Windows XP

Windows XP is the best operating system for a beginner in the world of computers. It’s having one of the best user interface system which supports both the entry level and top level users. It supports every features that a user needs including multimedia facilities, office utilities, security features and lot more. It is the best reliable and compatible operating system from Microsoft with latest Windows 2000 technology and multi language support of about 24 languages. We can check the features in XP one by one now.

User Interface of Windows XP:

As said earlier Windows XP has got one of the best user interface among the Microsoft family of operating system. We can add/create shortcut icons in the ‘Desktop’ itself for each program we regularly uses. The ‘Start’ menu is also very useful, we don’t have look inside the program files for our installed software's . Every installed software's is listed in the ‘Start’ menu of Windows XP. We can browse through the folders very easily through the ’My Computer’ in XP. All the drives in XP is listed in ‘My Computer’. The Windows explorer has got easy navigation tools like ‘Back’, ‘Forward’, ‘Up’ and a search utility to find our files and folders easily.

Windows XP also has ‘Switch User’ option in the ‘Shut Down’ menu. With this option w can switch users in a fast and simple way without log off of current user. Also you don’t need to be an expert in configuring your internet connection or your software installation or what ever things in XP, the WIZARD in XP will help you to do each task. Each and every tool or window in XP has got a help option to ensure easy use of XP.

Multimedia Facility in Windows XP:

Windows XP comes with the built in media player called ‘Windows Media Player’ for streaming your media files like mp3, mpeg etc. But for playing some additional types of files you need to install additional codecs and plugins. Some of the common files supported by Windows Media Player by default are .asf, .wma, .wmv, .wav, .mp3, .midi, .aiff. Files like .avi and .flv can be played by installing codecs to the Windows Media Player or by installing additional software's like VLC Media Player which is free. Windows Media Player also has options to stream internet radio, online video broadcasts, download music or videos from the web and rip (convert) audio CD’s to .wma format.

Windows XP also has latest Microsoft Direct X technology which gives an ultimate experience in playing computer games and watching high definition DVD quality movies

Office Utilities in Windows XP:

The default office utilities available in XP are Notepad, Word pad, Calculator and Address book. But you can install additional software Microsoft Office which is a paid one. If you have no bucks to spent for that then you can choose free office packages like Open Office. These packages has got tools for writing notes, creating databases, configuring emails, creating web pages and lot more .

Networking and Security features in Windows XP:

Windows XP has got easy networking wizards to share files and printers between computers connected in a network. Windows Firewall always alerts the user if an external or vulnerability is found in the network. But it is said that the most of attacks through internet is targeted mainly to Windows XP machines. So it is better to use a good internet security software before you connect your machine to any network.

Internet Explorer is the default browser in Windows XP and you can easily browse web pages through it. You need to install additional plugins in order to watch streaming videos and animations through your browser. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera are the other good internet browsers for Windows XP.

Microsoft is regularly updating the vulnerabilities in Windows XP and Windows XP SP 3 is the latest service pack available for users.