[consp]

I distinctly remember having lots BSODs with IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors due to shoddy drivers all the time on XP (which is the first consumer NT kernel windows version), especially in the early days. Maybe not related to shared memory but overall not great either.

[J-Kuhn]

Things got better with newer windows versions.

* Userland printer drivers (that don't bring down the machine if they have a bug)

* Mandatory driver signing...

Nowadays I can run my machine 24/7 without any crashes. Which would be unthinkable back in the day.

[ornornor]

Back in the day, your uptime was a source of pride. So much so that I remember using samurize to display my PC’s uptime right in the desktop… my Linux workstation of today isn’t impressed at all.

[Borg3]

12:50:37 up 1224 days, 53 min, 6 users, load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.00

Not desktop tho, my home router/server :)

[Borg3]

Are you sure it was drivers issue? Not HW fault? I have good memories of Win2003 (and XP too) Very stable system, if drivers are correctly written.

Back in the days I remember fighting with random BSODs on Audio play/stop on Win2003. After months of fights I nailed that bloody .sys audio driver that gave me the problems. Found orginal vendor simpler driver and problem went away.

[nunez]

Same thing happened after Windows Vista came out. Vista came with a new audio stack that many sound card drivers were not compatible with out the gate.