Absolute Beginners Guide to Upgrading and Fixing Your PC

The first thing you notice about Windows XP is that it looks different, as you can see in Figure 17.1. Compared to previous versions of Windows, XP features brighter colors, rounder edges, bigger buttons and icons, and a more three-dimensional look and feel. (Although, when you get past all the razzmatazz, it still looks and acts pretty much like all previous versions of Windows.)

Windows XP offers some (but not a lot of) new functionality in the core of the operating system. A lot of operations that used to be accessible by right-clicking an object are now front-and-center via the context-sensitive task panes found in most folder windows. Just click a task when you want to get something done which is much easier than right-clicking items or pulling down menus.

There are also a handful of new features in Windows XP, including a more robust media player, a digital video editor, a new instant messaging program that incorporates Internet telephony and video conferencing, and improved support for digital cameras and scanners. Most of these new features were previously available from third-party providers, but now they're built into the operating system.

But of all the changes in Windows XP, the biggest one is invisible to the eye. The guts of Windows XP aren't the same guts that were in Windows 9X/Me; instead, Windows XP uses the underlying engine that is used in the Windows 2000 operating system. The result of this switch to a 32-bit engine is that Windows XP has all the stability of Windows 2000 which means that Windows XP should crash a lot less frequently than Windows 9X/Me did.