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Reviews - Windows XP

So, is Windows XP worth it? Or is it a pile of junk? If you want to know the answer to that question, you've come to the wrong place. This review isn't anything like a fair, impartial review - it details the experiences I had with it, both good and bad. There may be some degree of bias in here, too, although I'll try to keep it to a minimum. That said, if you want proper reviews of Windows XP, look elsewhere.

Installation

To carry out this review, I used VMware Workstation with a 30-day evaluation serial number. I created a new virtual machine for Windows XP Professional, set up the hard drive to be 1GB large, gave it 64MB of RAM, and set it up for bridged networking. I kept everything else as the default. I then gave it the Windows XP CD, booted it up, changed the BIOS setup so that it booted from the CD, and then rebooted the thing properly.

The first thing you see is the now-expected white-on-blue text-mode setup layout. Microsoft has used this layout ever since MS-DOS 6.22 (possibly even before that - I haven't checked). In this mode, it loads all the necessary drivers, and then presents you with the welcome screen. Continuing from that, it then gives you the license agreement. After reading it (you do read these things, right?) and pressing F8 to continue, it presumably will split off depending on the system configuration. In my case, having a completely unpartitioned hard disk, it offered me the opportunity to partition it, or install XP in the free space. I opted for the latter, and it then told me that it wouldn't install because I need more than 1,100MB or so (about 1.1GB).

Now, that's fair enough, as hard discs don't come less than that any more, unless you're getting them from some weird dealer. But still - 1.1GB? That's a heck of a lot of space for an OS. Still, I knew I wouldn't get anywhere without increasing the space, so after making a new hard disk with 1.3GB space, I started again and got back to this point in the installation.

Surprisingly, after partitioning the disc, it didn't require me to reboot the computer. With every other system I've tried, changes to the partition table require a reboot to take effect, but XP didn't. I was impressed by this.

It then started copying the files necessary to launch the main part of the installation. After this was done, it prompted me to take the disc out of the drive and press RETURN to reboot. I rebooted, and then changed the BIOS setup to boot from the hard disk first, and rebooted again.

At this point, I was given my first view of the new XP startup screen. As you can see, it's quite a clean layout, which is always good, as first impressions really do count for quite a lot. The bar below the logo isn't a progress bar as you'd expect, but rather, just a bar which moves from left to right to show that something's happening.

After the startup screen, you enter the main installation, starting straight at the "Installing Windows" step. At first I thought I wouldn't need to do anything, as it seemed to go automatically. However, it then popped up a window asking me what keyboard and language settings I wanted, but that isn't a problem. After a few more questions, including setting the Administrator password and asking for the Volume License Key (that's a Product Key for those of us who don't keep up to Microsoft terminologies), it then proceeded to install XP, a process which probably took around 45-60 minutes in all, although I didn't time it so I can't be certain.

One feature about the installation that I like is the flashing dots in the bottom-right hand corner that reassure you that your computer is doing something and that it's not hung. But the install itself is refreshingly free of options to install. Some (like me) will view this as a hinderance - we want to choose what goes on our systems, not for Microsoft to choose for us, dammit! Also, another grumble I have is that it doesn't prompt you to create a normal user - only the Administrator user. Of course, this means that most people probably won't ever create more users and will be logged in as Administrator all the time - a Bad Thing. In any case, after it's installed, it automatically reboots and enters Windows XP for real.

The first time you do this, it tells you that it will change the resolution to make it appear better on your monitor. However, as I was running it within VMware and the VMWare Tools weren't installed yet, this didn't actually happen (after I'd installed the Tools, I didn't get prompted again). It then asks you to login as Administrator using the password you specified at installation.

The Interface

On subsequent reboots, you get the new Windows XP login screen, which doesn't have a username field any more - instead, you're invited to click on the user that you want to log in as, then to type your password.

Once you're in, one thing that you notice quite quickly is that the mouse pointer now has a sort of "shadowy" effect to it, Although you can get used to it, it is a bit disconcerting when you come across it for the first time. Also, the only icon remaining on the desktop is the Recycle Bin - everything else has been moved to the Start menu, which itself looks completely different from what it used to look like - but more on that later.

Of course, as you probably know, the interface has been given a complete overhaul and now looks... er... odd. Or at least, it does to me. The screenshot to the left is an example of this - this is a folder window displaying the root of drive C. Note that the options on this screenshot were different than what XP comes with - in particular, hidden files are not normally shown, and neither are file extensions. But disregarding this, you can see just how radically the look has changed - the bar on the left looks a lot different, and there's a new way to arrange files. However, if you don't like the new XP interface, it's easily turned off from the Control Panel.

Speaking of the Control Panel... Microsoft has done a good job in keeping most keyboard shortcuts the same, but there's one they missed - if you pressed the Windows key and then S in older version of Windows, it would pop up the Start menu and go to the Settings submenu. However, in XP, it goes to the Search window, which is irritating if you didn't want to use Search.

Control Panel looks different too. There are now various groups of settings, and then there are links inside these groups that take you to the various settings you want to go to.

That's all for this first page. I'll create another page when I think of some more to write. :)