Windows XP

Windows XP is the penultimate significant release of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and was made available on October 25, 2001. "XP" stands for eXPerience.

Windows XP has been criticized for poor performance, significant security vulnerabilities, and poor DOS backwards compatibility, among others. Interestingly, when Windows Vista debuted, many organizations chose to retain XP in favor of the newer system, as it was perceived of as being of higher quality. To this day, the majority of professional networks run Windows XP, and many still run Windows 2000 Professional, including high security institutions like banks, hospitals, and government agencies. Institutions' hesitance to upgrade to newer operating systems is nothing new; many organizations continued to use DOS long after Windows became popular.