A Nice Surprise that Surpassed My Expectations!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very stable, lots of options and flexibility, Product Activation not so onerous.

Cons: Not compatible with some older programs and hardware.

The Bottom Line: 
If your older programs and hardware are not vital it is a worthwhile upgrade that will greatly improve your PC and computing experience.

Author's Review
I resisted Windows XP for a long time. First off, I don't like the idea that there's a separate Home version that's a "light" version of the Professional Edition. I think this is just a little confusing.

Second the cost. To upgrade an older operating system to Win XP Pro costs about $150-200, and I think that is a lot of money, especially considering that a low-end PC (still having 1GHz or more processor, 128-256MB memory and a 10-20 GB hard drive) itself can go for maybe $300 or so nowadays.

Third, it seemed like a whole new interface to learn and understand just a couple of years after the last one.

And finally, the annoyance of Product Activation. I can understand Microsoft wanting to put in a system to cut down on casually passing out free copies of their software, but the system sounds like it punishes the end user hobbyist who may upgrade their computer a lot by putting an onerous procedure on them when a true pirate will just find a way around it and produce illegal copies anyway. After all, I remember all the copy protection schemes on video games for the Commodore 64, etc. in the 1980's that didn't work.

But my computer had Windows ME and I had a need to use a product that required Windows 2000 or XP and figured getting the upgrade was still cheaper than buying a new computer with Win XP Pro installed (and I wouldn't have to move all my programs, settings, etc. to a new computer).

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. The upgrade was very smooth with no problems at all. My programs all run faster and I have not had any crashes since I upgraded. This really is an "enterprise class" operating system for a standard PC.

And not only is the new interface easy to learn, but it's very easy to set oneself up to use the "classic" interface, the one users of Windows 95, 98 and ME are used to if you don't want to use the new interface.

Finally, though I still think Product Activation is a waste of Microsoft's resources and only alienates their customers, the process was nothing like I expected. First off, you have 30 days to activate. It was easy to do via the web. Being someone who tinkers with upgrading parts, etc. I did have to reactivate a month later via phone, but the person on the other end only asked my product ID and no personal information, why I needed reactivation, and immediately gave me my new code to reactivate. No trouble at all!

The one downer about XP (which may explain why it's so crashproof, etc.) is that some programs and hardware, especially older programs, will not work with Windows XP. I had to replace my scanner because it was not XP compatible. And some of my really old games don't work anymore. But the benefits definitely outweigh it!

All in all, I really agree with the experts who say that Windows XP Professional is Microsoft's best iteration of the operating system yet and it was quite a surprise beyond my expectations!