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.

Windows XP is a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system for personal computers. The letters "XP" stand for "eXPerience". Microsoft released Windows XP on October 25, 2001. Windows XP replaced Windows 2000 and Windows ME, which helped bring the NT and 9x versions of Windows together.

Tablet computer running a "Tablet PC Edition" of Windows XP. Two versions of Windows XP were released that were optimized for tablets. Beginning with Windows Vista, all tablet-specific components were included in the main version of the operating system.

During the initial development phases (2003–2004), Windows XP Professional x64 Edition was named Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for x86 Extended Systems and later, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for Extended Systems, as opposed to 64-Bit Edition for Itanium Systems.

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition uses the same kernel and code tree as Windows Server 2003 [4] and is serviced by the same service packs. [5] However, it includes client features of Windows XP such as System Restore, Windows Messenger, Fast User Switching, Welcome Screen, Security Center and games, of which Windows Server 2003 does not have.

Development of Windows XP started in 1999 as a successor to the Windows Neptune and Windows Odyssey projects. Neptune was originally going to be the successor of Windows Me , though based on the NT kernel.

Although Windows XP did not ship with the following major Windows features out-of-the-box, these new features can be added to Windows XP by downloading these components which were incorporated in later versions of Windows.

Windows XP was the first Windows NT kernel-based OS designed for both the business and general type consumer markets, and was much more stable than the Windows 9x line due to the improved codebase (heavily based on Windows 2000).