Happy Birthday, Windows XP
Oct 25, 2017 12:20:47 GMT -8
Post by R.O.B. on Oct 25, 2017 12:20:47 GMT -8
Today, Windows XP turns 16 years old. Despite its age, it continues to be used by millions of users worldwide.
Where Windows Vista can be considered the first "modern" version of Windows, XP can be seen as the last "classic" version (not counting Windows Server 2003). It was the last version of Windows that could closely mimic older versions, such as Windows 98 or even 95. The shell was quite customizable compared to Vista and later, and it introduced many features that many people remember fondly.
XP introduced what I still consider to be one of the best Start Menus in any version of Windows. However, even if you weren't a fan of the new Start Menu, you still had the option to switch to the classic menu if you wanted to. I think this really shows how much Microsoft cared about giving users the options they wanted, especially when compared to Windows 8 (which was a much more drastic change than Windows XP's new Start Menu).
It was also the first version of Windows to include visual styles. Yet, much like how Microsoft allowed users to use the Classic Start Menu, they also gave users the option to use the Windows Classic theme as well. While newer versions of Windows do have more powerful visual styling engines, I do miss just how simple XP styles were to create. There were a lot more people creating 3rd party visual styles during this time, and I think this largely contributed to that.
To this day, Windows XP is one of my favorite operating systems, and I still use it on many of my computers (including my ThinkPad T400, which I use as my primary laptop). It's the OS that I grew up with, and I have many fond memories using it.
Long live Windows XP!
Where Windows Vista can be considered the first "modern" version of Windows, XP can be seen as the last "classic" version (not counting Windows Server 2003). It was the last version of Windows that could closely mimic older versions, such as Windows 98 or even 95. The shell was quite customizable compared to Vista and later, and it introduced many features that many people remember fondly.
XP introduced what I still consider to be one of the best Start Menus in any version of Windows. However, even if you weren't a fan of the new Start Menu, you still had the option to switch to the classic menu if you wanted to. I think this really shows how much Microsoft cared about giving users the options they wanted, especially when compared to Windows 8 (which was a much more drastic change than Windows XP's new Start Menu).
It was also the first version of Windows to include visual styles. Yet, much like how Microsoft allowed users to use the Classic Start Menu, they also gave users the option to use the Windows Classic theme as well. While newer versions of Windows do have more powerful visual styling engines, I do miss just how simple XP styles were to create. There were a lot more people creating 3rd party visual styles during this time, and I think this largely contributed to that.
To this day, Windows XP is one of my favorite operating systems, and I still use it on many of my computers (including my ThinkPad T400, which I use as my primary laptop). It's the OS that I grew up with, and I have many fond memories using it.
Long live Windows XP!