Super-antique-fragile-and-it's-XP-alidocious, even though the sight of it is something quite atrocious What is the name of that thing that keeps clinging on even when everyone seems to agree that the time for it to go has long past? Today, Bork brings you the return of Windows XP. Like a villain in a shlock horror flick, Windows XP has returned from the grave time and time again. The monster to Microsoft's Frankenstein, the …
That's nothing a colleague of mine declared "Hmm that's tasty!" when flicking through a Lidl's flyer in the middle of said store one lunchtime in Taunton & his eyes caught the flannelette sleepwear section for the & modelled by a slightly older lady.
Icon - A fact we never let him live down.
In a previous job, used to have "Electronics Weekly" or what ever it was called. I was always interested in looking at articles about some electronic component that had released a new range of surface mount capacitors. I only looked at the photos to see how they have jazzed up what is basically a small brown oblong with silver ends, no markings. It was either on a point of a pencil or the edge of a coin....
XP wasn't isn't dreadful. I still use it in a VM to run old software. Gutted of all the cruft and fully updated to the EOL patch state it runs in at a tiny 5.9Gb. Takes no time at all to pop a copy & run it up. No network connections of course, files on & off by VirtualBox shared folder. Often the copy is simply binned afterwards but I have a couple that get repeatedly used so set to immutable disks. Hellishly fast to boot.
How big would a fully patched up copy of 7 be for those rare tasks? 40 or 50Gb maybe? Haven't a clue how big a minimal 10 install would be as that drove me to get off the Redmond wagon.
Haven't a clue how big a minimal 10 install would be as that drove me to get off the Redmond wagon. Starting Windows sandbox shows a C drive with about 3gig used, so it's possible to have a small lightweight VM......
I expect a proper install is much larger though.
Yes, I have several XP VMs on Linux. One is an image of my 2002 to 2016 Laptop, only re-installed once in late May 2002. It looks more like NT4.0/Win9x/Win2K than the default XP. Even Win7 (aka Vista SP2) could be decently customised. Win10 is like Win 2.x on Hercules. Or a bad version of Android with windows.
The imaging tool is an MS download to allow compatibility on Win10 by putting a VM of your oldd Windows. Free on MS Website
See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd
It actually has three checkboxes, not two. You need to check "For VM" (or something, it's the extra check) and uncheck "Shadow volume"
Works as long as the Windows isn't using EFI boot. I think even if PC is UEFI, if the install used BIOS mode the VM will work.
Might work for Vista and Win7?
Office needs reactivated. But that's a free phone call and a robot with no awkward questions.
I used an subdirectory on an external 1T USB HDD and it runs faster than original. I used the Mint distro VM and installed the Guest Tools (which basically add sound, network, graphics and USB drivers).
Real serial port SW on the XP VM works with a USB serial adaptor on Linux, mapped. Even a Sony USB Web cam unsupported by Linux works. Sadly no way to add the PCMCIA peripherals such as an Adaptec 1460, nor I have I found a solution for Firewire.
Having SCSI on anything other than a desktop with real full PCI slots now seems impossible. Supposed Firewire - USB adaptors like a plug seem to be for stuff that actually really also has USB in it? I can't see how they can work with a DV camera.
They're not closing all the stores. Just the majority.
I'm intrigued what they are going to do in areas like where I live where my nearest Sainsbury's is 15 miles one way, and 45 the other, but still have more places to collect items ordered remotely. On the other hand I have 3 Argos branches about 15 miles away and one about 30.
In fact I recently had a job repairing a programmable cutting saw that used XP embedded. Had to upgrade it to the latest SP to get the management software for the saw to load. since it is internal to the network and all traffic to the internet is blocked, it should be ok.
All this "modern" stuff...
I sometimes have to do (usually electrical or mechanical) fixes on a pair of industrial washing machines (each about the size of a small bedroom!).
One runs Windows 95 and the other Windows 98.
They are not connected to a network and the OS / application is on an SSD...
Funny how the latest version of Windows is saintly and use of previous versions is mortal sin. Even XP was saintly while it was current, wasn't it?
Quite apart from which, crashing is not unique to obsolete systems, and lack of bug fixes merely means one has to be more careful how one deploys and maintains them.
As a matter of interest, a $6,000 audio analyser (one of the very best in the world) runs on embedded XP, but what's the point of changing it? It doesn't connect to public networks and does its job perfectly.
We should remember that every single version of every OS and application ever released has been retired before it was entirely bug free. The current version of everything will be just the same.
True, but that doesn't mean that's a bad choice. Sure, there are plenty of Linux signage distros these days, but for non-computer-savvy people that's simply a bridge too far.
Retail isn't exactly rife with savvy IT personnel so I can imagine them just keeping something that they know works and can fix themselves.
Like a villain in a shlock horror flick, Windows XP has returned from the grave time and time again. The monster to Microsoft's Frankenstein, the dreadful thing simply refuses to die.
I have a customer that still has a Windows 95 machine (HP Vectra VE7) connected to an instrument via NIC that uses NetBEUI. I'll take an XP machine any day of the week.
Of course we also need to accept (I am sure most wont and await mass downvotage) that Windows 7,8 and 10 only actually exist to prize more money out of your hands. Sure there's some back end stuff that might be a bit of hell to transplant, but Win 10 aint actually so far from XP that we've had to fork for 3 supposedly completely new products in the interim.
It's a gravy train and most of us are on it.
The Sun remain tops for headline puns when Inverness Caledonian Thistle beat Celtic, but the Ayrshire Daily News just came up with a good one:
South Ayrshire Golf club owner loses 2020 presidential election
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