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Can we ever expect to be? Will Microsoft continue to renew a copyright on software they are no longer are willing to supply? When will I be able to ask where can I download XP bundled with every sp and update ever released? Are the updates all individually copyrighted so a compilation of them would be illegal anyway?

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    Windows XP will never be free. Copyright on software to my knowledge does not expire.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 20:28
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    Copyrights don't need to be renewed in the vast majority of countries.
    – David Schwartz
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 20:28
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    @barlop You have to have Windows 7 Professional license and you have to use XP mode with dedicated virtual machine platform.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 21:22
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    @barlop Windows Virtual PC is free and it's included with Windows XP Mode package. The image employs some parts that prevent from booting it on any other virtual machine except for Virtual PC. There's a plugin for VirtualBox 3 and modified BIOS for VirtualBox 4 that can be used for booting it successfully, but in that case you need separate Windows XP license because it doesn't fall under usage allowed by XP Mode license.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 11:14
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    MS DOS were made available under a MIT license and pretty much no one cared. FreeDOS already became the standard DOS operating system that everyone uses. Those that do not have a specific version of MS DOS for which they have a license and will never stop using it, such as people with factories that they know runs without problems with that specific version. As for Windows XP it will be replaced with ReactOS long before Microsoft makes it free. Sure ROS is far from usable but it will be way before we get a free XP.
    – user1657170
    Commented Oct 14, 2020 at 20:22

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Aside of copyright taking at least 50 years to expire (usually way longer), using windows XP is strongly discouraged unless you like to be hacked. But to put your quesiton in perspective, even using a pirated windows 95 is still illegal. Chances are microsoft won't care for anything pre windows 2000, but its not always up to microsoft. There are companies who operate on behalf of companies like microsoft, and they only see dollar signs.

So long story short, no. Windows XP is not and will not become free. It would be stupid from Microsoft to do this, because that would promote people to use an operating system where they strongly encourage people not to use it.

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    Microsoft probably couldn't release Windows XP free even if they wanted to. I think some components (especially bundled device drivers) aren't Microsofts property - they're licensed by Microsoft from other companies.
    – user31438
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 20:51
  • @Steve314 I think you're mistaken. Free doesn't mean open source. They can't release the OS as open source due to bundled drivers etc, but they could release it for free closed source if they wanted to. They have all those rights.
    – LPChip
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 21:36
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    Windows XP included components like Media Center that Microsoft was required to pay a 3rd party for distribution. If they gave away XP for free they would still have to pay the other companies for the components they included. Sure they could do it, but it wouldn't make any sense at all.
    – Zoredache
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 22:19
  • Its likely that they pay a license fee, and that they use that same license to use the technology in current versions of windows, so that it is not strictly linked to XP.
    – LPChip
    Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 7:13
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    @LPChip - as Zoredache says, they'd be committing to pay license fees for everyone who gets a free XP license. More importantly, they either have to renegotiate all those licenses or else they have to comply with all terms - which probably means activation servers etc, and certainly means they "sell" license codes and keep track of them - even if only to know how many XP licenses they need to pay their licensees for. BTW - this is e.g. a variation on why old magazines aren't released free (all those fees for photos etc).
    – user31438
    Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 7:13
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There is a version of Windows XP which Microsoft is providing for "free" (here meaning that you don't have to pay independently for a copy of it). The catch is that you must have a Windows 7 or Windows 8 license that is covered under the program. It is called Windows XP Mode.

It is not a bare-metal version, though, as you must install it as a Virtual PC app (also provided at no cost under the program). You can upgrade this install to the final patch, including the last zero-day patch that Microsoft released after the April 8th, 2014 final end-of-support date. This means it can be used as Windows XP SP3 with all security patches.

This is the only legally "free" version of Windows XP that is available. Any other version either requires its own license, which is not free, or is a pirated/illegal version. Based on prior experience with Microsoft products, we can expect that this version is not allowed for bare-metal installations, and no bare-metal installation version will ever become free, just as there is no legally free version of Windows 3.1, 95, 98, etc, despite the fact that you cannot buy a copy of any of those versions, either.

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    You need Windows 7 or 8 PRO versions to do so.
    – Canadian Luke
    Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 15:34
  • I struggle to understand how one can call Windows XP Mode "free" when the only way to obtain it is with a paid-for license of Windows 7 Pro.
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Commented Dec 27, 2014 at 19:24
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I don't think windows xp will ever be free. for Windows 98, 95 even ME! should be free right now. They still are being used and some companies can still have a commercial profit.

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    How is MS still profiting from 98?
    – Mazura
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 22:06
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    As late as 2006 I had the privilege of watching a dog tag kiosk reboot due to being unplugged. It was running Windows 3.1.
    – LawrenceC
    Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 0:16
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    I know licenses for obsolete versions are overpriced, and I know there's a case for old versions for special applications, but I don't think the two connect enough for profit (or at all). For example I saw a question on StackOverflow (I think) once where Windows 3.? was being used to control some factory equipment - the reason being that 16-bit Windows lacks a pre-emptive scheduler, so can meet hard real-time timing constraints. However, there was no suggestion the operating licenses had been bought recently for that - it was just old equipment still in use, including the old OS.
    – user31438
    Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 7:31
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    @Mazura, with upgrades . Probably not microsoft by it selves, but I saw at a defense enterprise, faced the need of software support which support w95 (only ). In some cases porting it with compatibility is not an option.
    – Quijote Shin
    Commented Jun 20, 2014 at 14:15
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As far i know, microsoft never officially wrote in their "never read end user agreement" as we install each and every product of microsoft that the software is free or will be free in any matter whatsoever. Unlike the free software that we can freely download from their servers, we can read the end user agreement that the software that we use is a free software. So if Microsoft wants to do so, to set free any of their product as freeware software, they have to, once again, rewrite their "never read end user agreement" and write it as a free software. Until then, any microsoft products remain not free. We like to think that now, microsoft is to set free of the non supported software but the official words only says that "ends the support for". Microsoft never actually put their software to "resign" or pension", they just don't support the particular software anymore. So, as the microsoft's end user agreement remain the same then the software remain not free.

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    Wait wait wait, so what you're saying is, if Microsoft makes it free then it will be free, and if they don't it won't? Fascinating!
    – Jason C
    Commented Jun 21, 2014 at 4:42
  • Rules can be only changed by the maker or local authority or higher authority. Once internet explorer 8 and windows media player 10 was released but it were not free, we have to validate the windows as we install them but it were protested or was it banned from europa until microsoft erase the windows validating part of them. Am saying ? or is it microsoft saying? or is it the world saying? Your rule can only be changed by you or legal authority or higher authority. Do i miss something in my words? except my "not good" english off course..
    – Ramirez
    Commented Jun 21, 2014 at 5:25
  • and in my own rule, windows xp is always be free from the day it was born and what are not free from windows xp? Just two things, the cd key and the COA. Actually those two are thing that microsoft sells, the software is for free, just the bonus.
    – Ramirez
    Commented Jun 21, 2014 at 6:07

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