• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

A Little Help For Windows XP Users

i have been installing win xp on a laptop for past few days ..i know it takes a long time messing around to get it right .
anyway i got 152 updates and service pack 3 thrown in from ms . this of course after changing the win key to a valid one ..
i was very surprised they checked it was genuine and sent me updates as its no longer supported ..
i don't like windows by the way . but i need it for 2 work related programs .
i will look into the update thing but wont need it as it wont be going on the net anyway .
 
mhardy6647 said:
Validated systems running under XP (e.g., under US 21 CFR Part 11) will take a very substantial effort to move to another platform/OS -- and I can guarantee that there are (still) many such systems; some of 'em probably being used to make drugs we all take every day ;-)
Click to expand...

notably a metric F*** ton of ATMs actually run windows XP
 
Brian said:
At the corporate level a corporate wide changeover is expensive, time consuming, may require custom programs to be rewritten or even require off the shelfware to be replaced. The logistics and testing are most optimistically a king sized headache.

Admittedly, for an individual less of an issue but may still require significant investments in software updates or even programs that will require replacement as there are no updates.

I have old tax programs still needed that will not run on my Win7 machine nor will Lotus Organizer. WordPerfect Suite can be iffy as well as a number of other programs and the cost to update or change programs no longer warrants the cost in my case. I am more a candidate for a Liinux conversion than say a ground up Win7 upgrade but it begs the problem whereby I would still need a XP system; not sure if my tax software will run under WINE and Organizer will not run fully last time I tried.
Click to expand...
True statement. I can only imagine how much SAP would charge to optimize an existing custom installation on say 6 to 10,000 machines for a new OS.
 
Yesterday I thought about the direction I would go in regarding the XP laptop. It dual boots to OPENSuse.

I went through each program and decided whether in the future I would need it or could live without it. Also, hit the Services to see the condition state of each process. Many I could in some way identify while others totally escaped me. Lastly I opened CCLeaner and looked at the Startup options that I had never done before. This is not the same as the Startup file in the Start menu. Who, what a load of never used processes start at the beginning of each session.

In the Task Manager with no programs running, I was using some 750megs for the OS alone. I uninstalled a number of marginal programs that I seldom or almost never used or were duplicated in some way. An example is I uninstalled IBM Symphony and Corel WordPerfect while leaving Jarte on and installing Gnumeric for a spreadsheet program. I freed up more than a gig and removed some of the auto start processes. Also, dumped SR and Firefox browsers, leaving Opera and IE (I did remove it as a program available for use that stops related services). After going through this exercise and each of the processes in Services and the the CCleaner Start cleaner, disabling the auto start for almost all the processes, and the Registry Cleaner, a restart showed I now am using 268megs for the OS after startup.

My laptop has the max ram, 2gigs, so further ram expansion is not possible. However, I just added another 1/2gig of ram available for processing so it was a freebie and like adding another 1/2 gig of ram with the expected results. This utilization is close to what the Windows XP Starter OS for a netbook uses. I think I can free u some more after researching further what some of the processes are. I am using with all my programs less than 30 gigs of the 60 gig partition and I think I may be able to free up another gig if I needed to but as I have an outboard RAID, and external 250gig HD and use Portable Apps on a 16gig flash drive, no real need to get more drive space.

I still need to defrag and use the wipe unused space app in CCleaner and then set the swap space to a contiguous section via the Advanced Setting options in XP that speeds things up rather than letting Windows determine the amount and have it all over the HD slowing it down.

Oh, startup now is faster than Win7 on my newer faster laptop. Before it was noticeably slower.
 
Brian, if everyone did that kind of routine maintenance, there would be a lot more happy computer users.

Over a period of years we all end up with a crap ton of apps and other junk we never use, and completely forgot was even on the computer. Clean it out. Then, carefully clean up the startup list. Folks have to be careful here, because just because you don't recognize something doesn't mean it isn't important.

Then, defrag and wipe.

Here's a final one: my youngest daughter, who's a Bioengineering major at the University of Illinois, was complaining to me that her laptop is getting old and slow. I asked her when was the last time she shut it off. She replied that she never shuts it off, she just shuts the lid and lets it sleep. I told her to restart it. She couldn't believe how much quicker it ran. :yes:
 
Fisherdude said:
Brian, if everyone did that kind of routine maintenance, there would be a lot more happy computer users.

Over a period of years we all end up with a crap ton of apps and other junk we never use, and completely forgot was even on the computer. Clean it out. Then, carefully clean up the startup list. Folks have to be careful here, because just because you don't recognize something doesn't mean it isn't important.

Then, defrag and wipe.

Here's a final one: my youngest daughter, who's a Bioengineering major at the University of Illinois, was complaining to me that her laptop is getting old and slow. I asked her when was the last time she shut it off. She replied that she never shuts it off, she just shuts the lid and lets it sleep. I told her to restart it. She couldn't believe how much quicker it ran. :yes:
Click to expand...

Your daughter must know my son or at least they read the same instruction book. :scratch2:
 
Yup, most folks have no idea how much crap stays in memory, even after you close programs. Gotta flush it out on a regular basis.
 
Fisherdude said:
Yup, most folks have no idea how much crap stays in memory, even after you close programs. Gotta flush it out on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

How True!! I just installed Norton Computer virus scan and it also has tools to clean registry along with other tools -I could not believe all the junk it cleared out and now my computer is as fast as lightening.
I run all of these tasks once a month,along with a defrag.
 
FWIW, I use a utility called "CCleaner" (Crap Cleaner) that was recommended by our "computer guy" -- it does a pretty good job of cleaning out the cobwebs.
 
Brian said:
At the corporate level a corporate wide changeover is expensive, time consuming, may require custom programs to be rewritten or even require off the shelfware to be replaced. The logistics and testing are most optimistically a king sized headache.

Admittedly, for an individual less of an issue but may still require significant investments in software updates or even programs that will require replacement as there are no updates.

I have old tax programs still needed that will not run on my Win7 machine nor will Lotus Organizer. WordPerfect Suite can be iffy as well as a number of other programs and the cost to update or change programs no longer warrants the cost in my case. I am more a candidate for a Liinux conversion than say a ground up Win7 upgrade but it begs the problem whereby I would still need a XP system; not sure if my tax software will run under WINE and Organizer will not run fully last time I tried.
Click to expand...

Supporting old and outdated stuff can be more expensive as it has its hidden costs.

I support an enterprise that is running all XP, on the edge of moving to Windows 7. Right now its like keeping a fleet of Model T's running in modern times.

Everything has to be done manually, compatibility and the phenomenon of an ecosystem too complex for its own good is crippling in many instances.

So, yeah upgrading has costs, but the increase in productivity AND the dramatically lower down time pays for itself all in very short order. When you think about it, what is the real cost when someone can't do their job because their technology doesn't work? It can be catastrophic.

XP is a dinosaur. Its painful to support now. I'll remember it fondly like a grade school crush.

.dew.
 
I'm a Mac guy, but run Windows7 in a VM almost all the time at the office and I as in my small business, I am the IT guy, the day the last XP machine was gone my life got so much simpler!!! Now I can manage the entire network from Server Essentials 2012 and I don't think I've seen a OS related glitch since. Win7/8 is certainly the best thing from MS ever! At least at the desktop level. Their enterprise stuff has always been pretty damn good, but I really think that server based software is actually much easier to get right as it in a controlled environment and not asked to do the things that the typical user puts the desktop OS through.

XP was a nice jump over Win2K and 98, but it's time has certainly passed. As for old programs, you're not doing yourself any favors running them, way too many folks convinced that they have to stick with them because they don't want to spend to switch to Office when there are many other options out there. I've been moving new users to Open Office and while it certainly does not do everything MS Office does, it is pretty damn good and does more than 80% of office suite users need. Much like my cousin who skimped huge on her new laptop getting a POS bottom of the line barrel, but them bought office for 2 bills because she needs to "type letters" and "enter recipes".
 
Last edited:
mhardy6647 said:
FWIW, I use a utility called "CCleaner" (Crap Cleaner) that was recommended by our "computer guy" -- it does a pretty good job of cleaning out the cobwebs.
Click to expand...

That's is what I use and all I can say is the MS should include it as part of its OS as it is the best thing since Matzo or bagels and Lox.
 
atarione said:
notably a metric F*** ton of ATMs actually run windows XP
Click to expand...

No, they really don't. Please don't spread incorrect information.

The two versions of Windows that ATMs run that share any lineage with XP whatsoever are "Windows Embedded for Point of Service V1" (older) and "Windows Embedded POSReady 2009" (newer). They share lineage with XP the same way Server 2003 does, in the sense that they are based on the same core, but there are very significant differences and they are in no way the same OS.

Embedded versions of windows are very minimalistic compared to desktop versions. Much of their security comes from the fact that many background services, etc, which are the basis of vulnerabilities in XP don't exist or aren't enabled in embedded versions. They tend to be targeted toward very specific tasks.

Also, and perhaps most importantly, neither version has had it's support end (unlike XP). "Windows Embedded for Point of Service V1" is supported until April 2016, "Windows Embedded POSReady 2009" is supported until April 2019.

That is a big deal, because the same people spreading misinformation about ATMs running XP are also probably pushing the angle that they aren't secure anymore as a result of lack of support. Obviously, that is 100% false.
 
Thanks for clearing that up. I also deal with Windows Embedded on things like lighting control consoles, but you might be surprised how many devices have a full version running rather than the much cleaner, more stable, and secure embedded version.
 
I was using an ATM in a movie theater in Albuquerque that went down hard while I was using it. It rebooted in front of my eyes. It was running OS/2 Warp. I was surprised to say the least.
 
Nothing wrong with that. There is no doubt that OS/2 was superior to DOS in every way, but Gates played IBM like a maestro in that deal! Lots of OS/2 went into Win2K and then XP.
 
BayouTiger said:
Nothing wrong with that. There is no doubt that OS/2 was superior to DOS in every way, but Gates played IBM like a maestro in that deal! Lots of OS/2 went into Win2K and then XP.
Click to expand...

I was a network site manager back in the 1980s in Gurnee, Illinois. Nearly came to blows with the global network manager over his decision to replace my network of ethernet and WfW 3.11 with OS/2 Warp and Token Ring. Replaced $30 ethernet with $400 token ring cards and my cheap ethernet switches with $3,000 IBM Token Ring Access Aggregators. What a waste of money. And slower, too. But he called the shots. He was a true blue IBM kool-aid drinker.
 
Wigwam Jones said:
I was a network site manager back in the 1980s in Gurnee, Illinois. Nearly came to blows with the global network manager over his decision to replace my network of ethernet and WfW 3.11 with OS/2 Warp and Token Ring. Replaced $30 ethernet with $400 token ring cards and my cheap ethernet switches with $3,000 IBM Token Ring Access Aggregators. What a waste of money. And slower, too. But he called the shots. He was a true blue IBM kool-aid drinker.
Click to expand...

I remember both and not with fondness. Seemed every accounting and law firm I had dealings with were converting, spending enough to fund the Federal debt and getting not work done.

I went in another direction. Bought a Dell 286 at a time when Michael answered the phone, built the computer, boxed and shipped it and later was the telephone service department. Added a 3 meg expansion card loaded with ram, multiport serial card, SCO Xenix, a half dozen Wyse 50, 100 and my trusty Tandy Model II and 16b running in Wyse 100 terminal mode. Huge 40 meg hard drive and good to go 24/7 for more than 10 years, only needing to bring it down for a few hours to replace the hard drive. No IT expense, no IT department and ran both my CPA and law firms. V/Pix allowed DOS for my lone DOS program, the bankruptcy system to be run from the terminals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom