New XP machine?

I'm thinking of a new desktop and Amazon scammed me an offer of a
refurbished Dell desktop for $109. Catch is, it's XP. While I like that XP
eMachine I have I'm not sure about investing in another XP machine at this
late date. It would be a backup for my eMachine if I can't salvage one of
my two Compaqs which is looking more and more unlikely.

Someone local suggested that reinstalling XP with the disk that came with
it was not working because MS has quit supporting XP. Do these restore
disks have to clear the XP install with MS? Anyone know? That may well have
been the case - can't recall for sure - when I did an XP reinstall many
years ago.

TIA


--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.

In message , KenK
writes:
I'm thinking of a new desktop and Amazon scammed me an offer of a
refurbished Dell desktop for $109. Catch is, it's XP. While I like that XP
eMachine I have I'm not sure about investing in another XP machine at this
late date. It would be a backup for my eMachine if I can't salvage one of
my two Compaqs which is looking more and more unlikely.

For 100 pounds (which maps to $100 - electronics is generally cheaper
there), I'd expect to get a usable 7 machine, and from a dealer at that;
it might have a small (80-120G) HD, but should otherwise be usable. As
you say, probably not wise to commit to an XP machine these days: it
might be OK, but it'd be sufficiently "clean" that by the time you've
made the tweaks, and installed the software, to make it match the
machine it's replacing, you might as well "learn" 7 anyway (especially
if you install Classic Shell).

Someone local suggested that reinstalling XP with the disk that came with
it was not working because MS has quit supporting XP. Do these restore
disks have to clear the XP install with MS? Anyone know? That may well have
been the case - can't recall for sure - when I did an XP reinstall many
years ago.

TIA


_Installing_ doesn't need MS during the actual install, but _activation_
- to be able to use it for more than a short time - does. However, so
far, I believe MS's activation servers are still working - in fact I've
read multiple rumours that they're less fussy about checking your XP is
genuine than it once was.

_Restoring_ rather than installing from scratch, I can't comment.

MS have indeed stopped supporting XP in that they won't answer help
questions, and no patches, not even security ones, have been seen for
some time. (I think nominally 2013, though ISTR there was some
unexpected security one more recently.) But the _activation servers_ are
still going.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"This situation absolutely requires a really futile and stoopid gesture be done
on somebody's part." "We're just the guys to do it." Eric "Otter" Stratton (Tim
Matheson) and John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi) - N. L's Animal House
(1978)

On 11/5/2018 9:53 AM, KenK wrote:
I'm thinking of a new desktop and Amazon scammed me an offer of a
refurbished Dell desktop for $109. Catch is, it's XP. While I like that XP
eMachine I have I'm not sure about investing in another XP machine at this
late date. It would be a backup for my eMachine if I can't salvage one of
my two Compaqs which is looking more and more unlikely.

Someone local suggested that reinstalling XP with the disk that came with
it was not working because MS has quit supporting XP. Do these restore
disks have to clear the XP install with MS? Anyone know? That may well have
been the case - can't recall for sure - when I did an XP reinstall many
years ago.

TIA


https://www.frys.com/product/8770461

KenK wrote:

I'm thinking of a new desktop and Amazon scammed me an offer of a
refurbished Dell desktop for $109. Catch is, it's XP.

What is the URL to the Amazon auction?

How can Amazon "scam" you an /offer/ about what you were *thinking* of
getting?

KenK wrote:
I'm thinking of a new desktop and Amazon scammed me an offer of a
refurbished Dell desktop for $109. Catch is, it's XP. While I like that XP
eMachine I have I'm not sure about investing in another XP machine at this
late date. It would be a backup for my eMachine if I can't salvage one of
my two Compaqs which is looking more and more unlikely.

Someone local suggested that reinstalling XP with the disk that came with
it was not working because MS has quit supporting XP. Do these restore
disks have to clear the XP install with MS? Anyone know? That may well have
been the case - can't recall for sure - when I did an XP reinstall many
years ago.

TIA

Microsoft may have quit delivering patches to the thing
on Extended Support (as of 2014). But the activation server
still works. There is at least one participant in the newsgroup
who is testing this on a semi-regular basis.

Joy Microsystems is a major refurbisher. They sell to Staples,
Walmart, and judging by Mikes message, Frys.

As an official refurbisher, they follow Microsoft rules for
refurbishment. They aren't allowed to leave the original Dell
image on a Dell refurb. Microsoft sells them a "refurbisher"
version of OS (think of it as the Joy Microsystems WinXP
rather than the Dell WinXP in a sense).

Now, up until a year or so ago, they were shipping Windows 7 Pro
Refurbisher on their machines. However, Microsoft cut off Windows 7
for that purpose, so now these crusty old machines have Win10 running
on them. This causes problems finding a good video card to put
in the machine. A machine with 12 year old graphics, might not
have a driver for Windows 10. And the low end of the video card
market now, isn't exactly cheap. You can't easily be buying
$100 video cards as part of selling $100 computers. Before the
Win10 edict, Joy could ship machines with just Intel chipset
graphics, which keeps their costs down.

I can't tell from your message, whether you want WinXP on this
new machine or not. You need relatively old hardware, so you'll have
drivers for the hardware. I don't know of any easy way to assemble
a supported video card list for WinXP. I don't know if there is
a list of "last driver version" from each company making video
cards, for WinXP. I know my FX5200 card would work, but it would
be a poor choice if I could find something a little better. Not
necessarily for gaming, but maybe a card with a more modern
UVD or Purevideo decoder (can reduce CPU load when playing
video).

You can even have trouble finding new-ish video cards with
VGA connectors on them. VGA was discontinued industry wide
last year. To get VGA today is still possible, but it takes...
more money. You have to buy a DisplayPort to VGA active adapter,
and then make sure the video card has a DisplayPort or a
mini-DisplayPort connector. And make sure you've got
your ducks in a row, on connector type on the purchased
items. If your LCD monitor has a DVI connector, maybe things
won't be as bad (more choices). My monitors here have VGA
only on them, which is why I'm sensitive to this issue.

Paul

On 5 Nov 2018 17:53:29 GMT, KenK wrote:

I'm thinking of a new desktop and Amazon scammed me an offer of a
refurbished Dell desktop for $109. Catch is, it's XP. While I like that XP
eMachine I have I'm not sure about investing in another XP machine at this
late date. It would be a backup for my eMachine if I can't salvage one of
my two Compaqs which is looking more and more unlikely.

Someone local suggested that reinstalling XP with the disk that came with
it was not working because MS has quit supporting XP. Do these restore
disks have to clear the XP install with MS? Anyone know? That may well have
been the case - can't recall for sure - when I did an XP reinstall many
years ago.

TIA

I bought a W/10 laptop for that kind of money shipped

John,

you might as well "learn" 7 anyway (especially if you install Classic
Shell).

There is a big downside to W7: The fact that MS seems to think its allowed
to modify it regardless of what the users preferences have been set to, upto
brutally replacing it with W10. That, and its "telemetry" that cannot be
turned off. In short: you're just a user of the OS, not its owner.

I've got a W7 DVD here, but have not even tried to use it because of the
above.

@OP:

Someone local suggested that reinstalling XP with the disk that came with
it was not working because MS has quit supporting XP.

MS is rather happy to make it absolutily clear why it refuses to allow you
to use your OS (otherwise you would not know who to send your money too), so
if you do not see anything obvious in that regard you may assume the problem
lies elsewhere.

There is a possibility that the OS disk you got was just a random one added
by Amazon, but not actually ment for your dell hardware.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

P.s.
"it was not working" can mean a *lot* of things. A such its not something
anyone can base any kind of "you could try {this}" suggestions on ...

R.Wieser wrote:
John,

you might as well "learn" 7 anyway (especially if you install Classic
Shell).

There is a big downside to W7: The fact that MS seems to think its allowed
to modify it regardless of what the users preferences have been set to, upto
brutally replacing it with W10. That, and its "telemetry" that cannot be
turned off. In short: you're just a user of the OS, not its owner.

I've got a W7 DVD here, but have not even tried to use it because of the
above.

@OP:

Someone local suggested that reinstalling XP with the disk that came with
it was not working because MS has quit supporting XP.

MS is rather happy to make it absolutily clear why it refuses to allow you
to use your OS (otherwise you would not know who to send your money too), so
if you do not see anything obvious in that regard you may assume the problem
lies elsewhere.

There is a possibility that the OS disk you got was just a random one added
by Amazon, but not actually ment for your dell hardware.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

P.s.
"it was not working" can mean a *lot* of things. A such its not something
anyone can base any kind of "you could try {this}" suggestions on ...

You can use "Security Only" Updates instead of "Quality Rollups".

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/01/11/ws...-updates-only/

Telemetry is CEIP. That's a library that developers can link into
their executable. It allows the developer to record resource usage.

However, the information is stored on a Microsoft server. The
developers log in to access the feedback sent by CEIP.

I don't think there is a "Cortana" to record all your searches,
or a lot of calls to "vortex" server. It's not quite as bad
as later OSes.

Just adjust your patching philosophy. The above is an example of
this being codified in an update tool. Security Only updates should
not be delivering CEIP files. Or the runtime library for some sort
of universal application (it's a whole set of files).

You'll have trouble at first, getting Win7 Windows Update to work.
Due to the bugs present since WinXP and never fixed, Windows
Update can never return with less than a 3 minute delay. But
it could take hours to return, when working out supersedence.

The Wsusoffline guys, have a list of patches in their tool, which
they install first. This breaks the logjam in Windows Update.
What you can do, is download Wsusoffline package, and look in the
appropriate script, for the list of five or so patches. If you
were to install those manually (download the patches from
catalog.update.microsoft.com), the patched Windows Update
would return to responding in 3 minutes. It also helps
to install the very latest version of IE11 Cumulative.
Even if you're not using Internet Explorer for anything,
keeping it patches properly is intended to help Windows
Update come back faster.

Paul

In message , Paul
writes:
R.Wieser wrote:
John,

you might as well "learn" 7 anyway (especially if you install
Classic Shell).
There is a big downside to W7: The fact that MS seems to think its
allowed to modify it regardless of what the users preferences have
been set to, upto brutally replacing it with W10. That, and its

You can turn off updates in 7, just as you could with XP, and you can't
(OK, not without a _lot_ of fuss) in 10.

The "up"date - "free" - to 10 was turned off a while ago (without
checking, I think two or three years).

"telemetry" that cannot be turned off. In short: you're just a user
of the OS, not its owner.
[]
You can use "Security Only" Updates instead of "Quality Rollups".

Certainly avoid the "preview" ones (-:.

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/01/11/ws...-download-secu
rity-updates-only/

Telemetry is CEIP. That's a library that developers can link into
their executable. It allows the developer to record resource usage.

By developers, do you mean non-Microsoft ones - i. e. do you mean that
the only thing doing telemetry is non-MS stuff?

However, the information is stored on a Microsoft server. The
developers log in to access the feedback sent by CEIP.

I don't think there is a "Cortana" to record all your searches,
or a lot of calls to "vortex" server. It's not quite as bad
as later OSes.

I recently saw - I think it was after a recent Skype update, though that
may or may not have had anything to do with it - a popup that mentioned
Cortana, by name. I was surprised, as I thought she was 10 only. I
didn't note down what it said, and haven't seen any sign of her since
(though I haven't used Skype either).
[]
The Wsusoffline guys, have a list of patches in their tool, which
they install first. This breaks the logjam in Windows Update.
What you can do, is download Wsusoffline package, and look in the
appropriate script, for the list of five or so patches. If you
were to install those manually (download the patches from
catalog.update.microsoft.com), the patched Windows Update
would return to responding in 3 minutes. It also helps
to install the very latest version of IE11 Cumulative.
Even if you're not using Internet Explorer for anything,
keeping it patches properly is intended to help Windows
Update come back faster.

Paul
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Radio 4 is one of the reasons being British is good. It's not a subset of
Britain - it's almost as if Britain is a subset of Radio 4. - Stephen Fry, in
Radio Times, 7-13 June, 2003.

VanguardLH wrote in news:1uqhif76pobnc
:

KenK wrote:

I'm thinking of a new desktop and Amazon scammed me an
offer of a
refurbished Dell desktop for $109. Catch is, it's XP.

What is the URL to the Amazon auction?

How can Amazon "scam" you an /offer/ about what you were
*thinking* of
getting?

My mistake - I meant "spammed".



(I think)
--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.