| Product: |
Microsoft Windows XP (Whistler) |
| Date: |
05/03/02 (62 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Fun, Easy to use
Disadvantages: Requires fairly high spec. PC to run, Too controlled
I'd consider myself a fine connoisseur of Windows OS's. I started off using DOS and Windows 3.1. Since then I've tried them all. Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and finally... Windows XP. I have all of them, and out of all of them I currently choose to us Windows XP. Now don't get me wrong it does have it flaws, but never the less is it a good operating system.
Stability: Indeed Windows XP is fairly stable, not quite as much as Windows 2000 (I've only ever managed to crash that once), but still not bad. For most people who just want to play a few games and go online it is more that suitable. The problem is I'm a perfectionist. I'm only happy when my OS is running as well as I can get it to. This means updating drivers, and unfortunately, as far as I know, this isn't the easiest task with XP. I was surprised that when I installed XP it detected all my hardware successfully straight away. But for the best performance you really should look to upgrade the drivers yourself, preferably looking for drivers digitally signed otherwise XP throws a fit at you :)
Appearance: XP is well.... 5 years old. My little sister thinks it looks brilliant. I admit I'm quite fond of the bubbly exciting new look Windows have given it. It does however wear off after a while I promise you. Then you'll be gagging to set the appearance back to the standard Windows theme.
Security: At home the security is great. Unlike the other OS's Windows have made that use the 9x platform, you cannot log on by simply clicking on the 'Cancel' button. You can set up individual areas, fully customise them and best of all, restrict exactly what the user can and cannot do :) Very useful when you have a small one wanting to use it for who knows what. I'm not too sure on the security of the system over the Internet though. Dial-up connections can be protected with XP&
#39;s built in firewall protection, but I still personally prefer to whip out my copy of Norton Internet Security and couple it with Norton Anti-virus, better safe than sorry.
So overall it's a nice little operating system. If you're a die hard gamer then you're probably best off with Windows 98SE because it's the fastest OS Windows have made. It runs games faster than Windows 2000 though. On the other hand if you want security and power features I?d go for Windows 2000. I personally find XP a good blend of all of them.
Summary:
|
|
