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The dirty secret was windows XP was just a skinned Win2k and the components were very similar.

I remember resisting XP for awhile and instead editing INF files so drivers would install on 2k for me.

Yeah, i suspect thats the only reason it worked. If it had been ME and 2k it probably wouldve burst into flames

I think it was more like: XP was Win2K with added DirectX and the skins.

And yes, they started as the same kernel and drivers.

Ah, yes, the manual repairs in the primitive recovery console. Look for .SYS and .DLL files with suspicious dates (unlike the others), overwrite them with EXPAND'ed originals from the setup disk, try booting the system. Had to do it recently on an old XP system after testing early 2000s tool that had no idea service packs existed, and “updated” system files.

Do you remember what parts acted like what?

Not entirely. I do remember that the login screen and control panel became 2k like