Microsoft Windows XP Professional [Old Version]

The only good thing about this OS is that its "pretty". It LOOKS a lot better than windows 2000 and other previous versions, and also it seems to load a lot faster than windows 2000. Which warrants my 2 star rating.

The new set up in Windows XP is very cumbersome and sometimes downright confusing. For those of us that are familiar with Win 2K you will find that many things are not in places where we are used to them being. This is a small problem and im sure that I will become comfortable with it. My main gripe is the constant application lock ups in this OS for no apparant reason. For example if you happen to mistype a URL in Internet Explorer, then be prepared to have IE lock up for at least 45 seconds before windows decides to allow you to control IE again. Same goes true for Outlook. Sometimes Outlook will just lock up for no reason and either you have to wait it out, or just do a control-ALT-Delete to end the task which is believe it or not a lot quicker than waiting on windows. Keep in mind my inbox only has 20 messages since I just started my job Monday. Yet it still locks up and crashes for no reason. To add fuel to the fire sometimes applications will just terminate with fatal errors and come up with a message box stating "sorry for the inconvience" and an option to send the error report to microsoft. HA! It looks like Microsoft expected this OS to have a lot of problems (and that it does) and are using the customers to find all their bugs for them. I wouldn't mind doing this for a pay check, but for free? I don't think so.

I've only used XP for 4 days and already having a multitude of problems with constant lock ups and crashes. I haven't had the oppurtunity to do software installations on this OS, and frankly I don't want to, im sure that is also littered with bugs. As much as I hated windows ME, I think I am beginning to hate XP even more.

If you have 2000, then stick with it, don't waste your money on XP.


Great OS   June 2, 2004
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

When I bought this Computer 4 years ago it came with Windows ME I had nothing but problems when I was online it would freeze up about every 30 to 45 minutes and I would have to reboot very frustrating. I kept having people tell me to upgrade to XP so I finally upgraded to XP Pro and that was about 6 months ago and now I can stay online all night if I want without a single problem it has not even skipped a beat and I was on dial up at first and now I'm on cable. I lokv it in fact I am bulid a new computer from case up and XP Pro OS is what I am putting in it.. I would recommend XP Pro to anyone...


Solid performer.   May 29, 2004
 7 out of 10 found this review helpful

Windows XP Pro is a very good to use and stable operating system providing it's installed onto a good quality machine. Less than a P4 2GHz and 512 MB of RAM isn't going to really work out. Stick to Windows 2000 Pro, SP4 for anything less.

The go back to a previous date feature is tremendously useful for when something goes wrong, but I could do without the snoop-doggy-dog in the file search section. Looks a bit unprofessional to me. It's also good to be able to use the familiar Windows themes instead of the XP ones, if you want to.

Users of the latest graphics cards and Adobe multimedia applications will have to upgrade to XP to have the required system support, or even get an installation to proceed. Be sure to check this before buying anything current. Avid DV Express, etc, is also only XP compatible.

Any hardware such as printers, scanners, modems, etc install very easily.

An anti-virus and firewall are essential additions, Sophos and Kerio Personal Firewall work well for me. Also be sure to never be on the web in Administrator mode. Instead, set yourself up as a user with Power User attributes. A Restricted User profile is also available, but if you have Screenwriter 2000, or other Screenplay products installed, they may not launch or function properly.

XP Pro will give a great deal of satisfaction. XP-Home is much less expensive, but is little better than Win 98.