no problems?

I had noticed that. Never mind, good sometimes just to chat. Especially with such interesting views sometimes elicited on here.

Keep smiling, Elizabeth.
 
Given the ever-decreasing user base and the challenge of finding modern hardware or software that works with XP it's hardly surprising that there's not much activity here. XP really has become a hobbyists' operating system so it will always have a loyal following among those of us who've grown fond of the many features that have been removed in modern Windows
versions.

My first XP computer was a Toshiba Satellite L35-S2194 purchased in 2003. It was a budget laptop:
Intel Celeron M 420 1.6GHz 533MHz FSB
512MB PC4200 DDR2 RAM (I added 1 GB for a total of 1.5GB RAM)
ATI Radeon X200M
80GB HD
802.11b/g WIFI
10/100MB ethernet
v.92 56k modem
DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive
2 USB 2.0
15.6' matte display (I hated glossy displays).

This laptop served me well for over a decade and was heavily used. I loved the look of Media Center and the Netflix app for it. Too bad Toshiba stopped making laptops because I would have gladly bought another one.

I gifted the laptop then bought a refurbished HP DC7600 PC in 2010 that came with XP Home SP2 -this was to be my main PC so I imaged the drive, wiped it and did a fresh install of Windows XP Pro Media Center Edition 2005. Netflix eventually depreciated the app and removed it from Media Center. Browser developers dropped XP support forcing me to use various Mozilla forks that wouldn't fully support the modern web. Games, newer versions of some of my favorite software stopped supporting XP. I reluctantly made the decision to install Windows 7 on that PC. All I have now is a Compaq laptop from 2004 with XP that is really slow so I rarely power it on.

Windows 10 is now my main OS. I'm not particularly fond of it, just gotten used to it since it runs all my favorite games and productivity software. It is heavily tweaked to remove all the bloat (Cortana,Find My Phone, bundled games, Windows Defender etc.) otherwise I would find it unusable. It still has a much higher base footprint than XP (you really need a base memory of 8GB to run Win10) but this is what is apparently called 'progress' in IT development. I still have XP Media Center Edition 2005 in VMWare so I can run XP and some of my favorite XP apps when I'm waxing nostalgic or responding to XP specific questions on this forum.
 
If you have experience installing Windows you don't have to buy a new PC with all the junk. I have purchased many refurbished PCs with no OS installed. I visit the PC vendor's website and make sure they have drivers for the target OS I plan to install on that model. I also check the seller's rep on Ebay/Amazon to ensure they accept returns in case of any problems. You get a custom OS tailored to your needs, no bloat. Even if you purchase one with a pre-installed OS you're better off wiping it and installing the OS yourself. A while back I purchased a Thinkpad that came with the original Windows 7 OEM install chock full of bloat/trial versions of Office, AV etc. It has 4 GB RAM but it was so slow even after un-installing all the bloat. I hated the fact that the Thinkpad utilities would auto-update, sometimes momentarily freezing the PC in the process. Grrrrr.

I did a system restore so it would revert to factory settings, imaged the whole hard drive (I did this in case I ever want to sell this unit I could restore it to out of box experience). Downloaded all drivers from Lenovo, installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64, installed all drivers and the only Thinkpad utility I found useful, the battery manager. The performance was night and day, the laptop was more responsive, no more freezes, no more auto-updates. Worth the effort.

As you mentioned that your PC is showing its age purchasing a replacement would be prudent before it completely gives up the ghost. Depending on your software needs you can stay with XP, try a newer Windows version or even dual-boot. Just make sure the PC you plan to purchase has drivers available for download from the vendor's website. You can always ask us if you have any questions on what model to purchase/recommend.

FYI XP browsers MyPal, Serpent and 360 Chrome all work perfectly in Windows 7 x64 and Windows 10 x64.
 
My Desktop Dell Optiplex 745 is about 17 years old with mostly original factory hardware and my Dell Dimension 3000 18 now also original hardware accept it only came with 1GB of RAM and I located another stick. But, yeah, never know when that day will come when they don't start up.
 
Elizabeth23 said:
Yes, it is only a matter of time before my desktop quits, I have kept it going for quite awhile now, and am not looking forward to buying a new pc with all the junk added on. :(

But, still going, :)
Click to expand...
I know, feel that same and would likely purchase something used rather than the factory crap and laptops that you can't even open with no wires.
 
So ... what can we do to attract more people here? I'm thinking (sometimes dangerous)

A bit after 7PM here and 38 degrees and chilly and dry. Biting so they say.

So ... its so cold (take the bait, please ... hehe ... "How Cold Is It?")

So cold:
It’s so cold that polar bear couples want to take photos in the cold weather - to have polar-oids!

Tip your waitress, I'll be here all weekend :D :D :D
 
I have two old computers that still have Windows XP on them. I don't use them much anymore but hate to part with them because they are still running fine.

Computer #1: (2002)
MBD: ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2800+
RAM: 2048MB
GPU: Nvidia Geforce5 FX5900

Computer #2: (2005)
MBD: ASUS A7V400-MX
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2400+
RAM: 512MB
GPU: Nvidia Geforce4 ti4600

Computer #1 used to be dual-boot of Windows XP and Windows 7. Windows 7 was removed because software updates including Windows started assuming the CPU supported SSE2 in 2019. The updates failed if it didn't. Note the AMD Athlon XP CPUs did not support SSE2.
 
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