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88-564: Microsoft considers it to be deprecated. Also, Internet Explorer 8 comes with a different, tightly integrated JScript debugger part of the Internet Explorer Developer Tools . According to Microsoft, the Script Debugger provides these traditional debugging features: Additionally, it can open and edit HTML pages, and it supports script colorization for improved readability. The debugger has several limitations, including

176-543: A Compatibility View mode to optionally emulate older versions' rendering behaviour, and color-coded tab groups where links opened in new tabs share the color of the website they originated from. According to Microsoft, security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS , CSS , and Ajax support were its priorities for IE8. IE8 development started in or before March 2006. In February 2008, Microsoft sent out private invitations for IE8 Beta 1, and on March 5, 2008, released Beta 1 to

264-664: A "porn mode" in various news outlets. A similar feature, first introduced in Safari in 2005, was later implemented in Firefox 3.5 , Opera 10.5 , and Google Chrome . When a user uses InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer 8, one's browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords are not retained by the browser, leaving no local evidence of browsing or search history. InPrivate Filtering provides users an added level of control and choice about

352-472: A March 19, 2009, review, Benny Har-Even of IT PRO offered some praise of Internet Explorer 8, noting its reliability and good features and concluding that it was "certainly the best version of Internet Explorer in a long time," but also that "there's not yet anything here to make Firefox users want to jump ship." He offered praise to Microsoft for paying attention to their competition and producing "a better featured, faster and more reliable browsing experience for

440-467: 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

528-503: A form of Version Targeting whereby a page could be authored to a specific version of a browser using the X-UA-Compatible declaration either as a meta element or in the HTTP headers. In order to maintain backwards compatibility, sites can opt-into IE7-like handling of content by inserting a specially created meta element into the web page that triggers the "Compatibility View" mode in

616-430: 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

704-406: 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

792-414: A local list of popular legitimate websites; if the site is not listed, the entire address is sent to Microsoft for further checks. If it has been labeled as an impostor or harmful, Internet Explorer 8 will show a screen prompting that the site is reported harmful and shouldn't be visited. From there the user can either visit his or her homepage , visit the previous site, or continue to the unsafe page. If

880-500: 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

968-534: 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

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1056-416: A secure connection, which keeps the information and a per-session, uniquely generated identifier for a short time. The Suggested Sites feature is turned off by default and is disabled when the user is browsing with InPrivate enabled or visiting SSL -secured, intranet , IP address , or IDN address sites. Information that could be personally identifiable, such as the user's IP address and browser information

1144-448: 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

1232-536: A single OS codenamed "Whistler", which would serve as a single platform for both consumer and business markets. As a result, Windows XP 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),

1320-433: 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

1408-422: 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

1496-568: 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

1584-442: A user attempts to download a file from a location reported harmful, then the download is cancelled. The effectiveness of SmartScreen filtering has been reported to be superior to socially engineered malware protection in other browsers. This feature can be disabled or enforced using Group Policy . This feature is described by Microsoft as a tool to suggest websites, which is done by the browser sending information to Microsoft over

1672-495: 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

1760-400: 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

1848-529: 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 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

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1936-539: 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

2024-456: 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

2112-552: 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

2200-489: 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

2288-461: Is sent to Microsoft as an artifact of the HTTPS protocol. Microsoft has stated that they do not store this information. The functionality was defended by Microsoft after itworld.com's Gregg Keizer described it as a " phone home " feature. Web Slices are snippets of a full webpage to which a user can subscribe . Web Slices are kept updated by the browser automatically, and can be viewed directly from

2376-547: Is the default browser on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 . Internet Explorer 8 is the first version of IE to pass the Acid2 test, the last of the major browsers to do so. (In the later Acid3 Test, it only scores 24/100.) It is also the last version of Internet Explorer to support Windows XP SP2–SP3, Windows XP x64 Edition SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista RTM–SP1, and Windows Server 2008 RTM, as well as Itanium -based processors. Additionally, it introduced

2464-539: The Acid2 test, but fails the Acid3 test with a score of 24/100. During its development, Microsoft developed over 7,000 tests for CSS level 2 compliance, which were submitted to the W3C for inclusion in their test suite. Internet Explorer 8 was promoted by Microsoft as having stricter adherence to W3C described web standards than Internet Explorer 7. As a result, as in every IE version before it, some percentage of web pages coded to

2552-610: The Find... dialog box with an inline Find toolbar which can be activated by pressing Ctrl + F or from search box drop-down menu but the F3 (or any other kind of a keyboard-driven) NextFind command has gone. Internet Explorer 8 highlights all instances of found words while allowing the user to continue the navigation normally. A new security mode called InPrivate debuted with IE8, and consists of two main features: InPrivate Browsing and InPrivate Filtering. InPrivate Browsing has been described as

2640-528: The JScript runtime and the associated garbage collector . Memory leaks due to inconsistent handling of circular references between JScript objects and DOM objects were corrected. For better security and stability, IE8 uses the Loosely Coupled Internet Explorer ( LCIE ) architecture and runs the browser frame and tabs in separate processes . LCIE prevents glitches and hangs from bringing down

2728-878: 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

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2816-628: 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

2904-542: 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

2992-838: The Favorites bar, complete with graphics and visuals. Developers can mark parts of the pages as Web Slices, using the hAtom and hSlice microformats . Web Slices have been compared to Active Desktop , introduced in Internet Explorer 4 in 1997. Microsoft donated the specification to the public domain under the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication. It is also covered by the Microsoft Open Specification Promise . Windows RSS Platform also supports authenticated feeds beginning with Internet Explorer 8. Full-page zoom now reflows

3080-499: The Manage Add-ons dialog box. For each ActiveX control, there's a list of sites where it has been approved by the user. Internet Explorer 8's main rendering mode, known as standards mode, has improved support for various web standards , especially CSS, compared to Internet Explorer 7 and earlier versions. The web standards supported by IE8 include the following: However, IE8 does not support some other W3C standards: IE8 passes

3168-538: 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

3256-612: 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

3344-649: The XML file. Similarities have been drawn between Accelerators and the controversial Smart tags feature experimented with in the IE 6 Beta but withdrawn after criticism (though later included in MS Office). The address bar features domain highlighting for added security so that the top-level domain is shown in black whereas the other parts of the URL are grayed out. Domain highlighting cannot be turned off by users or web sites. Other features of

3432-539: The address bar include support for pasting multi-line URLs and an improved model for inserting the selection caret, and selecting words, or entire URLs in the Address bar. The inline autocomplete feature has been dropped from Internet Explorer 8, leading to criticism by beta users . If a website or add-on causes a tab to crash in Internet Explorer 8, only that tab is affected. The browser itself remains stable and other tabs remain unaffected, thereby minimizing any disruption to

3520-574: 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

3608-424: 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 ,

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3696-500: 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

3784-530: The behavior of the older versions would break in IE8. This would have been a repetition of the situation with IE7 which, while having fixed bugs from IE6, broke pages that used the IE6-specific hacks to work around its non-compliance. This was especially a problem for offline HTML documents, which may not be updatable (e.g., stored on a read-only medium, such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM). To avoid this situation, IE8 implements

3872-597: The browser, using: Five weeks after the release of IE8 Beta 2 in August 2008, Beta 1's market share had grown from 0.05 percent to 0.61 percent, according to Net Applications . In July 2009, just under four months after the final release, the market share jumped to 13 percent. As of September 2013 , estimates of IE8's global market share ranged from 6.93% to 8.73%. According to a Net Applications web analytics report from October 2014, Internet Explorer 8 accounted for 17.31% of web traffic, now overtaken by IE11 in usage. In

3960-483: The browsing experience. If a tab unexpectedly closes or crashes it is automatically reloaded with the same content as before the crash. For developers, Internet Explorer 8 includes tools that allow debugging HTML , CSS , JavaScript , and VBScript within the browser. Another new feature in IE8 is a redesigned Favorites Bar , which can now host content such as Web Slices, web feeds , and documents, in addition to website links. Internet Explorer 8 now has replaced

4048-425: 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

4136-401: The entire browser and leads to higher performance and scalability. Permissions for ActiveX controls have been made more flexible – instead of enabling or disabling them globally, they can now be allowed on a per-site basis. SmartScreen Filter extended Internet Explorer 7 's phishing filter to include protection from socially engineered malware. Every website and download is checked against

4224-474: 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

4312-448: The first Beta to SmartScreen , both accompanied by incremental technical changes as well. By August 2008, the new feature called InPrivate had taken the spotlight. On January 5, 2009, a tool was provided by Microsoft to block the automatic install of Internet Explorer 8 via Windows Update . IE8 reached general availability on March 19, 2009. A version optimized for Bing and MSN was also available. Language support (localization)

4400-412: The first glance, the most visible change of the user interface is that the tabs have an inward colour gradient instead of outward. Accelerators are a form of selection-based search which allow a user to invoke an online service from any other page using only the mouse. Actions such as selecting the text or other objects will give users access to the usable Accelerator services (such as blogging with

4488-600: 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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4576-556: The following: After installation, new options can be found in Internet Explorer's Script Debugger menu, which gets added in the View menu. Debugging can optionally be turned off from the Advanced tab in the Internet Options dialog. Internet Explorer 8 Windows Internet Explorer 8 ( IE8 ) is a web browser for Windows . It was released by Microsoft on March 19, 2009, and

4664-543: The general public, although with a focus on web developers. The release launched with a Windows Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit website promoting IE8 white papers , related software tools, and new features in addition to download links to the Beta. Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) added new sections detailing new IE8 technology. Major press focused on a controversy about Version Targeting, and two new features then called WebSlice and Activities . The readiness toolkit

4752-826: 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

4840-507: The information that third party websites can use to track browsing activity. InPrivate Subscriptions allow users to augment the capability of InPrivate Blocking by subscribing to lists of websites to block or allow. As with other private browsing modes, there are ways that information about a browsing session can be recovered. Internet Explorer 8 includes performance improvements across the HTML parser, CSS engine, mark-up tree manipulation as well as

4928-455: 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

5016-441: The masses" and suggested that as Microsoft continues to improve the product, it would become "harder to persuade the unconverted to switch away from IE." The next month, on April 2, Mark Joseph Edwards wrote in the newsletter Windows Secrets that the new edition of Internet Explorer had greatly improved security, speed, and compatibility, but opined that it still lagged behind competitors in all three areas. Edwards noted that, at

5104-573: 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

5192-498: 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

5280-501: 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

5368-404: 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

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5456-646: 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

5544-536: 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,

5632-462: 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

5720-474: 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

5808-467: 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

5896-458: The selected text, or viewing a map of a selected geographical location), which can then be invoked with the selected object. According to Microsoft , Accelerators eliminate the need to copy and paste content between web pages. IE8 specifies an XML -based encoding which allows a web application or web service to be invoked as an Accelerator service. How the service will be invoked and for what categories of content it will show up are specified in

5984-514: 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

6072-527: 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

6160-539: 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 ,

6248-525: The text to remove the appearance of horizontal scrollbars on zooming. Image scaling is done using bicubic interpolation resulting in smoother looking images when scaled. Using the Compatibility View mode will cause style issues with <select> form elements when changing zoom levels. The information bar lets users allow an ActiveX control to run on all Web sites or only the current one. Users can easily make changes to this behavior through

6336-452: The time, Internet Explorer 8 was still underperforming relative to other browsers in speed and was not as successful in displaying webpages as they were intended to display as such browsers as Firefox and Opera. In terms of security, he wrote that its "continued reliance on ActiveX makes the browser vulnerable in its very foundation." For these reasons, he suggested that Firefox remained a better alternative to Internet Explorer 8, even though it

6424-471: 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

6512-507: Was a "much better browser than IE 7." Around 2010, a theme named "BlueSky" was created for the Mozilla Firefox browser with the aim to resemble the graphical user interface of Internet Explorer 8 as accurately as possible. Windows XP#End of support 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

6600-460: 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

6688-555: 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

6776-472: 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 ,

6864-430: 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

6952-715: 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

7040-551: Was not complete on release. IE8 was released with 25 languages. This grew up to 63 for 32-bit in June 2009. Support for additional languages can come pre-installed based on the OS, or downloaded and installed via Multilingual User Interface (MUI) packages. Support for IE8 on most supported Windows versions ended on January 12, 2016, when Microsoft began requiring customers to use the latest version of Internet Explorer available for each Windows version. For versions of Windows in which IE8

7128-500: 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

7216-584: 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,

7304-503: Was promoted as something "developers can exploit to make Internet Explorer 8 'light up'." On August 27, 2008, Microsoft made IE8 Beta 2 generally available. PC World noted various Beta 2 features such as InPrivate mode, tab isolation and color-coding, and improved standards and compatibility compared to Internet Explorer 7. Two name changes included Activities to Accelerators , and the IE7 Phishing filter renamed Safety Filter in

7392-401: 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

7480-991: 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

7568-413: 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,

7656-446: Was the final version of Internet Explorer available, support ended alongside the end of support for that version of Windows. This meant that support for IE8 on XP ended with its end of extended support on April 8, 2014. On October 13, 2020, Microsoft released the final IE8 update for Windows Embedded Standard 7, marking the end of IE8 support on all platforms. IE8 contains many new features, including WebSlices and Accelerators . At

7744-572: 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 ,

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