Microsoft Released Windows XP
On this day · 25 October 2001
On a single autumn day in 2001, Microsoft launched the operating system that would define the PC era for a generation.
On October 25, 2001, Microsoft announced the worldwide availability of Windows XP, fronting the launch with a New York City celebration headlined by chairman Bill Gates. The release marked the moment Microsoft folded its consumer and business lines onto a single, more stable foundation built on the Windows NT core.
Until then, home users ran the crash-prone Windows Me while corporate machines ran Windows 2000. Windows XP merged both audiences, shipping in Home and Professional editions and introducing the now-iconic green Start button, blue taskbar, and the “Bliss” rolling-hills wallpaper.
It became one of the longest-lived and most widely installed operating systems ever shipped.
Its staying power was remarkable: Microsoft supported XP until April 2014, nearly 13 years after launch, and the system still ran on a meaningful slice of the world’s computers long after newer versions arrived. For many people, Windows XP was simply what a computer looked like.
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