Windows XP Source Code Leaks Online.

[Jayro]

​

"Microsoft’s source code for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 has leaked online. Torrent files for both operating systems’ source code have been published on various file sharing sites this week. It’s the first time source code for Windows XP has leaked publicly, although the leaked files claim this code has been shared privately for years.

The Verge has verified the material is legitimate, and a Microsoft spokesperson tells us that the company is “investigating the matter.”

It’s unlikely that this latest source code leak will pose any significant threat to companies still stuck running Windows XP machines. Microsoft ended support for Windows XP back in 2014, although the company responded to the massive WannaCry malware attack with a highly unusual Windows XP patch in 2017.While this is the first time Windows XP source code has appeared publicly, Microsoft does run a special Government Security Program (GSP) that allows governments and organizations controlled access to source code and other technical content."

Read more on TheVerge.com

 

[Bladexdsl]

too late now a leak absolutely no one will care about

 

[Harsky]

In theory would this be of any use to machinery that still runs on XP?

 

[Flame]

i hope the people who do WINE dont look at the code....

:^)

 

[Jayro]

too late now a leak absolutely no one will care about

People who run VMs in IT will care very much.

i hope the people who does WINE dont look at the code....

:^)

That would just be tragic.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

too late now a leak absolutely no one will care about

A lot of hospitals still use older OS's like XP and Vista because that's what their tools are made for. Also it would absolutely help in compatibility layers like WINE. I guess nobody cared about the SM64 source code leak since that's older than Windows XP.

 

[Deleted User]

XP is an amazing OS simple yet powerful for anyone to use, but unfortunately it's been discontinued so folks cant use it while connected to the web.

I use it to play old Windows 2000/XP games. Before Steam existed we'd install each and every game manually and man, it's nice to see those installation screens again.

Like this:

I downloaded a bunch of Windows games I wanted to play though they were missing audio and such so the best solution is, to have the discs if you can.

 

[dienmayvienthonghcm]

It is possible that windows xp is no longer important to microsoft, so the information is public

 

[RedBlueGreen]

It is possible that windows xp is no longer important to microsoft, so the information is public

Unlikely. They would've uploaded it on their site if they were making it public. The only groups who are supposed to have access to it besides Microsoft are government organizations.

 

[FAST6191]

Much of Microsoft's code is shared with later systems, especially something as new as XP.

Equally much of Microsoft's appeal is the massive library of software. Other than a few games and IE/Edge, and obviously any system software aimed at fiddling a specific setting, nothing really requires any later systems.

If then ReactOS or Wine can bootstrap themselves up to "basically as compatible as Windows XP" rather than the "I will use it but I am a nerd and expect fallout, don't know if I would install it for a client" that Wine has then that represents something significant on the competition front. It likely would also be fairly secure as well as it does not have to implement all the failings of XP at OS level, just the ones that programs need to run.
If they can tweak that just right and get say Windows 7 also working (a lot of it already is there) then that is even worse from the MS front.

Now I am sure ReactOS and Wine would not be caught dead copying code. Can still have a little look to direct tests and figure out failings, and there is the possibility some team somewhere that does not concern itself so much with copyright law actually makes it work.

 

[linuxares]

too late now a leak absolutely no one will care about

You obviously don't know much about Netsec. A lot of bugs that might be found in the XP code can work on Windows 10 for example as well. So this is pretty bad for all of us that use Windows.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Much of Microsoft's code is shared with later systems, especially something as new as XP.

Equally much of Microsoft's appeal is the massive library of software. Other than a few games and IE/Edge, and obviously any system software aimed at fiddling a specific setting, nothing really requires any later systems.

If then ReactOS or Wine can bootstrap themselves up to "basically as compatible as Windows XP" rather than the "I will use it but I am a nerd and expect fallout, don't know if I would install it for a client" that Wine has then that represents something significant on the competition front. It likely would also be fairly secure as well as it does not have to implement all the failings of XP at OS level, just the ones that programs need to run.
If they can tweak that just right and get say Windows 7 also working (a lot of it already is there) then that is even worse from the MS front.

Now I am sure ReactOS and Wine would not be caught dead copying code. Can still have a little look to direct tests and figure out failings, and there is the possibility some team somewhere that does not concern itself so much with copyright law actually makes it work.

Man I wish ReactOS had a 64-bit version and supported modern libraries. WINE functioning as an almost native way to run Windows stuff would be amazing too. Instead of having to install different dependencies through WINE so very specific programs will work. One of the only reasons I'm still using Windows is a lot of my plug ins won't work via WINE (most major DAWs and noteworthy paid plug-ins won't work well on Linux with WINE, so if you work with audio you're either using Windows/OS X or you're a highly skilled engineer who can use the free plug ins on Linux really well because you actually understand how everything works due to using similar hardware).

I also believe that Linux based OSs haven't caught on as a Desktop OS for a similar reason. Too many things require the terminal to be used. Most PC users probably haven't touched Command Prompt in Windows, or if they have it was because it was a step to fix a problem and they found the instructions on Google. Most people don't want to have to use the terminal to add a repository to download a program, or download dependencies that are installed on Windows with a simple installer. Solus sort of fixes this, but also really locks down the OS making it like Windows 10 S.