Why do you use Windows XP

Why do you use Windows XP ? ... "retro" ... but my firts PC-Cyrix233 was W98

 

One word: Explorer.

Vista and newer broke the usability of Windows Explorer (example: removing + indicator next to folders), and I am constantly digging into and messing with my files. I use Explorer even more often than I use web browsers or WinAmp. MS also broke the Explorer color scheme, I can't look at it more than a minute without squinting and feeling uncomfortable.

A huge XP bonus: complete OS backup under 1gb, so many backups are easy on storage space, and of course the absence of bloat means instant responsiveness, like a Real-Time OS.

I'm a huge fan of Classic Theme minimalism, but lately I've been using a beautiful dark green StrangeWorlds theme. As always with every computer, my taskbar is on the left side so I can see the first 8 letters of my 12 open Explorer windows. If the taskbar was still on the bottom, all I would get is the same icon for all 12 windows.

My fellow Windows friend tells me to simply use explorer shell replacements. I've never seen one integrate nicely and launch when I press WinKey+E, and I'm not interested in less-convenient shortcuts.

My XP x64 is (for now) future-proof. VMware Workstation 10.0.7 is the last version compatible with XP, and runs Windows 10 virtually just fine for the rare times that I want to. VMware10 supports AMD's hardware accelerated virtualization, so my VMs perform well, without noticeable latency. XP64 supports 128GB of memory, too bad RLoew isn't here to patch it and enable all 16TB of memory space

When arrogant websites (which are most) whine and complain about my OS (none of their darn business anyways, go soap-box somewhere else you brainwashed good-little-robots)
1. I fake the Mypal68 user-agent-string to Linux or Win7 with newest version of Firefox or Chrome (they seem to "update" versions daily, so annoying) to fix most sites
2. If no dice, then I actually load Mypal68 in a Win7 32-bit vmware to fix stubborn sites.
3. If still no dice, then I load latest Firefox 32-bit in the virtual W7. Only one site I have to do that with, I'm looking at you ProtonMail. So much for supporting freedom.

UserAgent Switcher is a great browser extension: it saves a fake UA string for each offensive website, and still uses my default (proudly advertising!) UA string of XP64 on Mypal68 for the rest of the good internet that minds its own business and doesn't soap-box preach to me.

I don't see myself abandoning XP. EVER. You should have seen how long it took my friend to convince me to move up to XP after being die-hard Win98se and WinME (so much faster hardware detection than 98), and I probably would STILL be on 9x if I knew about Rudolph Loew's patches to use modern hardware! I don't need a silly SSD because my OS isn't busy loading bloat 99% of the time like all the Win11 freaks are.

 

I am still keeping a dedicated XP installation on a physical machine because Symantec WinFax Pro will not work on anything newer than Windows XP 32bit as the driver that one uses to print to it to send faxes won't work with anything newer.