The end of Windows XP support: Any thoughts or rememberences?

[John Callaham Reporter]

As most of you likely know, Microsoft will release the final public patches for Windows XP on Tuesday. We were hoping some of you might wish to offer some thoughts on the end of the support for the 12 year old operating system, along with any interesting remembrances or events in your life that have involved XP in some way.

 

[duoi Veteran]

When XP SP2 first leaked, I went to my friend's house after school to download it (he was the only person I knew with ADSL-- 256kbps). For some reason or another we had to format his computer first, and eventually after downloading, installing to make sure its good, and burning a copy to a disc, it was 8:30pm or so. By the time I got home it was about 9pm, much to the distress of my mother who was worried sick. I had Windows XP Home Edition, and I'll never forget the first time I booted with SP2 and the green bars on the bootscreen had become blue bars.

[Guest]

After breaking havoc across 95 multiple times and causing many BSoDs, it was the first OS that I installed myself, and everything worked without doing crazy things. Mind you, I was about 11 years old back then, and my English, especially the technical subset of it, was not that good. Pretty fun, nevertheless, learned a lot of things thanks to breaking it left and right and then learning how to fix it.

 

Another thing, I remember sitting for dozens of minutes in Windows Media Player and just staring at the visualisations. :laugh:

[+Warwagon MVC]

I remember when it first came out I paid the $20 to download the RC1. I'll never forget installing it on my PIII It was a Dual CPU motherboard with 1GB ram machine. Seeing the new UI for the first time. I was in aww.

 

Later I installed it on a 10,000 RPM 36GB SCSI drive in 2002. Man, that thing was soooooo fast. and got Soooooo Hot. You could literally burn yourself on the drive.

[Quillz]

It was the first Windows OS I was able to install myself.

[JJ_]

RIP XP, you played a big part in my life. Thankfully 7 has filled that void you left however nothing can be said for the void 7 will leave, as of yet.

[astropheed Veteran]

What can I say. It was the dominate OS in my life. On average if I were using a PC it was running Windows XP. Although for some strange reason I don't remember ever having first installed or used it. It seems to have just always been. Which is odd because I did have Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and ME and I still don't remember moving to XP.

 

I love XP, quirks and all. Technically it's not even close to as useful as Windows 7, but I don't care. I'll miss it. In that way you miss things you know you have no use for anymore and only kept around because your Grandma bought it for you and she's no longer alive so you don't have the heart to throw it away... until one day Microsoft issues an end of life on that gift she bought you..... or you know, something like that.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Having come from Windows 2000 I was disappointed by the UI and can understand why it was described as Fisher Price? - it was oversized and far too brightly coloured. Understandably this led to an explosion in the theming community which had previously been dominated by WindowBlinds but was redefined by UXTheme modding. Not only did it look ugly but it was the most insecure operating system that Microsoft ever released - systems were brought to their knees simply by connecting to the update thanks to the Blaster worm. I never had as many security issues with Windows 9x as I did with XP. It baffles me why so many hold it in such high regard. Sure it was eventually patched into a decent operating system but the same is true of Windows 8 and I can't see it having the same legacy.

[Dot Matrix]

Windows XP started its life as a major security threat, and now tomorrow, will end its life as a major security threat. Full circle.

 

Buh-Bye.

 

 

Having come from Windows 2000 I was disappointed by the UI and can understand why it was described as Fisher Price? - it was oversized and far too brightly coloured. Understandably this led to an explosion in the theming community which had previously been dominated by WindowBlinds but was redefined by UXTheme modding. Not only did it look ugly but it was the most insecure operating system that Microsoft ever released - systems were brought to their knees simply by connecting to the update thanks to the Blaster worm. I never had as many security issues with Windows 9x as I did with XP. It baffles me why so many hold it in such high regard. Sure it was eventually patched into a decent operating system but the same is true of Windows 8 and I can't see it having the same legacy.

 

QFT. Xp was slow, vulnerable, and just all around bad.

[Krome]

I don't know if Microsoft is going to release their last/final patch, but it's something most XP users would wish for.  But as far as memoire goes, it was XP that got me to this site.  XP was the first OS many people was trying to hack a good theme and I guess that's why this website becomes what it is today.  It was the theming aspect of XP that bring me to this site and I think this web site, if I am not wrong, got its birth from XP theming comunity.  Maybe Stardock is the proof of that.  They even sponsor to host this site for many years.  I don't know if they are still doing it.

 

Neobond maybe able to confirm on that.

[Dot Matrix]

This is all I remember of XP:

 

 

 

[+virtorio MVC]

I remember it looking like a toy, it being dreadful until SP1 was released and it being terrible until SP2 was released.

 

I might have had a better opinion had I come from 98, but I was well used to Windows 2000.

[+Warwagon MVC]

and just all around bad.

 

No it wasn't.

 

I never had sassor or blaster but then I again I was behind a router. I never even got a single virus. I never disliked RTM, Sp1 or Sp2. They were all always stable for me. Also went 4 years on the same install.

[Mike Loney]

Android isn't so bad. I will agree that everything prior to ICS was a steaming pile. My Gingerbread phone rebooted multiple times a day. Quite better now. I would say that buying anything without planning to upgrade it (or knowing if it can even be upgraded, in the case with phones, tablets, etc.) is a recipe for issues. XP was secure as a sieve. Maybe when it came out it was passable, but honestly I mainly used Linux until about Windows 7. Microsoft really started pushing around then. I'm writing this on Linux, and I will continue to use Linux, but Windows has came a long way. I rotate depending on my needs. Android still needs improvements, in security to be precise, in particular enterprise security. Next major major (not a typo) release is supposed to fix that (hopefully) according to rumors. I just find it ironic I mainly use Linux yet upgraded from XP to 7 years back, and then to 8 and 8.1. Honestly I adopted 8 well before most anyone else I knew did. XP was good, but in my opinion overhyping and holding onto obsolete, insecure software is asking for it. Any machine that connects to the internet shouldn't run unsupported Windows versions or older Linux distros even. XP was my first OS before I upgraded and learned Linux. In fact, by the standards of 2009, XP was garbage. Before 7 came out I started investing heavily in learning Linux. For MS's sake, thank you for improving. It is definitely appreciated, and has brought back my business. Best of both worlds. Either in late 2009 or early 2010 I switched to a combination of the latest Windows version and Ubuntu release and haven't looked back on XP. Still, I unfortunately still see XP on occasion. I only wish consumers and businesses would move on to 7, and 9 hopefully when it comes out. If anything still runs XP, put Linux on it. Better than using something obsolete. Likewise, I don't use or encourage using ancient Linux distro versions, either. Time to move on. Heck, I remember trying to plug in a printer on XP once. Result? Instant BSOD. 7 has came leaps and bounds ahead of that.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

I remember actually been disappointed I spent 5 days downloading a beta build of Windows XP on dial-up internet, only to find it wouldn't work on our family computer. When the Windows XP boot logo appeared the computer would just switch off... for what ever reason the PSU would run Windows ME perfectly, however couldn't supply enough power for XP to boot.

 

Eventually I persuaded my Dad we should replace the PSU in the PC. With the PSU replaced XP actually installed and i could finally use XP for the first time. I remember been stunned at just how much of an upgrade XP was from Windows Me. XP didn't crash, back then i was used to Windows ME blue-screening every hour or two.

 

On Windows XP I loved how multiple users could be logged on at the same time, this allowed me to stay signed in to MSN Messenger when someone else wanted to use the computer, which was great when sending files to friends and getting messages. Back then MSN was basically the equivalent of a mobile phone for myself and friends, few of us had mobiles at the time.

 

The theme community back in the XP days was amazing too, i had a different visual style every week (anyone remember Style XP?). I always remember thinking Microsoft could never improve on Windows XP at the time.

 

I actually ran Windows XP our family's first (and only) computer for several years, this was a Pentium 2 @ 300mhz, with 512mb of ram.

 

Here's a really old screenshot i took in March 2003 of XP running on this PC:

 

 

Don't ask about the sheep, i was young lol... this PC still actually works and has Windows XP installed, however has not been used for many years now.

[bigmehdi]

Everyone was raving about XP, but I liked better win 2000.

Win 2000 was taking less disk space, no ugly media player, and that silly assistant for search in xp you disable asap.

The only thing I liked better on XP, was the 24 bit colors icons on the desktop  :rolleyes:

[+Warwagon MVC]

Everyone was raving about XP, but I liked better win 2000.

Win 2000 was taking less disk space, no ugly media player, and that silly assistant for search in xp you disable asap.

The only thing I liked better on XP, was the 24 bit colors icons on the desktop  :rolleyes:

 

yes Windows 2000 was AMAZING! So much so it's one of the only things Dot Matrix and I actually agree on.

 

That being said I really did like the water color theme on XP.

[Quillz]

I pretty much ran Windows Classic on XP exclusively, I never liked the Luna theme.

[Max Veteran]

I remember XP being an absolute dream coming from Windows 98/ME. At the time I was on 56k dial-up and in 9x, the modem took some hell of a doing to get working from a reinstall, involving changing all the COM ports and everything. XP eliminated that, and those horrible "Illegal operation" messages.

 

I remember installing XP though on older Athlon 1Ghz/1.2Ghz systems with rubbishy SIS/VIA chipsets (around 2003/early 2004 time) and the stability was absolutely terrible. It took both myself and a friend all day to get his system working and updated. Those systems never booted from the CD either, so we were just met with problems all the way through.

[Praetor]

wow much memories, very windows, so fun, wow :rofl:

 

well i do remember like it was yesterday: lurking in T1 and OC3 lines when suddenly the Devil's Own iso was released; the much anticipated Windows XP! manly tears of joy were shed in that day!

 

first i didn't even had a capable computer to run that beast: i had a Pentium 200 MMX, with 32MB of RAM (upgraded to 128MB) so i managed to install it, but the time it took to boot i could take dinner, coffee and desert :woot: (many posts were made in here with that puter!); in my university the most capable of the public computers for students couldn't runner it much faster either: Pentium III with 512MB (upgraded to 1GB because of XP :laugh:). But it was much fun and i learned allot because of it.

 

Also some landmarks: Service Pack 1 and 1a were crap, but Service Pack 2 and 3 gave the much needed maturity and stability; many folks (enterprises and tech junkies) from my time first dissed XP because "it looked childish" (colored taskbar and shell), "wasn't mature enough" (they were running FreeBSD and Windows 2000 Professional so it's understandable) and "was virus prone" - that last one was partially true: i sure did saw an enormous amount of virus and malicious javascripts in the wild in the first years of XP (nimda, melissa, iloveyou and so on) but those affected other Windows as well; now those are the same that say "oh XP... best OS released by Microsoft". :rolleyes:

 

Also XP stand for Windows eXPerience. So long and farewell my friend. :laugh:

[astropheed Veteran]

No it wasn't.

 

I never had sassor or blaster but then I again I was behind a router. I never even got a single virus. I never disliked RTM, Sp1 or Sp2. They were all always stable for me. Also went 4 years on the same install.

 

I, too, don't understand how people had so many issues with XP. I did less than reputable things with my installation and I never had any issues. Well that's not true, I had issues, and they were always my fault (or bad RAM). I think that most of the time XP is simply blamed as a result of user error. It seemed incredibly secure if you consider how many people were attacking it, although I'm not oblivious to the holes in their security or memory management, or many other quirks.

 

Generally, if you know what you're doing, you didn't have any issues. Period.

[Guest]

Don't ask about the sheep, i was young lol... this PC still actually works and has Windows XP installed, however has not been used for many years now.

 

Awesome picture. :laugh:

[nandemoh]

I had only used Windows 98 for approximately one year on a hand-me-down computer from my sister.  That computer crashed and I went to Fry's and purchased a Sony Vaio Desktop that came with Windows XP ($2K at the time :cry: !)  That was in 2001 and I was such a newbie on a computer not using DOS, that it took me a while to manaeuver about! Then I fell in love with Windows XP; waited way too long for each service pack so afraid that the computer would crash. It has only been within the last 8 years that I really dug in and started taking risks with XP!  I began to be fearless once I knew I could experiment, then just do a clean install!

 

Bottom line..I still have two computers and a dual boot with XP that I'll hang on to for fun.  Personally I hope Windows 7 stays for a very long time! :laugh:

 

Edit: Spelling

[matt74441]

I remember it being the reason I ever found this site and eventually joined.

 

Tomorrow I intend to do one final installation of Windows XP, update it to the final version and have a beer in it's honour.

[Praetor]

I remember it being the reason I ever found this site and eventually joined.

 

Tomorrow I intend to do one final installation of Windows XP, update it to the final version and have a beer in it's honour.

 

lol i'm currently in the process of migrating a large enterprise from the hands of XP because it's CTO just wake up to realize that XP support would end today...