This article describes audio APIs and components in Microsoft Windows which are now obsolete or deprecated.
97-947: The MME API or the Windows Multimedia API (also known as WinMM ) was the first universal and standardized Windows audio API. Wave sound events played in Windows (up to Windows XP ) and MIDI I/O use MME. The devices listed in the Multimedia/Sounds and Audio control panel applet represent the MME API of the sound card driver. The Multimedia Extensions (WaveIn/WaveOut interfaces) were released in autumn 1991 to support sound cards , as well as CD-ROM drives, which were then becoming increasingly available. The Multimedia Extensions were released to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) , mainly CD-ROM drive and sound card manufacturers, and added basic multimedia support for audio input and output and
194-539: A CD audio player application to Windows 3.0. The Multimedia Extensions' new features were not available in Windows 3.0 real mode, only in standard and 386 enhanced mode. Windows 3.1x would later incorporate many of its features. Microsoft developed the Windows Sound System sound card specification to complement these extensions. In Windows 95/ME, MME lacks mixing multiple audio streams during playback and device sharing, so only one audio stream can be rendered at
291-442: A device driver to create DirectShow -like filters and pins in kernel mode , providing access to hardware, lower latency communication and still be used within a DirectShow filter graph . Kernel streaming was introduced in Windows 98. When the sound card uses a custom driver for use with the system supplied port class driver PortCls.sys or implements a mini-driver for use with the streaming class driver, applications can bypass
388-403: A recursive <wave-data> (which implies data interpretation problems). To avoid the recursion, the specification can be interpreted as: WAV files can contain embedded IFF lists , which can contain several sub-chunks . This is an example of a WAV file header (44 bytes). Data is stored in little-endian byte order. As a derivative of RIFF, WAV files can be tagged with metadata in
485-593: A "wrapper" to store audio data encoded by any audio codec supported by ACM. ACM is considered an outdated framework/API and Microsoft now encourages the use of at least DirectShow . However, unlike ACM and the related Video Compression Manager (VCM) , DirectShow provides no means to encode files for end-users but requires developers to build end-to-end graphs for encoding content. ACM also does not support VBR audio streams; therefore newer codecs like MPEG-4 AAC , Ogg Vorbis , FLAC etc. cannot be supported through ACM if using variable bitrates. Though many sources state
582-401: A RIFF (or WAV) reader is that it should ignore any tagged chunk that it does not recognize. The reader will not be able to use the new information, but the reader should not be confused. The specification for RIFF files includes the definition of an INFO chunk. The chunk may include information such as the title of the work, the author, the creation date, and copyright information. Although
679-501: A RIFF file has a RIFF tag; the first four bytes of chunk data are an additional FourCC tag that specify the form type and are followed by a sequence of subchunks. In the case of a WAV file, the additional tag is WAVE . The remainder of the RIFF data is a sequence of chunks describing the audio information. The advantage of a tagged file format is that the format can be extended later while maintaining backward compatibility . The rule for
776-412: A chunk to be deleted by just changing its FourCC. The chunk could also be used to reserve some space for future edits so the file could be modified without being resized. A later definition of RIFF introduced a similar PAD chunk. The top-level definition of a WAV file is: The top-level RIFF form uses a WAVE tag. It is followed by a mandatory <fmt-ck> chunk that describes the format of
873-467: A computer running Windows XP from across a network or the Internet and access their applications, files, printers, and devices or request help. Improvements were also made to IntelliMirror features such as Offline Files , roaming user profiles , and folder redirection . To enable running software that targets or locks out specific versions of Windows, "Compatibility mode" was added. It allows pretending
970-490: A general overview of the system's security status, including the state of the firewall and automatic updates. Third-party firewall and antivirus software can also be monitored from Security Center. In August 2006, Microsoft released updated installation media for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 SP2 (SP2b), in order to incorporate a patch requiring ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer to be manually activated before
1067-406: A greater number of logical processors : 32-bit editions support up to 32 logical processors, and 64-bit editions support up to 64 logical processors. Several Windows XP components are upgradable to the latest versions, which include new versions introduced in later versions of Windows, and other major Microsoft applications are available. These latest versions for Windows XP include: Support for
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#17328770288441164-550: A hardware mixer is a way to bypass KMixer. KMixer was removed in Windows Vista . It is replaced by the user-mode WASAPI (Windows Audio Session API) Audio Engine which is part of the revamped audio architecture . The Audio engine can operate in Shared mode or Exclusive mode . In shared mode, mixing still takes place. Pre-mixed PCM audio is sent to the driver in a single format (in terms of sample rate, bit depth and channel count) that
1261-500: A more intuitive user interface, improved hardware support, and expanded multimedia capabilities. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 were succeeded by Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 , released in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on April 14, 2009, and extended support ended on April 8, 2014. Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 , based on Windows XP Professional, received security updates until April 2019. The final security update for Service Pack 3
1358-534: A new product codenamed "Whistler", named after Whistler, British Columbia , as many Microsoft employees skied at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort. The goal of Whistler was to unify both the consumer and business-oriented Windows lines under a single, Windows NT platform. Thurrott stated that Neptune had become "a black hole when all the features that were cut from Windows Me were simply re-tagged as Neptune features. And since Neptune and Odyssey would be based on
1455-448: A selected earlier version of Windows to software, starting at Windows 95. This feature was first introduced in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2, released five months before the release of Windows XP, and was backported from prerelease Windows XP builds. Unlike with Windows XP, however, it was hidden from the operating system as it was not enabled by default and had to be manually activated through
1552-548: A sequence: "A LIST chunk contains a list, or ordered sequence, of subchunks." However, the specification does not give a formal specification of the INFO chunk; an example INFO LIST chunk ignores the chunk sequence implied in the INFO description. The LIST chunk definition for <wave-data> does use the LIST chunk as a sequence container with good formal semantics. The WAV specification supports, and most WAV files use,
1649-404: A set of subchunks and an ordered sequence of subchunks. The RIFF form chunk suggests it should be a sequence container. Sequencing information is specified in the RIFF form of a WAV file consistent with the formalism: "However, <fmt-ck> must always occur before <wave-data> , and both of these chunks are mandatory in a WAVE file." The specification suggests a LIST chunk is also
1746-433: A single application into one taskbar button, with a popup menu listing the individual windows. The notification area also hides "inactive" icons by default. A "common tasks" list was added, and Windows Explorer 's sidebar was updated to use a new task-based design with lists of common actions; the tasks displayed are contextually relevant to the type of content in a folder (e.g. a folder with music displays offers to play all
1843-413: A single contiguous array of audio samples. The specification also supports discrete blocks of samples and silence that are played in order. The specification for the sample data contains apparent errors: Apparently <data-list> (undefined) and <wave-list> (defined but not referenced) should be identical. Even with this resolved, the productions then allow a <data-ck> to contain
1940-399: A single type of audio drivers. 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 successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users and Windows Me for home users. Development of Windows XP began in the late 1990s under
2037-422: A special variant of Home Edition intended for low-cost PCs. The OS is primarily aimed at first-time computer owners, containing heavy localization (including wallpapers and screen savers incorporating images of local landmarks), and a "My Support" area which contains video tutorials on basic computing tasks. It also removes certain "complex" features, and does not allow users to run more than three applications at
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#17328770288442134-615: A support life cycle of only 10 years. Beyond the final security updates released on April 8 for the main version, no more security patches or support information are provided for XP free-of-charge; "critical patches" will still be created, and made available only to customers subscribing to a paid "Custom Support" plan. As it is a Windows component, all versions of Internet Explorer for Windows XP also became unsupported. WAV file#Comparison of coding schemes Waveform Audio File Format ( WAVE , or WAV due to its filename extension ; pronounced / w æ v / or / w eɪ v / )
2231-568: A time. After a pilot program in India and Thailand, Starter was released in other emerging markets throughout 2005. In 2006, Microsoft also unveiled the FlexGo initiative, which would also target emerging markets with subsidized PCs on a pre-paid, subscription basis. As a result of unfair competition lawsuits in Europe and South Korea, which both alleged that Microsoft had improperly leveraged its status in
2328-525: A time. But some sound card drivers can emulate more than one MME device (or support more than a single streaming client) so it could work with MME too. Starting from Windows 2000, MME supports playback device sharing (multi-client access) and can mix playback streams together. Starting from Windows XP, MME started to support recording device sharing. In earlier Windows versions, MME supported up to two channels of recording, 16-bit audio bit depth and sampling rates of up to 44100 samples per second with all
2425-495: A user may interact with them. This was done so that the browser would not violate a patent owned by Eolas . Microsoft has since licensed the patent, and released a patch reverting the change in April 2008. In September 2007, another minor revision known as SP2c was released for XP Professional, extending the number of available product keys for the operating system to "support the continued availability of Windows XP Professional through
2522-402: Is CSET chunk to specify the country code, language, dialect, and code page for the strings in a RIFF file. For example, specifying an appropriate CSET chunk should allow the strings in an INFO chunk (and other chunks throughout the RIFF file) to be interpreted as Cyrillic or Japanese characters. RIFF also defines a JUNK chunk whose contents are uninteresting. The chunk allows
2619-400: Is a cumulative update package that is a superset of all updates, and even service packs, that have been released before it. Three service packs have been released for Windows XP. Service Pack 3 is slightly different, in that it needs at least Service Pack 1 to have been installed, in order to update a live OS. However, Service Pack 3 can still be embedded into a Windows installation disc ; SP1
2716-539: Is a photo of a landscape in the Napa Valley outside Napa, California , with rolling green hills and a blue sky with stratocumulus and cirrus clouds. The Start menu received its first major overhaul in XP, switching to a two-column layout with the ability to list, pin, and display frequently used applications, recently opened documents, and the traditional cascading "All Programs" menu. The taskbar can now group windows opened by
2813-562: Is an audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on personal computers . The format was developed and published for the first time in 1991 by IBM and Microsoft . It is the main format used on Microsoft Windows systems for uncompressed audio . The usual bitstream encoding is the linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) format. WAV is an application of the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) bitstream format method for storing data in chunks , and thus
2910-513: Is configurable from the Sounds control panel. WASAPI Exclusive mode bypasses the mixer, as does using third-party audio APIs like OpenAL or ASIO , which still have direct access to the hardware. Kernel Streaming or Direct Kernel streaming (Direct KS) is a technique that supports kernel-mode processing of streamed data. It enables efficient real-time streaming for multimedia devices such as sound cards and TV tuner cards . Kernel streaming allows
3007-456: Is explicitly intended for consumer use and disables or removes certain advanced and enterprise-oriented features present on Professional , such as the ability to join a Windows domain , Internet Information Services , and Multilingual User Interface . Windows 98 or Me can be upgraded to either edition, but Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 can only be upgraded to Professional . Windows' software license agreement for pre-loaded licenses allows
Windows legacy audio components - Misplaced Pages Continue
3104-403: Is limited to files that are less than 4 GiB , because of its use of a 32-bit unsigned integer to record the file size in the header. Although this is equivalent to about 6.8 hours of CD-quality audio at 44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo , it is sometimes necessary to exceed this limit, especially when greater sampling rates , bit resolutions or channel count are required. The W64 format
3201-552: Is not reported as a prerequisite for doing so. The boot screens for all editions of Windows XP have been unified by Service Pack 2 for Windows XP with a new one that no longer displays the SKU, with the boot screen for Home Edition using a blue progress bar instead of green. The copyright years on the boot screen were also removed. Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows XP was released on September 9, 2002. It contained over 300 minor, post-RTM bug fixes, along with all security patches released since
3298-489: Is removed (which supposedly limits the damage done by zombie machines ) and the Windows Messenger service (which had been abused to cause pop-up advertisements to be displayed as system messages without a web browser or any additional software) became disabled by default. Additionally, security-related improvements were made to e-mail and web browsing. Service Pack 2 also added Security Center , an interface that provides
3395-552: Is restricted to 31 characters so long device names may appear only partially. A fault in the MME WaveIn/WaveOut emulation was introduced in Windows Vista: if sample rate conversion is needed, audible noise is sometimes introduced, such as when playing audio in a web browser that uses these APIs. This is because the internal resampler, which is no longer configurable, defaults to a fast integer-based linear interpolation , which
3492-475: Is similar to the 8SVX and the Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) format used on Amiga and Macintosh computers, respectively. The WAV file is an instance of a Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) defined by IBM and Microsoft . The RIFF format acts as a wrapper for various audio coding formats . Though a WAV file can contain compressed audio, the most common WAV audio format
3589-519: Is the Kernel Audio Mixer driver, a part of WDM Audio in Windows 98 to Windows XP which handles the mixing of multiple sound buffers into an output. The tasks performed by KMixer.sys: In Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows Me, the KMixer maximum sample rate is 100 kHz. In Windows XP SP1 and later, KMixer audio sampling rate supports a maximum of 200 kHz. The KMixer was designed to aid
3686-399: Is the first consumer edition of Windows not based on the Windows 95 kernel or MS-DOS . Windows XP removed support for PC-98 , i486 , and SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540, and will only run on 32-bit x86 CPUs and devices that use BIOS firmware. Upon its release, Windows XP received critical acclaim, noting increased performance and stability (especially compared to Windows Me),
3783-422: Is uncommon except among video, music and audio professionals. The high resolution of the format makes it suitable for retaining first generation archived files of high quality, for use on a system where disk space and network bandwidth are not constraints. In spite of their large size, uncompressed WAV files are used by most radio broadcasters, especially those that have adopted a tapeless system. The WAV format
3880-558: Is uncompressed audio in the linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) format. LPCM is also the standard audio coding format for audio CDs , which store two-channel LPCM audio sampled at 44.1 kHz with 16 bits per sample . Since LPCM is uncompressed and retains all of the samples of an audio track, professional users or audio experts may use the WAV format with LPCM audio for maximum audio quality. WAV files can also be edited and manipulated with relative ease using software. On Microsoft Windows,
3977-459: The INFO chunk was defined for RIFF in version 1.0, the chunk was not referenced in the formal specification of a WAV file. Many readers had trouble processing this. Consequently, the safest thing to do from an interchange standpoint was to omit the INFO chunk and other extensions and send a lowest-common-denominator file. There are other INFO chunk placement problems . RIFF files were expected to be used in international environments, so there
Windows legacy audio components - Misplaced Pages Continue
4074-459: The RTAudio codec ) protocol is introduced, based on a single circular buffer . RT Audio protocol is implemented by WaveRT port driver in portcls.sys. In Vista and later versions, Audio Subsystem supports both protocols so it can interact with both legacy and new audio drivers. But most audio applications that use KS support only a single protocol (legacy in most cases) so they can communicate only with
4171-878: The Register Server utility. It was also only available to administrator users. Windows XP has this feature activated out of the box and also grants it to regular users. Some of the programs and features that were part of the previous versions of Windows did not make it to Windows XP. Various MS-DOS commands available in its Windows 9x predecessor were removed, as were the POSIX and OS/2 subsystems. In networking, NetBEUI , NWLink and NetDDE were deprecated and not installed by default. Plug-and-play–incompatible communication devices (like modems and network interface cards ) were no longer supported. Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 also removed features from Windows XP, including support for TCP half-open connections and
4268-628: The Security Support Provider Interface , improvements to WPA2 security, and an updated version of the Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider Module that is FIPS 140-2 certified. In incorporating all previously released updates not included in SP2, Service Pack 3 included many other key features. Windows Imaging Component allowed camera vendors to integrate their own proprietary image codecs with
4365-542: The Windows Security Center , Bluetooth support , Data Execution Prevention , Windows Firewall , and support for SDHC cards that are larger than 4 GB and smaller than 32 GB. Windows XP uses prefetching to improve startup and application launch times. It also became possible to revert the installation of an updated device driver , should the updated driver produce undesirable results. A copy protection system known as Windows Product Activation
4462-508: The INFO chunk. In addition, WAV files can embed any kind of metadata, including but not limited to Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data or ID3 tags in extra chunks. The RIFF specification requires that applications ignore chunks they do not recognize and applications may not necessarily use this extra information. Uncompressed WAV files are large, so file sharing of WAV files over the Internet
4559-427: The KMixer completely and use the kernel streaming interfaces instead to directly interact with audio driver and reduce latency. Windows 98 includes the first kernel streaming driver, Stream.sys. In Windows XP, Microsoft introduced another improved kernel streaming class driver, AVStream. Music players such as JRiver Media Center , JPLAY, foobar2000 , Audirvana Studio and Winamp support kernel streaming. Compared to
4656-538: The PC market to favor its own bundled software, Microsoft was ordered to release special editions of XP in these markets that excluded certain applications. In March 2004, after the European Commission fined Microsoft €497 million (US$ 603 million), Microsoft was ordered to release "N" editions of XP that excluded Windows Media Player, encouraging users to pick and download their own media player software. As it
4753-612: The Taskbar is no longer included because of antitrust violation concerns. Unofficial SP3 ZIP download packages were released on a now-defunct website called The Hotfix from 2005 to 2007. The owner of the website, Ethan C. Allen, was a former Microsoft employee in Software Quality Assurance and would comb through the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles daily and download new hotfixes Microsoft would put online within
4850-572: The WAV format supports compressed audio using the Audio Compression Manager (ACM). Any ACM codec can be used to compress a WAV file. The user interface (UI) for ACM may be accessed through various programs that use it, including Sound Recorder in some versions of Windows. Beginning with Windows 2000 , a WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE header was defined which specifies multiple audio channel data along with speaker positions, eliminates ambiguity regarding sample types and container sizes in
4947-451: The actual samples in the format previously specified. Note that the WAV file definition does not show where an INFO chunk should be placed. It is also silent about the placement of a CSET chunk (which specifies the character set used). The RIFF specification attempts to be a formal specification, but its formalism lacks the precision seen in other tagged formats. For example, the RIFF specification does not clearly distinguish between
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#17328770288445044-574: The address bar on the taskbar. Windows XP was released in two major editions on launch: Home Edition and Professional Edition . Both editions were made available at retail as pre-loaded software on new computers and as boxed copies. Boxed copies were sold as "Upgrade" or "Full" licenses; the "Upgrade" versions were slightly cheaper, but require an existing version of Windows to install. The "Full" version can be installed on systems without an operating system or existing version of Windows. The two editions of XP were aimed at different markets: Home Edition
5141-424: The appearance of the operating system. The number of effects enabled are determined by the operating system based on the computer's processing power, and can be enabled or disabled on a case-by-case basis. XP also added ClearType , a new subpixel rendering system designed to improve the appearance of fonts on liquid-crystal displays . A new set of system icons was also introduced. The default wallpaper, Bliss ,
5238-492: The applications by relieving them from the need to perform the mixing of audio streams, especially on low-end sound cards that didn't support multiple sound streams. However, it introduced some significant problems. First, the latency of KMixer is around 30 ms and it cannot be reduced, because this component sits just right above the port class audio driver, so every audio stream, including those issued by DirectSound (except in cases of hardware mixing ) and WinMM, come through
5335-500: The articles. The articles would have a "kbwinxppresp3fix" and/or "kbwinxpsp3fix" tag, thus allowing Allen to easily find and determine which fixes were planned for the official SP3 release to come. Microsoft publicly stated at the time that the SP3 pack was unofficial and advised users to not install it. Allen also released a Vista SP1 package in 2007, for which Allen received a cease-and-desist email from Microsoft. Windows XP Service Pack 3
5432-503: The audio being mixed and sampled to 44100 samples per second. Starting from Windows 2000, MME supports up to 384000 samples per second, up to 8 channels, and up to 32 bits per sample. Prior to Windows XP, the number of MME/WinMM device interfaces (waveIn, waveOut, midiIn, midiOut, mixer, and aux) is restricted to 10. This limit is raised from 10 to 32 in Windows XP. Device name length in MME
5529-503: The codename " Neptune ", built on the Windows NT kernel and explicitly intended for mainstream consumer use. An updated version of Windows 2000 was also initially planned for the business market. However, in January 2000, both projects were scrapped in favor of a single OS codenamed "Whistler", which would serve as a single platform for both consumer and business markets. As a result, Windows XP
5626-544: The contrary, Ogg Vorbis does work well with the ACM, e.g. when embedded in a RIFF-compatible file (such as a WAV or AVI file as mentioned earlier), provided the Ogg Vorbis stream is encoded at a constant bitrate. Windows comes with a number of ACM codecs pre-installed. For a list of these codecs, consult WAV file § Comparison of coding schemes . ACM codecs are identified by a two-byte code (TwoCC) allocated by Microsoft. KMixer
5723-425: The decision was due to apparent market demand for low-end computers with Windows. Variants of Windows XP for embedded systems have different support policies: Windows XP Embedded SP3 and Windows Embedded for Point of Service SP3 were supported until January and April 2016, respectively. Windows Embedded Standard 2009 , which was succeeded by Windows Embedded Standard 7 , and Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 , which
5820-474: The files in the folder, or burn them to a CD). Fast user switching allows additional users to log into a Windows XP machine without existing users having to close their programs and log out. Although only one user at the time can use the console (i.e., monitor, keyboard, and mouse), previous users can resume their session once they regain control of the console. Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 also introduced new features to Windows XP post-release, including
5917-600: The first public beta build of Whistler, build 2296, on October 31, 2000. Subsequent builds gradually introduced features that users of the release version of Windows XP would recognize, such as Internet Explorer 6.0 , the Microsoft Product Activation system, and the Bliss desktop background. Whistler was officially unveiled during a media event on February 5, 2001, under the name Windows XP, where XP stands for "eXPerience". In June 2001, Microsoft indicated that it
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#17328770288446014-424: The full-scale range representing ±1 V or A rather than a sound pressure. Audio compact discs (CDs) do not use the WAV file format, using instead Red Book audio . The commonality is that audio CDs are encoded as uncompressed 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo LPCM, which is one of the formats supported by WAV. Audio in WAV files can be encoded in a variety of audio coding formats, such as GSM or MP3 , to reduce
6111-826: The hardware to check for changes. If significant hardware changes are detected, the activation is voided, and Windows must be re-activated. Windows XP was originally bundled with Internet Explorer 6 , Outlook Express 6, Windows Messenger , and MSN Explorer . New networking features were also added, including Internet Connection Firewall, Internet Connection Sharing integration with UPnP, NAT traversal APIs, Quality of Service features, IPv6 and Teredo tunneling, Background Intelligent Transfer Service , extended fax features, network bridging, peer to peer networking, support for most DSL modems, IEEE 802.11 ( Wi-Fi ) connections with auto configuration and roaming, TAPI 3.1 , and networking over FireWire. Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop were also added, which allow users to connect to
6208-552: The kernel mixer. If the audio hardware supports hardware mixing (also known as hardware buffering or DirectSound hardware acceleration), DirectSound buffers directly to the rendering device. Thus, if DirectSound streams use hardware mixing , KMixer is bypassed. In earlier releases like the original release of Windows 98, KMixer tried to mix every data format that passed through it, even those it did not support. It caused various problems with media players that tried to pass AC3 -encoded surround sound streams through S/PDIF output of
6305-402: The main Windows XP exited mainstream support and entered the extended support phase; Microsoft continued to provide security updates every month for Windows XP, however, free technical support, warranty claims, and design changes were no longer being offered. Extended support for the main version ended on April 8, 2014, over 12 years after the release of Windows XP; normally Microsoft products have
6402-573: The operating system components of Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, and security updates for .NET Framework version 1.0, which is included in these editions. However, it does not include update rollups for the Windows Media Center application in Windows XP MCE 2005. SP3 also omits security updates for Windows Media Player 10, although the player is included in Windows XP MCE 2005. The Address Bar DeskBand on
6499-498: The operating system on June 30, 2008, 17 months after the release of Windows Vista. However, an exception was announced on April 3, 2008, for OEMs producing what it defined as "ultra low-cost personal computers", particularly netbooks , until one year after the availability of Windows 7 on October 22, 2009. Analysts felt that the move was primarily intended to compete against Linux -based netbooks, although Microsoft's Kevin Hutz stated that
6596-501: The operating system's features, such as thumbnails and slideshows. In enterprise features, Remote Desktop Protocol 6.1 included support for ClearType and 32-bit color depth over RDP, while improvements made to Windows Management Instrumentation in Windows Vista to reduce the possibility of corruption of the WMI repository were backported to XP SP3. In addition, SP3 contains updates to
6693-404: The original release of Windows XP (without a service pack) ended on August 30, 2005. Both Windows XP Service Pack 1 and 1a were retired on October 10, 2006, and both Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 reached their end of support on July 13, 2010, about 24 months after the launch of Windows XP Service Pack 3. The company stopped general licensing of Windows XP to OEMs and terminated retail sales of
6790-646: The original release of XP. SP1 also added USB 2.0 support, the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine , .NET Framework support, and support for technologies used by the then-upcoming Media Center and Tablet PC editions of XP. The most significant change on SP1 was the addition of Set Program Access and Defaults , a settings page which allows programs to be set as default for certain types of activities (such as media players or web browsers) and for access to bundled, Microsoft programs (such as Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player) to be disabled. This feature
6887-613: The regular "WaveOut method" in Microsoft Windows , kernel streaming requires less CPU time. This comes at the expense of bypassing the KMixer and Windows volume control. Kernel streaming also does not allow device sharing unless kernel-mode audio driver supports multiple clients. Prior to Windows Vista, Kernel Streaming offered only a single client-to-driver communication protocol with buffer chain, as used in MME. Starting from Vista, new Real-Time Audio ( RT Audio , not to be confused with
6984-536: The release of Windows 7. Service Pack 3 was not available for Windows XP x64 Edition, which was based on the Windows Server 2003 kernel and, as a result, used its service packs rather than the ones for the other editions. It began being automatically pushed out to Automatic Updates users on July 10, 2008. A feature set overview which detailed new features available separately as stand-alone updates to Windows XP, as well as backported features from Windows Vista,
7081-462: The same code-base anyway, it made sense to combine them into a single project". At PDC on July 13, 2000, Microsoft announced that Whistler would be released during the second half of 2001, and also unveiled the first preview build, 2250, which featured an early implementation of Windows XP's visual styles system and interface changes to Windows Explorer and the Control Panel. Microsoft released
7178-474: The same day, Microsoft also announced the final retail pricing of XP's two main editions, "Home" (as a replacement for Windows Me for home computing) and "Professional" (as a replacement for Windows 2000 for high-end users). While retaining some similarities to previous versions, Windows XP's interface was overhauled with a new visual appearance, with an increased use of alpha compositing effects, drop shadows , and " visual styles ", which completely changed
7275-401: The sample data that follows. This chunk includes information such as the sample encoding, number of bits per channel, the number of channels, and the sample rate. The WAV specification includes some optional features. The optional <fact-ck> chunk reports the number of samples for some compressed coding schemes. The <cue-ck> chunk identifies some significant sample numbers in
7372-467: The scheduled system builder channel end-of-life (EOL) date of January 31, 2009." Windows XP Service Pack 2 was later included in Windows Embedded for Point of Service and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs . The third and final Service Pack, SP3, was released through different channels between April 21 and June 10, 2008, about a year after the release of Windows Vista , and about a year before
7469-514: The service pack's security improvements (codenamed "Springboard", as these features were intended to underpin additional changes in Longhorn ) included a major revision to the included firewall (renamed Windows Firewall, and now enabled by default), and an update to Data Execution Prevention , which gained hardware support in the NX bit that can stop some forms of buffer overflow attacks. Raw socket support
7566-527: The software to be "returned" to the OEM for a refund if the user does not wish to use it. Despite the refusal of some manufacturers to honor the entitlement, it has been enforced by courts in some countries. Two specialized variants of XP were introduced in 2002 for certain types of hardware, exclusively through OEM channels as pre-loaded software. Windows XP Media Center Edition was initially designed for high-end home theater PCs with TV tuners (marketed under
7663-433: The sound card to an external home cinema receiver . This was corrected with Windows Me and provided as a hotfix for Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows 2000 SP2. Starting with Windows Me, the waveOut, DirectSound, and DirectShow APIs support non-PCM formats such as AC-3 or WMA over S/PDIF and non-PCM data goes directly to the class driver instead of going through KMixer. A new kernel-mode API, Direct Kernel Streaming ,
7760-468: The standard WAV format and supports defining custom extensions to the format. A RIFF file is a tagged file format. It has a specific container format (a chunk ) with a header that includes a four-character tag ( FourCC ) and the size (number of bytes) of the chunk. The tag specifies how the data within the chunk should be interpreted, and there are several standard FourCC tags. Tags consisting of all capital letters are reserved tags. The outermost chunk of
7857-539: The term "Media Center PC"), offering expanded multimedia functionality, an electronic program guide , and digital video recorder (DVR) support through the Windows Media Center application. Microsoft also unveiled Windows XP Tablet PC Edition , which contains additional pen input features, and is optimized for mobile devices meeting its Tablet PC specifications. Two different 64-bit editions of XP were made available. The first, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition ,
7954-400: The wave file. The <playlist-ck> chunk allows the samples to be played out of order or repeated rather than just from beginning to end. The associated data list ( <assoc-data-list> ) allows labels and notes to be attached to cue points; text annotation may be given for a group of samples (e.g., caption information). Finally, the mandatory <wave-data> chunk contains
8051-471: Was released to manufacturing (RTM). During a ceremonial media event at Microsoft Redmond Campus , copies of the RTM build were given to representatives of several major PC manufacturers in briefcases, who then flew off on decorated helicopters. While PC manufacturers would be able to release devices running XP beginning on September 24, 2001, XP was expected to reach general retail availability on October 25, 2001. On
8148-460: Was added to comply with the settlement of United States v. Microsoft Corp. , which required Microsoft to offer the ability for OEMs to bundle third-party competitors to software it bundles with Windows (such as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player ), and give them the same level of prominence as those normally bundled with the OS. On February 3, 2003, Microsoft released Service Pack 1a (SP1a). It
8245-400: Was also introduced in Windows 98 in order to bypass the KMixer and avoid problems associated with it. KMixer does not alter the sound in the majority of cases. Also, there are many ways to bypass KMixer without the need of an extra plugin to access DirectSound, ASIO , Direct Kernel Streaming or WASAPI . In Windows XP, for example, the usage of DirectSound (which Winamp uses by default) with
8342-555: Was focused on two individual products: " Odyssey ", which was reportedly intended to succeed the future Windows 2000 and " Neptune ", which was reportedly a consumer-oriented operating system using the Windows NT architecture, succeeding the MS-DOS -based Windows 98 . However, the projects proved to be too ambitious . In January 2000, shortly prior to the official release of Windows 2000, technology writer Paul Thurrott reported that Microsoft had shelved both Neptune and Odyssey in favor of
8439-472: Was intended for IA-64 ( Itanium ) systems; as IA-64 usage declined on workstations in favor of AMD 's x86-64 architecture, the Itanium edition was discontinued in January 2005. A new 64-bit edition supporting the x86-64 architecture, called Windows XP Professional x64 Edition , was released in April 2005. Microsoft also targeted emerging markets with the 2004 introduction of Windows XP Starter Edition ,
8536-430: Was introduced with Windows XP and its server counterpart, Windows Server 2003 . All non-enterprise (Volume Licensing) Windows licenses must be tied to a unique ID generated using information from the computer hardware , transmitted either via the internet or a telephone hotline. If Windows is not activated within 30 days of installation, the OS will cease to function until it is activated. Windows also periodically verifies
8633-715: Was later included in Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 . System requirements for Windows XP are as follows: The maximum amount of RAM that Windows XP can support varies depending on the product edition and the processor architecture. All 32-bit editions of XP support up to 4 GB, except the Windows XP Starter edition, which supports up to 512 MB of RAM. The 64-bit editions support up to 128 GB. Windows XP Professional supports up to two physical processors; Windows XP Home Edition supports only one. However, XP supports
8730-500: Was planning to spend at least US$ 1 billion on marketing and promoting Windows XP, in conjunction with Intel and other PC makers. The theme of the campaign, "Yes You Can", was designed to emphasize the platform's overall capabilities. Microsoft had originally planned to use the slogan "Prepare to Fly", but it was replaced because of sensitivity issues in the wake of the September 11 attacks . On August 24, 2001, Windows XP build 2600
8827-584: Was posted by Microsoft. A total of 1,174 fixes are included in SP3. Service Pack 3 could be installed on systems with Internet Explorer up to and including version 8; Internet Explorer 7 was not included as part of SP3. It also did not include Internet Explorer 8 , but instead was included in Windows 7 , which was released one year after XP SP3. Service Pack 3 included security enhancements over and above those of SP2, including APIs allowing developers to enable Data Execution Prevention for their code, independent of system-wide compatibility enforcement settings,
8924-401: Was released on May 14, 2019. Unofficial methods were made available to apply the updates to other editions of Windows XP. Microsoft has discouraged this practice, citing compatibility issues. As of 2024 , globally, under 0.6% of Windows PCs and 0.1% of all devices across all platforms continued to run Windows XP. In the late 1990s, initial development of what would become Windows XP
9021-1040: Was sold at the same price as the edition with Windows Media Player included, certain OEMs (such as Dell , who offered it for a short period, along with Hewlett-Packard , Lenovo and Fujitsu Siemens ) chose not to offer it. Consumer interest was minuscule, with roughly 1,500 units shipped to OEMs , and no reported sales to consumers. In December 2005, the Korean Fair Trade Commission ordered Microsoft to make available editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that do not contain Windows Media Player or Windows Messenger. The "K" and "KN" editions of Windows XP were released in August 2006, and are only available in English and Korean, and also contain links to third-party instant messenger and media player software. A service pack
9118-413: Was succeeded by Windows Embedded POSReady 7 , were supported until January and April 2019, respectively. These updates, while intended for the embedded editions, could also be downloaded on standard Windows XP with a registry hack, which enabled unofficial patches until April 2019. However, Microsoft advised Windows XP users against installing these fixes, citing compatibility issues. On April 14, 2009,
9215-599: Was the lowest-quality conversion mode that could be set in previous versions of Windows. The resampler can be set to a high-quality mode via a hotfix for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 only. Audio Compression Manager (ACM) is a Windows multimedia framework that manages audio codecs (compressor/decompressors). ACM can also be considered an API specification. A codec must conform to the implicit ACM specification to work with Windows Multimedia. ACM files can be recognized by their filename extension .acm . ACM files also use RIFF -compatible filetypes such as WAV or AVI as
9312-572: Was the same as SP1, except the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine was excluded. Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP Home edition and Professional edition was released on August 25, 2004. Headline features included WPA encryption compatibility for Wi-Fi and usability improvements to the Wi-Fi networking user interface, partial Bluetooth support, and various improvements to security systems. Headed by former computer hacker Window Snyder ,
9409-685: Was therefore created for use in Sound Forge . Its 64-bit file size field in the header allows for much longer recording times. The RF64 format specified by the European Broadcasting Union has also been created to solve this problem. Since the sampling rate of a WAV file can vary from 1 Hz to 4.3 GHz , and the number of channels can be as high as 65535, WAV files have also been used for non-audio data. LTspice , for instance, can store multiple circuit trace waveforms in separate channels, at any appropriate sampling rate, with
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