As good as the ads! (Microsoft Windows XP (Whistler))

Member Name: dtapple

Product:	Microsoft Windows XP (Whistler)
Date:	06/12/01 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More Stable, Easier to use, Better network capability

Disadvantages: The cost, hassel of upgrading!

Before you begin, I'd let to explain, that until recently, I really *hated* (for lack of a stronger word) Microsoft products. They're always crashing, they're slow, and always giving the Blue Screen Of Death. The only decent MS ap was IE, and that was just because Netscape Navigator was so bad with it's HTML (Note: Version 6.2 using The Gecko is much better!). Anyway, since getting XP Pro, my vision has much changed. MS done good!

Here goes...

I couldn't believe it when I started seeing ads on tv and around town for a Microsoft OS. The ads were great, but could Microsoft come up with a stable operating system and prove all their critics wrong? Probably not, I thought. I've always hated previous versions, being so unstable, and only used it for the sake of compatibility.

Anyway, I bought a new laptop which came with XP. I didn't think much of it, it'd just be like 2000 with a different startup screen. How wrong I was!
They've moved things around to make it a little more logical, added friendly interfaces to absolutely everything and the main attraction... STABILITY!! Being more like 2000 than 9x, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del brings up the task manager listing all tasks, and also all system processes/services, giving you the option to kill them one at a time. When an app dies, you don't need to worry about rebooting your machine, XP really does deal with the program directly and kics it out of memory!!

They've also added some smart extras, such as the taskbar. It shuffles around keeping related windows together, and when faced with lots of windows, rather than scrunch them all up, it groups them. If you had 12 IE windows open, it'd group them into one (with a 12 in front), which, when clicked, would bring up a little sub-menu of all the 12 windows.

Being built on NT, I thought XP may be more focused on networking, but I was surpised to see it was as much 9x as NT. There's not
really an emphasis on using a networ, other than the default to have profiles and a logon screen. XP introduces "Simple File Sharing" for those wanting to share folders and files without having to worry about permissions and policies like NT/2k required. Simple File Sharing acts just like the file sharing in 9x, allowing you to share a file/folder with all users accross the network. For those that prefer more options (I know I do!) and want to set permissions on shared folders, simply turn off Simple File Sharing (Tools -> Folder Options -> Advanced), and you'll be given back you Security tab, which allows you to allow access (Full, Read, Write, Add etc.) for different users and groups to your folders. This comes in handy, say if you ran an intranet, and wanted to allow people to access your pages via their browserss, but not edit the pages. You'd give the web server access to the folder, but not the actual users.

The Windows Update is another feature that's been vastly improved. This can be scheduled to run automatically, or you can just point your browser at windowsupdate.microsoft.com (Note: This works in older versions of Windows), and it'll list all the updates available, allowing you to choose which bits you want to download. This by no means compensates for anti-virus software, but will make sure your email clients aren't vulnerable!!

The whole "My Computer" look has been improved upon. The left-hand pane (familiar to those who used the previous "View As Web-Page" facility) is now more friendly, and offers various options, depending on the content of the window, and the file(s)/folder(s) selected. Selecting some music files will give you the option of playing them, burning them to a cd, or buying music online, whereas selecting images gives you the options of viewing them, or emailing them to friends. If you choose to email them to a friend, you'll be given wizards to allow you to conver
t, resize and crop the images, allowing you to optimise and reduce the filesize for sending.

Partition management is a fairly new feature to Windows. Like NT and 2000, Windows XP not only reads both FAT and NTFS drives, but allows you to format both types, resize them, and even swap drive letters around... without even needing to reboot! Converting from FAT to NTFS (NTFS supports file/folder permissions) is simple, run the "covert" command, as documented in the (for once helpful) help system, and you're away. Previously, to convert the Windows partition, you may have found yourself booting from a floppy, and converting it through dos... Not any more! XP explains that the Windows partition can't be converted while windows is running, and offers to schedule it for the next time it starts up! Rebooting the machine then allows you to watch while the task is completed! Tada!

Oh, and of course, the default Windows sounds have been changed! - Much better!!

I can't wait to see what comes next from the software giants.

Summary: