20 Facts About Windows XP

1.

Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system.

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2.

Development of Windows XP began in the late 1990s under the codename "Neptune", built on the Windows NT kernel explicitly intended for mainstream consumer use.

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3.

An updated version of Windows XP 2000 was initially planned for the business market.

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4.

Windows XP removed support for PC-98, i486 and SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540 and will only run on 32-bit x86 CPUs and devices which use BIOS firmware.

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5.

Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on April 14, 2009, and extended support ended on April 8, 2014.

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6.

Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, based on Windows XP Professional, received security updates until April 2019.

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7.

Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 introduced new features to Windows XP post-release, including the Windows Security Center, Bluetooth support, the executable space protection, Windows Firewall, and support for SDHC cards, which are larger than 4 GB and smaller than 32 GB.

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8.

Windows XP uses prefetching to improve startup and application launch times.

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9.

Windows XP was originally bundled with Internet Explorer 6, Outlook Express 6, Windows Messenger, and MSN Explorer.

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10.

Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 removed features from Windows XP, including support for TCP half-open connections and the address bar on the taskbar.

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11.

Windows XP was released in two major editions on launch: Home Edition and Professional Edition.

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12.

The "K" and "KN" editions of Windows XP were released in August 2006, and are only available in English and Korean, and contain links to third-party instant messenger and media player software.

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13.

Several Windows XP components are upgradable to the latest versions, which include new versions introduced in later versions of Windows, and other major Microsoft applications are available.

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14.

Windows XP stopped general licensing of Windows XP to OEMs and terminated retail sales of the operating system on June 30, 2008, 17 months after the release of Windows Vista.

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15.

Variants of Windows XP for embedded systems have different support policies: Windows XP Embedded SP3 and Windows Embedded for Point of Service SP3 were supported until January and April 2016, respectively.

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16.

Plans were being made by several ATM vendors and their customers to migrate to Windows XP 7-based systems over the course of 2014, while vendors have considered the possibility of using Linux-based platforms in the future to give them more flexibility for support lifecycles, and the ATM Industry Association has since endorsed Windows XP 10 as a further replacement.

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17.

Windows XP is remotely exploitable by numerous security holes that were discovered after Microsoft stopped supporting it.

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18.

In 2020, Microsoft announced that it would disable the Windows Update service for SHA-1 endpoints; since Windows XP did not get an update for SHA-2, Windows Update Services are no longer available on the OS as of late July 2020.

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19.

However, as of October 2021, the old updates for Windows XP are still available on the Microsoft Update Catalog.

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20.

Windows XP's longevity was viewed as testament to its stability and Microsoft's successful attempts to keep it up to date, but as an indictment of its direct successor's perceived failings.

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