Windows XP turns 25: a look back at Microsoft's milestone OS
UKPulse News Desk
Windows XP reached its 25th anniversary this week, marking the release to manufacturing of an operating system that merged Microsoft's consumer and business codebases. The Kettle podcast discussed its impact and the resource demands of modern Windows.
- Windows XP's release to manufacturing took place 25 years ago this week.
- XP merged the Windows 9x and Windows NT codebases, offering greater stability but requiring more memory.
- The first OEM machines with XP became available on September 24, with retail release on October 24.
Windows XP reached its 25th anniversary this week, with the release to manufacturing (RTM) marking the point when the code was finalised and sent for mass production. The milestone was discussed on The Register's Kettle podcast, with Microsoft reporter Richard Speed noting that XP merged the consumer Windows 9x line with the more robust Windows NT codebase.
While XP was significantly more stable than its predecessors, it demanded more resources – needing 64MB of RAM as a minimum, and realistically 128MB or 256MB for a usable experience. That was a shock to consumers used to Windows 98 running in as little as 16MB, and many older drivers and software no longer worked.
The first OEM machines with XP reached consumers on September 24, and the retail release followed on October 24. Looking back, XP was also a security nightmare by modern standards, with Microsoft only beginning to take security seriously with Service Pack 2.
Why this matters: The anniversary highlights how operating system requirements have grown dramatically, with modern Windows 11 struggling to reduce its memory footprint to 8GB – an order of magnitude more than XP needed.
What this means for you: The discussion underscores how much more resource-hungry modern operating systems are compared to older versions, which may inform decisions about upgrading or holding onto older hardware.