Thursday 5 May 2016

Remembering… Windows XP

Remembering… Windows XP

David Hayward looks back at one of the most successful operating systems ever

The operating system that refused to die. Despite being released nearly 15 years ago and Microsoft trying to kill it, Windows XP is still hanging around.

Even after Windows 10 was a month old, Windows XP was still ranked as the third most popular operating system in terms of use. But what made this OS such a popular choice for PC users?


It’s a combination of factors that really helped XP cling on to the PC. One was the release of its successor, Windows Vista. Although Vista isn’t a bad OS – once you’ve applied all the updates and such – it didn’t really go down too well with the majority of users at the time.

Another factor was that Windows XP was really the last working bridge between legacy and more modern hardware. Not every user has the latest PC and components. Many have some legacy kit they still use to this day, along with the relevant software. Getting that hardware to work correctly under Windows 10 can be a pain, if it works at all. But with Windows XP, and even if this hardware and software was designed to work on Windows 95/98, it still worked. And it worked well.

It was also a remarkably stable operating system, provided you’d built it up yourself and kept it in good order. We can count on one hand the number of times the Blue Screen of Death appeared on our XP machine.

One of the most important factors, though, was that it was still simple. It didn’t have an Aero interface, tiles, on-screen dashboards, gadgets and goodness knows whatever advances are present in a more recent OS. It had the desktop, icons and a Start button. And it allowed even the most unknowledgeable users to interact with it easily.

Its History

Windows XP was released to manufacturing on August 24th 2001, but it was originally one part of two separate products codenamed Neptune and Odyssey.

Odyssey was to be the successor for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 business users, whereas Neptune was to continue the Windows 98 and ME lineage for consumers. Both projects came across problems within Microsoft itself, with each dropping into development hell at nearly every step of the way. The result was a lot of leftover code and a couple of shelved projects.

Shortly after, Neptune and Odyssey were shelved, and project Whistler came to the forefront. The goal of Whistler was to combine both the consumer and business models into a single operating system, and with it came all the advances that had already been worked on with the Neptune and Odyssey projects.

By June 2001, the Microsoft PR machine was well under way. Madonna’s song ‘Ray of Light’ was being blasted out of televisions the world over, and the new experience that was Windows XP was finally being showcased to the public prior to it being made available a couple of months later.

Three Service Packs later and after an extended support period up to 8th April 2014, Microsoft drove the final nail into XP’s coffin and ended all support and updates. XP, though, has other thoughts and is still being used on a vast number of PCs, cash machines and other services around the world.

The Good

A fast, stable and legacy-friendly operating system that worked well.

The Bad

One of the most targeted OSs for viruses and other malware.

Did You Know?
• As of 8th September 2015, there were still 500 million active Windows XP PCs.
• The IRS still used Windows XP, although it’s mostly phased out now.
• MS paid Charles O’Rear millions for his ‘Bliss’ rolling hills image for the XP desktop.
• Due to a hidden folder, you can’t create a folder called CON.