X-Nico

8 unusual facts about Windows XP


Display resolution

Microsoft Windows XP, released in 2001, was designed to run at 800x600 minimum, although it is possible to select the original 640x480 in the Advanced Settings window.

Look into the Eyeball

The single "Like Humans Do" was supplied with Windows XP Home Edition operating system to showcase Microsoft's Windows Media Player.

Marc Seales

His song 'Highway Blues', was included by default in Windows XP, along with Beethoven's 9th Symphony, where it gained much fame.

Multi-booting

Since Windows XP is incompatible with Extensible Firmware Interface (the successor to legacy BIOS), the firmware on early Intel Macs need to be updated to support BIOS emulation first.

Passphrase

If backward compatibility with Microsoft LAN Manager is not needed, in versions of Windows NT (including Windows 2000, Windows XP and later), a passphrase can be used as a substitute for a Windows password.

Pocket PC 2002

Aesthetically, Pocket PC 2002 was meant to be similar in design to the then newly released Windows XP.

Spam email delivery

The widespread change from Windows 9x to Windows XP for many home computers, which started in early 2002 and was well under way by 2003, greatly accelerated the use of home computers to act as remotely-controlled spam proxies.

Toy Story Midway Mania!

The attraction features more than 150 PCs, which includes one HP Windows XP PC for each of Midway Mania's 56 game screens, as well as others that control the special effects at each game.


Advanced SystemCare

Advanced SystemCare (formerly Advanced Windows Care) is a computer tool for Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 created by IObit.

Arabic chat alphabet

Even though the Arabic language is well integrated with Windows XP and Mac OS X, people still use it in Arabic forums and instant Messaging programs such as Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger because they don't always have Arabic keyboards.

AutoIt

While version 1 and 2 were compatible with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and Windows 7, support for operating systems older than Windows 2000 was discontinued with the release of v3.3.0 in December 2008).

Borland Turbo Debugger

The last MS-DOS version of TD.EXE, 3.2, does run successfully in the 32-bit Windows XP NTVDM (i.e., in a DOS window, invoked with CMD.EXE), but TD286.EXE and TD386.EXE do not.

Carbonated Games

In addition, Carbonated was responsible for the Microsoft games that shipped with Windows Me, Windows XP, and Windows 7.

Commit charge

In the Task Manager utility under Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the graphical displays labeled as "PF usage" and "Page File Usage History," despite their labels, reflect not the pagefile contents but the total (or current) commit charge.

Curt Kolcun

The team has also implemented key initiatives such as the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC), a U.S. Government mandate designed to provide a single, standard, enterprise-wide, managed environment for desktops and laptops running Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista.

IBench

At the 2007 Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs used a modified version of iBench 5.0 to show the render speed of Safari 3.0 versus Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP.

Laura's Happy Adventures

The bargain UK release from Focus Multimedia (with the British English dub), however, can be configured to be readable by Windows XP.

Magic Trackpad

The trackpad is fully compatible with Macintosh computers running Mac OS X Snow Leopard versions 10.6.4 and higher with a software update, as well as Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows Vista in Apple's Boot Camp with an added device driver.

MoviePlus

The latest release, MoviePlus X6, runs on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Portable application

Whereas many Windows programs assume the user is an administrator—something very prevalent in the days of Windows 95/98/ME (and to some degree in Windows XP/2000, though not in Windows Vista or Windows 7)—such would quickly result in "Permission denied" errors in Unix-like environments since users will be in an unprivileged state much more often.

Power user

In Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, and Windows Server 2003, there is a "Power Users" group on the system that gives more permissions than a normal restricted user, but stops short of Administrator permissions.

Pragmatic General Multicast

It is not yet a standard, but has been implemented in some networking devices and operating systems, including Windows XP and later versions of Microsoft Windows, as well as in third-party libraries for Linux, Windows and Solaris.

Prehistorik 2

For example, if Prehistorik 2 is played via DOSBox, the codes obtained are different than those when playing in Windows XP.

Security Accounts Manager

The Security Accounts Manager (SAM) file in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 stores users' passwords in a hashed format (in LM hash and NTLM hash).

Trustive

The company also offers WISPr-compliant Wi-Fi client software (connection management tools) for the iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows XP, Windows Vista, MacBooks and the ASUS EeePC.

Universal usability

For example, would a software product be usable to users running Windows XP on a Centrino laptop with broadband Internet access and to those who have Windows 98 on a Pentium II desktop with 56K dial-up?

VenueGen

The software application runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X operating systems and is compatible with browsers Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or above and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or above.

VIA C7

In early April 2008 the schoolroom-use oriented, ultra-portable HP 2133 Mini-Note PC family debuted with an entirely VIA-based, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.6 GHz C7-M processor portfolio, where the lowest speed model is optimized for running an SSD-based 4GB Linux distribution with a sub $500 price tag, while the middle tier carries Windows XP and the top model comes with Windows Vista Business, factory default.

Windows XP themes

Luna (the Moon in Latin, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovene, Serbian and Russian) is the codename for the default visual theme of Windows XP.

WinRoll

WinRoll is an open source, free software utility for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 7 which allows the user to "roll up" windows into their title bars, in addition to other window management related features.

Wireless USB

A laptop with an Intel host adapter using an Alereon PHY was used to transfer high definition video from a Philips wireless semiconductor solution with a Staccato Communications PHY, all using Microsoft Windows XP drivers developed for Wireless USB.

ZipGenius

ZipGenius features include: support for TWAIN devices (scanners and digital cameras), file extraction to CD/DVD burner (only under Windows XP), an FTP client (FTPGenius), and ZGAlbum.


see also

Amazon MP3

The Downloader is available for Windows (XP, Vista, or 7), Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, and Linux (packages are provided for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and openSUSE), although the Linux versions are not consistently updated to be compliant with the most recent releases and are not available for 64-bit architectures.

DarkSpace

2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4/AMD Sempron Processor, Windows XP/Vista/7, Dedicated graphics card (Nvidia GeForce 9500GT / AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series or better), 1 GB of RAM (2 GB for Vista/7), 200 MB free hard drive space, Broadband internet connection, Direct Input compatible mouse, DirectX 9.0c or higher.

Defence Information Infrastructure

Their approach is in essence to leverage Microsoft Windows XP (and future Windows platforms) together with the web browser Internet Explorer to access a VPN.

Multi-booting

If you use Windows 2000/XP, probably the safest approach (for disks under 2 TiB) is to use a CHS partition table alignment that is chosen by Windows XP/2000 (not Vista or Windows 7).

Ninite

Ninite works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Ubuntu.

Photo-story

Photo Story, a Windows XP software program by Microsoft, intended for making a slideshow

StreamMyGame

The Player is installed on the computer or device on which the game is to be played and is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 along with Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, Xandros, Debian and Yellow Dog Linux.

Windows Media Player

In Windows XP, it uses VMR7 by default, but can also be made to use the more advanced YUV mixing mode by enabling the "Use high quality mode" option in Advanced Performance settings.