Windows XP was the longest running Microsoft operating system, seeing three major updates and support up until April — 13 years from its original release date. Windows XP was still used on an estimated m PCs when it was discontinued. Its biggest problem was security: though it had a firewall built in, it was turned off by default. Windows XP stayed the course for close to six years before being replaced by Windows Vista in January Vista updated the look and feel of Windows with more focus on transparent elements, search and security.
Later a version of Windows Vista without Windows Media Player was created in response to anti-trust investigations. Considered by many as what Windows Vista should have been, Windows 7 was first released in October It was faster, more stable and easier to use, becoming the operating system most users and business would upgrade to from Windows XP, forgoing Vista entirely.
Windows 7 saw Microsoft hit in Europe with antitrust investigations over the pre-installing of IE, which led to a browser ballot screen being shown to new users allowing them to choose, which browser to install on first boot.
A desktop was still included, which resembled Windows 7. Windows 8 was faster than previous versions of Windows and included support for the new, much faster USB 3. The Windows Store, which offers universal Windows apps that run in a full-screen mode only, was introduced. Programs could still be installed from third-parties like other iterations of Windows, but they could only access the traditional desktop interface of Windows.
The radical overhaul was not welcomed by many. Microsoft attempted to tread a fine line between touchscreen support and desktop users, but ultimately desktop users wanting to control Windows with a traditional mouse and keyboard and not a touchscreen felt Windows 8 was a step back. There were also too few touchscreens in use, or on offer, to make its touch-oriented interface useful or even necessary - despite the parallel rise of tablets such as the iPad, and smartphones, which had begun outselling PCs by the end of It looked and felt like Windows 8, but could not run traditional Windows applications, instead solely relying on the Windows Store for third-party apps.
Fortunately, Windows 7 was good enough that most people let go on their own. But not everyone. Prior to XP, Microsoft had iterated its consumer operating systems relatively quickly, with Windows 3. This longevity could, at times, be downright annoying. In , Windows Vista — the successor to XP — was released.
It was considered an inferior, bloated and unusable system by many commentators, including Time magazine. Designed for high-powered computers, Vista was often excruciatingly slow and frustrating to use on older machines that comfortably ran XP.
Windows 7 followed Vista in , confronting users with massive changes. It initially forced users on computers with a keyboard and mouse into a tablet-style interaction on the home screen. The familiar icons and desktop format vanished. Instead, users were greeted with differently-sized tiles, and scrolling mechanisms that were perfect for touch-screens but awkward for mouse navigation.
The Windows XP tablet was based on a cut-down operating system and a completely different family of processors. It was also incompatible with existing software offerings. A similar story unfolded in the mobile phone space. Although Windows phones are still available, Microsoft changed lanes in
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