SUMMARY: You’ve probably heard about the next operating system from Microsoft called Windows XP. Sit back and relax as Sevan gives us a run down of Windows XP and what it means for us all. Should we take it or leave it? Read on and find out as Sevan tells us all we need to know!
Windows XP Home Edition includes a number of enhancements over Windows 2000 Professional. These include: • Improved software (application) and hardware compatibility • Simplified security • Simplified log-on featuring new "welcome" screen • Fast user switching • A new "Whistler" user interface featuring context-sensitive Web views • Enhanced support for digital media (movies, pictures, music) • DirectX 8.x multimedia libraries for gaming Professional Edition: Superset of Home Edition At its most basic level, Professional is a business-oriented superset of Home Edition. Because of this, most features found in the Professional version wouldn’t fit in a Home PC use orientation. The most obvious difference is security, which is vastly simplified in Home Edition. Each interactive user is assumed to be a member of the Owners local group, which is the XP equivalent of the Windows 2000 Administrator account: This means that anyone who logs on to a Home Edition machine has full control. Likewise, the Backup Operators, Power Users, and Replicator groups are missing from Home Edition, and a new group, called Restricted Users, is added. Administrative shares are unavailable in Home Edition.
"Professional Edition is a strict superset of Home Edition," confirmed Chris Jones, Vice President of the Windows Client Group. "Everything you can do in Home Edition, you can do in Pro. We think there are home users who will buy Pro."
