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Microsoft Windows XP, MS new Operating System for PCs
For
the first time, all Windows XP users should find good system stability. That
benefit alone may be worth the price of XP to the many users that spend lots
of time working on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, email and the web
simultaneously. 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.
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you are a Windows 98 or Me user you can buy the upgrade to Microsoft's latest
colossus now in stores. If you are still crashing along with older releases
like Windows 95 even 3.1 and want to gain all the new benefits of Windows XP,
you'll have to pony up the full price of the new software rather than the
upgrade price. Is it worth it? It's a good question without a nice simple,
one-size-fits-all answer. The general opinion of those who have been testing
XP versions is positive. That means most people will get more benefits than
problems with the new Windows. Windows XP will be available in two editions.
The Home version for consumers and Professional for the office environment.
For some time Microsoft has offered the heartier, more crash-resistant Windows
NT for the office user, while consumers struggled on with the inevitable
systems lockups of other Windows versions. The lockups, or crashes, are
usually caused by memory protection problems brought on by different software
applications trying to use the same blocks of memory at the same time.