XP-tan is a dark-haired girl with ribbons in her hair and an "XP" hair ornament typically worn on the left side. As Windows XP is criticized for bloating a system and being very pretty without being as useful, XP-tan is commonly depicted wearing very tight clothing with huge breasts. Additionally, as a reference to the memory usage of Windows XP, she is often seen eating or holding an empty rice bowl labeled "Memory". Some variants include a version for XP Home known as "Homeko" who has green hair which she wears in a short ponytail with two large XP-shaped hairclips that cover her ears, as well as a less common variation representing Windows XP Media Center Edition. The outfits worn by the two main variants are based on the loading lines at the Windows splash screen during startup.
Because of heavy associations between operating systems and their supporting programs, such as anti-virus clients and web browsers, many supporting characters are created to personify the idiosyncrasies of these applications. Among popular examples are:
Ohzora Publishing produced one book based on OS-tan characters, titled Trouble Windows OS-tan FanBook (とらぶる・うぃんどうず OSたんファンブック?). It includes illustrations by over 25 contributors. It also includes 95-tan, ME-tan, XP-tan figures, titled OS Girl 95, OS Girl me, OS Girl XP respectively, but include a molded space for 2k-tan (named OS Girl 2K).
The design of ME-tan, the personification of Windows Me, is very much in line with the Japanese concept of kawaii or cuteness. Her design has changed little from the artist's original designs and is depicted with green hair in long pigtails wearing a maid outfit with a ! badge on the front reminiscent of the Windows yellow error icon. While she is considered to be a hard worker, webcomics often depict her failing at anything she tries to do, often literally crashing and irritating her sisters. Additionally, when she is not frozen or out of control, she tends to do things showing a lack of common sense or knowledge, such as putting a soda can into a microwave oven or defending herself by swinging a Welsh onion (This is a pun; a firewall program called "NEGiES" is pronounced like "Negi"(green onion) in Japanese.)
As 95 is considered to be the oldest of the modern 32-bit Windows operating systems, it is usually represented as a traditional lady from the early modern era of Japan. She is typically depicted as a gentle-looking brown haired woman in a kimono, with a hair ribbon showing the four Windows colors. Her outfit is a traditional kimono and a hakama of Japan and she wears thick sandals, or geta, on her feet. These were a woman college student's typical clothes as seen in the earliest period during the course of the modernization in Japan (from the Meiji period to the Taishō period) and is a reference to the modernization of Windows in comparison to the modernization of Japan. Additionally, the pattern of her kimono is based on the file "hana256.bmp", which was used as a desktop wallpaper pattern in the Japanese version of Windows. She is typically depicted as engaged in drinking tea, serving meals or doing other housework. One recurring theme in stories is her unfamiliarity with newer, post Win-95 technologies, such as USB devices (even though the OSR 2.x supported it) and broadband internet connections. She is also occasionally depicted wielding a katana in an aggressive manner, symbolizing that it was with her generation of operating systems that Microsoft finally achieved full dominance of the personal computer market.
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