Microsoft Windows XP Home Full Edition OEM

This review is about the Windows XP Home Edition 2002 version OEM with service pack 1. I paid a total of $75 for this OEM version not a Dell OEM version but one that comes with a genuine Microsoft media and product key only without the certificate of authenticity. This operating system is much more stable as compare with the previous versions of Windows but it require the use of more resources from the computer. Such as Microsoft quoted that you can run this on a PC with only 300 MHz and 128 MB of RAM. But for me, I felt that the computer should have at least the bare minimum of: Processor of 500 MHz or more, 256 MB or more of RAM and with a hard drive free space of at least 10 GB for it to run reasonably fast.

Unlike Windows 98 this operating system is not based on DOS which means some of the programs meant for Windows 98 or earlier may not work properly or at all on this operating system. First of all, Windows XP is so much stable as compare with any of their earlier versions of Windows even on the very same computer. If it ever crashes, it usually brings down only the program itself not the whole operating system. So far, it works even better when I downloaded and install the Service Pack 2 from Microsoft. Service Pack 2 offers greater system security and privacy for your computer. The Windows XP can be formatted using the NTFS or FAT 32 filesystems. The NTFS filesystem offer greater security such as setting your profile's document folders and settings to private setting to deny access to anybody using the computer when you log off. But the problem with this, is be sure to turn it off when you go to repair Windows. If you don't do this, you'll not be able to access or delete your files anymore. It would just sit on your hard drive taking up space. The only way to get rid of it is to do a clean install of Windows XP.

Another nice feature of Windows XP is you can set the profile to either administrator or just user. With administrator, you can make changes or install programs on XP and with the user profile you can only use but not make changes at all. But I found out that on the user setting profile it will not allow you to log on the Internet using dial-on. Because of this, I have to set all the profile to Administrator.

The really nice feature of Windows XP is RAM management. Unlike Windows 98, with the same amount of RAM it doesn't keep getting the smaller and smaller with the amount of free RAM as times goes on. It periodically refreshes freeing up the amount of free RAM's so your computer will not slow down.

Also that the disk Defragment program that comes with Windows XP works much quicker than Windows 98's program. I would truly recommend Windows XP Home Edition for anybody who has a computer that meets the bare minimum that I recommended. Also I would suggest that the hard drive to be replaced with a faster larger one up to the maximum size that your computer can handle.