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Keeping Windows XP alive

I had an old printer that was given to me at work. It became the household printer and was available through the network. I did have to drive it with an XP computer, due to its age. It finally died and the new printer needs at least windows 7; so out with the 98 computer and in with a Win 7 computer. The 98 worked for a long time, at least 10 years.
 
KingBubba said:
I had an old printer that was given to me at work. It became the household printer and was available through the network. I did have to drive it with an XP computer, due to its age. It finally died and the new printer needs at least windows 7; so out with the 98 computer and in with a Win 7 computer. The 98 worked for a long time, at least 10 years.
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I have an old dot matrix that still works that I use with XP. I really like 98 as well it is very useful for playing old dos games.
 
tonyg88 said:
Looks like it is working pretty fast actually!
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If it ain't broke........

This is my work system, I have a lot of excel stuff I made on 2002 and don't want to deal with the crap that's MS based now (I like to actually own my stuff). I've got a 7 machine with office right here ready to go, but haven't taken the time to mess with it (it's now outdated and I haven't even used it). 10 is too much MS big brother for me. (I use Ubuntu at home).

It's not the best youtuber for sure, but emails, shops and surfs just fine.
 
Yeah, I do wish that XP had been supported longer, despite it's age. There are just too many situations where people have machines that only need to fill a simple purpose, and it's a shame to have to replace it purely for security reasons.

I have plenty of old laptops that still work fine, but have mechanical hard drives as well as 512mb or less memory. With XP they still boot up to a usable state in less than 10-30 seconds. Even the ones that can be made to run Windows 7, it will take them 5+ minutes to boot, and slow even once finished booting.

Prior to XP I dual-booted Windows 2000 and Windows Me. I used Windows 2000 for everything I could, only using Windows Me for compatibility with some games. Windows XP seemed like a tiny upgrade coming from 2000, but at least made it no longer necessary to run Windows 9x at all.
 
tonyg88 said:
Looks like it is working pretty fast actually!
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There are settings you can change that make a big difference, if I remember right it's in the system properties, performance, visual. Stuff like animate, fades, shadows etc. I just looked, I have the first six unchecked and also unchecked drop shadows for icon labels, think I just played with it and found the ones that helped. There might be other things I've changed along the way, can't remember. Of course no updates, firewall or virus protection, I lead a dangerous life.

I do the internet on this, am right now. Google Chrome (until it quits I'm fine so far) with UBlock Origin so no ad threats (zero ads here on AK), don't open unknown email etc etc.
 
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The XP end-of-life was brutal for embedded systems, it was a great OS (on the whole) so people put it in EVERYTHING. ATMs, high end test equipment, you name it. Just the other day I was using an Agilent network analyzer and oscilloscope that both ran XP. In stinks having a few hundred dollar computer no longer be supported, it stinks a lot more when it's equipment with a 5-figure price tag.

Of course my home oscilloscope runs Windows 98 (not even Second Edition...) :bigok:
 
RossW said:
The XP end-of-life was brutal for embedded systems, it was a great OS (on the whole) so people put it in EVERYTHING. ATMs, high end test equipment, you name it. Just the other day I was using an Agilent network analyzer and oscilloscope that both ran XP. In stinks having a few hundred dollar computer no longer be supported, it stinks a lot more when it's equipment with a 5-figure price tag.

Of course my home oscilloscope runs Windows 98 (not even Second Edition...) :bigok:
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This is very much a thing and a big deal.

It was also used in gps devices, portable devices of all kinds, and a big one, medical devices. When I'm at the hospital visiting a sick friend I still see devices with the logo.

And you nailed it with them being expensive devices and therefore not likely to be replaced unless absolutely necessary.

And has been stated it's no longer a safe OS to be on a network.

Theres already been allot of tech articles describing this and the security risk it imposes. But I doubt much will come of it. Just not enough understanding of this in most places.
 
On a related note I got Windows 2000 up and running which was released a year earlier than XP but mostly the same.

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I haven't had XP on a machine in several years, but I do have a custom .iso image of XP Pro that I, ahem "acquired".:) It is pre activated and has all the latest service packs and a number of other tweaks done. I'll probably never use it again, but I'm going to hang onto it.
 
Still have a Premio desktop with Windows 98SE :), just need to get it to load from the bios screen. Something happened on a hard drive swap. Also had a Dell Dimension 4500 with XP that was great until two real-time programs became unstable & it shut down. Really was a wonderful machine since I don't do much but surf & play games. Facebook's format was too intense for the RAM I had on it (2 GB).

Traded it for a Systemax franken computer ($75) that is running pretty good, but recently noticing BSOD's at times with Windows 7. Also, after an update I got the dreaded 7601 the copy is not genuine info at the bottom right of the screen. Tried all sorts of tricks, but it won't go away. Still have my desktop wallpaper & no black screen. I may get it checked to see if I need a new power supply to stop the shutdowns.

Will keep it until something dreadful happens, don't want to upgrade to W10.

Rome
 
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