XP Wish I hadn't
Written: Jan 14 '02 (Updated Feb 11 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: pretty interface. does some things better than before
Cons: Deeply flawed, unreliable, intrusive, incompatible, expensive! same old Win
The Bottom Line: Unless you absolutely have to buy a new computer, wait until they fix it or don't use it.
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| drdobro's Full Review: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (N09-00048) For ... |
I have purchased both the Home and Professional versions (Pro version also reviewed separately). The Home version came on a brand new Compaq 8000z screamer system with DVD-R/RW Athlon 1.5 and 512 of RAM. (The Pro version was used to upgrade a recent issue Dell Inspiron 8000 for comparison).
I am extremely disappointed with XP after over 30 years experience in computers dating back to Fortran and Basic and working with Mac, Linux, DOS and every version of Windows as well as heading the IT committee at work.
In my experience, the operating system is somewhat more stable than ME, probably also than 98, (but NT at one of our offices is MUCH more stable) but it still crashes, freezes or becomes unresponsive very often. When it does, the hype is true, it is less often doomed to a total system restart, often you can at least get out of what you are doing and not lose data. BUT, once every week or two, there is a very serious problem that has required not just a power off and restart, but a COMPLETE REINSTALL OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM! This has been more apt to happen on the BRAND NEW system than on the upgrade, so what on earth is going on? All the hardware and software on this new system are certified to be "Designed for WIN XP"!!!
Now, that's pretty bad, and even after probably over a hundred "error reports" dutifully sent to Microsoft, no one at Microsoft nor at Compaq has provided any slightly useful assistance. In fact, I have stopped sending error reports to Microsoft (why keep sending the same error messages with never any response?) and I no longer call Compaq, since they will tell me to do a complete system restore after I have to wait on the phone.
I got much smarter,I started using Norton Ghost and when I have everything working pretty well, I image the disk and simply restore from there when things get bad. If you do get XP, either upgrade or a new version, I highly recommend imaging software to save this incredible aggravation. If I did not have an imaging program like this, I would go back to Win 98 even on the new system, XP is just too unreliable.
XP seems to me to be very unpredictable as to when something will stop working. For instance, on my home network, everything seems to be cruising along fine until all of a sudden the XP computer is no longer able to recognize the network. It still reaches the gateway to the internet, so it is still actually on network, but it's just stopped being visible to other computers on the network. I haven't changed any settings at all. I run the network setup wizard three times, and still it doesn't work. Anytime I try to access the Network "Neighborhood" the system goes into a dead freeze and becomes unresponsive. Troubleshooters don't help, reconfiguring doesn't help.
This kind of thing happens over and over again in XP but the interface has been cleaned up so you don't know it...
Personally I'd much rather have the old kind of crash where you knew things were not working right away than the silent kind where you just find out about it later on and can't get any kind of angle on how to fix it or on where it failed.
And this kind of occurrence is typical in XP. No warning or indication that something isn't working. I've had the same kinds of problems with the DVD drive, writing CD's and CDR's, Office applications, drive utilities, desktop functions, etc. Suddenly they don't work or freeze and there is no successful troubleshooting utility or outlet. And remember this is on a brand new "Designed for XP" computer with beautiful specifications!
Now all of this is in addition to the extreme expense of XP, not just the program itself but also all the other things you are forced into buying to be able to do what you could do before (only now it's slower since XP is an incredible resource hog, I mean really, it's slower than DOS for most functions even with 512k of RAM - what is the deal???)
For those of you who are still considering this upgrade, be forewarned that there is no backup provided in the home edition of XP. They don't talk about this omission very much, I guess, in the assumption that home users don't do anything important besides watch DVD's and play games, but even if you get the Professional version for another $100 to get backup, be warned that it is very unreliable in my experience, just like backup used to be in Windows 95 (I never got it to work)....So what is the point in having backup, if it of ALL things can't be trusted? Maybe that's the real reason they didn't see fit to include in the Home edition...And the much touted Windows System Restore has failed me several times, which is why I went to Norton Ghost to really be able to do full restore in under two hours...
After all these kinds of deeply ingrained problems, there is also the extreme intrusiveness (don't doubt for a minute that they want to know where you've been and where you are headed), the extreme push to do everything with a Microsoft application (try uninstalling Passport or Media Player), and the serious security flaws so far uncovered.
I sincerely hope that the Hype regarding XP was true. I hope that it is a better system than all others before. I hope they are able to get those additional service releases out soon and really deliver on the promises. I hope that the security flaws and unreliability become a thing of the past. I hope that they treat home users as important people too and provide more stability and backup tools.
And maybe more than anything else, I would love to be able to print an envelope without having to use four troubleshooters to get it to work, let alone have a home network work as reliably as it did in Win 98. If I could just print an envelope in nearly as little time as it takes to do it on a typewriter, I'd believe we were really moving in the right direction!
All kidding aside, for now I'd throw this fish back into the ocean. It's obviously still a deeply flawed operating system...and you are going to pay an awful lot of money to be another guinea pig...look at it again in six months or a year unless you have lots of money, time and patience...
Update 01/21/02: "A day in the life of XP" Everything running well last night. Turned on computer this morning. No problems. Check for windows updates, several new drivers available. Attempt to download, three install with no problem, fourth fails to install on three tries. Shut down system, no other (obvious) problems. On turning on, windows reports over 32 serious system errors (I stopped sending error messages to microsoft, I mean, if 32 doesn't cover the problem, what more do they need?). I try to restart system again, same problem with myriad serious error messages. Text of message doesn't help me figure out problem. I decide to try Windows System Restore - why not, though this has failed to help every single time in multiple previous problem situations. At first, it seems to work okay but on restart myriad serious error messages again. Try to go back one system restore further, myriad serious system error messages again. Try to undo all system restores, now the system just plain crashes all the way...Thank goodness I've gone out and bought new editions of Norton Ghost, PowerQuest Disk Image, Iomega Backup and Fileback because I need to use all of them to get my system back. It only takes an hour and a half to get back to working condition, not bad for XP...Now, I seem to be running okay again...This is another typical event on this Built For XP computer...I'm waiting on a response to all those error messages...but not holding my breath...support is certainly NOT a strong point of this system either.
Do you really want to go through all this?
PS I stand corrected on the issue of backup...it IS available in the Home Edition but it is hidden on the Windows install disk. Since it has also NOT worked on the computer that I have with the Professional edition, it is little consolation except for restoring minor data files. Don't be fooled into thinking that the native backup will help you out in one of these XP "serious system error" crashes...go with an imaging program instead.
Update 2/11/02: I have to admit that it has been better in the last two weeks. I finally seem to have hit on a combination that doesn't crash the system doing nothing much. I can't tell you how I got here, but I had to delete a bunch of the bundled software and undo several driver "upgrades" and accept that some things don't work well. As such, it IS stabler than Win 98, but oh so finicky...If I had to do it again, right now I would get an iMac 800 mhz with OS X from what I have seen. I may still do this and get back to the Mac world for stability and reliability...
The Dell upgrade sytem with XP Pro continues to work fairly well and there is a definite improvement over the horrors of Windows ME. This will stay on for 8 hours without crashing most days.
Still not worth paying THEM to be an extended beta tester if your Windows 98 works most of the time...
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
drdobro
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Reviews written: 2
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