Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Windows XP Professional helps prevent problems that can arise if important system files are changed, or incompatible programs are installed. In addition, if serious problems do occur, Windows XP makes it easier to restore your computer to its normal operating state.Device Driver Rollback: Drivers are the bits of software that come with your digital camera, keyboard, or other device to communicate with your system. If you upgrade a driver and it disrupts your system, in most cases Windows XP can reinstall your previous version of the driver.
Last Known Good Configuration: If you change your hardware or software, then have trouble starting your computer, this feature can help. Windows XP saves your configuration settings after each successful startup. Then, if your system won't start, it uses these “last known good” settings to start your computer and lets you troubleshoot the new hardware or software.System Restore: This feature works like the Undo command in a word processing program. System Restore automatically monitors and records key system changes. If you change a system setting and then discover a problem, you can easily reverse the change.

This new version of Windows combines Microsoft's consumer and business operating system versions into one core Windows product. The prior consumer versions of Windows, which were made for home use, include Windows 95, 98, and ME. The prior business versions of Windows include NT and 2000.Some of us remember the "Designed for Windows 95" logos on software from the past. This logo often meant the same program would not run on Windows NT. What made this distinction even more difficult is that many "Designed for Windows 95" programs actually would work just fine under NT, but ultimately you'd have to install the product to know for sure. Such confusion is now eliminated, as Windows XP will essentially be the same product for both business and home users. While bundled software and some capabilities will vary between the Professional edition (which is aimed at business users) and the Home edition, these are largely marketing decisions and not technical limitations. The advantage of the unified XP version of Windows is that software designed for XP should work equally well on either the Professional Edition or the Home Edition unless it was specifically designed not to work on both.

As an evolutionary product, Windows Media Player 10 is immediately recognizable as a member of Microsoft's Windows Media Player product family, and yet it also offers a fresh face to what has always been an overly complicated product. Windows Media Player 10, if you can believe it, actually offers a lot more functionality than previous versions of the player, but it presents much of that functionality in far simpler ways. For example, in addition to aggregating music and video files like previous versions, Windows Media Player 10 can aggregate pictures, Recorded TV shows, and other media, though that ability might be limited by the kind of PC you have, and which portable devices you interact with. The free media player completely overhauls version 9, offering a simple, clutter-free interface that reflects the influence of massive consumer and focus-group testing.

The new player's features are quickly accessible from easy-to-read toolbar drop-down menus. The menus are turned off by default at first, resulting in a streamlined look. Users can turn the menus on with a right mouse click.Organizing user libraries of purchased music and video, CD-ripped music, and recorded TV is much like using Windows Explorer, but even easier. Users can search by title, artist, album, or their own star rating. Playlists can be created quickly by dragging and dropping titles into playlists that appear as folders.Users can copy CDs into WMA or MP3 formats and then drag and drop them into a portable device or burn them to a CD. Windows Media Player 10 recognizes a wide array of portable devices (it integrates the necessary drivers for many of them) and promises seamless syncing.