TrevMUN

By "you," you don't mean the people here at MSFN, right? Because I don't think anyone here is actually hating on XP or expecting a botnet/exploit apocalypse come April 8.

Tripredcaus ... are you sure? This thread is less about hardware and more about operating systems. I was curious about what people use their legacy Windows OSes for if they have any, not necessarily about the hardware specs of their computers. That's why I posted the thread in the General Discussion subforum ...

I don't think it's so much a death as Microsoft trying to bury XP alive, given its resiliency on the market. XP'll keep going for a while yet. Heck, if there's one thing you guys here at MSFN have proven, it's that still older legacy OSes haven't kicked the bucket!

Presently, some of the chiptune stuff from Protodome's albums: Bluenoise, Bluescreen, and Blueshift. I'm particulary fond of Her #0000ff Eyes.

The graphics card is actually the newest part of the rig (aside from the hard drives). Since 2012 I've been using a N560GTX-Ti Hawk as the previous video card was damaged by a lightning strike (the bizarre thing about that: the old video card, a BFGTech GeForce 8800 GT, still works but when doing 3D graphics beyond a certain level, it will cause the computer to lock up). So the video card should be able to handle DX10 stuff ... Its specs say that it can handle up to DX11, even, and it supports OpenGl up to version 4.1.

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/9727/20140329/microsoft-windows-xp-users-offered-100-catch-what.htm According to this (and corroborated from other news sources), Microsoft is now going to pay "verified" Windows XP users to buy a new Windows 8-laden PC. They'll give you $100 in Microsoft store credit if you then go on to buy one of their $600~$2300 Windows 8 machines. I'm just sitting over here, laughing. Another source had mentioned that earlier this month, XP's market share actually rose a little bit even as the EOL date looms. Even with all the doom and gloom and ridicule that has been laid on thick by tech journalists and people buying into Microsoft's scare tactics. Now Microsoft is trying to pay people to use their latest OS?

In recent years, especially with XP's EOL upon us, I've come to feel like I'm an odd duck for sticking with my OS of choice and finding it better suited to my needs. Looking around MSFN, though (especially at the poll thread), I see that I'm hardly the only one who's sticking with a legacy OS, and that both warms my heart and makes me curious. So! I'd like to hear. What operating systems are you guys running, and what purposes do they serve for you where you find that they are better to have compared to the latest stuff from Microsoft? To start off: My main desktop, which I use for heavy-duty multitasking, 3D modeling and animation, and other CGI projects is running XP Pro x64. I bought that over Vista back when I did my last major overhaul of the rig in 2008, because I wanted the reliability and (relatively) less memory consumption of Windows XP while still having access to 64-bit computing when I needed it. The ability to naturally use more than 4 GB of RAM was also a big selling point, though I've yet to fully take advantage of this. I've also got a laptop that's running XP Home x86, which I mainly use for "do-everything-on-the-go" mobile computing as well as the odd bit of legacy computing (for programs or games that would run best on XP 32-bit, or thereabouts). I'm going to have to look into ways of securing it with the EOL around the corner, but I've no intentions of replacing its OS with newer stuff as, again, I like having more RAM on hand to do things. In the future (when I have the living space to speak of), I plan on bringing back an old 95 machine that was the first IBM PC my family owned, a Gateway P5-120. I want to use it for more legacy computing, mostly old DOS and 16-bit gaming. I don't know if it could serve a practical purpose beyond that (which is partially why I'm interested in hearing what you guys do with your OSes!).

OK, the System Restore seems to have taken care of the problem. Checked the registry, too. Any extraneous registry keys/files relating to DirectX 10 shouldn't cause a problem if nothing in the rest of the system actually points to them because of the restore, I imagine? Alas, it would have been nice if there were an unofficial working DirectX 10 patch for XP64 ... Or, for that matter, DX11 or 12, heh.

That's a relief, at least. Though the way my OS is behaving now after trying to install this is very troubling ... The most recent System Restore point I've got is from a few days ago, barring the one automatically created when I tried to install this. Would that fix the problem, or will this require more in-depth action?

I really should have asked around here before I attempted doing this, but ... I've been looking at discussions over at Epic Games' forums for its Unreal Engine and saw a discussion about giving Windows XP64 DirectX 10 functionality. The link provided in the discussion was this: http://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-install-and-download-directx-10-for-windows-xp/ I read through the article and decided to give it a whirl, following the "Download DirectX 10 for Windows XP" link to Softpedia, which gave me DirectX 10 for Windows XP RC2 Pre Fix 3 by LWGame. (I didn't bother with that "DirectX changer" mentioned at the end of the article. Blegh.) Has anyone ever looked into doing this for their XP or XP64 machines before, and is that LWGame patcher trustworthy? I'm not so certain it's going to work out: DXDiag 32-bit says that my machine is running DX10, but the 64-bit DXDiag says it's still got DX9.0c. And, what's a little worrisome to me is that the Add and Remove Programs list isn't propagating now ... The patcher has provided no Start Menu option with which to uninstall DX10 as Raymond.cc claims there is. Incidentally, the LWGame installer doesn't provide any options for installing DX for XP64 either. Maybe they were writing about the other patcher mentioned, the one by KM-Software, but they didn't provide a download link to that. So I guess my questions are: Is this thing actually legit, or did I get taken in by malware? If it's legit but it won't work, what should I do to get rid of it? Load a previous restore point? Pop in the XP64 install disc and run sfc.exe /scannow? EDIT/UPDATE: Okay, yeah, I think I really should have asked people in the know before I attempted this. Aside from Add/Remove Programs no longer propagating (and being forced to kill a rundll32.exe process each time I check because Add/Remove Programs won't close normally and instead gobbles up a lot of system resources in the background), I'm getting errors such as "The procedure entry point_except_handler4_common could not be located in the dynamic link library msvcrt.dll" when using programs like Media Player Classic Home Cinema (though it will still play videos and music). Winamp won't load at all. At least I feel reasonably certain this is just the result of messing around with system files when I don't have a real clue what I'm doing, and not malware. The question is ... how best to undo my mistake? I've looked up how-tos that advise deleting the entire DirectX registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Microsoft\\DirectX\ then restarting and reinstalling DirectX 9.0c, as well as this explanation of the error I encountered with MPC-HC at A Blue Star ... but I have a feeling this goes beyond whatever DirectX files were replaced. Would a system restore fix all of this?

Hm ... Alright. I guess I'll wait and see what comes of it, though my only concern is that motherboards/CPUs which might still work just fine with XP64 right now will become unavailable next year. Newegg and TigerDirect don't keep stuff around for long, I've noticed. Is there a guide concerning this on MSFN somewhere? Converting drivers meant for x64 2003 to XP x64? This is all new, uncharted territory for me.

Hrm ... actually, thinking about it (and this is going to reveal just how ignorant I am when it comes to deep tech like this), is it really necessary to have chipset/motherboard drivers for the OS in order to enjoy the benefits of a motherboard with DDR4? I honestly hadn't given this a whole lot of thought until I looked at some of the discussions for Windows 2000 and other OSes, as far as what it takes to get them to run on modern machines. If there won't be any DDR4-friendly motherboard/chipset drivers available for XP64, but XP64 can still run just fine on those systems and will only miss out on some added performance by not having those drivers installed, it'll still be worth it to upgrade the rig's guts in my eyes.

I don't think it's right to call it panic so much as concern, but that's not to say that Microsoft hasn't been really ramping up the scare tactics to try and get the remaining XP user base to convert. I'd mentioned in my thread that XP users are being met with increasingly obnoxious amounts of scorn. A lot of people, tech journalists and common users alike, are convinced that the moment April 8 rolls around, every XP machine is going to be nothing more than botnet fodder or a steaming pile of malware. However true or untrue this might turn out to be, XP's current status in the global PC market does warrant some concern. It can't enjoy security through obscurity because it's still commanding a third of the market share right now (according to Avast! at least); malicious types are still going to see XP as a juicy target if they find an unpatched exploit or vulnerability. Granted, I'm aware that XP64 enjoys some added insurance in the form of shared architectural security improvements with the other x64 OSes, and it has a few quirks of its own that has prevented malware from sinking its hooks into my machine, but I do like the idea keeping any leaks plugged regardless. As a side note, I don't really consider an OS dead until it simply can not serve any useful function for a modern user. Reading these forums has been eye-opening when it comes to seeing what you guys can do with systems everyone's given up for useless. Heck, after reading some of the topics here, an IT friend of mine thinks that "Firefox on Windows 98" should be the Tamarian idiom for teaching an old dog new tricks.

Since my thread was getting hijacked by this topic I'd just thought I'd move what responses I'd have from there to here ... With the concerns raised that Microsoft may lock XP64 users out of Windows Update, wouldn't it be possible to use Windows Update Downloader to grab the Windows Server 2003 patches anyway? From there, modification of the patches should be pretty easy, right? Granted, it'd be wise to make a backup/system restore before applying any patches, but.

Please, jaclaz, I'd rather not have my topic frozen on account of whether or not Server 2003 updates can be incorporated into XP64. JodyThornton's topic on XP64 update compatibiltiy's right next to mine on the topic list, the conversation could just be moved there ... I'm more concerned at this point about whether or not there will be DDR4-capable motherboards/chipsets with XP64-friendly drivers come next year, or whether I should just upgrade to DDR3 right now.

The lack of backwards compatibility when it comes to hardware has been the bane of my existence for PC computing, believe me; when I did that overhaul back in 2008, it was due to a dying AGP video card (Radeon 9800 PRO). I chafed at needing to shell out for practically new-everything since the industry had moved on from AGP cards to PCIe, so with the 2008 overhaul I was looking to future-proof the machine for as long as possible. It worked ... sorta. It would have worked much better if it weren't for certain bungling on my part (involving things like forgetting to make sure an external router had proper surge protection, or making sure I had a case with proper airflow) ... Is there a list of XP64-friendly motherboards/chipsets available? Or at least, ones with XP64-friendly drivers?

Oh, so XP64 will still be getting security updates and whatnot for a little while? I thought MS was going to drop XP x64 like a rock. On the drivers issue ... that's true, though I see it as an academic distinction since DDR4 isn't backwards compatible with older chipsets and hardware, that I'm aware of.

Hey all, So, Microsoft is on the cusp of EOL'ing Windows XP and XP64, but I don't wanna get off this train. I've been using XP64 since my last major hardware overhaul in 2008, and (despite the horror stories I've heard and the reputation the OS has) I've had a great time with it. I was determined to get XP64 to avoid Vista while still having access to 64-bit computing for things like 3D animation and graphics programs (3DSMax, etc). Driver/software compatibility/BSoDs have, on the whole, been very rare for me. But with end of support from Microsoft, end of support from hardware manufacturers is sure to follow. I'm glad I came across you guys, because you're working magic with OSes that everyone else deems to be "botnet fodder" or "unsuable dinosaurs" or what not. Tech news sites are making great sport of XP users right now, and as more games start to drop support for XP, their discussion forums are full of snark from 7 and 8 users saying crap like "But what about Windows 3.1 support?!!?! What about MS-DOS support?!?!?!?!?!" Here at MSFN, it's much different. I've already seen discussion of how to get continued security updates from Microsoft for XP64 for another year, and that got me thinking. Come next year, DDR4 RAM-friendly motherboards and chipsets are set to appear for desktops. Stuff like Intel's Skylake, Cannonlake and so on. My computer has been in serious need of an upgrade to keep up with the increasing demands of software and the sort of heavy duty multitasking that I do. 4 GB of DDR2 RAM was awesome in 2008, but nowadays ... not so much. The EOL of XP and XP64 has me worried, though. What challenges, if any, can I expect to face if I decide to upgrade my computer's guts to something DDR4-compatible? Would I be better off making the overhaul now, on the tail end of DDR3? Or, is it too early to tell if there will be driver/hardware compatibility issue with that stuff? Thank you in advance!