Today marks the 10th anniversary of Windows XP RTM

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

How many of you remember this image, shot exactly 10 years ago?

On August 24th, 2001 Windows XP was released to manufacturing. A huge step forward for Microsoft - finally they had a consumer operating system based on the NT kernel. There was a small ceremony during which Bill Gates and Jim Allchin signed off the 'gold code' in front of journalists, then placed it into a briefcase and had it flown off in a helicopter to bring the new OS to the OEMs. The plan was to make the OS available to the general public on October 25th, with a major launch event in NYC. Unfortunately for MS, two things happened: 1. The attacks of September 11th, as a consequence of which the launch party had to be scaled down massively and 2. this:

Users had XP in their hands much earlier than planned. Can we have a show of hands of those who used the devils0wn release back then? That's what I thought. :shifty:

XP quickly became a success, running on up to 80% of all PCs at some point. It also came under attack by malware - a problem which made Microsoft focus their efforts on the 'Secure Computing' initiative, the result of which was Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Even today Windows XP still runs approx. 40-50% of all PCs (although that percentage is inflated by the market share it still has in countries like China). Even on a technical forum like Neowin there are still those who voluntarily use Windows XP. To each their own I guess - personally I've long relegated XP to virtual machines.

Happy birthday, Windows XP. You've been mostly good to us, Sasser et al. notwithstanding. It is time for you to retire though and make room for your more modern successors.

Do you have any Windows XP memories? Post them in this thread.

[The_Fox]

I remember customizing my first login screen to match for the resident evil move lol those were the days.. Plus how can we all forget the blaster worm virus.

[ShareShiz]

Nice. But I haven't used XP in like 4 years.

Windows 7 FTW

[Japlabot]

Nice. But I haven't used XP in like 4 years.

Windows 7 FTW

Good for you, but this topic is about Windows XP, not Windows 7/Mac/Linux/Whatever. Everyone knows it's 10 years old (that is the title of the thread), so really there is no need to say how much better more recent products are.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Now the question is, does anyone still have an XP install from 2001? that would be quite something.

[Raa]

The sad part is, I don't remember either of those images. And I never had an illegal copy of XP either, lol.

My favorite memory? The famous XP bug : "Files and settings transfer wizard doesn't transfer files and settings." lol :laugh:

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Good old XP. I remember how much of a massive improvement it was over 98/Me... but how video drivers took a bit of time to "catch up" - so I used to have to dual boot it with Windows 98 so that I could play games at optimal frame rate and then boot back to XP for everything else :)

[asaki]

my god when all those messenger pop ups just did not end :pinch:

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

I wonder if there are still users out there whose desktop looks like this:

[Raa]

I wonder if there are still users out there whose desktop looks like this:

<snip>

Sorry, my name's not Paul Thurrott :p

[jwil1]

I know someone who had a real old laptop with an OEM install of XP RTM... this was about 2 years ago, not sure if they still have it.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Created a poll related to this thread: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1020642-ive-made-the-switch-to-windows-xp-in/

[Gerowen]

I just upgrade an old laptop with Windows XP Media Center Edition.

Think I posted about it here, but Gateway wanted to charge me for restore discs, so it ended up getting upgraded to Debian Linux, but it was still a rock solid machine that had been running non-stop for years. If it hadn't been for viruses crippling it, it would still be running XP.

Now that I mention it, I've worked on 3 or 4 machines in the past few months that ran some version of XP. It appears to still be quite popular.

[Driph]

I remember being given that disk by an older friend, that set me off for my love of computers & their endless possibilities...

[Colin-uk Veteran]

Happy Birthday! :D

[Roger H. Veteran]

I wonder if there are still users out there whose desktop looks like this:

Snipped

Surely - as i type this on my Thinkpad, i have a Dell Latitude XT "Tablet PC" beside me running Windows XP from work and it looks exactly like that. LOL :laugh:

So yeah i'm running 10yr old Windows XP still apparently in this house :pinch:

[MarkusDarkus]

I wonder if there are still users out there whose desktop looks like this:

Lool Most of the machines in the office I'm sat in still look like this.

[Lee G. Veteran]

Happy 10th Birthday Windows XP!

It's an operating system I have always enjoyed using. I still have a couple of computers running Windows XP, but they are legacy machines.

[DrakeN2k]

Happy birthday it was a joy to use , sometimes : :whistle:

[Alan-]

I wonder if there are still users out there whose desktop looks like this:

<snip>

Yep, one of my clients while I was doing tech support ran XP just like that. It was a little old lady who only used the computer to play solitaire. She didn't have internet or anything.

And if you are wondering why I was called out to do tech support on her computer, it was because a cable got unplugged. :pinch:

[Fraud OS 11]

Read all the new features it brought here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_XP (and shameless self promotion as that article was written by me) :p. Some features are relatively unknown to some people today.

[Seizure1990]

I wonder if there are still users out there whose desktop looks like this:

After working in a computer repair shop, I assure you, PLENTY of PCs look just like that still. :p

[Black Flash]

I remember getting that song stuck in my head for months :laugh:

[Salty Wagyu]

Haha, FCKGW!

[Rigby]

I never used the XP Luna theme. The day I installed it switching from Windows 98 my reaction of it was not good; it was the ugliest most garish thing I had ever seen. I switched off the themes service and for ten years ran XP in classic mode. The Fisher Price jokes that came later on summed it up very well. What was Microsoft thinking?