Will xp be usable in 5 years?

download the one that is 42mb , I do not really know what the other file is, but you can download it after installing basilisk and see what it does??

 

I don't see anything that mentions file size of "42mb". I went here~ http://o.rthost.cf/basilisk/, but too many options, with none specifically the size you mentioned, so I'm going to try this one:
https://o.rthost.cf/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.1.win32-git-20180915-351ffa462-xpmod.7z

Postscript: So it did not work. Looks like a zip file, which is always hit or miss (mostly miss). Will have to have my tech guy deal with it.

 

Win32 https://o.rthost.cf/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.1.win32-git-20180915-351ffa462-xpmod.7z

this is the one you want and windows will extract automatically if you look in the common task pane on the left, when you double click the file it will say extract all files, do so and just let the files extract to where ever you downloaded the file to, (desktop), and then run the .exe file within the extracted folder, or you can download 7zip which will do the same.

 

Yeah, I have 7zip, but of the five zip files I tried to install over the last year, only one actually did, and no idea why that one worked. My skill level is stuck at exe files.

That looks to be the same one I tried (https://o.rthost.cf/basilisk/basilisk52-g4.1.win32-git-20180915-351ffa462-xpmod.7z). Windows did not extract automatically (like with exe files). When I clicked on the tiny popup at bottom left, 7zip took over, and looks like I just can't work it right....except that one time I guess I got lucky, or made a lucky guess.

 

when you get the files extracted, look for and run the .exe within the extracted files

 

Actually XP still has MS support till 2019. Windows POS Ready which is used by cash registers worldwide basically has the same kernel as XP, you simply need to trick your XP OS to think it is POS Ready with simple little tweak and you will find both Windows XP and POS Ready updates on Microsoft's update site !

https://www.ghacks.net/2014/05/24/get-security-updates-windows-xp-april-2019/

 

Yes, indeed! It's an old trick, but it STILL comes in handy after all these years!

 

XP will never be unusable provided you are willing to learn and compromise as needed:

Accept that new software is less and less likely to work on XP. Most "new" software is crap IMO, so that's a non-issue for me. I use legacy apps for most tasks.

Some new apps I use-
Vegas 15. Finally a NLE editor that works and is easy to use. Never again will I touch Premiere (what a waste of money for that).
Soundforge is still crap... no biggie as Audition 3 works much better, and never crashes (forget any newer version of Audition).
Plural Eyes- syncs multiple video clips (from different cameras) to a single high quality recording via audio. It's really like magic. I had been writing an app for several years to do what it does (WAY not trivial to sync video via audio). Worth every penny.
Mercalli v4 video stabilizer. Works way better then the Deshaker avisynth script and far more user friendly interface. Worth every penny.
All need Windows 7 at least.

Do as I do, and use XP primarily for Windows Explorer (superior in many ways to Win7 and higher), running legacy apps, and VNC connections to other PCs- PCs that may be Windows 98, 2000, 7, 10, Linux. I also run several VMWare virtual machines (Linux Mint, XP, Win7), some are accessed via VNC (some directly, some via the Windows desktop). I use DOSBox for DOS apps. I like Office 2003 and use it on XP. I have many legacy apps that will never run on WIndows 7- company is OOB, author is dead, etc., serious compatibility issues (Hauppauge HDTV tuners), Windows 7 doesn't have the API needed, etc. Windows 10, forget it. Major bloatage and totally useless pile of steaming dogdo.

If some software (I have about $5000 invested in software that only runs on Win7 or higher) doesn't run on XP, or performance is poor, I put it on an appropriate Windows 7 box, and transfer files via my LAN. All done from VNC and usually XP's Windows Explorer.

Sometimes I do use Window 7 Windows Explorer for large file move/copy operations- large meaning 20GB to 2TB of file transfers. Win7 to XP or another Win7 box is 2 to 4 times faster over a gig-e LAN than XP (don't know why, it just is). My Windows 7 desktops and Windows Explorer look the same as Windows 98/2000 (Classic Shell is installed, Windows 7 in Classic mode and various tweaks). I even have a proper show desktop icon on the left task quick launcher.

I can't stress enough how important a properly configured VNC is. Very lightweight, low CPU, and very fast with the mirror hook driver working. Lightweight (only 3MB per connection) is important when having 10 connections open.

I now have 12 other physical PCs on the LAN, 2 in flux being rebuilt- damned if I can remember how to get Win98 working... that's a weekend googling project. And there's like 20 other PCs in my collection, some ancient DOS/WFW3.11 boxes, some newer stuff. For XP or later, I only use Core2Duo/Quad or newer CPUs because they use WAY less power than previous generations, not to mention that a Core2Duo is about 15-25 times faster than a P4. HP Business class PCs are a bargain on eBay and I have many- I recently built from 2 of them a Core2Quad 3Ghz 16GB Win7 box for H264 video encoding that is much faster than my older NLE editing box (and it may eventually become my new NLE editing box, lots of purchased software on the older box which would have to be moved and configured). Yeah if I was rich or had more video to NLE, I'd have a new box and a few of the PCI-E SSDs that read/write 4000MB/sec...

SSDs for most of my boot drives. All motherboard SATA drives in legacy mode for maximum stability (very little performance hit running a SSD in legacy, not noticable and way faster than spinning). For XP, make sure to align the drive (Paragon's alignment tool or other).

If you have lots of PCs:
Learn how to use a RAMDisk and mountvol (hint- patition raw and format NTFS with Computer Management) to limit the number of drive letters you consume in XP. All my other boxes are accessed with one mapped drive letter that leads to all the drives on the computer (one PC has 28 drives). Some shares via UNC only. I use Dataram Ramdisk v4.4 as it's free and easy to use.

I use 3Ware 9650SE controllers everywhere. They're practically free on eBay and one of the best RAID cards ever made (LSI RAID has serious issues, I have just one box left to convert to 3Ware). If you don't want to lose data, use 3Ware. I use Harddisk Sentinel on most of my PCs. Licensing is reasonable and the software is excellent at checking drive health (works fine through 3Ware and LSI RAID. It's very useful for fully erasing a drive or reconditioning an archive drive by reading and rewriting the same data.

I'm hopeful we see inexpensive 20 to 40TB HAMR or MAMR drives soon. I always adopt new storage tech ASAP. My main backup system is built around 10TB helium drives but I'll need more space in a year or two. Plus I want to build a new file server- 96TB is not enough, 500TB should be good for a while.

So again, I use the other boxes on XP over VNC and file shares. I can't see any reason to change the set up as it just works. If one box goes down, no problem, just switch to another. If my main XP box goes down, eh... that can be most painful if Acronis doesn't resolve the issue (I'm building a new main XP box soon).

Speaking of Acronis True Image, I'm shocked that most folks and IT System Admins STILL DO NOT image working systems. There are many imaging programs, some free, and will save hours/days trying to fix a non-booting PC. I have 7TB in drive images now (plus at least 4 copies of each), but well worth the storage space.

XP will be usable basically forever, as there's always a Virtual Machine solution.

 

I agree with you on the Core 2 Duo and Quad being great for XP--those are probably the newest models that allow for a hassle-free XP installation. It is possible to also get XP up and running on 2nd/3rd/4th-gen i3/i5/i7 machines, but those tend to be a little bit trickier (especially the Haswell stuff as that was not designed for XP [Ivy Bridge was the last generation to get official XP support]).

I'm giving some thought to getting a newer/faster PC, but my P4 is reliable to a fault. I use tons of older software--Opera 11.64 and Firefox 26.0 for browsing, MSOffice 97 for documents/presentations/spreadsheets, and Windows Media Player 6.4 and WinPlay3 2.3beta5 (the 16-bit Win3.1 version!) for multimedia. I also have CCleaner 2.36/Defraggler 1.21/Disk Cleaner 1.5.7 for keeping the registry clean and getting rid of junk files. I see no reason right now to use any newer versions, and on the P4 they absolutely FLY.

 

The 64-bit Windows XP doesn't get support until 2019, it stopped in July 2015 sadly because of its NT 5.2 codebase.

However, it still remains a viable and nice OS to use. Much better than the garbage that is Win7+.

 

I don't know why, but I just keep changing my setup. It's been a strange habit for me lately, but this time I am 100% sure I have finalized it. I migrated back to my HP Pavilion Slimline S5-1020 after reading what SixthOfMay pointed out about Core 2 Duos and Quads using less electricity than P4s and offering significantly better performance (my Slimline has a Pentium E6800, which is like a stripped-down Core 2 Duo but still offering solid muscle for everyday tasks [it's MUCH faster than the Pentium 4, and this becomes noticeable with modern-day Internet browsing]). The programs I am currently using now:

-CCleaner 5.32 (the final version released before the Avast merger/acquisition; many thanks to Janice for pointing this one out to me!)
-Defraggler 2.21 (ditto to the above)
-Disk Cleaner 1.8.1795 (the latest [and likely final] version of this fantastic tool, which covers a few bases that even CCleaner misses)
-Opera 12.18 (the final Presto version; the best browser ever made, IMHO)
-Firefox 52.9.1ESR (the final XP version; picks up slack nicely on sites Opera struggles with)
-VLC Media Player 1.1.11 (the last truly great version; works well even on Pentium III/4 PCs)
-WinAmp 2.95 (the best audio player ever made, hands down!)
-Office 97 (I can't see why anyone would need a newer version--after 20+ years it is brilliant)
-7zip 9.20 and WinRAR 3.80 (faster than the newer versions and still superb for everyday use)

I would say that Windows 7, at least before a certain point in time, is still a fine OS to use. The newer updates have introduced many of the problems that plague Windows 10, but if you update on a selective basis (meaning you only install updates when/if they're needed) or keep everything bone-stock and avoid updates (except for SP1, maybe) it remains fairly sane. It is the last version of Windows I would consider using because it retains the ability to use the classic Windows theme (a feature which was taken out in Win8 & hasn't returned since).

 

Re: W7, you're right, it's usable up to about July 2015.

Also, Nice software choices, WinAmp for instance is a brilliant media player with some great plugin support (I used to mainly use it to play SNES audio)

 

So happy I could be of help Many of my friends also use this version. Please make sure you don't get caught to their forced updates I posted this link on another thread but here it is again with how to block updates, towards the middle of the page:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...ngs-and-forcing-update-to-latest-546-version/

If you read the whole page you can see that many users have serious problems with avast updates.

 

I use the latest version of ccleaner because why not.BUT. when an update is released i always wait so that i would be safe to install because i heard that ccleaner was hacked last year so im always scared of updates soo i wait a week or longer...

 

In my case, I dislike spyware on my computer that compromise my privacy and Avast has been a big offender. So I prefer the older version before avast corrupted it. This is purely a personal choice and I have no problem with yours

 

July 2015--I'll be making a note of that. Thank you for pointing that out! And thank you for your kind words--it's taken a LOT of trial and error to find programs that work well for my needs, but it's always fun to try out different applications. XP opens up the door to quite a large number of possibilities, and because it was the last version of Windows built for decent enough internal compatibility with much older Win3.1/DOS-era stuff it only sweetens the deal.

 

Thank you very much for that information--I will absolutely be keeping this in mind!

 

Actually March 2015. I found out GWX has been present since April...

 

Ah, okay.

 

I just spotted this in your post. Could you please explain what is meant by "banking software and hardware"

Thank you