Games - Windows XP

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Windows XP is a major revision of the Microsoft Windows operating system created for use on desktop and business computer systems. It is presently the latest general-purpose version of Microsoft's family of operating systems, and is expected to be succeeded by Windows Vista sometime in January 2007. Codenamed "Whistler" during its development, Windows XP was released on October 25, 2001. The letters "XP" are said to come from the word experience.

The most common editions of the operating system are Windows XP Home Edition, which is targeted at home users, and Windows XP Professional, which has additional features and is targeted at power users and business clients. Windows XP Media Center Edition
, released one year later, consists of Windows XP Professional with new features allowing users to record and watch TV shows, watch DVDs, listen to music and more. Two separate 64-bit versions of Windows XP were also released, Windows XP 64-bit Edition for IA-64 (Itanium) processors and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition for x86-64 (AMD64/Intel EM64T) processors.

Windows XP is known for its improved stability and efficiency over previous consumer versions of Windows. It introduced more efficient software management to avoid the "DLL hell" that plagued older consumer versions of Windows. It presented a significantly redesigned graphical user interface (GUI), a change Microsoft promoted as more user-friendly than previous versions of Windows. Windows XP is also the first version of Windows to use product activation to combat software piracy, a restriction that did not sit well with some users and privacy advocates.

Editions

The two major editions are Windows XP Home Edition, designed for home users, and Windows XP Professional, designed for business and power-users. The Home Edition lacks several features provided by Windows XP Professional. For instance, the Home Edition cannot become part of a Windows Server domain — a group of computers that are remotely managed by one or more central servers. Many businesses that use Windows have a Windows Server and a domain. It is also restricted to a simplified access control scheme that does not allow specific permissions on files to be granted to specific users under normal circumstances.

Several features available in the Professional Edition are unavailable in the Home Edition. The Remote Desktop, which lets users operate one PC over a local area network or the Internet while using another PC, is available, however, it can only act as the client and not the server (It can control XP Pro based machines, but other XP Pro or XP Home machines cannot operate it). Offline Files and Folders, which allow the PC to automatically store a copy of files from another networked computer and work with them while disconnected from the network, is unavailable. The Encrypting File System that encrypts files stored on the computer's hard drive so they cannot be read by another user, even with physical access to the storage medium, is absent. iSCSI support is also unavailable.

Also absent is Symmetric multiprocessing, the ability to divide work between multiple processors (CPUs) — Windows XP Professional supports up to two CPUs, while the Home Edition supports only one. Windows XP Home Edition does however support the Hyper-threading functionality present on some Intel microprocessors. Although it has been reported to work on some dual-core microprocessors available from both AMD and Intel, Microsoft has recommended upgrading to Professional Edition for improved stability and compatibility.

Some Centralized administration features, including Group Policies, Automatic Software Installation and Maintenance, Roaming User Profiles, and Remote Installation Service (RIS) are also unavailable in the Home Edition.

Windows XP for specialized hardware

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Windows XP ]

Games - Windows XP

Editions

Windows XP for specialized hardware

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