Windows XP

Windows XP was released to the public on October 25, 2001, the first two versions released by the company were Home and Professional. The Home version was targeted to home PC users, while the Professional version was designed for business and professionals. Prior to Windows 7 market dominance, Windows XP was the most widely used desktop operating system in the world for many years.

Windows XP has a lot of updates in the user interface (compared to Windows ME and 2000), making it easier to use and navigate through files and programs. The appearance of windows shell elements such as desktops, taskbar, start menu, get a better design with transparent icons and shadow drops. The Start menu gets two columns, and now it is completely customizable by the user. Windows Explorer also gets new features and changes, like task pane (useful file actions shown in the left hand sidebar), file thumbnails, sorting, grouping etc.

Windows XP includes performance improvements such as fast boot / logon / logoff, fast application launch, CPU simultaneous multithreading, new NTFS version NTFS v3.1 and so on.

Microsoft's developed multimedia applications have been updated and added more to the operating system, such as a new version of Windows Media Player, Windows Photo Viewer, and Movie Maker.

Three service packs have been issued for Windows XP, the first Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released in 2002, Service Pack 2 (SP2) was released on 2004, and Service Pack 3 (SP3) was released on 2008.

Windows XP Professional X64 is a edition, and the 64-bit version of the Windows XP operating system released publicly on April 25, 2005. The main advantage to use the 64-bit operating system is to allow 128 GB of RAM in PC, while the 32-bit OS can only support up to 4 GB RAM. Windows XP Professional X64 support WoW64, a Microsoft technology that allows 32-bit capable software applications to run on a 64-bit Windows operating system.

Features

• It is easy to use and navigate through files and programs.
• Lots of updates to the graphical user interface.
• Performance improvements.
• Windows Media Player.
• Windows Photo Viewer.
• Movie Maker.
• 64-bit version.

Facts

• Windows XP was the first consumer version of Windows not to be based on MS-DOS.
• Before the Windows 7 market dominance, Windows XP was the most widely used desktop operating system in the world for many years.