What if Microsoft had given us Windows XP 2024?
- Reference: 1704387607
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/04/windows_xp_reimagined/
- Source link:
Windows keyboards to get a Copilot key – but how quickly will users jump? [1]READ MORE
Windows XP arrived in 2001 and drew its last breath – at least in terms of mainstream support – on April 14, 2009. It chugged along in one form or another until 2019 when the plug was finally pulled on an embedded version once and for all. However, the arrival of Windows Vista in 2007 with all its Aero fripperies, followed by Windows 7 in 2009, ensured the demise of Windows XP for many users.
But what if Microsoft had opted to stick with the Windows XP user interface rather than [2]issue apologies for the mess the Start Menu has become? What if, rather than Windows 10 or 11, we were using Windows XP 2024?
Wonder no more, thanks to just over nine minutes of XP [3]re-imagined courtesy of YouTube creator AR 4789. The author has form when it comes to operating system concepts, and a glimpse at the channel shows multiple ideas, including an imagining of what might be in store in the rumored Windows 12.
[4]Youtube Video
[5]
However, it is the XP render that got the old "What If?" juices flowing, highlighting what was both subjectively good and bad about the operating system's visuals. We assume that by 2024, Microsoft would have sorted the Swiss cheese internals.
[6]
Thoughtful touches abound, from the taskbar through the Start Menu and dialogs utilizing some of the paged approaches found in recent versions of Microsoft's operating system. We particularly liked the moment dark mode was selected at the 07:20 mark, and the familiar Bliss backdrop transformed into a starry scene.
[7]Windows boss takes on taskbar turmoil, pledges to 'make Start menu great again'
[8]Doom is 30, and so is Windows NT. How far we haven't come
[9]Veteran editors Notepad++ and Geany hit milestone versions
[10]Nostalgia for XP sells out Microsoft's 2023 'Windows Ugly Sweater'
Other elements of the Windows XP design language that the video helped us recall are wince-inducing. The window control buttons look like they're from another era because, well, they are, and some of the 3D effects look distinctly dated to modern eyes.
However, these are all subjective complaints. To this writer, Windows 11 looks okay – perhaps it's just familiarity. However, the nostalgic concept video is an insight into what might have been if Microsoft had taken its finger off the reinvent button. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/04/windows_keyboards_copilot/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/03/windows_11_start_great_again/
[3] https://youtu.be/YLFUl9MW_Ks?si=lYwS5GZ5JuYaZT68
[4] https://youtu.be/YLFUl9MW_Ks?si=lYwS5GZ5JuYaZT68
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZZc4nowHBaL4a122C7OgjgAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZc4nowHBaL4a122C7OgjgAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/03/windows_11_start_great_again/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/19/windows_nt_30_years_on/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/veteran_editors_notepad_and_geany/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/30/windows_ugly_sweater_2023/
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Sure, some of it is a bit gaudy, but other than that I'd say that this looks much better than any of the official Windows shells we've had since then. Worth remembering too, that back in the good old days you could configure the desktop colour scheme so a lot of that was fixable anyway.
Themes must live forever.
Microsoft should be forbidden from ever removing a previous UI that they have introduced for the good of the product.
Witness the nostalgia of a Windows 7 theme for KDE:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38711003
The reason that Aero was removed was because it was not efficient phones and tablets, so Microsoft resorted to insulting it by calling it "cheesy" as an excuse for Windows 8:
https://advyon.com/microsoft-saying-goodbye-to-aero-in-windows-8/
If every previous Windows UI is "dated and cheesy," then there is no reason to grow attached to the current incarnation.
If they are all slated to die, then the faster, the better.
Re: Themes must live forever.
"If every previous Windows UI is "dated and cheesy," then there is no reason to grow attached to the current incarnation."
And as for anything being dated, whether a UI, art, clothes etc, it's only because someone came up with a different concept and everyone followed the "new way", hence setting the "old way" into a date period and said new designer disparaging the old way and calling it dated in the first place. Don't get me wrong, some designs, fashions, whatever do get improved on, so moving on from isn't always bad, but often it's not improved on. It's just change for the sake of change, especially by fashion designers. It's the business model. The "important" people in the relevant industry tell the rest of the world what is cool and what isn't and most of the world follows along because "ooh, shiny".
You know what I miss most about GUIs? The way Win95/98 menus could be completely changed and re-ordered to suit what *I* want. Just open the relevant folder and start moving shortcuts around, creating new folders etc so the stuff I use most is where I expect to find it, or just dragging and dropping on the Start Menu itself. The current incarnation, at best, has "recently used" or "frequently used", which changes depending on what I...er..recently used. Which not only is not always what I next want, but the order changes every time I open it.
I have to use Win10 at work, and it's more like going back to what the Linux haters always complained about; the dreaded command line. It's easier to to type the program name in the search box than to go hunting through the menus!
Oh look, a consistant approach to UI, what a novel idea!
Said many times
Windows 7 was the last windows that made any sense whatsoever, since then it has just deteriorated into bloatware that thinks every user is mentally retarded.
insight into what might have been if Microsoft had taken its finger
out of its arse
Ugly, flat, and hideous.
What I'd really like is if Apple had continued with the theme plans from Copland.
At least the Mac still has a mostly consistent user interface.
I only use windoze as a runtime for Visio and Project, or other odd one-off windoze-only tasks, XP that I can with 384mb of ram and 5gb of disk was perfect. Anything after only added spyware, telemetry, and garbage I never wanted or needed.
If visio/project ran in wine, I never need windows at all, but Microsoft would never let *that* happen.
Fast install.
Being that it took less than three days, and half a dozen passwords to get started, I assume there is no data theft, telemetry, or baked in AI.
It would just be funny to see people say how "modern" it looks. It would be good proof that people's opinions of aesthetics are entirely what Microsoft dictates.
It would bubble down to something far more important though; we would have a good push to get rid of defective shite like Gnome 3+ and KDE 4+ and go back to something more useful.
I do wish OS developers would leave things alone that work. When I used windows, I hated having to relearn where everything was when I installed the latest version. I use Kubuntu now. Their developers are also guilty of changing things around all the time. It's confusing when I look online for help on how to do something. The instructions in the article tell me how to fix the problem, but when I try to follow them, nothing is where the directions say it is. Android is the worst for this. Instructions for finding something in Android 10 aren't good for Android 11 . ARRRRGH!
Some of us still use XP. :-)
I might finally have to buy a new machine.
Twitter really did make an eXit of it.
It started to present a big X with no error messages.
It took a month before a meaningful error appeared!
I wonder how many users they disconnected.
I prefer Windows 2000 look over XP look.
The UI did not really improve after that. A lot of things BELOW the GUI did improve, but that is not visible to the user - literally.
Though I still miss the "not-full-row-select" logic of Windows Vista explorer drag and drop, where it showed a little black like to indicate that you will copy/move the data exactly there, and not into the subdirectory you forcibly hover over or open a program you forcibly hover over (thank you Windows 7 for making this worse than Vista!).
But what about the stupid mmc default having the left pane is only 200 pixel wide since Windows 2000? There is some autodetection of a useful size, so it could be 400 pixel wide on higer resolution. Instead the code f's up if running at 4k with 100% OS-zoom, so the right pane is way too big, like some weird overflow... Still the same bad code.
By Service Pack 3, XP was very acceptable
At the time, I think it only really needed a decent desktop search option (though Google Desktop search could do this - albeit, I suspect, at considerable risk to your privacy). That said, I don't mind 10 and 12 either (I prefer the Mac, obvs), probably because I only use the search part of the start menu.
Windows 98
Windows 98 was the last time I remember a fully customizable Windows with full themes. I miss it but I do NOT miss managing drivers.
“OS” = “GUI”?
But there is nothing here about OS features, only about the GUI, right?
As I have said a few times already, this idea that the GUI should be tied inextricably into the OS kernel should have been left behind in the 1990s.
Tip: when you start talking about “design language“, maybe you should stop thinking of yourself as an OS software engineer.
Coolest XP install
A client had brought in a Sony Vaio XP laptop that they wanted restored from the factory disks.
As I was reinstalling it, I had a very pleasant surprise...well, a couple actually.
The typical XP grass field background came up, but the grass was waving as if in a breeze which was very cool...but then something even better happened, a remixed instrumental version of New Order's Ruined In A Day started playing while the install completed.
(non-instrumental version link)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbMu1ADVbrQ
My favorite system restore ever!
There's bits to like and dislike here obviously, but one thing I will say - it looks a lot more coherent than any official version of Windows since 7.