Assignment # 2 Module B

Windows XP Professional

This operating system is one of the most recent instalments from Microsoft, currently only exceeded by Windows Vista. Windows XP came into production in 2001, it was a combination of the Windows NT/2000 with the Windows 95/96/ME lines. This operating system surpassed all of the other members of the Microsoft operating systems family, at the point of it coming out. Windows XP began a new era of systems, as it introduced the Windows NT core to the consumer market. Windows XP uses the Windows NT 5.1 kernel, this replacing the old 16/32-bit branch. Windows XP was the longest lasting version of Windows that was been released to date. It totalled a total of six years, between 2001 and 2007, when Windows Vista surpassed it.
Consumers using Windows XP will experience improved code protection, dramatically reduced reboot scenarios, enhanced device driver verifier, pre-emptive multitasking architecture, as well as many new and improved things within the computing system. These improvements allow maximum system stability, higher levels of systems uptime, run demanding programs with impressive system response time.
Windows XP has no built-in protection against viruses, which is a downfall to the system. Also Windows XP hides the true nature of all files, which is one of the oldest and most dangerous flaws in any operating system. Due to this 'hiding' of files many viruses take advantage of this weakness by naming their "payload" files with double file extensions.
As stated above Windows XP was the first Windows operating system to use a Windows NT core. It also introduced the possibility of having various users' desktops to allow for people to share a computer but still maintain their own programs on the desktop. Many new and unique features were introduced in this operating system throughout its six years of superiority. These features include improvements with internal devices and the systems capability to run with new software.
Myself I prefer Windows XP to the newer Microsoft operating system, Windows Vista. This is because Windows XP is reliable, and it doesn't have too many features so as to confuse me. Over the six-year span that Windows XP was superior, I grew comfortable using it and find it hard to use the newer system. Also I dislike the systems that came before Windows XP as they are now outdated and slow compared to newer, more modern systems.