Windows XP build 2250

Windows XP build 2250 is a build of Windows XP. This build was released on 13 July 2000 at the Professional Developers Conference in Florida. It was the first build released to the testers and to be released in both Personal and Professional editions. The Personal SKU of this build is currently lost and is thus unleaked.

Microsoft was quietly working on several hidden features. One of them being the Start Panel, which was going to be a replacement for the classic start menu (although the classic start menu still persists up to Windows Vista). This build also featured a hidden active desktop-based Start Page, continuing the work started in Windows Neptune. Despite that, setup and many parts of the OS retained Windows 2000 and Windows Me branding.

Changes

 * This build is the first to no longer support the 486 processor (as it requires that the CPUID is present in the processor, which is only full implemented in Pentium and later) and an upgrade from Windows 95, and the HAL for the SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540 is no longer present.
 * However, there are still unofficial ways to upgrade from Windows 95 to XP.
 * Imaging has been removed and replaced with what will become the "Windows Fax and Picture Viewer" in later builds.

New features and enhancements

 * The default installation directory is now  instead of.
 * The login screen has been updated again. This design would be used up to build 2419.
 * This build offered many changes in the GUI. Many parts of the Explorer interface has been updated to engage a more user-friendly appearance. Control Panel also now has a new task-based default view that groups applets based on category.
 * A new Start Panel has been added, making it easier for the user to access frequently used programs and various folders of the system. It can be enabled by going to the Start menu properties dialog and pressing Alt, and then applying the settings. It can be disabled by doing Alt again after the Start Panel has been applied.
 * This build now allows the user to enable the Professional theme (which is still internally named Business), with a new UI within Display Properties.
 * Setup now has the appearance of Windows Me and the banners are now replaced with the Windows Whistler logo, although the boot screen is still labelled Windows 2000.
 * The notifications on the taskbar can now be shown/hidden with a "<<" or ">>" button.
 * The About box of Internet Explorer 6 now uses the final bitmap first seen in Internet Explorer 5.5.
 * Along with this, Outlook Express has been updated to use the version string of Windows instead of the final Internet Explorer 5 build.
 * Wallpapers can now be set without having to enable Active Desktop.
 * Updated Windows Installer to version 1.5.

Start Page
This build still includes the remains of a Dell OEM Start Page, but it is hidden by default. It is located in. The  file can be set as an Active Desktop, but many parts of it no longer work because most of its files have been removed at this point of development. Paul Thurrott has an image of a completed Start Page.

Upgrade

 * When upgrading from build 2223, the system will bugcheck after the text mode phase of setup. To fix this, omit the  parameter from any entries in.

Control Panel

 * When clicking on Profiles in Speech 5.0, an assertion error will appear. Clicking either option will cause the program to crash.

File differences
The following files have been introduced or removed compared to build 2223 Professional: