- My other thread (Got Mypal to work BRILLIANTLY but don't know why??????) eventually morphed into a discussion of what sort of major mods could you do to XP, and people seemed interested in what the endgame might be? Some of you seemed to think that the unofficial and unauthorized XP SP4 (modded up with dozens of drivers that load at boot) was the goal. Others insisted -- this was counter-intuitive -- that the ultimate XP machine would be a dual booter into XP or Linux. Yet others felt that the real endgame was to walk away from Windows forever to Linux and never look back. So this is my contribution to the debate. I just finished converting a Dell Vostro 220 tower into a quad booter. On boot it offers me my choice of XP or Win7 or Win81 or Win10. The project took a while because I had to prepare each partition individually and become fairly competent in each. All my partitions have Windows Update turned off (never had a virus ... ever!) and third party firewall software. (Simplewall recommended for WIN10 -- it's free and it blocks MSFT servers). Anyway, long story short, I am happy with my project. XP remains my OS of choice for my daily driver, a 2002 Thinkpad T42. This post prepared on the T42. On the Vostro, I confess I lean toward a heavily sanitized version of 8.1, a version MSFT tried to literally euthanize by force-upgrading everyone to WIN10 while they were actually sleeping. WIn10 is just like family, you get the BIG BROTHER you never had. Best to everyone. Thanks for the comments and feedback. Stay safe.
The Ultimate XP machine?
- Thread starter popsmoke
- Start date
if you re happy, then I am happy, 
I used to have most of my machines rigged as multi-boot, with one, or possibly two versions of Windows, and similarly of Linux.
Nowadays though, I have switched to having the OSs on removable hard drives or SSDs. So plug in the OS I wish to use, and off we go.
It does deliver faster boot. However the main appeal is that I no longer need concern myself over which partition contains MBR/bootloader. I can dispose of any OS at will, without having to take any action to prevent system becoming non-booting.
Nowadays though, I have switched to having the OSs on removable hard drives or SSDs. So plug in the OS I wish to use, and off we go.
It does deliver faster boot. However the main appeal is that I no longer need concern myself over which partition contains MBR/bootloader. I can dispose of any OS at will, without having to take any action to prevent system becoming non-booting.
