Installing Windows XP back in the early 2000s was a rite of passage—drop in that shiny CD, hit the BIOS to boot from it, and watch the blue setup screen do its thing. XP launched in 2001 and quickly became the OS, combining the stability of Windows 2000 with the more user-friendly vibe of Windows ME. You’d pick your partition, format it (NTFS if you were fancy), and then sit through that iconic 39-minute install timer—though it always felt like forever. After the first reboot, you’d see that green hill and blue sky, and then the real work started: drivers, Service Pack updates (SP1 in 2002, SP2 in 2004, SP3 in 2008), and hunting for your favorite desktop wallpaper. XP wasn’t just an OS; it was the start of every family PC, school lab, and LAN party setup for almost a decade.