What algorithm did Windows XP use to choose your initial user picture?

ssoheilpro about 2 hours ago 23 commentsRead Article on devblogs.microsoft.com

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Discussion (23 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

mawadev•about 1 hour ago

That is a case I only become aware of when I read blogs like this. Technically I could solve it the same way, but these days you have so many tasks on your desk, you don't think about the problem and implications at all and that awareness/discipline is drowned in the noise/unlearned over time.

If someone only gave me 2 minutes for this, because they think it is very simple (as always), I'd have done a count of files of a specific pattern in the directory and then picked a random index, very naive and quick and dirty programming, no sampling at all, just to avoid discussions why it takes so long with people who don't want to hear it.

This reminds me of when I did a lot of C#, Java, JS, Python in my life, filling maps of strings and objects until I started with zig and noticed how expensive and complicated strings and data structure allocations can be. It kind of blew my mind how much memory and computation we waste when we try to get stuff done as fast as possible because of budget/time constraints.

cgio•about 1 hour ago

The times when people spent an extra brain cycle to avoid billions of second passes.

jasonvorhe•about 2 hours ago

A couple of screenshots would've been useful for the post-millennial generations that never got to see the "beauty" (cough) of XP.

moritzwarhier•about 2 hours ago

Here's a blog post from 2003 with beautiful pictures.

https://jakeludington.com/2003/12/17/create_your_own_windows...

Maken•about 1 hour ago

XP is Microsoft's prettiest OS by far.

mrweasel•about 1 hour ago

That's a matter of taste, but for many it was the Windows they used first and/or spend the most time on and there's a lot of love for that reason alone. I never used XP all that much, but I always changed the theme to the Windows 2000 look. I really didn't like the default, it looked unprofessional and clunky in my eyes. Upon release XP was also pretty universally mocked as a Fisher Price-like UI.

To me Windows 95/NT 4 is still the gold standard in Windows UI. It's certainly not the prettiest, that would be Windows 2000, but it was easy to use, easy to navigate and efficient with space.

Maken•about 1 hour ago

The first Windows I used was 98, and I sure didn't miss the blocky grey menus nor the pixelated icons. Maybe it was Fisher Price-ish but the new rounded buttons and borders were way more appealing to me.

afzalive•33 minutes ago

Took me years to like Windows XP. Hated the new start menu. I always kept installing Windows 2000 (or ME, probably because it could use Windows 98 drivers but look like Windows 2000).

I eventually got used to it and ended up liking it.

TazeTSchnitzel•about 1 hour ago

The "Windows Classic" look on XP is exceptionally ugly, because those 3D-rendered icons just do not belong on a Windows 2000-style grey background for menus or buttons. (I have recently had to test both these OSes in VMs…)

delta_p_delta_x•20 minutes ago

I feel Vista was by far the best. 7 simplified it a bit, but that Start orb and black taskbar on Vista, man, that was glorious.

YPPH•36 minutes ago

I found each of 2000, XP, and 7 to be excellent in its own unique way. I'd be happy with any of them. But it also felt exciting to upgrade.

It's all been downhill from there as far as UX goes.

amiga-workbench•29 minutes ago

Perhaps with the Zune theme installed.

sunaookami•about 1 hour ago

You mean 7 ;)

medwards666•37 minutes ago

Windows 7 was certainly pretty, but I still think that W2000 was peak Windows UI (and I've been around since Windows 2.0)

Maken•about 1 hour ago

Windows 7 fixed Vista a bit, but the Aero windows were never pretty and the non-Aero decorations were painfully obvious a placeholder.

CalRobert•about 1 hour ago

I thought it looked great :-/

PalmPilotProMax•about 1 hour ago

I don't see how that's relevant? Article is about the RNG implementation, it doesn't matter what the profile pictures are.

lirolero•7 minutes ago

> I don't see how that's relevant?

nobody cares

bombcar•about 1 hour ago

Does it also check existing users so you don't match one?

bhaney•about 1 hour ago

100 seems like a very unnecessarily low limit, even for the time

daveoc64•about 1 hour ago

It's well above the number of images that were in the applicable folder by default, so seems pretty appropriate to me.

moritzwarhier•about 1 hour ago

Some say the Admin account defaulted to a chessboard.

I think it's true, but not sure if I'm just falling victim to false memories... help?

TazeTSchnitzel•about 1 hour ago

The account named "Administrator" that Windows created for you always had the chess piece.

bhaney•about 1 hour ago

There's no way my memory of this is reliable anymore, but I also remember my administrator account being chess pieces (and my user account being an orange fish).

bombcar•about 1 hour ago

It might be that the randomization code was bypassed in some cases - like creating an account in safe boot mode or similar.

xx_ns•about 1 hour ago

It makes sense. The chess piece is the first profile picture in the list.

abhinavk•about 1 hour ago

I remember it like that too. Or is it Mandela effect?

NitpickLawyer•about 1 hour ago

The Magnus effect? :)