The benefits of XP are useful to many users but not of great value to most. A new personalized welcome screen that makes it easier for family members to share a PC lets each user customize their own Internet accounts and passwords. Users can easily switch to their tasks without having to close the applications another was using. Changes to the Start menu allow you to group frequently used programs and files together.

The new Windows will sport a new Internet Explorer, version 6.0. Be ready for failures at some sites and with some older Java scripts, there not ready for IE 6.0 or IE 6.0 is not ready for them..  There is a new movie player and a built in security Firewall to help prevent attacks from hackers. ‘My Music’ and ‘My Pictures’ folders allow better organization of files, but there could be problems with Windows Explorer it often fails during heavy use. Instant Messaging, .net services and  improvements may lead to better compatibility with AOL formats. And, if you have struggled with choosing which application program you want a file to open with, new ‘File Associations’ lets you select more than one and gives you a choice of which to use when you open the file. All nice stuff, but only you can decide if it’s worth the price.

Microsoft has also taken an aggressive stance with those that might like to save a dollar or two by using Windows XP on more than one machine. They call it "product activation" and upon installation it takes a bit of information from your machine ID and combines it with the ‘product key’ you get with each copy of Windows XP. This creates a unique ID and sends it off to Microsoft. Any attempts to load it on another machine, without notifying Microsoft that you are changing machines will result in a failed installation.

For those of you already using Windows NT in an office environment the benefits of Windows XP are not patently obvious. To counter any reluctance on the part of the huge corporate user base Microsoft has introduced new upgrade alternatives. They are certain to get not only their business users upset but the government ‘trust busters’ as well. Business users that don’t upgrade will find support for their ‘old’ Windows OS may get a little stale. Also, some of the choices on upgrading have been eliminated putting pressure on users to buy annual subscriptions or be faced with paying full price when they do decide to go to new versions of Windows.

XP Hive fix