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#1
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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. |
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#2
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New XP machine?
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) |
#3
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New XP machine?
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 |
#4
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New XP machine?
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? |
#5
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New XP machine?
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 |
#6
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New XP machine?
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 |
#7
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New XP machine?
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 ... |
#8
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New XP machine?
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 |
#9
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New XP machine?
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. |
#10
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New XP machine?
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. |
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