Nostalgia: 10 years of good (?) And old Windows XP

Introduction

In October 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP. Based on the Windows NT kernel and bringing numerous improvements. This would be a new version of its operating system already established, if not a mere detail: their longevity. In full year 2011, Windows XP still occupies first place among the most used systems in the world, ahead of Windows 7, Windows Vista and Mac OS X. ..

That's even what you read, Windows XP will do 10 years in the market and, against all odds, remains the most used operating system in the world. From design, new concepts based on experience in use (hence the acronym XP, a shortened version of the term "experience"), the good old Windows XP experienced rejection of their users early on. But thanks to some good patches that subsequently led to the first service pack (SP1), the operating system was gradually getting into the daily life of its new users.

The first major impact came just at the redesigned interface, called Luna. With its strong and vibrant colors (the evil tongues say that Microsoft was inspired by the children's show "Teletubbies"), through it was that Windows XP has many features that helped a lot in the overall usability of the system.Highlights, the redesigned Start menu, which has a panel on the left that displays frequently used programs, and providing quick access to utilities and system configuration setting. Finally, the possibility of regrouping the different windows of the same program on the taskbar, as well as "catch it" to avoid accidental changes, the system interface gave a feeling of greater strength and stability, at least compared earlier versions of Windows.

Although the adoption of new interfaces to revive the overall appearance of the systems (as happened with Windows XP), such changes do not always please everyone: the case of Windows XP, we can change the theme for the classic look, resembling very with older versions of Windows such as ME and 98. However, if the colors are just not acceptable, we may choose to change the layout, choosing the options Silver (silver) and Green (green). Finally, we can still use the color scheme Royale (also called Blue Energy) and Zune (in honor of the Zune media player), because although they have been developed by Microsoft, are not officially distributed to the system. In ancient times, consumed moderately topics such system resources, but today, it is almost negligible.

Of course, the visual changes are the main responsible for the acceptance (or not) by their users. Even if a certain software is undergoing deep internal changes, it will not generate such an impact, how to generate its interface was completely redesigned, especially if such changes do not bring new experiences in terms of usability. Still, the good old Windows XP has its conceptual basis, providing us with the same experiences with regard to usability since we had the old versions. And this old boot: Windows has existed for over 25 years (1985), although starting with version 3.11 which has become really popular (1993) and from Windows 95, it became what it is in the days of today.

Besides the new face, which brought important differential Windows XP?

As I mentioned at the outset, the migration to Windows NT kernel was one of the most profound structural changes made to Windows XP, since previous versions aimed at desktop use, did not share the same kernel versions oriented use in network servers. Thanks to this change not only the kernel tree was unified, but also a number of improvements aimed at performance and general stability of the system, were given to Windows XP. In a nutshell: the garment remains basically the same (albeit much more colorful), but inside, it is in many ways a new system.

Highlights include the reduction of the classic problem in memory allocation error (known as GPF), where a particular program often "invaded" the memory space occupied by another program. To avoid system crashes, Windows abort its execution and removed the memory, keeping the other running programs. In more severe cases, generated the so famous "blue screen of death" (BSOD). With the adoption of the NT kernel, the subsystem responsible for preemptive multitasking was significantly improved, solving most of the problem at hand. Still, some "blue screens" appear from time to time, usually caused by drivers, al-written or hardware problems ...

Another major improvement provided by Windows XP, was the addition of side-by-side assembly, a library management system which aims to promote the loading of different versions of the same shared library for applications that perhaps have conflicts and / or incompatibilities with the specific version of a given library. This problem is known as "DLL Hell" since the days of Windows 95, since the latter needed to ensure backward compatibility with 16-bit applications at the time. Along with other protection mechanisms (such as Windows File Protection, which protects the system libraries undue changes), Windows XP was finally able to ensure the long-awaited general system stability. At least, not caused so much trouble.

Along with Windows XP and NT kernel, came also the NTFS file system. Although it was sufficient for the needs of home users and has brought many improvements in the days of Windows 95, FAT32 file system lacked a number of modern features, such as support for advanced access permissions (ACLs), the audit data ( the record of activities performed), the use of quotas, compression and data encryption, among other features. In addition, the protective mechanisms of FAT32 in drastic situations (blackouts or sudden reboot the system) were very weak, while NTFS has supported and journaling, a technique that gives the file system, the ability to generate records metadata and promote events in the patches from it.

In contrast, a great chasm opened between the then brand new Windows XP and earlier versions, with regard to hardware support: it is based on a new kernel, new drivers need to be written to support the devices and peripherals available on the market what dependent on the goodwill of the manufacturer, not always the case. While we could try the drivers made for Windows version 95 or even 98 in the ME, this could not be done in Windows XP. Anticipating these limitations, Microsoft has promoted a series of major improvements ...

At first, the installation media of Windows XP had a series of built-in drivers for legacy devices, which solved a large number of problems related to lack of recognition and support, enabling many old computers, its complete operating under the baton the new operating system. However, we could use drivers designed for Windows 2000, a version of the system developed with a focus on business users and that was available for about two years (1999) before the release of Windows XP. This was possible because both are based on the NT kernel.

However, Windows XP could have been enjoyed by another technology, implemented back in the days of Windows 98, Windows Driver Model (WDM).Basically it is a framework created to replace VxD (Virtual "X" Driver) that enabled the development of drivers, which could be both compatible with Windows 98/ME how with Windows 2000 (and thus Windows XP ). Unfortunately, because of its complexity, it has been adopted by some manufacturers at the time, which forced Microsoft to make other subsystems that make up for their technical limitations, such as Windows Driver Foundation (WDF).

Finally, these improvements make possible internal Windows XP one of the most established Microsoft products. E alone, his lifetime already tells us that: 10 years are available on the market, while Microsoft itself has tried to "convince" your users to abandon it, offering the most modern versions such as Windows Vista and Windows 7. Even being very efficient and functional, its infrastructure was designed based on concepts of his time, making it obsolete to current technological standards. Still, many of its users have been content, thanks in large part to the features and functionality offered by Windows XP, coupled with its good usability. But what are these resources?
But this subject will be for the next opportunity! &;-D