Thanks to the wonderful Microsoft propaganda machine, and the questionable release of Windows Millennium, a lot of people have been asking me about whether or not they should upgrade to Windows XP. XP, is the latest and greatest Windows Operating System (OS) and the fact of the matter is it rocks. It's far more stable than anything available on the Windows (and the Mac for that matter, in my opinion) and it has some pretty good bells and whistles that were not available in earlier versions of Windows. I honestly think that XP is the best OS yet.

On the other hand, it can be an expensive upgrade because many machines do not have the Ram that is required to run it well, and some hardware is not supported under it, particularly scanners. Anyway, if you've been wondering about XP, here are some basic guidelines to whether or not it is worthwhile or not, arranged by Windows OS.

If you have Windows 95, chances are your getting to the point where you can see the time where you'll be buying a new computer. Most machines running Windows 95, do not meet the technical requirements of Windows XP, and upgrading them would be prohibitively expensive when you consider the cost of a new computer. My advice is to save your $$$.

Windows 98 users face the biggest quandary when it comes to XP. Many machines running 98 are less than two years old and may greatly benefit from the upgrade, particularly in terms of stability. At the same time, there are some 4-5 year old machines out there running 98, which don't meet the Microsoft minimums for XP. If your more or less happy with how your machine runs, you should probably stick with Windows 98. If your not, and your using an older machine, you may want to try a clean install of 98. If your using a newer machine and expect to get a few more years out of it, XP is probably a good bet sometime down the road as it's added stability is a great improvement over any version of Windows 98.

Strangely enough, computers running Window Millennium or ME, are the ones that benefit most from XP. ME was the immediate predecessor to XP, coming out about a year before it. For the most part ME was Windows 98 with some bells and whistles added on. Unfortunately, in practice it seems to be horribly unstable, crashy, and sloooow. In particular, the biggest problem seems to be with Internet Explorer, but underneath the hood, there are some serious memory management problems based on what I've read. If you've got ME, you will probably appreciate the move to XP more than anyone else.

For people running Windows 2000, relax and stay put. You're in good shape. Celebrate your good fortune!

In all instances, before you upgrade, your computer should meet these specifications, which are our opinion, based on Microsoft's listed requirements.