The Everyman's Operating System?

By James Anthony
Special Deal: $38 off XP Upgrade

Windows XP: More drivers than a V8 Supercar meet 'n greet

Sometimes having a computer is like a horror movie. It starts off fine, all hunky-dory and then little things start to go awry.

You get the feeling something isn’t quite right and then before you know it your blasted PC is chewing up more time and money than it warrants as you struggle to keep it doing all you want it to do.

Time to upgrade your machine? Or maybe look at your software?

One of this chap’s PCs had a 1.8Ghz processing speed that was cruising along until just the other month, when it partially gave up computing and decided to be an empty plastic box.

So, a reinstall of the ancient Windows 98 was done and very little joy obtained. It was still sick and sorry for itself – and the sound had died big time.

As a last resort it was off to the local PC doctor who looked at it – doing everything I had done but at $40 an hour – and the prognosis was delivered “Windows has died.”

Why?

“Dunno, it just happens.”

Thinking very nasty thoughts it was decided to try a new operating system and Windows XP was the choice.

As all PC owners will know, changing a system is done with a cool, calm head – or else one brought on by desperation – and it was definitely into the latter camp that this fellow fell.

Having made the decision a leap of faith was made, trusting that the anti-Microsoft media bias was just that and that perhaps Bill’s Mob would deliver the goods for this individual.

Now, when it say trust I use that word as a journalist – trust no-one – and so therefore I took precautions and printed out just about every bit of analysis done on the system – what will work and what may not – and then backed-up all the crucial programmes and data on to CDs.

That done, I pressed the button.

The XP analysis of my computer worked a treat and I had very few hassles. You can choose a total install (for new PCs or ones you want to clean completely) or the upgrade. Installing the upgrade was a breeze and took about 40 minutes and I was very pleasantly surprised to find almost everything worked straightaway.

The graphics card – check.

Website programmes – check.

The CD burner – check.

The printer – check.

XP will give you a tour of all the major functions

The ADSL modem needed a reboot, but considering the bazillions of things that could have gone wrong, nothing did.

My sound – lost from the pootah since the Great Crash of 2003 – worked again with a sonorous tone that was welcomed with something akin to exultation.

It wasn’t magic, well sorta, but I’m presuming it came about via the massive driver database that XP has in its workings. This is a boon for anyone who has a niggling system problem and has wasted hours upon hours trying to fix what should be a simple problem. Yup, me.

A colleague had earlier told me that XP would make navigating and getting things done on the system a lot harder because you had to find a whole new way to do things.

I’m glad to report that this did not occur and there is a logical approach to finding things and tackling system options, the control panel and so on.

There is a softer form to the interface and everything gets done if not in the blink of an eye, then in a gentle wink. And, if you are an Internet demon, then the look will almost certainly appeal.

There are two choices for how your desktop looks – the classic way with lots of icons splattered across your desktop (albeit with the new style) – or a new way, in which you get around via two large columns that centre on functions rather than specific applications.

The left-hand column covers Internet access, email and your most-used programmes, while the right side covers your usual system folders, control panel and search.

Your task bar does take a bit of getting used to as there is a fair bit of action going on down there as you open and close applications. And, if you happen to be a mad "new-window" opener (like me) then it takes a little more time as you adjust to the taskbar opening up to include each open window for that software.

Whichever way, the look of XP has a friendly semi-cartoon feel to it and there is a seemingly fluid change to the information presented on screen.

Windows XP offers fairly brisk boot up and from here you can then set up five different accounts on the one computer, complete with personal settings and backgrounds for all. To switch between users it is simply a matter of clicking a button saying Switch User and then you go back to your entry page and click for your own settings.

Kids love this part because they can have their own background images and look. I have yet to work out all the differences between the Users queues.

The initial load times after booting up are quicker on XP – due to the parallel loading of less-important programmes – and my gut feeling is that all applications have shorter loading times on XP.

Other features include a much better media player, easy access to Microsoft’s Passport and instant messaging has been built in. But above all, what XP offers is stability. If you are used to your system being a bit shaky, then XP will settle things down beautifully.

As mentioned before the driver database is a godsend, but so is the expanded .dll library. In the past those little rotters have caused chaos because you could only have one .dll name operating in your system. This meant that if new programmes overwrote the old one – then hello chaos.

XP incorporates simplified image viewing tools, allowing for more intuitive photo albums/libraries

XP allows each programme to operate its own batch of dlls – and do so concurrently – without any dramas.

And in another mini-breakthrough, XP allocates memory brilliantly, so while your system may slow during hard-drive crunching times it won’t throw in the towel or spit the dummy.

My machine has been running solidly for three weeks now with ne’er a hiccup or murmur. In fact, the recalcitrant brute has taken on a new lease of life and is now very unlikely to receive an axe blade through its tower case. Under Win 98, that was an almost daily temptation!

Now there have been some reports of older applications and games causing a few headaches and not working on XP, but I haven’t found any problems whatsoever with my all-important Dreamweaver, Fireworks, or other web and image-related software.

If there are known problems with certain programmes then XP’s system seems to know in advance what may create havoc and you will be warned not to install them. And, so far, there have been no problems running Vet anti-virus software.

My old collection of strategy games also work a treat, as do more modern efforts, and there are some additional time-wasters in the Games menu, such as 3D Pinball.

If you happen to be lazy (like me) or not wishing to delve too deeply into techno-babble (like me) or even are too busy to manually check for daily anti-virus updates (like me) then you can do it all automatically by telling your XP to do it for you.

Now, if there is a downside to Windows XP it is the fact that you need to activate your copy with Microsoft within 30 days. If you don’t you’ll be locked out. Basically the activation logs various aspects of your system – video and network cards, hard drive and other things – and plonks on them a 25-digit code that means that you and those components can use XP. If you upgrade often, then you’ll need to muck about with Microsoft.

The upside is that it is a Net surfers dream. XP comes with Internet Explorer 6, firewall protection, a Flash plug-in, five levels of cookie stopping and a bazillion other Net-related things.

So, if you are toying with the idea of upgrading to XP then I can recommend doing so – but to be on the safe side back-up all your precious items such as in-progress novels, email contacts lists and the like. It is unlikely things will go BOOM, but it is better being safe than sorry.

If I were buying a new computer would I have XP installed? Undoubtedly. Apparently its performance is even better with a clean install and, it must be said, XP has saved me thousands in therapy bills too.

Product: Windows XP
Online: Yes
Price: $463 (Upgrade: $237)
Developer: MS
Distributor: Microsoft

Rating: 85%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Special Deal: $38 off XP Upgrade