With the turn of millennium, PCs started to appeal more to the common people rather than just the professionals. However, with the growing need for the computer in more industries than before and the launch of industry specific software made Windows come with an advanced version of its popular OS. After the successful run of Windows 2000 and Windows Me in 2000 and early 2001, people weren’t content with their present OS as it wasn’t compatible with many Softwares and Drivers.
To maintain its present customer base, Windows brought Christmas early for everyone. It launched Windows XP the most successful and advance OS to the market in October 2001. Windows XP was being developed since the late 1990s under the codename “Neptune”. This OS was being designed specifically for the mainstream consumer use only. It was based on the Windows NT kernel. It was not much different from Window’s previous version Window 2000. Experts refer Windows XP as a much-needed update of Windows 2000 OS, for the business market.
Before the launch of Windows 2000, Windows XP was almost in its testing stage, and it was a competing for the launch as it was good enough for both the consumer and business market.
Windows XP was greatly very favoured by both critics and consumers alike. It can be incurred from the fact that in the first 5 years of its launch it sold more than 400 million copies and by April 2014, there were more than 1 billion copies of Windows XP sold by the company. With Windows XP OS, Windows also introduced its new product activation system. This was introduced as an effort to curb copyright infringement. Despite this new hurdle, Window XP became widely popular.
The prime reasons for this popularity can be associated with the fact that Windows XP was far better than its predecessor OS, who were based on the MS-DOS. Windows XP based on NT Kernel offered more security, efficiency and stability. Also, due to the presence of NT underpinning and a more interactive and easy Graphical User Interface. Also, the expanded Multimedia capabilities and improved hardware encouraged many corporations to switch to Windows XP right after its release.
Windows XP was so well received that the launch of its successor Windows Vista was so diminished that it was discontinued before Windows XP. However by 2009 it ran its successful course and led way to Windows Vista’s successor Windows 7. Even with the ceased of Windows XP OEM‘s in June 2008, it continued to come pre installed in notebooks. With people switching to newer and more advanced version of Windows OS, in April 2014 all extended support of Windows XP ceased completely.