cc333

rn10950: I got them on eBay, and I bought them out (the seller had two sets of ten, each set of ten with its own media (so I will have two installer disks as well). So, you can contact me via email (so as not to violate forum rules) if you want any: cc3332004(DASH)cc333(AT)yahoo(DOT)com c

This makes me want to stay on XP and 7 indefinitely, although I will try out 8.1 to see if I can stand it, since it has a few more years before EOS than 7 does. By the way, I just got 20 (allegedly legitimate) product keys for XP Pro x64, so I ought to be good for awhile. c

If not, they should! Seriously, though, has anyone succeeded in back porting updates from Server 2008 x64 (XP x64's closest living relative, I'd guess)? Sorta like an unofficial service pack? BlackWingCat has successfully back ported several updates for XP to 2000 (which, admittedly, are more alike than Server 2008 x64 and XP x64 are), so it should be possible in principle, although perhaps not trivial due to the more drastic differences between NT 5.x and NT 6.x. I can get updates from Server 2003 up to 2015, which is nice, but then what? Thanks, c

Will do. Thanks! Incidentally, AMD themselves provides XP compatible drivers for the 6-series chipset that this machine seems to use, so once I'm past this AHCI driver issue, I should be good to go (and my friend will be happy, as XP was his favorite OS). EDIT: I'm planning on installing XP 32-bit, but would it be worth my while to use the x64 edition instead? The only thing of note that I can think of is native support for =>4 GB of RAM, but do any unofficial updates exist that would make it on par with standard XP with the POS hack? c

I did. Same problem. c

OK, I've finally made the attempt. I was able to set the computer to legacy mode in the UEFI setup, which enables BIOS emulation for Windows 7, Vista and XP (XP was explicitly mentioned, so apparently there's a hint of compatibility there), so now it boots! However, when I do the F6 command and feed it the AMD SATA drivers, it loads normally, and then complains that it can't find amd_sata.sys, even though that file *is* there. What is wrong here? It's definitely an XP driver, so that shouldn't be a problem. Is the driver corrupted somehow? How do I fix it? I won't be able to try again until next Friday, but hopefully I can figure out what was holding it up in the meantime. c

I have my Windows 7 desktop set up just right (eliminated all the 7-specific stuff so the taskbar behaves more-or-less identically to it's XP/Vista counterparts, set the icons on the desktop to those from XP, etc), but I'm wondering if it'd be possible to hack and/or replace logonUI.exe (which I believe is responsible for the Welcome screen) such that the old-fashioned logon window from Windows 2000 (or XP with welcome screen off) appears instead. If not, no big deal; I can live with it. I'm just curious. c

OK, that makes sense. My understanding is that WDM is forward compatible by design (i.e., a driver for XP, if well behaved, will work unmodified on subsequent Windows versions, particularly video drivers, but at the expense of newer features present in those versions), but the reverse isn't necessarily true, unless the later driver is written to the older standard. Anyway, I'll give it a try. And, yes, 5400 RPM drives are a little slow for the newest OSes. Builders probably use them because they're cheap. The most cost effective choice is to use 7200 RPM drives (as you do), or even better, an SSD (those are still rather pricey for large capacities, but smaller ones have become rather affordable the last few years). I might pose that as an upgrade option for my friend. I'll pull his existing drive and install XP and/or 7 on a spare, so I can easily revert back to a known working install without a bunch of extra work (besides, I don't have any 8.1 install media downloaded yet). c

OK, I will have access to the laptop tomorrow, so I'll begin researching the PCI IDs. Hopefully I'll get somewhere with it. c

Interesting. Would it be possible to compile the code in an older version of MSVC that still supports those targets? I'd imagine it'd be very nontrivial, but is it possible? c

Yes, you can technically install OS X on non-Apple hardware, but it's against the EULA. It's also somewhat involved, as you need very specific hardware to have a smooth experience (you can't run it on any old thing, like you can with Linux and Windows), otherwise you'll be hacking the daylights out of it just to get it to boot. I am currently running it on a PC server I built specifically to be a Hackintosh. Once it's up and running, you'd hardly ever know it wasn't the real thing just by looking at the display. c

OK. Just bumped you to a nice, even 44! c

So, that means, in non-smart-aleck terms, that it is a good thing? I'm a bit confused, but okay. You have almost 500 of them, and you haven't been banned, so I guess they're good! c EDIT: Just gave you a reputation! p.s. Thank you for bearing with me here, as I'm new to this "reputation" feature (which, I surmise, is akin to the "Like" button which exists in Facebook and such).

I forget now, but it was one of those things that enables the classic (Win95-style) theme, and WD kept marking it as malware. It was ClassicTheme.exe, I think. I'm thinking, in an effort to future-proof myself slightly (and because licenses seem to be almost dirt-cheap now), would Windows 8.1 be any better? My understanding is that it still has a little bit of sanity left (once all the Metro bits are removed). Yeah, I had AVG Free do that back in like 2008-2009, where it wasn't detecting the files themselves as viruses, but it detected some sort of benign virus, and in the process of removing it, corrupted all my files that were infected (it was quite a few, as I recall). Bitdefender didn't do that, so I switched (they didn't have a decent free edition, though, so after the subscription lapsed, I went with MSE until I came across Avast Free, which seems to work rather well, and was highly rated. The best part is that the current version still fully supports XP (as far as I can tell). c

Anyone? Incidentally, I recently succeeded in getting XP installed on a Compaq Presario CQ62-219WM. I guess the only way to find out for certain, would be to actually try booting XP on the HP and see what happens. c

I wouldn't mind doing that, however, unless I'm doing something stupid, every time I put it in a VM, it's uselessly slow. I mean, it takes 10 minutes to boot up! I've used VMWare Fusion 7.0 and VirtualBox. Meanwhile, I've been sending the articles linked here to some friends to warn them against upgrading. So far, they're not impressed with 10. I'd also like to note that they're all Mac users. I'm not saying Apple is a saint compared to MS, but they must be doing something that MS isn't to win over customers (I'm speaking about their software, of course; Apple hardware is a different matter, and I don't agree with some recent design decisions they've made). c p.s. What does "reputation" mean on these forums? Is it a good thing??

I've given up. After Windows Defender decided to spontaneously demolish some of my files (coincidentally, the ones which were meant to make Windows 10 more sane), I wiped the drive clean and installed XP on my Compaq Presario CQ-62-219WM instead So far, it's much faster (the fastest this machine has ever felt, actually), and, once I figured out the AHCI drivers I need (the BIOS is very dumbed down, so I can't turn AHCI off), it installed quite easily! So far, everything everyone here has said about 10 makes perfect sense. I still have the W10 license, so I *can* reinstall it if I'm ever in a masochistic mood. *rolleyes* c

I would like to know. It appears that it could run Windows 7 just fine (and maybe Vista with some work), but I want to see if I can get XP on here. Here is the specs page, if that helps Thanks, c

This sort of news makes me even more inclined to stay away from Windows 10. Probably forever. Windows 7 was the last truly decent Windows OS I think, and I'm going to stay with it for the rest of all time. Of course, when support ends for 7, it won't make any difference if I run it or XP or 2000, since they'd all be in the same boat, and they'd all be equally as unsafe due to lack of updates (save for any unofficial ones that come along). c

Hmm, OK. I guess I'll just let it sit on the back burner for awhile then. I have everything working perfectly fine on Windows 7 and OS X, so there's no urgent need to get this working right away. Thanks for the help! c

Ahh, of course! The search function!! Anyway, I looked at the thread you linked to, and it sounds like the solution to the infinitely long "Checking for updates..." message is contained therein. However, since the Free Upgrade is now done with, it's sorta moot for the purposes of this thread. :/ I will, however, keep the fix in mind if I experience problems again in the future. c

As discussed over here, I am NOT (I repeat, NOT) attempting to make a warez release or whatever it's called. My goal is simply to create a disk by which to install XP onto my Mac Pro without reactivating every time (and therefore wasting valuable activations). It is not my intention to break any rules, nor do I wish to distribute the resulting ISO via bittorrent. I just want to know if this can be done, in private, for my own personal use. Otherwise, I'm content to do it manually (the procedure for which is well documented it seems). c

First, you would probably need an ethernet card, if you don't have one already. The port looks similar to the modem ports, but it's wider. Second, once you're online, it wouldn't hurt to let IE8 download its updates, as even if you don't use it, leaving it at IE6 creates a giant bulls-eye for viruses to zero in on. It will also allow for Windows Update to work properly (though it should still work on 6). Third, upgrading the RAM wouldn't hurt down the road. 1 GB is adequate, but 2 GB or more would be ideal, as discussed earlier in this thread. Good luck getting it going! c

If that ever happens, I'll probably go off the grid and pull out my 486 (it can't run Windows 95 very well (I've always experienced 95 on Pentium-class machines, so I was surprised to see that it can actually be so slow), but it ought to run 3.1 okay). c

OK. I can't get it to work out of the box, though. Is there some special process that I need to go through to prepare XP for the driver? c