What Happened to Windows XP? Why Windows XP Disappeared

27.7% of the world's desktop and notebook computers still ran Windows XP in March 2014, more than seven years after Windows Vista arrived to replace it. Microsoft spent those years trying to retire it, and kept failing. Windows XP launched on October 25, 2001, the first home Windows with no MS-DOS underneath. When the Blaster worm hit in August 2003, Jim Allchin, who ran Windows, pulled engineers off the next version to rebuild XP's security. Service Pack 2 shipped in 2004, the Longhorn project was reset weeks later, and Vista did not reach stores until January 30, 2007. In this documentary: 1. Why Microsoft took engineers off Longhorn to rescue Windows XP 2. How the August 2004 reset pushed Vista back by at least a year 3. How the Vista Capable sticker sent buyers back to XP 4. Why cheap netbooks kept XP on new machines until 2010 5. Why Microsoft patched XP again in May 2017, after support for Vista had ended If the green hill called Bliss greeted you every morning, tell us what you remember in the comments. What remains of the real hill in Sonoma County is a slope covered in grapevines. Subscribe for more careful histories of the Windows versions that ran America's desks.