, because it wants digital signatures, updated drivers or more.

In my case, during the installation process, XP informed me that "Setup has detected that some hardware or programs on your computer might not function correctly after the upgrade is completed. This lack of functionality can have an effect on things you might want to do, such as connecting to the Internet, accessing e-mail, printing, scanning, and playing sounds or music." (Wow, aren't those the things that most people use their computers for?)

After I completed the XP installation (which proved to be a very simple process), I did in fact encounter considerable difficulty with a number of software and hardware items. As examples, XP was extremely cranky about accepting my cable modem and I could not get my printer to work at all, even after I downloaded a new driver from the manufacturer's website. (Solution - buy a new printer?) The XP installation also rendered my Norton Antivirus 2004 software inoperable, a problem which the Norton website recognized but had no solution for. I also faced problems with my CD creation and digital camera software as well the Outlook Express email software.

I want to stress that all of these problems have solutions, but I eventually hit the wall "installation fatigue." It just seemed that, every time I got a problem solved, two more would pop up - so I just gave up and uninstalled XP. I concluded that what I had seen on my computer screen so far in terms of new features simply did not outweigh the problems I was experiencing and the potential cost of new programs and hardware that would be compatible with XP.

My main point here is that there is a lot of hype about the advantages of XP but no one tells buyers that it may cost you 4 or 5 times as much to replace hardware and software that is not compatible with XP, and that you may have to spend hours at problem-solving in order to get your computer functioning. Microsoft has a web link at www.microsoft.com/windows/catalog/ that is supposed to provide information on whether your applications and hardware are "XP-ready." This should be put in at least ½ inch bright orange letters on the box so that purchasers will notice it and check BEFORE they tear open that shrink-wrap and lose the right to return the product for a refund.

Smooth, Steady and Solid -- Well Worth the Price!
I recently upgraded to Windows XP from Windows 98 Second Edition, and I have been THOROUGHLY impressed! With Windows 98 I experienced frequent blue screens and crashes. With Windows XP all of those problems are now history. Also, many of the drivers I needed to load AFTER loading Windows 98 are now already included. My video card drivers were loaded, my CD burner functions were all present, and my scanner worked flawlessly without installing any additional software.

The biggest hurdle with this product is successful installation. If you have older components you may have significant problems getting them to function with the new OS. Some older apps are also likely to have difficulty. My hardware and my software are all fairly current, so I had no trouble.

I have upgraded my newer computer at home with Windows XP, but the older computer at my church study has Windows 98, and will have it for some time. I am reluctant to upgrade because of the installation problems inevitable with the older components.

This product is definitely worth the price, but some persons may need to upgrade components BEFORE upgrading their OS.

If you have a newer or brand new computer and are seeking the smoothest, steadiest and most solid OS, I HIGHLY recommend Windows XP.

Sometimes the hard way is easier
Now that XP is up and running, I'm ecstatic. It's a nice OS.

HOWEVER: It took 2-1/2 days and two LONG phone sessions with supportive, knowledgeable tech reps from Microsoft to get to that point. I expected to simply replace my old OS (Win ME) with the new one, and skip on down the road. Didn't happen. So here's what I learned: A clean install from a bare machine, including reinstalling all your drivers and software can be the right answer, even if it seems an awful prospect. I should've bought the full version of the product and started clean in the first place. It would've saved more than a day's time and a ton of frustration.

Maybe that's how it is for you too. Do consider the full version and a clean install.