I love nerdy deep dives like this. Windows XP will always be the golden era for Microsoft. I think the convergence of a revamped Windows and the wide adoption/availablity of the internet in the early 2000s helped boost XP’s popularity. I mean there were tons of geeky forums dedicated to all kinds of aspects of XP; theming, icons, wallpapers, exploring and explaining what every files was in Windows. It was nerdy fun for sure.
But listening to the Windows XP installation music does bring back so much nostalgia of that time for me. Staying up late…all night…tweaking XP, formats, reading forum posts on messing with the registry, discovering cool media and entertainment software from third party developers…getting viruses because I was just downloading stuff like crazy lol.