Average Customer Review:
 ( 201 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 46 found the following review helpful:
 GOOD, IF YOU CAN AFFORD ITJun 30, 2002
By reviewer
The Upgrade version of Windows XP Professional is fast, feature-rich, and has a fine interface. It is crash-resistant; does not hang during shut-down, and supports dual processors. It boasts of good networking options, as well as built-in Firewall internet security; yet, its value-for-money is suspect.
Installation is time-consuming: budget one hundred minutes for it. Like the Office XP before it, there are activation woes: the money you paid notwithstanding, Microsoft dictates how and where you will use it. Again, bear in mind that Windows XP may compel you to spend more on updating other applications that would not run on it. There is also, this voracious demand on hardware: your PC must conform to at least 128MB of RAM, 1.5GB of free hard-disk space, and 300MHz of clock speed in order to do a decent job. Gambling on anything with lower statistics may backfire.
In a nutshell, upgrading to XP may not worth the financial hassles, unless you're running Windows 98 or earlier model; and wouldn't mind replacing older software that this new Operating System may shun.
34 of 36 found the following review helpful:
I Wish I Knew Now What I Didn't Know ThenOct 18, 2002
By dan williams
I upgraded to Win XP Pro from Win ME. Yes, XP is more stable and usable. But, and this is a big one, be prepared to carefully look at your existing programs. Norton Antivirus 2001 will not work with XP and the 2003 Upgrade has problems; I spent 3 days making it work. Office 2000 has several problems and the best I can get from the admittedly flustered folks in Redmon is "we don't have a fix for that." So, my...upgrade has now cost me the price of Norton and, probably, the price of Office XP.
33 of 35 found the following review helpful:
 Not Flashy but it WorksOct 08, 2002
By R. Speizer
"thebooktiger"
I installed this over Windows ME because I bought Visual Basic.NET and it was required to make it run.
It installed fine, but be prepared for it to take several hours to install. It does not however require you to interact much. The install is very automatic.
You can change the look and feel back to Windows 98, like I did. This took a bit of hunting to find all the parts but it does work.
I have seen other comments about software and hardware problems, so let me address them: I would tend to agree that if you have a machine that is four or five years old you would be better off buying a new one than installing this. The biggest warning: If all your software and hardware is very old, this will not work.
You must have drivers and software that are compatible. Some NT/2000 stuff will work. If you have OEM installed software, it probably will not work. I had to replace my virus software and CD-Burner software. (I chose Norton antivirus and Burn and Go by IOMEGA, priced right and installed fine.)
On the plus side the install has one great feature. You can run a test first to see what will be incompatible with the new OS, and get what you need.(You should have PLENTY of time to run to the store while it installs!!) I suggest uninstalling incompatible items before you do the install, as the uninstall may not work later. I had this happen with McAffee antivirus.
Also it insisted that all my USB peripherals be conected and turned on for the install.
I also installed Service Pack 1 from the internet. This took about 5 hours to download and another hour plus to install, so be forewarned. Be prepared to spend MANY hours fine tuning your system.
Otherwise works OK. It did hang once when I had a CD miss-aligned in the drive. Otherwise no real problems.
The only thing I do not like is having to log-in at power-up. I am the only user.
18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 This is one sweet operating system but not 4 old technologyMay 14, 2004
By Bob Feeser
"MillCrafters.com"
Windows XP Pro is quite arguably the most reliable operating system that Microsoft has come out with yet. Additionally it comes with the option of converting it to a Windows 98SE desktop appearance, for those who don't want to fuss with learning new instructions to get the old things done. It does so much more though.
One note of caution; do not install XP in an older machine, with older hardware. Your sound card vendor may have stopped making software drivers a long time ago for your now discontinued device. The problem is that they do not want to spend the resources to create drivers for a product that they no longer make. So if you have an old video card, audio card, modem, etc, it quite possibly won't work with XP. If you try to install XP you will get all kinds of incompatible error messages. So do yourself a favor and put old wine into old bottles, and new wine into new ones; consider getting a newer machine if you are going to upgrade to XP. You might wind up spending close to the same amount of money upgrading your components to make it work, as you would to just simply buy a new one. Check with all of your hardware manufacturers to see if they produced XP drivers for your existing hardware. Hope this helps.
24 of 26 found the following review helpful:
A stable, friendly OSMar 07, 2003
By Matthew K. Minerd
"The Coding Catholic"
I will admit, although I have a great love for the Apple line, that Microsoft Windows XP is a stable and friendly Operating System. Emerging from the ashes of the 9x line with the NT Kernel, Windows XP builds upon the foundation which 2000 laid. Although I can not say that it is as stable as Mac OS 10.2 (or 10.1 for that matter), I will admit that Windows XP is pretty solid and stable. Coming from a heritage of blue screens of death, XP gives users very few problems. There will always be, because of the vast array of hardware products available (as well as buggy drivers), times when Windows will crash. In my experience, this has indeed happened. However, it definitely does not occur as frequently as it did in the old 9x line. For the most part, I can go for a week without a crash (or semi-crash) and this, in itself, makes me happy. The really good thing about XP, especially for a user who is learning the system through the eyes of a Mac OS lover, is that it is extremely user friendly. Although the driver installation process is almost completely foreign to many users, it is not a problem when it is needed because XP explains the processes very well, without confusing users. Also, it is very easy to deal with networking in XP, including wireless networking (which is extremely nice when you don't feel like wiring your house for a personal network). All in all, compared with its predecessors, XP is based on a much more intuitive interface. So, indeed, even a Macintosh lover can admit that Windows XP is quite a good Operating System. I feel that it is both stable and intuitive, giving it 4 stars out of 5.
See all 201 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
based on 201 reviews
