Microsoft Windows XP SP2...

[Lostgame]

When I first booted up my computer running Windows XP SP2, I was amazed at the improvments in the GUI. It looked solid, and was a definite even simply visual improvement from it's gray-clad predeccessors.

 

The boot-up speed was solid in both a Virtual Machine and true booting, and the cleartype font rendering software made the text look smooth and solid on my 13.3" screen.

 

I was impressed by the options for themes, but still wanted more, and, quickly growing tired of the green and blue interface, was impressed and happy that Microsoft opted to keep it's old desktop style as an option for those who choose it. I was unimpressed, however, by the lack of theme options, because the ones they included seemed so solid, and WindowBlinds doesn't really cut it for me.

 

All in all, the UI seems nicer-looking, and is a tad more intuitive, but it gets in the way sometimes when it tries to make it too easy for you to do things (the new taskbar was a bit of an annoyance.)

 

In doing what I do best, I immediately checked out Windows Movie Maker, which, sadly, didn't live up to expectations, but there were some positives, with quite a few impressive options, that I didn't see with iMovie until I got my plug-ins, which include more impressive transitions and more options for the effects.

 

Unfourtunately, the effects and transitions were rather limited, and are non-upgradeable. Ah well, you can't win with everything.

 

I booted up IE6, and noticed no problems, the browser is fine, it lacks features that alternatives have, but felt solid, and for casual browsing on GBADEV.org and Wikipedia, it appeared fine.

 

Overall, other than a few minor criticisms, I have to state that Windows XP does it's job as a standard business or gaming OS-only the person overriden with virii and too senseless to tell the difference (READ: 11-year-old MySpace-visiting girls) and the obsessive creative professional should consider the alternatives without thought.

 

Pros:

-Decent UI, with nice effects, the option to change the UI to the old one is nice.

-Plug and play functionality, it's like the hardware doesn't even know it's there.

-Movie Maker provides good functionality for it's basic functions, despite it's complicated UI.

-Paint kicks ass.

-IE feels solid.

 

Cons:

-The little messages from the right of the taskbar {censored} me off a lot. I don't need to know that you don't consider AVG to be a virus-protecting program, kthxbai.

-Built-in themes are kinda bland, give us more (free) options, please?

-Some new layout is counterproductive and wastes space.

-Viruses-no matter how hard you try, it's hard to get rid of them all. And it's annoying having an anti-virus scanner eat your RAM all the time.

 

Overall 8/10

-Good OS with great compatiblity.

-Few bugs, SP2 fixes a lot.

[Timyang]

Is this a joke of some sort?

[sigxcpu]

Wait till he pulls out the Nashville review

[wayneoats]

well its true

[trav1085]

Just heard of Windows XP (or SP-2) today? This is pretty old. I agree, I don't like Windows Movie Maker, it's very unprofessional.

 

I like XP, it's great for my games. I hope Vista is going to be better, as I'm not getting a new ATI radeon x1600 pro 512mb pci-e for nothing, I hope it will run games the best (and osx86, that's what real macs use, I think)

[head]

;-)

[asap18]

umm some people havent used windows xp, some like lostgame have probably stayed with a better alternative (I think Mac OS X is the name) until intel chips allowed for mac users to put windows on their machines.