Windows XP review

By the time you read this, Windows XP should almost have arrived.

And if Bill Gates and his cohorts are to be believed, then this is the operating system we've all been waiting for. It is - if the pre-launch hyperbole is to be believed - the best version of Windows, ever. So, what is all the fuss about?

Until now, new home computers have arrived with Windows Millennium Edition because it offered the best support for hardware and software. But Millennium is still, essentially, a heavily tweaked version of the less-than-perfectly-reliable Windows 95. For this reason, sensible business users have opted for a version of the bullet-proof Windows NT system, the last incarnation of which was called Windows 2000 (reviewed in issue 108).

Roughly speaking, then, if you want flexibility, drivers for bags of different hardware, and the ability to play most games, you should currently be using Windows Me. However, if your job demands stability and security, your PC should be running Windows 2000.

But now Microsoft claims to have combined the best of both worlds into XP, and it should allegedly make everybody happy. Well, almost - because there is a twist: Microsoft has released two versions of XP - Home and Professional.

Home or Professional?

There's a difference of £80 between the upgrade versions of Home and Professional, so it's worth knowing what the differences are. Professional contains everything that the Home Edition does, plus numerous, generally large company-oriented extras. Below is a table which looks at Professional's extras and examines when they're actually beneficial.

A new look

For XP, Microsoft has given Windows its biggest scrub up since Windows 95. Though not a total overhaul, the changes are still significant, and for the better. The first thing you'll notice about the new blue look is that all the icons are bigger, bolder and clearer. In fact, everything has a pleasant rounded, 3D look, thanks to a number of new graphical effects. These effects are processor-intensive, but Windows intelligently adjusts how many it activates, depending on your specifications.

Beginning with a fresh installation, you'll discover the desktop is now totally bereft of icons, save for the Recycle Bin which now appears in the bottom right. For a clutter-free look, the rest have been moved onto the revamped Start menu. Similarly, the Task Bar has been slimmed down with similar programs grouped to save space.

The Start button now brings up two columns. The left one displays your most recently accessed programs, while the right contains all the 'My' folders, such as 'My Documents'. The My Music folder is a great new addition, ordering files in a number of ways, such as by artist. Best of all, you can display album covers simply by placing a .jpg in the folder.

This also works in the My Pictures folder, making it easy to identify each folder's contents.

Thankfully, Windows is also less intrusive with its suggestions. Me's frustrating dialog boxes have been replaced with discreet balloon messages from the System Tray.

New features

XP is positively brimming with new features and improvements. And Windows Media Player - now up to version 8 - is only available as part of XP. It loads faster, takes up less space and handles full-screen playback far better. Encoding CDs to the efficient WMA format is also more attractive now that the player will number tracks for you, and it's even possible to add lyrics and have them displayed as the track plays.