Windows XP History
Introduction
Windows XP was originally brought into being as an operating system which would combine the best
features of the latest business operating system of the time, Windows 2000, which by then was quite
mature and evolved, having had a few years of use in the business community, and Windows 98 Second
Edition (SE), which was far and away the most robust version of a home-use operating system prior to
XP. In today's computing environment, Windows XP can be useful for both small business and home
users by making system problem recovery and digital media transfer easier. It also features history and
Service Pack 2 features a better security for the user.
Many users prefer to remain with Windows XP, rather than upgrade to the latest Microsoft Operating
system, Windows Vista
History
Windows XP came into being around the year 2000/2001.
It came as a logical progression from Windows 98 SE for many users although it had a look and feel
about it much like Windows 2000 Professional. XP was originally brought into being as an operating
system which would combine the best features of the latest business operating system, Windows 2000,
which by then was quite mature and evolved, having had a few years of use in the business community,
and Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), which was far and away the most robust version prior to XP. To
say that Windows Millenium (ME) was any more than a cut-down version of Windows 2000 Professional
would hide some of the inherent problems in that O/S. In fact it stands out from the others, rather like
the version of MS-DOS known as version 4.00 (four point oh oh.) See Windows for a more detailed
description of all the Microsoft Windows operating systems.
It should be noted that now there are more flavors of Windows in place than ever before, with the
introduction of Windows Vista. But there are basically three versions of Windows XP. The two other
versions, (apart from Windows XP Professional) are: Windows_XP_Home and
Windows_XP_Media_Center_Edition. And all of these three are designed around the same O/S,
Windows_XP, and accommodate the NTFS file system, designed by Helen Custer. (See the Wikipedia
article on NTFS and its author, Helen Custer).
A more rugged version of Windows XP was launched later with the introduction of Service Pack 2. This
added basic security with the introduction of the Windows Firewall and other lock-downs, and support
for more multi-media hardware. It provides enhanced security measures that have hopefully improved
defenses against viruses, worms and hackers, along with increased manageability and an improved
experience for users. In addition to security and bug fixes, it changed many default settings to improve
security, but it may have also created some problems for users because of the increased security.
Nevertheless, Windows XP Professional is a software product which a lot of users prefer over the latest
version, Windows Vista, which introduced still more security features along with the enhanced visual
effects.
Hardware
Microsoft Windows XP Professional can be normally run on a X86 32bit processor PC, and also on a 64bit
processor, for which there is special software. It is important to note that only certain software is
capable of leveraging the advanced features of 64bit. Among these are Adobe and Microsoft software
products which have been extensively developed within the 64bit environment. It is interesting to note
that this flavor of Windows can also be run on an Apple Macintosh computer as a sub-process. Also,
Windows XP Professional is capable of being run in a dual or triple boot environment where the other
OS's are on a separate partition. Other OS's which run multiple-boot with Windows XP Professional are
Linux and Windows 98. Generally speaking, Windows XP will not run well with a processor slower than
700 Mhz and there should be at least 512 mbytes of RAM, (even though the specifications allow for

much less.) A computer with lower hardware specifications would probably have a better chance of
success using Windows 2000 Professional.
Other considerations are the use of USB and IEEE 1394 standards, removing the need for a parallel port
for the printer and introducing the concept of a USB hub and transfers over firewire. Wireless networking
has been improved considerably with Service Pack 2, allowing for WPA encryption and three other
flavors of encryption, too.