Happy Birthday Win95 and XP!
· 16 years ago today, Windows 95 (codename “Chicago”) was launched to the world.
o Windows 95 brought innovations like the “Start” button, preemptive multitasking with a new kernel, “Plug and Play” functionality, and a new file system that gave us long file names! It required a 386DX CPU, 4MB of RAM, and 50MB hard drive space.
o Windows 95 was our first OS to be released on CD-ROM as well as floppy disks. The Windows 95 floppy disks used a proprietary format that allowed for more data to be stored on the 3.5” floppy.
· 10 years ago today, Windows XP was Released To Manufacturing, and became Microsoft’s most popular OS to date.
o XP was short for ‘eXPerience” and was designed as a successor to Windows 2000 and Windows ME. It was the first consumer OS to use the Windows NT kernel.
o XP brought a new GUI to Windows, with a new Start menu, task-oriented windows, taskbar grouping, and new visual effects like shadows and font smoothing.
XP was also where we launched Remote Assistance/Remote Desktop, Windows Firewall, NAT, and handwriting recognition.
o XP brought the most famous wallpaper of all time, the ubiquitous “Bliss” photograph of a landscape in the Napa Valley with rolling green hills and a blue sky.
o Coincidentally, tomorrow (August 25th) is the anniversary of the release of XP Service Pack 2 (2004), which brought new security functionality and new default behaviors to combat the growing scourge of viruses and malware.
Service Pack 2 was the first product to go through our Trustworthy Computing initiative, which has shaped every product Microsoft has released since then.