SYSTEM.INI was a basic INI file use in early versions of Microsoft Windows to load device drivers and the default Windows shell (Program Manager or Windows Explorer). Many of these settings were honored in Windows 9x, although the files had begun to be phased out in favor of the Windows registry. Windows XP still acknowledges some entries in the SYSTEM.INI file, to provide backwards compatibility with older 16-bit applications. However, when a fresh install of XP is performed, the SYSTEM.INI file created is initially blank.