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Microsoft Windows XP Professional Upgrade with Service Pack 2
Platform: Windows XP
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List Price: $199.99
Price: $189.99
You Save: $10.00 (5.00%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Edition: CD-ROM
28 used & new from: $123.98
Features: 
  • Clean, simple design of Windows XP Professional puts the features you use most often at your fingertips, helping you find them quickly
  • Automatically keep your PC up-to-date with the latest security enhancements including the Windows Security Center, Windows Firewall
  • Windows XP Professional provides rich, wireless network support, helping you simply and easily connect to wireless networks whether in your home, office, or out on the road
  • Quickly set up and connect all the computers, printers, devices, and an Internet connection in your home with the all new Network Setup Wizard
  • Encrypting File System provides an additional level of file protection from hackers and data theft by transparently encrypting files with a randomly generated key
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Editorial Reviews:


Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) with Advanced Security Technologies provides users with an enhanced security infrastructure to help defend against viruses, worms, and hackers. In addition, it helps provide increased manageability and control along with an improved, more consistent user experience. By building on the proven Windows® 2000 operating system, Windows® XP Professional delivers a reliable foundation you can count on to keep your computer up and running when you need it most. Not only is Windows® XP more reliable, it also helps you more easily recover from system problems.Windows® XP Professional delivers the new standard in reliability and performance. This operating system is designed for businesses of all sizes and for users who demand the most from their computing experience. The latest Service Pack for Windows XP—Service Pack 2 (SP2)—is all about security, and it’s one of the most important service packs ever released. It provides better protection against viruses, hackers, and worms, and includes Windows Firewall, Pop-up Blocker for Internet Explorer, and the new Windows Security Center.

Amazon Product Description
With Windows XP Professional Edition with Service Pack 2, you get safer browsing and communication, powerful security tools, and improved experiences. Windows XP is the operating system release that unifies the Microsoft range, with all the desktop versions now built on the NT/2000 code base rather than the shakier foundation of Windows 95, 98, and Me. That makes XP a great upgrade for users of the now-obsolete 9x and Me line, but for those already on Windows 2000 Professional it is a closer call. Despite the similar name, there is no special synergy between Windows XP and Office XP, which works fine on Windows 2000.

The Security Center lets you check the status of your essential security settings.

XP certainly looks different, with rounded window corners, larger and more detailed icons, and a clean-look desktop that on first installation shows only the taskbar and Recycle Bin. XP is also more customizable than earlier versions of Windows, and includes visual themes that let you change the whole appearance of Windows in an instant. That is the window-dressing, but underneath are some significant improvements. One of the most interesting is Remote Desktop. A standard XP feature, this uses technology from Microsoft Terminal Server to enable users to access their computer over any connection; for example, by dialing into the office from home.

This is not just file access--this technology lets you run applications remotely as if you were sitting at your desk at work. This is mature technology, stable and carefully thought out. So, for example, you can print from a remote word processor to a local printer. A variation on the theme is Remote Assistance, where the user can allow a remote helper to view their desktop, or optionally gain control of the keyboard and mouse, in order to troubleshoot a problem. The feature can also be disabled to ease security concerns.


Laptop users benefit from enhanced power management, with options to extend battery life by reducing CPU speed and display brightness. IrDA support has been fixed so that, unlike Windows 2000, Windows XP can easily use modems in mobile telephones via infrared. A new screen font, ClearType, improves legibility for laptop or other flat screens, and there is built-in support for wireless networking using the popular 802.11 standard. A great feature of XP, also found in Windows 2000, is the ability to synchronize network files with offline copies. Previously, these files could not be stored securely, but now they can be encrypted.


The Information Bar in Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 notifies you when it blocks ActiveX control or active content and then lets you decide what to do.

For Web browsing, XP comes with Internet Explorer 6.0. The enhancements in IE 6.0 are mainly of interest to Web developers, and in any case Microsoft makes IE freely available to all Windows users. Although Java is not installed by default, it is not difficult to download a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Windows Messenger, originally a chat client, has evolved into a collaboration tool that allows for video conferencing and application sharing.

Service Pack 2 allows users to instruct Internet Explorer how to handle downloads from a specific publisher

The most significant new feature for Internet users is the built-in firewall. A firewall protects against one of the most disturbing security risks, in which other users unknown to you might connect to your computer while it is online, reading private files or causing other damage. XP's built-in firewall is a simple affair, but it does prevent most types of unauthorized connection.

Windows XP has strong multimedia features. The new Media Player lets you copy music from CD to hard disk, create your own playlist, and write your own music CDs if you have a CD writer. Although there is loss of quality as a result of compression, the process is easy and convenient. Media Player 8.0 can play back DVD video, but only if a hardware or software DVD decoder is already installed. You can also play MP3 audio files and MPEG videos, but sadly, not the popular RealMedia formats. In the end, Media Player does nothing that you cannot also do with free alternatives, but it is slick and nicely integrated.

The XP user interface is not a radical departure from earlier versions of Windows, but there are a number of small changes that together add up to a significant improvement. The Start menu now automatically features the most frequently used programs at the top of the list, and you can add and remove shortcuts by right-clicking the icon and selecting Pin or Unpin from the pop-up menu. Windows online help is integrated into a Help and Support Center that works like an internal Web site, with searchable help, tutorials, and walk-throughs.

Windows XP Professional includes all the features of Windows XP Home, and adds support for dual processors, encryptable file systems, offline folders, the Remote Desktop as described above, and extra administration features that come into play when connected to a Windows server domain. XP is demanding on hardware, and it would be a mistake to install it on less than Microsoft's recommended minimum requirements. There is also activation to consider, a mildly annoying anti-piracy measure that requires you to obtain a code from Microsoft for full installation, and in the future if you reinstall or make major system changes.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Features

Internet Explorer Pop-up BlockerMakes browsing the Internet more enjoyable by enabling you to reduce unwanted ads and content.
Internet Explorer download monitoringWarns you about potentially harmful downloads and gives you the option to block files that could be malicious.
Internet Explorer Information BarProvides better information about events that are happening as you browse the Web, so it’s easier to know what’s going on and address potential security issues.
Windows Security CenterAllows you to easily view your security status and manage key security settings in one convenient place.
Windows Firewall updateAutomatically turned on by default, this improved firewall helps protect Windows XP from viruses, worms, and other security threats that can spread over the Internet.
Improved wireless supportDramatically improves and simplifies the process of discovering and connecting to wireless networks.
Bluetooth technologiesEnables you to easily connect to the latest Bluetooth-enabled hardware devices such as keyboards, cell phones, and PDAs.
Windows Media Player 9 SeriesMakes it easy to enjoy music, video, and broadband content with enhanced security.

Product Details
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 Based on 10 reviews.
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: 26

Customer Reviews

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1Buy a Mac, Apr 17, 2023
Just switched to a Mac. OS X upgrade is half the price, with 200 times the functionality... do the math, buy a Mac.


3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1XP Bad, SP2 Horrible., Apr 13, 2023
XP is only "good" if compared to previous, even worse versions of Windows. That is not really a fair comparison, and really shows how little of the computer world most people are actually aware of.

SP2 is just the latest piece of junk M$ put out to quiet (for a time) their critics. What did they do? Mostly, they turned on a useless firewall (useless because you can get much better for free, not to mention the fact that it breaks a number of applications).

When I was pushed SP2 a while back, it took me 1:30 hours to revert my laptop to a useable state. So, Caveat Emptor.


10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5Forget the Home edition and go Pro instead., Feb 16, 2023
Running Windows 95 and that means Windows 98 is illegal in your country and you are in the land of needing a new computer fast, feeling that you might have a box that looks like it is running windows 3.1 and to be honest now is your chance to move to Windows 2000 for a more solid operating system. Even NT users found more stability in Windows 2000, 98 users mostly gamers or downloaders, seeing the blue screen of death often, while Win 2K users doing something a little more software intensive like multimedia, graphics and servers that 98 could not manage. So came the day of the duel-processor, having an NT Dual 500mhz, upgrading to Win2K and you still had a fast machine, 64mb and 128mb games cards never really impressing you that much to get a better machine, a games console maybe cheaper and better, XP a little slow for you and besides, 2K was compatible with nearly everything and you could duel boot linux for fun. The only reason to buy a computer between the release of XP and now was if you did not have one and even then plenty of second hand units going around.

Year: 2005
256mb graphics cards, LCD monitors on the cheap, DVD-R media, Broadband, now is the time to upgrade your machine. AMD have some nice chips but the hyperthreading Intel P4 3.0GHz is a killer chip. 1GB of RAM, no problem. A pimpin' fast graphics card and you have a machine that can play Half-Life 2 on full resolution. The best games of the 21st century were released before Christmas this year, with 2005 bringing lots more to come. Broadband on the increase, DVD-R media and life might get less expensive if you are into computers and certainly a whole pile better.

Why not Linux? Well XP2 has the games and Linux not, so we can stop there. For speed on an OS, well Linux is a much faster, but XP2 is not bad on a system with half the ram of the above and a 1 GHz processor. If you are programming or doing fundamental computer work then do check out Linux because it might be what you need and learning Linux is like DOS with a bit of windows with all the free fundamental software you could want. Why not Apple? Well the same as above, but you have a better selection of stuff and to be honest multimedia applications work well on an apple, and why shouldn't they since Apple is industry standard for that kind of design work, so what does XP2 have to offer?

Obviously stability (not to be confused with security). XP2 is a very stable operating system. It is more stable than Windows 2000. For that reason, I made the upgrade. I have not found XP2 doing much annoying or something that I could not fix with Google. Installing is a big deal because you need Internet for verification; however it is fast on a high end system. There are obvious things you must do after you install it like download Firefox and use it instead of IE and try to use realplayer instead of mediaplayer, use Microsoft's AntiSpyware, don't use the firewall, use zonelarm free instead, spend on a good anti-virus software package, turn off the preview pane in Internet Outlook mail or try to find a free mail browser, make sure you get all the latest windows updates, careful what you put into your machine or extract, careful what mail you open, change passwords every week, and you can achieve a secure on-line machine that can do anything most computers can do right now with a company that has admitted that it has a security problem that will be addressed with future updates, but overall one should be impressed with the OS for stability, not speed or security, but for not crashing, as long as there are no hardware configuration conflicts, that do happen, get someone else to build your machine and blame them when it doesn't come together (and it wont come together because things are now cutting edge so get it done elsewhere; if your task bar hangs this is because of routers or USB hubs that are not compatible). The machine like the above is a 5 star experience but God help those who don't address security issues the moment they go on-line with it which is a bit like just driving your car off a cliff. Expect to loose everything to a virus and have your address details stolen with all your VISA card info.

XP2 PRO is 5 stars if you visit a place on the web called Gibson research incorporated, a highly respected individual in the security community who developed a way that people can test the vulnerability of their PC on-line. He developed a series of a security fixes for XP1 and XP2 problems. Bookmark that page and use it to have a somewhat secure and stable XP2.

Also remember, forget the HOME EDITION, go PRO.


34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5Windows XP professional, do you need it?, Jan 22, 2023
If you're reading this. You want to upgrade, your old computer to Windows XP Professional Edition here are a few things to keep in mind.

First thing is, you can download service pack two for Windows update. So no need to buy it integrated with XP.

These are what I consider the minimum system requirements:

256 MB of RAM. I have found is adequate more equals better.
500 MHz or higher will do.
7200 rpm hard drive will help a lot.

If you're running Windows millennium edition, or 98 upgrade now the stability is vastly improved. Gone are the blue screens of death.

Frequently asked question: is Windows XP Pro better than home edition?

Windows XP Pro has a more high-end networking features that most home users will never miss or would even know were missing. So for most users Windows home edition is fine. They both are based on the same code and are almost identical.

If you're thinking of upgrading from Windows 2000, I did, because I like the GUI interface better. But Windows XP is as stable as Windows 2000. So it's your call.

The plug-and-play ability of Windows XP is totally great! Windows XP will by default find most drivers for video card sound cards, network cards, etc. that is such a bonus gone in the days of having to search for CDs with drivers.

I recommend upgrading to Windows XP be a professional or home edition. It is a great operating system

Have some fun and get it done


10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5SP 2 works fine for me, Dec 30, 2022
No idea why people are trashing SP2, since it introduces a lot of stability and security enhancements. In the latter dept. it's still not robust yet; you need a firewall (e.g., a router or ZoneAlarm software) and a free anti-virus program (AVG, from grisoft.com) to beef up your security. But in many other aspects SP2 fixes stability and security holes and it installed seamlessly on my PCs and has made things soemwhat better.

This XP Pro upgrade is for people who have XP Home installed. The added advantages of XP Pro include 1) the ability to encrypt files and folders at the OS level; 2) the ability to control read/write/access rights of individual files and folders; 3) enhanced networking support; 4) dual-processor support; 5) and more. I chose XP Pro over Home for the first two reasons, as I'm paranoid about people snooping on my PC when I take a shower or dump.


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