Windows XP

Matthew Preston | March 18, 2002
I upgraded for the second time to Windows XP and here is my two cents. Did you ever notice that no one really had an opinion on anything until the Internet came along? Anyways...

I upgraded to Windows XP when it first came out and was more than happy with it. I ended up going back to Windows 98 and then ME when I realized that I couldn't use my CD burner because Hewlett Packard didn't get off their ass and realease drivers for it. Well, I was happy to see that there were drivers now, so I made the plunge and upgraded my system again.

The first luxury is that if you have the full version, you can just upgrade any older OS. The whole process took about 70 mins. and when it was finished everything was kept the way I had before. Every single driver was installed and ready to go and my Network and Internet Connection Sharing adapters and protocols were working fine. It was like nothing had happened, everything was functioning fine.

I tried using Nero V. 4.0.5.6 to copy some CD's but when I went to run it, I got an error message telling me that I needed to reinstall it. Okay, I did. It started fine and then gave me the message that it couldn't find the CDRW drive. I went to HP.com and tried to download the drivers for my drive, but of course, in classic monopolistic fashion, I couldn't get the drivers, I had to take 8 megs worth of software with them. So I installed some piece of crap program called HP RecordNow. It worked for copying CD's, but not anywhere near the level of Nero. It was made for beginners and let no room for customization. I then found that Nero has a new version out made specifically for Windows XP and downloaded it. Fantastic! It doesn't even need the drivers for my CDRW! Nero has always had a huge compatibilty list and it worked like a charm. Needless to say I am happy now. Fuck you HP!

As for the OS itself, it runs the best out of anything they have ever had. Not only is it fully customizable (get rid of any icon, anywhere, including the tray by the clock, customize menus, etc.) but it is still user friendly. This is the natural progression of where Microsoft can take an OS. It is also beyond stable, the best yet. I have had a few programs crap out on me and what I get is an error report box asking me if I want to send the report to Microsoft (of course I don't) and it closes the program, restarts explorer and everything is still runnning fine and other programs are intact. This whole process takes about 4 seconds. No more damn blue screens and no more reboots for no reason. I have been running for over 2 days now and I expect to make it well over two weeks+ before needing to reboot. I does help of course to have 768MB of memory, but any amount of 128MB or so would work just fine.

Overall, I am very happy with it and now that it is compatible with most hardware, I can only recommend it.

Anna Gregoline | March 19, 2002
I've got XP too - question. Do you know if XP has a feature that was like 98 where you could click a desktop icon in the toolbar and it would minimize all windows and take you to the desktop? I miss that button.

K. R. | March 19, 2002
[hidden by request]

Matthew Preston | March 19, 2002
Sure thing. I use that button all the time! It is located in Windows/system folder and is called Show Desktop. At least that is what I have here. It might just be here because I upgraded. If you can't find it there, try doing a search for *.scf files. It should be one of two or three that you find. Last but not least, I have placed this file on my website here. Just right click and save.

To get it in the toolbar at the bottom, do the following:

Right click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and make sure there is no checkmark next to "Lock the Taskbar".

Next, open up an explorer window to where you have the file (see above) and simply drag the show desktop icon down to the toolbar. From there you can line everything up where you want it and then "Lock the Taskbar" again by right clicking on it.

That should do it and I hope this helps! Or you could just use Win-D like Daniel says. :-)

Anna Gregoline | March 19, 2002
Ok, I got the file, and it works, yeah, but I can't the icon to go onto the taskbar for some reason. It's unlocked, but it still won't go on there. bah.

Thanks for the help though.