Windows XP At Home

By Michael Cherry

Although Windows XP offers benefits for business users, Microsoft is marketing it primarily as a consumer operating system. Windows XP Home Edition is Microsoft’s first consumer operating system based on the Windows NT architecture, rather than MS-DOS, and consumers will reap the benefits of NT’s greater stability. The new task-based interface will make it easier for home users to perform useful functions: for example, browsing to a folder such as My Pictures exposes specific picture tasks, such as “View as a slide show,” “Order prints from the Internet,” or “Set as desktop background,” as well as file tasks such as “Copy or Rename a picture (file).”

Other salient new features for home users include the following:

Separate user accounts. With Windows XP, each user in the home has his or her own account. These user IDs can be linked with profiles, with each user given a role of Owner, Limited User, or Guest. The owner of the computer can control what family members can do, including where they store data, and which applications they can use. In homes where several people share the computer, Fast User Switching uses the IDs and profiles to makes it easier and quicker for people to take turns using the computer. For example, if Mom is using the computer to balance the family’s check-book with Microsoft Money and her daughter wants to connect to the Internet to do some research for school, Mom doesn’t have to log off—Fast User Switching will quickly switch profiles for them.