Product Description

Windows XP Home makes it easy to use your Computer for those Personal projects you enjoy. Service Packs round up the bug fixes and product updates you need for operating more smoothly. This Service Pack bridges the gaps between the original software and user requests more fully, responding to customer wishes -- and making XP even better.
Share your home computing resources with simple-to-use Networking tools Service Pack features - Security Center offers a central control system for your Windows XP security -- work with the firewalls, auto updates and antivirus tools Great news for people sick of pop-up ads - The built-in pop-up blocker controls them, with a new submenu and status bar icons New Add-Ons manager gives you instant access to all the Browser Helper Objects and extensions, enabling and disabling them easily Firewall now has its own control panel Enhancements to the Windows Update service make installing new updates easy Wireless Networking - Multiple wireless connections to choose from

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #184 in Software
• Color: 1-user
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: N09-00984
• Released on: 2004-09-28
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows 95
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 6.00" h x 1.00" w x 8.00" l, .40 pounds

Features

• Operating system features -
• Create and enjoy home movies with the built-in Video support
• Share your video project with the easy E-mail attachment & mass-mailing features
• Go Mobile with the ability to Communicate anytime, anywhere
• Discover and Download online music, with the easy-to-use Internet features

Customer Reviews

Windows XP is stable, won't crash is great for plug & play
If you're reading this. You're thinking of buying Windows XP home edition here are a few things to keep in mind.

First thing is, you might be able to get away with buying just the upgrade edition. The upgrade edition allows you to do a full install. It just asks you for the CD of a previous version of Windows. Also remember you can download service pack two from the Windows update web site. So no need to buy it integrated with XP.

These are what I consider the minimum system requirements:

256 MB of RAM. I have found is adequate more equals better.
500 MHz or higher will do.
7200 rpm hard drive will help a lot.

If you're running Windows millennium edition, or 98 upgrade now the stability is vastly improved. Gone are the blue screens of death.

Frequently asked question: is Windows XP Pro better than home edition?

Windows XP Pro has a more high-end networking features that most home users will never miss or would even know were missing. So for most users Windows home edition is fine. They both are based on the same code and are almost identical.

If you're thinking of upgrading from Windows 2000, I did, because I like the GUI interface better. But Windows XP is as stable as Windows 2000. So it's your call.

The plug-and-play ability of Windows XP is totally great! Windows XP will by default find most drivers for video card sound cards, network cards, etc. that is such a bonus gone in the days of having to search for CDs with drivers.

I recommend upgrading to Windows XP be it professional or home edition. It is a great operating system

Have some fun and get it done

Apple's Boot Camp and Windows XP
I took the plunge and downloaded Apple's Boot Camp for the Intel based Macintosh. I had some old PC games so I thought this was worth giving a try. Apple's setup process was seamless for partioning a seperate drive I installed just for Windows XP. Then you get to the Windoze part of installation with the famous blue screen. It does look antiquated, but I followed Boot Camp's instructions to install. Windows XP took about 90 minutes via the "standard" insall method. Apple's OS X as I remember installed in about 10-20 minutes!

Since my installation about four months ago, Windows XP has been running just fine. I have actually gone onto getting additional PC games of my Windows XP disk. So this is great for those who want to have a Mac OS X side for work and a Windows XP side for play. Plus it looks like there won't be many games available in the future for OS X.

Apple's latest version of Boot Camp includes Windows Vista support, however I think I will hold off given the written reviews here on Vista. Windows XP does just fine for gaming.

Edit:

A little update here in 2009. I forgot to install Windows with "quick method" and in reality it takes about 10-15 minutes for the install. Fortunately Apple has mentioned this in their updated Boot Camp guide which is complete with version 2.0. As far as Windows XP 32 bit and Boot Camp go, there are no problems. It's been an excellent system for gaming. And the open source software that I do have works perfectly on the installation. XP is the best that Microsoft has to offer.

Good Software
This is great for Mac users who want to add Windows to their computers. Please note that you will also need to either download Apple's "Bootcamp" software, or purchase Parallel software (which Amazon also sells) and install it before installing the Windows XP software. It's worth the money.