Monroe Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 (edited) Came across this list of 20 facts at The Fact Site ... I think this list could be from 2015 but not 100% sure ... so some "facts" may have changed. A few facts I was not aware of ... from the page ... 04 The rolling hills background for XP sold for millions of dollars!Charles O’Rear is a photographer for National Geographic and was the man who captured the beautiful photo seen on all XP operating systems. The photo is taken in California and is said to be the second most valuable photo ever! 10 It’s impossible to create a folder named CON.Odd as this sounds, it’s true. If you’re running XP you cannot name a file CON. This is because there’s already a file in the system named that, but not one you can readily access. 12 The XP stands for Experience.A random but little known fact that the XP is for eXPerience. One of the few Windows OS with a name instead of a number identification. 20 Facts About Windows XP http://www.thefactsite.com/2015/09/microsoft-windows-xp-facts.html Everyone remembers the beloved Windows XP that operated truly as an OS should. It was intuitive, streamlined, and not filled with the horrible kinks and problems seen in Vista or Windows 8. Despite Windows XP officially being made redundant due to the three new operating systems released since, there is still a strong following of individuals who continue to download and use this OS. If you’re one of those hardcore XP supporters, or simply someone curious to learn more about this operating system, then continue reading! We’ve got twenty facts about the Windows XP operating system that may surprise even the most tech savvy readers! All 20 Facts at the link ... Edited March 11, 2016 by monroe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibya Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Windows XP forever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranceBB Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Windows XP, the best OS Microsoft ever made. Light, essential, reliable. P.s: fact 21) Do you know that XP has been installed by BT (British Telecom) in their public landline phones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibya Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 fact 22) windows xp is used by 90% indian .(now a days they are keeping in second partition) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-H Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Interesting that XP actually stood for "experience", I always thought it stood for "extra performance"!I'm sure that's what many people said when it came out in 2001. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monroe Posted March 11, 2016 Author Share Posted March 11, 2016 (edited) Adding some additional "facts" ... at least one. I really liked the Windows XP Initial Startup Music ... you only get to hear it that one time when you start XP for the first time. I searched Google and actually found out where it was located and saved it to play every so often. It's a great sound that MS included with XP. *** If you're interested in the location of the XP music ... use a good set of headphones to really enjoy the experience. C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images\title... Edited March 12, 2016 by monroe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranceBB Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 How about replacing it?I mean, if we just get into that folder and replace that sound with a single we like, encoded in the same way and renamed in the same way as well, the startup will play our favourite song every time, right?I mean, that's not gonna screw up the entire boot, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monroe Posted March 12, 2016 Author Share Posted March 12, 2016 (edited) Not exactly sure what you mean ... the Windows XP Startup sound can do that. The Windows XP Initial Startup Music is long playing and probably better to listen to and enjoy. They are two different items ... if someone starts Windows XP for the very first time with a new computer out of the box and they don't have any speakers hooked up until later ... they will never hear that particular Windows XP sound since it only plays that one time and never again. That Windows XP music may be known as Windows XP Welcome Music. I just checked as the music is playing ... it is titled - Microsoft Windows Welcome Music. It is over 5 minutes long ... 5:24 to be exact but it ends at around 5:22. This is from an old 2009 forum dealing with the sound ... "I don't think that's what the OP was referring to. He's talking about the song (and not a "chime," "sound," etc) that plays only when you turn on your PC for the very first time and go through the start-up and registration screens. Beyond that point, the song never plays again unless you restore the computer or track down the file manually."... Edited March 12, 2016 by monroe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j7n Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 (edited) On piektdiena, 2016. gada 11. martā at 9:16 AM, monroe said: 04 The rolling hills background for XP sold for millions of dollars! I'm disappointed, although not surprised, that they didn't include such a valuable picture in decent quality. The JPEG on the XP CD is about 50 KB (46 KB after optimization) with color subsampling, and looks very poor. I found [url=a better copy via google, which, according to its Exif, was saved recently in 2011 (seems that Imgur stripped it). [rant] Anyway, XP was well into the era of "bloated" software, and could have used some of that free space on the CD for art of lasting value. I have to shake my head whenever I go to a website, which loads some heavy javascript and other "user experience" junk, but has chosen the absolute minimum parameters for the images or music, the actual "content". [/rant] I like the "Autumn" wallpaper more, but unfortunately it is just as pixellated. Edited March 16, 2016 by j7n 15 minutes twiddling to insert a simple [url] without an embedded image. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranceBB Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 (edited) Well, to be fair, it is pixelated nowadays. I mean, XP has been released in 2001-2002 and we didn't have the monitors we have now. If we take a look at the TV standards back in the days, everything was 720x480 anamorphic and interlaced, with early DVDs made in MPEG-2 8bit 4:2:0. I mean, when I boot XP now, even the boot logo has some ringing artifacts, but that's simply because it wasn't meant to work at resolutions like 1080p or 2160p. Microsoft itself didn't expect XP to last this much when they released it the very first time, in fact it works perfectly with old CRT monitor and with 800p progress monitor. As to the UI itself, instead, it scales perfectly with resolutions as high as 1080p (I mean the login page and the Start button/menu. Edited March 16, 2016 by FranceBB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j7n Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 A normal desktop, at the time of XP's release, was 1024*768 at full RGB, maybe somewhat less if the picture tube was only 15". Games and videos were played at smaller resolutions which we are not at liberty to pick anymore today and are stuck with either blur or ringing. But you don't see a wallpaper during those activities. Games from 1999-2001 generally had preset options for 640, 800, 1024 modes. Win98/2k/xp all also come with nice 48px icons, which can only be appreciated on a decent screen. Yes, the UI scales well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibya Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 14 hours ago, FranceBB said: Well, to be fair, it is pixelated nowadays. I mean, XP has been released in 2001-2002 and we didn't have the monitors we have now. If we take a look at the TV standards back in the days, everything was 720x480 anamorphic and interlaced, with early DVDs made in MPEG-2 8bit 4:2:0. I mean, when I boot XP now, even the boot logo has some ringing artifacts, but that's simply because it wasn't meant to work at resolutions like 1080p or 2160p. Microsoft itself didn't expect XP to last this much when they released it the very first time, in fact it works perfectly with old CRT monitor and with 800p progress monitor. As to the UI itself, instead, it scales perfectly with resolutions as high as 1080p (I mean the login page and the Start button/menu. I have no problem even in 4k also 1080p. Apply XPTSP and enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamTron Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Another fun fact about Windows XP that you might not know is that the original retail installation disc had quite a bit of free space, and the guys at Microsoft were wondering what to do with it. What happened was that they took Microsoft Bob, encrypted it, then filled up the unused space with that data. So if you have an original XP disc, you have an encrypted copy of Microsoft Bob. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 1 hour ago, CamTron said: Another fun fact about Windows XP that you might not know is that the original retail installation disc had quite a bit of free space, and the guys at Microsoft were wondering what to do with it. What happened was that they took Microsoft Bob, encrypted it, then filled up the unused space with that data. So if you have an original XP disc, you have an encrypted copy of Microsoft Bob. To be picky, as I am BTW, there is a single guy (authoritative and nice as he might be ) that stated that: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.07.windowsconfidential.aspx and at least another guy: http://technabob.com/blog/2007/04/01/windows-vista-easter-egg-discovered/ raises some doubts about the story. Futile as it might be as an exercise, it is at least *strange* that seemingly noone took some time in the last 7 or 8 years to (if not decrypt) at least find/locate the actual data chunk on the CD and document the finding. On the other hand we have several years of experience in dealing with the Windows XP setup process, and noone ever (AFAIK) found the *need* for setup to access these mythical 30 Mb of encrypted data (which if needed would have made - say - nlite or any other modification impossible). It is of course possible that a certain number of initial RTM CD's contained that data, but all in all it is not very credible, if anyone happens to have an original XP CD it would be nice if he/she could have a peek at it with a hex/disk editor and confirm or deny the existence of that data... jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelC Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Tineye.com turned up an even bigger one... http://cdn.desktopwallpapers4.me/wallpapers/nature/2560x1600/1/9341-green-hill-2560x1600-nature-wallpaper.jpg -Noel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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