What Is Windows XP?

One way or another, you’ve probably already heard about Windows, created by the Microsoft company and owned by one of the richest men in the world. Windows posters line the walls of computer stores. Everybody who’s anybody talks breezily about Windows, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Weird code words, such as
www.vw.com, stare out cryptically from magazines, newspapers, bus stops, and blimps.
To help you play catch-up in the world of Windows, this chapter fills
you in on the basics of the newest version of Windows, called Windows
XP. The chapter discusses what Windows XP is and what it can do. This
chapter also shows how Windows XP works with older Windows pro-
grams you may have on your shelf.
Because Windows XP comes preinstalled on most new computers, there is a question: Should I bother upgrading to Windows XP?

What Are Windows and Windows XP?
Windows is just another piece of software, like the zillions of others lining the store shelves. But it’s not a program in the normal sense—something that lets you write letters or lets your coworkers play Bozark the Destroyer over the office network after everybody else goes home.

Rather, Windows controls the way you work with your computer. Years ago, computers looked like typewriters connected to TV sets. Just as on a typewriter, people typed letters and numbers onto the computer’s keyboard. The computer listened and then placed those letters and numbers onto the screen. But it was ever-so-boring.
The method was boring because only computer engineers used computers. Nobody expected normal people to use computers—especially not in their offices, their dens, or even in their kitchens. Windows changed all that in several ways.

A Windows software dumps the typewriter analogy and updates the look of computers. Windows replaces the old-style words and numbers with colorful pictures and fun buttons. It’s fun and flashy, like a Versace necktie.

A Windows XP is the most powerful of Microsoft’s Windows software that’s been updated many times since starting to breathe in January 1985. XP is short for Experience, but Microsoft calls it Windows XP to make it sound hip, as if Jimi Hendrix would have used it.

A Programmer types say Windows software is big enough and powerful enough to be called an operating system. That’s because Windows “operates” your computer. Other programs tell Windows what to do, and Windows makes your computer carry out those
commands.

A Microsoft built Windows XP on the shoulders of Windows 2000, an older but powerful version of Windows designed for business users. That means Windows XP is much more difficult to crash than Windows Me or Windows 98. Unfortunately, it also means Windows XP is more difficult for beginners to use.