Review by James S

Win Xp has some hidden aggravations, so be ready to shell out more money to upgrade. First, you need at least 256 MB’s of RAM to really enjoy this OS. Running it with less memeroy will be frustrating. Win Xp does not play nicely with some games, especially some older games. Even some new games may not run properly on Win XP. Windows does not really have flexibility with CD burning. If you have Roxio Cd Creator (and you will need it)you will have to upgrade that as well. Windows will burn a cd in one session once and once only. If you have earlier versions of Roxio, you have to upgrade that. get the latest Norton Anti-Virus. Your old Norton won’t run. Get Zone Alarm because Windows XP’s firewall is not very strong. Matter of fact, Windows XP will make you a big security risk (but that has been true of all MS Products.) Hackers can even hack your system through a security vulnerability through Media Player. Download those updates and check their security site weekly. Media Player will only rip Cd’s in its own format–not MP3. If you want to convert Win Media Files to MP3’s, you have to shell out some bux to get Win XP Plus (which is a total waste of money.) MS believes that you should keep buying more and more stuff to have an all inclusive OS. The other features are features like Instant Voice Messaging is available otherplaces too. What it does do right is handling Digital Cameras. Real plug and play. Some of the features that have been cobbled from Win 2000 make it more stable but not crash proof. I don’t see the dreaded Blue Screen O’ Death much these days but then Windows will just lock up and freeze. Once your registry gets futzy, problems will occur. Windows still needs to be reinstalled every six months or so to keep it running well.