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| Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition UPGRADE with SP2 | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $99.99
Buy New: $84.99
You Save: $15.00 (15%)
New (14) Used (6) from $70.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 124
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Windows Xp
Color: 1-user
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Upgrade with SP2
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 7.8 x 1.9
MPN: n09-00985
Model: n09-00985
UPC: 805529831421
EAN: 0805529831421
ASIN: B0002423YK
Release Date: September 28, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 But get the PRO edition and not the HOME one February 16, 2005
16 out of 25 found this review helpful
Running Windows 95 and that means Windows 98 is illegal in your country and you are in the land of needing a new computer fast, feeling that you might have a box that looks like it is running windows 3.1 and to be honest now is your chance to move to Windows 2000 for a more solid operating system. Even NT users found more stability in Windows 2000, 98 users mostly gamers or downloaders, seeing the blue screen of death often, while Win 2K users doing something a little more software intensive like multimedia, graphics and servers that 98 could not manage. So came the day of the duel-processor, having an NT Dual 500mhz, upgrading to Win2K and you still had a fast machine, 64mb and 128mb games cards never really impressing you that much to get a better machine, a games console maybe cheaper and better, XP a little slow for you and besides, 2K was compatible with nearly everything and you could duel boot linux for fun. The only reason to buy a computer between the release of XP and now was if you did not have one and even then plenty of second hand units going around.
Year: 2005
256mb graphics cards, LCD monitors on the cheap, DVD-R media, Broadband, now is the time to upgrade your machine. AMD have some nice chips but the hyperthreading Intel P4 3.0GHz is a killer chip. 1GB of RAM, no problem. A pimpin' fast graphics card and you have a machine that can play Half-Life 2 on full resolution. The best games of the 21st century were released before Christmas this year, with 2005 bringing lots more to come. Broadband on the increase, DVD-R media and life might get less expensive if you are into computers and certainly a whole pile better.
Why not Linux? Well XP2 has the games and Linux not, so we can stop there. For speed on an OS, well Linux is a much faster, but XP2 is not bad on a system with half the ram of the above and a 1 GHz processor. If you are programming or doing fundamental computer work then do check out Linux because it might be what you need and learning Linux is like DOS with a bit of windows with all the free fundamental software you could want. Why not Apple? Well the same as above, but you have a better selection of stuff and to be honest multimedia applications work well on an apple, and why shouldn't they since Apple is industry standard for that kind of design work, so what does XP2 have to offer?
Obviously stability (not to be confused with security). XP2 is a very stable operating system. It is more stable than Windows 2000. For that reason, I made the upgrade. I have not found XP2 doing much annoying or something that I could not fix with Google. Installing is a big deal because you need Internet for verification; however it is fast on a high end system. There are obvious things you must do after you install it like download Firefox and use it instead of IE and try to use realplayer instead of mediaplayer, use Microsoft's AntiSpyware, don't use the firewall, use zonelarm free instead, spend on a good anti-virus software package, turn off the preview pane in Internet Outlook mail or try to find a free mail browser, make sure you get all the latest windows updates, careful what you put into your machine or extract, careful what mail you open, change passwords every week, and you can achieve a secure on-line machine that can do anything most computers can do right now with a company that has admitted that it has a security problem that will be addressed with future updates, but overall one should be impressed with the OS for stability, not speed or security, but for not crashing, as long as there are no hardware configuration conflicts, that do happen, get someone else to build your machine and blame them when it doesn't come together (and it wont come together because things are now cutting edge so get it done elsewhere; if your task bar hangs this is because of routers or USB hubs that are not compatible). The machine like the above is a 5 star experience but God help those who don't address security issues the moment they go on-line with it which is a bit like just driving your car off a cliff. Expect to loose everything to a virus and have your address details stolen with all your VISA card info.
XP2 PRO is 5 stars if you visit a place on the web called Gibson research incorporated, a highly respected individual in the security community who developed a way that people can test the vulnerability of their PC on-line. He developed a series of a security fixes for XP1 and XP2 problems. Bookmark that page and use it to have a somewhat secure and stable XP2.
Also remember, forget the HOME EDITION, go PRO.
This is a must-have upgrade! It is way good January 20, 2005
110 out of 117 found this review helpful
If you're reading this. You want to upgrade, your old computer to Windows XP home edition here are a few things to keep in mind.
256 MB of RAM. I have found is adequate more equals better.
500 MHz or higher will do.
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.
That's about all I can think of this is a recommended upgrade for me
Have some fun and get it done
 Latest, Greatest, Gotta Have It January 1, 2005
29 out of 32 found this review helpful
Wow, what an improvement over MICROSOFT MILLENIUM EDITION, WINDOWS 2000, and WINDOWS 98. WINDOWS XP, both the home and professional editions, have finally worked out the electronic glitches in Windows 2000 and ME. Both 2000 and ME were stop-gap products rushed to market to cash in on turn of the century fever. Unfortunately, both products had such teething problems that many buyers, including myself, reverted back to tried and true Windows 98. Eventually I reloaded MILLENIUM EDITION, but had to tie up the phone line for almost three hours to download all of the necessary Microsoft patches in order for ME to work properly.
XP is light years ahead of the former Windows applications. It was easy to load, required no tinkering or patches to enable the program to function, and added options, like audio, digital photo, and CD transfer capabilities, that never before existed. The computer loads much faster and is generally much more user friendly. Additionally, XP is better equipped to deal with the Norton family of computer security programs.
There are a few drawbacks, and XP warns you about them as it is loading. Some programs, particularly older programs, must be reloaded. In my case, I had to reload the software for my HP 800 series printer, Epson Scanner, Photo Shop, and Sonic Record Now. Where the original CDs are available, this is not much of an inconvenience. Unfortunately, some of my computer's software was installed at the time I had upgrades, such as a DVD burner, professionally installed, and I did not have the original CD.
So it goes. Microsoft WINDOWS XP (with Service Pack) is the next logical progression in the ever-evolving Windows applications. Save yourself a lot of headaches and invest in an upgrade now.
 Works OK but product keys are a pain January 1, 2005
12 out of 26 found this review helpful
The product key stuff is really annoying. You cannot boot the same partition image natively and under VMWare. It records this as different hardware when it's the identical physical partition and the same processor.
Requires a lot of care and feeding to make sure that patches are up to date and you need extra virus scanning software to deal with all the software bugs and vulnerabilities. All of these updates tend to fill up your hard disk. You have to know about the other options in cleanmgr to clean up all the system restore checkpoints.
I avoid running XP as much as possible. It's still not as stable as Linux. Even though you might see a lot of Linux patches too, there are many fewer than Windows if you're running your machine as a desktop and not using the Linux server capabilities.
Avoid the home edition of you have multiprocessor machines. It doesn't use them. You have to send more money to get the "Professional" edition for that to work.
The default user interface is the "Pretty" one. You have to dig through the settings to turn off all the pretty stuff to speed up the user interface.
The best contemporary operating system for individual users December 18, 2004
31 out of 33 found this review helpful
I've been using XP Home on various machines for three years, simultaneously with Linux, and it's enough time to say that XP has been excellent while Linux was just so-so.
Some of the reasons why I love Windows XP:
1. It is amazingly stable. Do you remember Windows 95/98 that were crashing several times a day? Maybe you still have these old windows and they're making you upset. Crashing no longer occurs with XP. At the beginning, in 2001, the Internet Exporer was rather unstable and it had to close many times a week. Such things simply do not happen to me anymore, as a result of the updates that have been done. I am getting the blue screen roughly once a year, and it is never unexpected because I almost always do something controversial.
2. It is getting very secure. The Service Pack 2 made the XP the safest affordable operating system. You know, operating systems are not created by God, and therefore there can be holes in them. The same is true about Windows. But Microsoft is a very active company and the hotfixes are available very quickly if it is necessary. The number of bugs that have survived is very small.
The Service Pack 2 provides you with a firewall (protection against hackers, so to say), monitoring of antivirus software (if it's out of date, you're alerted) and of patches, new wireless utilities, and many other things.
3. XP is compatible with all previous software I tried - including very old-fashioned games that used to run under MS-DOS. Although XP is based on the technology of Windows NT/2000 Kernel, which was more stable, it became compatible with the systems 95/98/ME for the home users. XP also works with all modern games and other programs, as well as all external devices that I've tried. Although it is very likely that all necessary software will continue to work, you should check whether your key programs have any issues if you upgrade to XP.
4. XP is very configurable. I've changed the icons of everything - every folder and every file type, as well as all the sounds. It is also very user-friendly, and the international support works smoothly.
5. In the case that something goes wrong, it is still very likely that "System Restore" will save you. It's a time machine that can return all system files on your PC to a moment (checkpoint) in the past. It has been useful several times to fix various small problems with the configurations that appeared because of new programs I installed. Also, I like hibernation - you can turn off your computer quickly in such a way that the memory is saved to your hard disk, and you may then continue exactly where you stopped.
All people who are upgrading should try to backup their key data before the upgrade. Problems are very unlikely, but possible.
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