Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

, which is the next version of

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system. The first version of Win ...

after

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officiall ...

and the successor to the consumer-oriented

Windows Me Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...

, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001. Windows XP is available in many languages. In addition, add-ons translating the user interface are also available for certain languages.

Home and Professional

The first two editions released by Microsoft are Windows XP Home Edition, designed for home users, and Windows XP Professional, designed for business and power users. Windows XP Professional offers a number of features unavailable in the Home Edition, including: * The ability to become part of a Windows Server domain, a group of computers that are remotely managed by one or more central servers. * An access control scheme that allows specific permissions on files to be granted to specific users under normal circumstances. However, users can use tools other than Windows Explorer (like

cacls In Microsoft Windows, cacls and its replacement, icacls, native command-line utilities capable of displaying and modifying the security descriptors on folders and files. An access-control list is a list of permissions for securable object, su ...

File Manager A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or pr ...

), or restart to Safe Mode to modify access control lists. *

Remote Desktop In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software- or operating system feature that allows a personal computer's desktop environment to be run remotely off of one system (usually a PC, but the concept applies equally to a server or a ...

server, which allows a PC to be operated by another Windows XP user over a

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger ...

or the Internet. * Offline Files and Folders, which allow the PC to automatically store a copy of files from another networked computer and work with them while disconnected from the network. *

Encrypting File System The Encrypting File System (EFS) on Microsoft Windows is a feature introduced in version 3.0 of NTFS that provides filesystem-level encryption. The technology enables files to be transparently encrypted to protect confidential data from attackers ...

, which encrypts files stored on the computer's hard drive so they cannot be read by another user, even with physical access to the storage medium. * Centralized administration features, including Group Policies, Automatic Software Installation and Maintenance,

Roaming User Profile A roaming user profile is a file synchronization concept in the Windows NT family of operating systems that allows users with a computer joined to a Windows domain to log on to any computer on the same domain and access their documents and have ...

s, and

Remote Installation Services RIS, Remote Installation Services is a Microsoft-supplied server that allows PXE BIOS-enabled computers to remotely execute boot environment variables. These variables are likely computers that are on a company's (or that company's client's) net ...

(RIS). *

Internet Information Services Internet Information Services (IIS-pronounced 2S, formerly Internet Information Server) is an extensible web server software created by Microsoft for use with the Windows NT family. IIS supports HTTP, HTTP/2, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP and NN ...

(IIS), Microsoft's HTTP and FTP Server. * Support for two physical

central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just Processor (computing), processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes Instruction (computing), instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU per ...

s (CPUs). (Because the number of CPU cores and simultaneous multithreading capabilities on modern CPUs are considered to be part of a single physical processor, multi-core CPUs are supported using XP Home Edition.) * Windows Management Instrumentation Console (WMIC): WMIC is a command-line tool designed to ease WMI information retrieval about a system by using simple keywords (aliases). * The ability to switch hard disk storage type from Basic to Dynamic and vice versa.

Edition N

In March 2004, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

fined Microsoft €497 million ( £395 million or $784 million) and ordered the company to provide a version of Windows without

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player (application software), media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing sound reproduction, audio, video and viewing images on personal computers runnin ...

. The Commission concluded that Microsoft "broke

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

competition law by leveraging its near

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players". After unsuccessful appeals in 2004 and 2005, Microsoft reached an agreement with the Commission where it would release a court-compliant version, Windows XP ''Edition N.'' This version does not include the company's Windows Media Player but instead encourages users to pick and download their own media player. Microsoft wanted to call this version ''Reduced Media Edition'', but EU regulators objected and suggested the ''Edition N'' name, with the ''N'' signifying "not with Media Player" for both Home and Professional editions of Windows XP. Because it is sold at the same price as the version with Windows Media Player included, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Fujitsu Siemens have chosen not to stock the product. However, Dell did offer the operating system for a short time. Consumer interest has been low, with roughly 1,500 units shipped to

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

s, and no reported sales to consumers. The N editions of Windows XP also do not include

Windows Movie Maker Windows Movie Maker (known as Windows Live Movie Maker for the 2009 and 2011 releases) is a discontinued video editing software program by Microsoft. It was first included in Windows Me on September 14, 2000 and in Windows XP on October 25, 2001 ...

, but Microsoft has made this available as a separate download.

K & KN

In December 2005, the Korean Fair Trade Commission ordered Microsoft to make available editions of Windows XP and

Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 is the sixth version of Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 and generally available on April 24, 2 ...

that do not contain

or Windows Messenger. Like the European Commission decision, this decision was based on the grounds that Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the market to push other products onto consumers. Unlike that decision, however, Microsoft was also forced to withdraw the non-compliant versions of Windows from the South Korean market. The K and KN editions of Windows XP Home Edition and Professional Edition were released in August 2006, and are only available in English and Korean. Both editions contain links to third-party

instant messenger Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and tri ...

and media player software.

Home Edition ULCPC

This edition of Windows XP Home is intended for sale with certain "low-cost"

netbooks Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...

and will appear labeled as "Windows XP Home Edition ULCPC" on the back of the netbook (with "ULCPC" standing for " ultra-low-cost personal computer"). This edition contains a regular license of Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 3 included.

Professional Blade PC Edition

This version comes preinstalled on OEM solutions providing desktops on Blade PC hardware. In addition to a copy of Windows XP Professional, it includes a Remote Desktop License.

Starter edition

Windows XP Starter is a lower-cost version of Windows XP available in Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Russia, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay, Malaysia, and Venezuela. It is similar to Windows XP Home, but is limited to low-end hardware, can only run 3 programs at a time, and has some other features either removed or disabled by default. According to a Microsoft press release, Windows XP Starter is "a low-cost introduction to the Microsoft Windows XP operating system designed for first-time desktop PC users in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

Specialization

The Starter edition includes some special features for certain markets where consumers may not be computer literate. Not found in the Home Edition, these include localised help features for those who may not speak English, a country-specific computer wallpaper and

screensaver A screensaver (or screen saver) is a computer program that blanks the display screen or fills it with moving images or patterns when the computer has been idle for a designated time. The original purpose of screensavers was to prevent phosphor ...

s, and other default settings designed for easier use than typical Windows XP installations. The Malaysian version, for example, contains a desktop background of the

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

skyline. In addition, the Starter edition also has some unique limitations to prevent it from displacing more expensive versions of Windows XP. Only three applications can be run at once on the Starter edition, and each application may open a maximum of three windows. The maximum screen resolution is 1024×768, and there is no support for workgroup networking or domains. In addition, the Starter edition is licensed only for low-end processors like Intel's

Celeron Celeron is Intel's brand name for low-end IA-32 and x86-64 computer microprocessor models targeted at low-cost personal computers. Celeron processors are compatible with IA-32 software. They typically offer less performance per clock speed com ...

or AMD's

Duron Duron is a line of budget x86-compatible microprocessors manufactured by AMD. Released on June 19, 2000 as a lower-cost offering to complement AMD's then mainstream performance Athlon processor line, it also competed with rival chipmaker Inte ...

and Sempron. There is also a 512 MB limit on main memory and a 120 GB disk size limit. Microsoft has not made it clear, however, if this is for total disk space, per partition, or per disk. There are also fewer options for customizing the themes, desktop, and taskbar.

Market adoption

On October 9, 2006, Microsoft announced that they reached a milestone of 1 million units of Windows XP Starter sold. In the mass market, however, the Starter edition has not had much success. In many markets where it is available, pirated versions of higher end versions of Windows are more popular than their legal counterparts. In these markets, non-genuine copies of XP Professional can be obtained at a mall. These stores typically charge only for the amount of the CDs/DVDs taken up by the files, not the original retail value. Unlicensed copies of Windows XP Professional typically cost 70¢, since it only uses 1 CD, compared to around $30 for a properly licensed copy of XP Starter.

Media Center Edition

This edition, which was code-named "Freestyle" during its development, was first released in September 2002. The initial release was available solely in conjunction with computers that included media center capabilities, and could not be purchased separately. The first major update was released in 2004 and distributed by Tier 1 OEMs who had previously sold Windows XP Media Center Edition PC, and then updated again in 2005, which was the first edition available for System Builders. Many of the features of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (including screen dancers, auto playlist DJ, and high end visual screen savers) were taken from the ''Windows XP Plus!'' packages. These were originally shipped as add-ons to Windows XP to enhance the users experience of their Windows XP machine.

Releases

A preview version of Windows XP Media Center Edition from Microsoft's eHome division, was shown as CES 2002, with the final version released in July 2002. * Windows XP Media Center Edition ("Freestyle", July 2002) This was the original release. Updates to this release added features such as FM radio tuning. This release combined with updates is sometimes referred to as ''Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003''. * Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 ("Harmony", September 2003) Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrades earlier versions of MCE to this one. * Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 ("Symphony", October 2004) is the first edition of MCE available to non-Tier 1 system builders. Among other things it includes support for Media Center Extenders, and CD/DVD-Video burning support. * Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 ("Emerald", October 2005) is a major update to MCE 2005 (Symphony) and was a recommended download. It adds support for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

as a media center extender, DVB-T broadcasts, and support for two

ATSC tuner An ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) tuner, often called an ATSC receiver or HDTV tuner, is a type of television tuner that allows reception of digital television (DTV) television channels that use ATSC standards, as transmitted by te ...

cards. After the 2005 release, Microsoft focused their efforts on building new media center features into "Home Premium" and "Ultimate" editions of

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

, which have Windows Media Center built-in and, unlike the releases of Windows XP Media Center Edition, were available for retail purchase without the necessary hardware.

Features

The most notable feature unique to this edition is the Windows Media Center, which provides a large-font, remotely accessible interface ("

10-foot user interface In computing, 10-foot user interface ("10-foot UI"), also known as a 3-meter user interface (especially for international marketing), is a graphical user interface designed for televisions. Compared to desktop computer and smartphone user int ...

") for

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

viewing on the computer as well as recording and playback, a TV guide,

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

playback, video playback, photo viewing, and music playback. Unlike competing commercial digital video recorder products, Microsoft does not charge a monthly subscription fee for its Media Center TV guide service. Due to strict hardware requirements, Microsoft did not sell Media Center Edition in retail markets alongside the Home and Professional editions. Microsoft only distributes it to

MSDN Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) was the division of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers and testers, such as hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), and software developers developing ...

subscribers and

System Builders in certain countries. Consumers generally purchase Media Center pre-installed on a new computer, or from a reseller that sells OEM versions of Microsoft software. Media Center Edition was the only consumer-oriented edition of Windows XP that was updated with new features on an annual basis during the five-year

development of Windows Vista The New product development, development of Windows Vista occurred over the span of five years, starting in earnest in May 2001, prior to the release of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, and continuing until November 2006. Microsoft origin ...

. The MCE 2005 release, for example, includes an update to

that supports burning DVDs, a new visual style called " Royale", support for Media Center Extenders, and SoundSpectrum's G-Force sound visualizations. Microsoft also released its own

remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such a ...

, receiver and

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

blaster with MCE 2005. A new specially designed wireless

computer keyboard A computer keyboard is a peripheral input device modeled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Replacing early punched cards and paper tape technolog ...

for MCE 2005 was released September 2005. Using Media Center Extenders or the

, Media Center Edition is also able to connect and stream recorded TV, music and pictures, over a network connection. Media Center Edition retains most of the features included in Windows XP Professional as it is simply an add-on to Professional, installed when provided with a valid MCE product key during setup. All Professional features have been left in, including

and the

, however the ability to join an

Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of Process (computing), processes and Windows service, services. Initially, Active D ...

domain has been removed as it is marketed as a home product with no need for domain support. One value in the registry is all that is needed to circumvent this restriction; if the installation of MCE 2005 is an in-place upgrade from a previous version already joined to a domain, this ability is retained, unless a user uses a Windows Media Center Extender: in this case, such ability is lost and cannot be restored. Presumably, Microsoft introduced this limit because Media Center Extender devices, introduced in this version, rely on the Fast User Switching component, but this component must be disabled in order to join a domain.

Hardware requirements

Media Center has higher hardware requirements than other editions of Windows XP. MCE 2005 requires at least a 1.6 GHz processor, DirectX 9.0 hardware-accelerated

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

(ATI Radeon 9 series or nVidia

GeForce FX series The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series (codenamed NV30) is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer Nvidia. Overview Nvidia's GeForce FX series is the fifth generation of the GeForce line. With GeForce 3, the company introduced p ...

or higher), and 256 MB of system

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

. Some functionality, such as Media Center Extender support, use of multiple tuners, or

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

playback/recording carries higher system requirements. Media Center is much more restricted in the range of hardware that it supports than most other software DVR solutions. Media Center tuners must have a standardized driver interface, and they (originally) required a hardware MPEG-2 encoder,

closed caption Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio po ...

support, and a number of other features. Media Center remote controls are standardized in terms of button labels and functionality, and, to a degree, general layout.

Tablet PC Edition

This edition is intended for specially designed notebook/laptop computers called

tablet PC A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...

s. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is compatible with a pen-sensitive screen, supporting handwritten notes and portrait-oriented screens. Except for

and Volume License subscribers, Windows XP Tablet Edition could not be purchased separately. Tablet PC Edition is a superset of Windows XP Professional, the difference being tablet functionality, including alternate text input (Tablet PC Input Panel) and basic drivers for support of tablet PC specific hardware. Requirements to install Tablet PC Edition include a tablet digitizer or touchscreen device, and hardware control buttons including a

Ctrl-Alt-Delete Control-Alt-Delete (often abbreviated to Ctrl+Alt+Del, also known as the "three-finger salute" or "Security Keys") is a computer keyboard command on IBM PC compatible computers, invoked by pressing the Delete key while holding the Control and ...

shortcut button, scrolling buttons, and at least one user-configurable application button. There have been two releases: * Windows XP Tablet PC Edition – The original version released in November 2002. * Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 – The Tablet PC version released in August 2004 (codenamed ''Lonestar'') as part of Windows XP Service Pack 2. The 2005 edition is available as a service pack upgrade, or as a new

version. Service Pack 2 for Windows XP includes Tablet PC Edition 2005 and is a free upgrade. This version brought improved handwriting recognition and improved the Input Panel, allowing it to be used in almost every application. The Input Panel was also revised to extend speech recognition services (input and correction) to other applications.

Included software

HP Tablet PC running Windows XP (Tablet PC edition) (2006)

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is based on Windows XP Professional and includes all the software features provided in it. In addition, it includes some of the following components: * Tablet PC Input Panel *

Windows Journal Windows Journal is a discontinued notetaking application, created by Microsoft and included in Windows XP editions#Tablet PC Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition as well as selected editions of Windows Vista and later. It allowed the user to crea ...

* Sticky Notes * InkBall * Energy Blue theme The following downloadable packs released by Microsoft add more functionality: * Microsoft Experience Pack for Tablet PC ** Ink Art ** Ink Crossword ** Ink Desktop ** Media Transfer ** Snipping Tool 2.0 * Microsoft Education Pack for Tablet PC ** Ink Flash Cards ** Equation Writer ** GoBinder Lite ** Hexic Deluxe

Technology

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition utilizes the Ink object as a means of data input and storage. This is a data type created as part of the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition API that allows users to manipulate and process handwritten data, including recognition results and, in some cases, the pressure information for each part of the stroke. Properties of Ink can be changed in much the same way as properties of other objects, and the data can be saved to allow future reference. Many applications referencing the Ink object also allow handwritten notes to be filtered and searched through, based on the recognition results stored when Ink is saved. Integrated with the operating system is a Tablet PC Input Panel (TIP) which allows handwriting to be converted into text for use in most non-full-screen applications. The integrated handwriting recognition in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 can recognize print, cursive, or mixed writing. Accuracy can be increased by configuring the recognizer to expect left-handed writing or right-handed writing. Recognition in a variety of languages is available with the install of
recognizer pack
The handwriting engine cannot be trained to recognize a particular handwriting style, so the user must modify their handwriting to be better recognized by the system in order to use this feature effectively. Speech recognition functionality is also incorporated into the Tablet Input Panel. Compared to previous versions, a substantially improved speech recognition engine version 6 (which also ships with Office 2003) and a tutorial, microphone wizard and training modules are included. It is possible to dictate text using speech in certain supported applications and control the Windows GUI and applications using speech, although the accuracy improvements further made in Windows Vista surpass these features. An update for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition containing Ink Analysis and StylusInput API support introduced in Windows Vista is also available.

Subscription and pre-paid editions

In 2006, Microsoft made available two additional editions of Windows XP Home Edition for hardware manufacturers that wanted to provide subscription-based or pay as you go-based models for selling computers. These editions, named Windows XP Home Edition for Subscription Computers, and Windows XP Home Edition for Prepaid Computers respectively, are part of the " Microsoft FlexGo" initiative, described in a company-issued press release as, " akingPCs more accessible by dramatically reducing the entry cost and enabling customers to pay for their computer as they use it, through the purchase of prepaid cards. Market trials are starting first in emerging markets where inadequate access to consumer credit, unpredictable income and high entry costs prevent many consumers from purchasing a computer." These editions were targeted towards emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Hungary and Vietnam. Both editions contain additional components that enforce the subscription models via metering. The metering is typically enforced with a hardware component to prevent tampering. The installation of Windows operates in "normal mode", "Limited Access Mode", or "Hardware Locked Mode" depending on the state of the subscription. When a computer has a positive time balance, it operates in "normal mode" and functions as a regular Windows XP Home Edition machine. When the time balance expires, the machine will then operate in "Limited Access Mode" for an amount of time set by the hardware manufacturer (five hours by default) before entering "Hardware Locked Mode". In Limited Access Mode, the screen uses high-contrast and low-resolution display settings, and in Hardware Locked Mode, the operating system is disabled entirely, and a message is displayed on boot-up with instructions on how to re-enable the machine.

64-bit editions

Two distinct editions of Windows XP were released to support 64-bit hardware.

Windows XP 64-Bit Edition

Windows XP 64-Bit Edition was designed to run on

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

Itanium Itanium ( ) is a discontinued family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture (formerly called IA-64). Launched in June 2001, Intel marketed the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance comput ...

family of

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

s in their native

IA-64 IA-64 (Intel Itanium architecture) is the instruction set architecture (ISA) of the Itanium family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors. The basic ISA specification originated at Hewlett-Packard (HP), and was subsequently implemented by Intel in col ...

mode. Two versions of Windows XP 64-Bit Edition were released: * Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for Itanium systems, Version 2002 – Based on Windows XP

codebase In software development, a codebase (or code base) is a collection of source code used to build a particular software system, application, or software component. Typically, a codebase includes only human-written source code files; thus, a codeb ...

, was released simultaneously alongside the 32-bit (IA-32) version of Windows XP on October 25, 2001. * Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, Version 2003 – Based on

codebase (which added support for the Itanium 2 processor), was released on March 28, 2003. This edition was discontinued in January 2005, after Hewlett-Packard, the last distributor of Itanium-based workstations, stopped selling Itanium systems marketed as 'workstations'. As of July 2005, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition is no longer supported, and no further security updates were made available. Windows XP 64-Bit Edition was not marketed as the Itanium version of Microsoft's other Windows XP editions, but, instead, as a separate edition made solely for the Itanium processor and its 64-bit instructions. It is mostly analogous to Windows XP Professional, but numerous older technologies, such as DAO, Jet database,

NTVDM Virtual DOS machines (VDM) refer to a technology that allows running 16-bit/32-bit DOS and 16-bit Windows programs when there is already another operating system running and controlling the hardware. Overview Virtual DOS machines can operate eit ...

, and

Windows on Windows In computing, Windows on Windows (commonly referred to as WOW), was a compatibility layer of 32-bit versions of the Windows NT family of operating systems since 1993 with the release of Windows NT 3.1, which extends NTVDM to provide limited s ...

, are no longer present, so support for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

and

Win16 The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

applications is absent. The original version also lacks most media applications, such as

NetMeeting Microsoft NetMeeting is a discontinued VoIP and multi-point videoconferencing client included in many versions of Microsoft Windows (from Windows 95 OSR2 to Windows Vista). It uses the H.323 protocol for videoconferencing, and is interoperable w ...

, and integrated CD burning, although Windows Media Player and NetMeeting were added in the 2003 version. Similar to the ability of previous alternate architecture ports of Windows ( Windows NT 4.0 for PowerPC, MIPS R4x00, and Alpha) to run 16-bit x86 code via

, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition can run standard x86 32-bit applications through its WOW64 (Windows-on-Windows 64-bit)

emulation Emulation may refer to: *Emulation (computing), imitation of behavior of a computer or other electronic system with the help of another type of system :*Video game console emulator, software which emulates video game consoles *Gaussian process em ...

layer. While the original Itanium processor contains an on-chip

IA-32 IA-32 (short for "Intel Architecture, 32-bit", commonly called i386) is the 32-bit version of the x86 instruction set architecture, designed by Intel and first implemented in the 80386 microprocessor in 1985. IA-32 is the first incarnation o ...

decoder, it was deemed far too slow for serious use (running at about 400 MHz), so Microsoft and Intel wrote a software 32 to 64-bit translator dubbed the IA-32 Execution Layer. It allows real time translation of x86 32-bit instructions into

instructions, allowing 32-bit applications to run (albeit significantly more slowly than native code).

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

This edition supports the

x86-64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging ...

extension of the Intel IA-32 architecture. x86-64 is implemented by AMD as "AMD64", found in AMD's

Opteron Opteron is AMD's x86 former server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64 or AMD64). It was released on April 22, 2003, with the ''Sledg ...

, Athlon 64 chips (and in selected Sempron processors), and implemented by Intel as "Intel 64" (formerly known as IA-32e and EM64T), found in some of Intel's

Pentium 4 Pentium 4 is a series of single-core CPUs for desktops, laptops and entry-level servers manufactured by Intel. The processors were shipped from November 20, 2000 until August 8, 2008. The production of Netburst processors was active from 200 ...

and most of Intel's later chips. It was released on April 25, 2005. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition uses version 5.2.3790.1830 of core operating system binaries, the same version used by

SP1 as they were the latest versions during the operating system's development. Even service packs and updates for Windows XP x64 and Windows Server 2003 x64 are distributed in unified packages,Typically, a security update for English-language x64 Editions of Server 2003 and XP Professional is named ''WindowsServer2003.WindowsXP-KBnnnnnn-SP2-x64-ENU.exe'' or ''WindowsServer2003.WindowsXP-KBnnnnnnn-x64-ENU.exe'', much in the manner as Windows 2000 Professional and Server editions for x86. During the initial development phases (2003–2004), Windows XP Professional x64 Edition was named ''Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for x86 Extended Systems'' and later, ''Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for Extended Systems'', as opposed to ''64-Bit Edition for Itanium Systems''.

Service packs

The RTM version of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is based on Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1. For the same reason, Service Pack 2 for Windows XP x64 Edition, released on the March 13, 2007, is not the same as Service Pack 2 for 32-bit versions of Windows XP. In fact, due to the earlier release date of the 32-bit version, many of the key features introduced by Service Pack 2 for 32-bit (x86) editions of Windows XP were already present in the RTM version of its 64-bit (x86-64) counterpart. Service Pack 2 is the first and last released service pack for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

Software compatibility

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition uses a technology named Windows-on-Windows 64-bit (WOW64), which permits the execution of 32-bit

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

applications. It was first employed in

Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Windows XP, which is the next version of Windows NT after Windows 2000 and the successor to the consumer-oriented Windows Me, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001. Windows XP is available in many languages. In ...

(for the

), but then reused for the "x64 Editions" of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Since the

architecture includes hardware-level support for 32-bit instructions, WOW64 switches the processor between 32- and 64-bit modes. According to Microsoft, 32-bit software running under WOW64 has a similar performance when executing under 32-bit Windows, but with fewer threads possible and other overheads. All 32-bit processes are shown with ''*32'' in the task manager, while 64-bit processes have no extra text present. Although 32-bit applications can be run transparently, the mixing of the two types of code within the same process is not allowed. A 64-bit application cannot link against a 32-bit

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

( DLL) and, similarly, a 32-bit application cannot link against a 64-bit library. This may lead to the need for library developers to provide both 32- and 64-bit binary versions of their libraries. Windows XP x64 Edition includes both 32- and 64-bit versions of

Internet Explorer 6 Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) is a graphical web browser developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems. Released on August 24, 2001, it is the sixth, and by now discontinued, version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet ...

, in order to allow for the possibility that some third-party browser plugins or

ActiveX ActiveX is a deprecated software framework created by Microsoft that adapts its earlier Component Object Model (COM) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies for content downloaded from a network, particularly from the World Wide We ...

controls may not yet be available in 64-bit versions. Older 32-bit drivers and services are not supported by 64-bit Windows, but video and audio

codec A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or ...

s such as

XviD Xvid (formerly "XviD") is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 video coding standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP). It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi mas ...

or OggDS (which are 32-bit DLLs), are supported as long as the media player that uses them is 32-bit as well. 64-bit Windows does not include

, so there is no native support for the execution of

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mo ...

Windows applications, such as those written for Windows 3.1.

Upgradeability

A machine running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition cannot be directly upgraded to Windows Vista, because the 64 bit Vista DVD mistakenly recognizes XP x64 as a 32-bit system. XP x64 does qualify the customer to use an upgrade copy of Windows Vista or Windows 7, but it must be installed as a clean install. The last version of

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketi ...

to be compatible with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is

Office 2007 Microsoft Office 2007 (codenamed Office 12) is an office suite for Windows, developed and published by Microsoft. It was officially revealed on March 9, 2006 and was the 12th version of Microsoft Office. It was released to manufacturing on Novemb ...

, and the last version of

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Windows line of operating systems ( ...

compatible with the operating system is

Internet Explorer 8 Windows Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is a web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on March 19, 2009, as the eighth version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer 7. It was the default browser in Windows 7 (later def ...

(Service Pack 2 is required).

Advantages

The primary benefit of moving to 64-bit is the increase in the maximum allocatable

virtual memory In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a very ...

. A single standard process on a 32-bit Windows operating system is limited to a total of 2,093,056

kilobyte The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix '' kilo'' as 1000 (103); per this definition, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quant ...

s (2GB minus one 4KB page), while large address aware 32-bit processes can allocate up to 4GB. Windows XP x64 can support much more memory; although the theoretical memory limit a 64-bit computer can address is about 16

exabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

s, Windows XP x64 is limited to 128GB of physical memory and 8

terabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

s of

per process while the practical limit is usually the size of the pagefile. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows XP 64-bit Edition Version 2003 are the only releases of Windows XP to include

6.0, which matches the version shipped with

; other versions of XP include 5.1. 64-bit versions of Windows XP are also immune to certain types of viruses and malware that target 32-bit systems, since most system files are 64-bit. The extra registers of the x86-64 architecture can result in performance improvements in certain kinds of applications, but more often than not, will result in a slight decrease in performance when compared to the same application implemented in 32 bit x86 code running on Windows XP 32 bit editions.

Editions for embedded systems

Microsoft has released a number of editions of Windows XP that are targeted towards developers of embedded devices, for use in specific consumer electronics,

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...

es, kiosks/ ATMs, medical devices, arcade video games, point-of-sale terminals, and Voice over Internet Protocol (

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

) components. These editions all belong to Windows Embedded subfamilies.

Windows XP for Embedded Systems

Windows XP for Embedded Systems is binary identical to Windows XP Professional, but is licensed only for embedded devices.

Windows XP Embedded

Windows XP Embedded, commonly abbreviated "XPe", is a componentized version of the Professional edition of Windows XP. An

original equipment manufacturer An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

is free to choose only the components needed thereby reducing operating system footprint and also reducing attack area as compared with XP Professional. Unlike

Windows CE Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

, Microsoft's operating system for portable devices and consumer electronics, XP Embedded provides the full

Windows API The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

, and support for the full range of applications and device drivers written for Microsoft Windows. The system requirements state that XPe can run on devices with at least 32 MB

Compact Flash CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994. CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the e ...

, 32 MB RAM and a P-200

. XPe was released on November 28, 2001. As of October 2008, the newest release is Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 3. The devices targeted for XPe have included

automatic teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

s, arcade games,

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

cash register A cash register, sometimes called a till or automated money handling system, is a mechanical or electronic device for registering and calculating transactions at a point of sale. It is usually attached to a drawer for storing cash and other ...

s, industrial

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrate ...

thin client In computer networking, a thin client is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as ''network computers'', or in th ...

es,

network attached storage Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level (as opposed to block-level storage) computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. The term "NAS" can refer to both the tech ...

(NAS),

time clock A time clock, sometimes known as a clock card machine or punch clock or time recorder, is a device that records start and end times for hourly employees (or those on flexi-time) at a place of business. In mechanical time clocks, this was accomp ...

s, navigation devices, railroad locomotives, etc. Custom versions of the OS can be deployed onto anything but a full-fledged PC; even though XPe supports the same hardware that XP Professional supports (

architecture), licensing restrictions prevent it from being deployed on to standard PCs. However, Microsoft has made some exceptions to this rule, allowing XPe alongside a standard OEM install of Windows. Some Dell notebooks contain an embedded XP installation as part of the

MediaDirect Dell MediaDirect is a software application that is published by Dell, Inc. and is pre-installed on the computers they sell. It attempts to provide DVD and CD playback and recent editions include features such as an address book and calendar. It ...

2.0 feature, and they were also found on some Acer ones as well as the Samsung Q1. Windows Embedded Standard 2009 succeeded XPe in the second half of 2008. Windows Embedded Standard 2009 is derived from Windows XP Embedded since Microsoft at the time of its development did not have a componentized version of Windows Vista. Windows Embedded Standard 2009 includes

Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich web applications, similar to Adobe Inc., Adobe's Run time environment, runtime, Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is still available for a v ...

.NET Framework 3.5 Microsoft started development on the .NET Framework in the late 1990s originally under the name of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS). By late 2001 the first beta versions of .NET 1.0 were released. The first version of .NET Framework was r ...

Internet Explorer 7 Windows Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) (codenamed Rincon) is a web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on October 18, 2006, as the seventh version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 7 is pa ...

Windows Media Player 11 Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...

, RDP 6.1, Network Access Protection, Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and support for being managed by

Windows Server Update Services Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), previously known as Software Update Services (SUS), is a computer program and network service developed by Microsoft Corporation that enables administrators to manage the distribution of updates and h ...

and System Center Configuration Manager. It can be installed on top of Windows XP/Server 2003, Vista/Server 2008.

Windows Embedded Standard 7 Windows IoT, formerly Windows Embedded, is a family of operating systems from Microsoft designed for use in embedded systems. Microsoft currently has three different subfamilies of operating systems for embedded devices targeting a wide market, ...

has succeeded Windows Embedded Standard 2009 in April 2010 and is a componentized version of Windows 7.

Features

;Write filters :XPe includes components known as ''write filters'', which can be used to filter out disk writes. The volumes can be marked as read-only using these filters and all writes to it can be redirected. Applications in user mode are unaware of this write filtering. XPe ships with two write filters: :# Enhanced Write Filter (EWF): Protects a system at volume level. It redirects all disk writes to a protected drive, to RAM or a separate disk. EWF is extremely useful when used in thin clients that have flash memory as their primary boot source. :#File Based Write Filter (FBWF): Allows the configuration of individual files as read/write on a protected volume ;USB boot :XPe adds a USB boot option to Windows. An XPe embedded device can be configured to boot from a USB drive. ;CD boot :An XPe device can be configured to boot from a CD-ROM. This allows the device to boot without the requirement of having a physical

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magne ...

as well as provides a "fresh boot" every time the image is booted (a property inherited by the fact that the operating system is being booted from read-only media). One drawback to this technology is updating or servicing the image requires the complete process of setting up the runtime image to be completed once again from start to end. ;Network boot :An XPe device can be configured to boot from a properly configured network. Synonymous to CD boot, network boot removes the requirement of having the physical hard drive as well as providing the "fresh boot" behavior. One bonus to Network Boot though is the ability to service the already setup image. Once the image is updated the image is simply posted to the RIS Server and once clients are rebooted they will receive the updated image.

Windows Embedded for Point of Service

Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS) is a specialization of Windows XP Embedded. It was released on May 25, 2005, and focuses on the point of sale device market, such as fuel pumps,

self checkout Self-checkouts (SCOs), also known as assisted checkouts (ACOs) or self-service checkouts, are machines that provide a mechanism for customers to complete their own transaction from a retailer without needing a traditional staffed checkout. When ...

stations, automated teller machines and cash registers. It is not available for purchase directly from Microsoft, but is instead licensed to original equipment manufacturers. Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 succeeded WEPOS in January 2009. Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 is derived from WEPOS since Microsoft at the time of its development did not have a componentized version of Windows Vista. Windows Embedded POSReady 7 has succeeded Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 in July 2011 and is based on Windows 7 SP1.

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs

In July 2006, Microsoft introduced a "thin-client" variant of Windows XP Embedded called Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, which targets older machines (as early as the original Pentium). It is only available to

Software Assurance Software assurance (SwA) is defined as "the level of confidence that software is free from vulnerabilities, either intentionally designed into the software or accidentally inserted at any time during its lifecycle, and that the software functions ...

customers. It is intended for those who would like to upgrade to Windows XP to take advantage of its security and management capabilities, but cannot afford to purchase new hardware. Windows Thin PC has succeeded Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs in June 2011 and is based on Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1.

References

External links

Windows XP Media Center Edition home page

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition home page

Embedded Windows team blog

Windows XP Embedded Home Page
{{Microsoft Windows family Windows XP