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[Rusty Shackelford]

I had an old HP Windows 7(10) PC (circa 2009/10) that had a dead hard drive. Put an SSD in and installed XP Pro because, well, it's better. It was decent with Win7, so-so with 10. But badass at XP. I looked into the virtual XP and ROMS, but nothing beats real hardware IMO. I just wish I kept my games from 20+ years ago. I have very few left.

Intel Pentium E5300 64-bit Dual Core CPU @ 2.6GHz
6GB RAM(3.5GB usable due to XP being 32-bit)
500GB SATA SSD boot drive(Tweaks made to ensure longer SSD life)
1TB HDD internal storage drive
Nvidia 9600GT 512MB

 

[Rentahamster]

Wood needed

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

Clearly this thread isn't for you

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Why on earth would you gif that prick

 

[Dr.Morris79]

I had an old HP Windows 7(10) PC (circa 2009/10) that had a dead hard drive. Put an SSD in and installed XP Pro because, well, it's better. It was decent with Win7, so-so with 10. But badass at XP. I looked into the virtual XP and ROMS, but nothing beats real hardware IMO. I just wish I kept my games from 20+ years ago. I have very few left.

Intel Pentium E5300 64-bit Dual Core CPU @ 2.6GHz
6GB RAM(3.5GB usable due to XP being 32-bit)
500GB SATA SSD boot drive(Tweaks made to ensure longer SSD life)
1TB HDD internal storage drive
Nvidia 9600GT 512MB

XP was an excellent, a pain in the fucking arse but it pissed over the previous itetations of Windows, my best and worst days was on XP.

A blue screen nightmare of joy.

 

[alf717]

You could also get the 64-bit version of XP. I used it back in the day to play Far Cry with the 64-bit patch and enhanced features pack.

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

You could also get the 64-bit version of XP. I used it back in the day to play Far Cry with the 64-bit patch and enhanced features pack.

I was on the fence about it. But I remembered there were a ton of compatibility issues with a lot of programs.

 

[Celcius]

Seeing unreal tournament 2004 on windows xp takes me back! Those were the days.

 

[Laptop1991]

It was a great OS, i used it daily throughout the noughties until 2009 then win 7, keep using it, why not, many many games i played on XP.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Just keep it off the Internet unless you enjoy viruses.

 

[PhaseJump]

Every time I start to feel nostalgic for NT from 20 years ago, I immediately recall needing to repair it every day for the dumbest people.

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

Just keep it off the Internet unless you enjoy viruses.

I guarantee XP will outlast Windows 10/11

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

 

[ManaByte]

I guarantee XP will outlast Windows 10/11

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

XP was better than 98. But XP still crashed a lot on my computers back then.

Windows 7 was rock solid. It looks dated and boring, but if my new laptop I got in 2019 still had Win 7 installed on it instead of Win 10, I'd have no problem with it. Win 10 took getting used to and works fine. But Win 7 was an awesome OS.

 

[BennyBlanco]

XP and 7 are the comfiest operating systems

 

[Crayon]

Lord someone get op a linux iso.

 

[bender]

XP was nice but not the GOAT.

 

[Knightime_X]

Xp is cool, but all of these can be played on win11 and run even better.
Except for Dos games.
Nothing beats dos on og hardware.
Only because I've yet to get dos box to run games at good framerates.

 

[alf717]

I was on the fence about it. But I remembered there were a ton of compatibility issues with a lot of programs.

I used my XP x64 setup mainly for gaming. I don't remember having any issues with XP 64-bit. I suppose you could always dual boot. I always would grab the royale theme which was used with XP Media Center Edition and made it my main theme.

 

[cartman414]

Xp is cool, but all of these can be played on win11 and run even better.
Except for Dos games.
Nothing beats dos on og hardware.
Only because I've yet to get dos box to run games at good framerates.

Yeah. From XP onward Windows wasn't cut out for anything DOS, or to a lesser extent, pre-millennial Windows (up to 98).

 

[marquimvfs]

I liked Vista, it was cool with proper Hardware. XP it's also a great system, but I imagine that nowadays it's more of a pain in the ass regarding software compatibility. Someday I'll try Vista to see if it's better in that matter, and if it's better in 64bit support.

 

[Valedix]

I had an old HP Windows 7(10) PC (circa 2009/10) that had a dead hard drive. Put an SSD in and installed XP Pro because, well, it's better. It was decent with Win7, so-so with 10. But badass at XP. I looked into the virtual XP and ROMS, but nothing beats real hardware IMO. I just wish I kept my games from 20+ years ago. I have very few left.

Intel Pentium E5300 64-bit Dual Core CPU @ 2.6GHz
6GB RAM(3.5GB usable due to XP being 32-bit)
500GB SATA SSD boot drive(Tweaks made to ensure longer SSD life)
1TB HDD internal storage drive
Nvidia 9600GT 512MB

Now this is bringing back memories, can you play some Age of Empires and Halo Combat Evolved if possible?

 

[nkarafo]

I use VMware and other Virtual PC apps for this kind of stuff. But even that it's hardly needed since 99% of games/apps you can run on XP also work on a modern PC.

Even older 80's/90's era PC games/apps can be run with something like DosBOX on a modern system.

But there is a gap in backwards compatibility, between the late 1996 DOS era and XP. It's the late 90's Windows 95/98 era. Here you will find a lot of 16bit Windows only games that have a hard time working on a modern system. And even virtual PC apps have limited support for Windows 95/98 because AFAIK, they don't support 3D accelerated graphics for these OSes. There are some PC hardware emulators like PCem, but these are too slow in some case. So a Windows 98SE PC would be much more interesting. I do have the hardware parts to make one but i'm too lazy, Windows 98 can take a lot of time searching for drivers and stuff.

 

[Windle Poons]

Yeah, dug out an old Dell dimension desktop a few months back as needed a floppy drive that could write disks for the Atari ST so went with XP as you can install custom drivers.

Had to activate it over the phone typing in the codes as internet activation didn’t work but love / loved XP.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I can't count the times I had to reinstall XP for one reason or another. I had even memorized the serial number.
Still, it was the first good Windows I remember using. I believe my old tower PC still has XP on it.

 

[rofif]

All of this runs on 11. If you had win 98 pc…

 

[Banjo64]

 

[DonJimbo]

Good old XP days such a great OS

 

[TLZ]

Nice one OP.

I enjoyed XP a lot, but for me 2000 was the best. I think it was the only system that never gave me errors and always just worked. Especially coming from the horror that was Windows Me.

 

[Skifi28]

Is it the best OS for a retro PC or should one go with 98 instead? Decisions, decisions.

 

[Drew1440]

Nice, still have an Windows XP rig - a Dell XPS Gen 5 with a GeForce 6800 and a Sound Blaster Audidgy running the Media Center Edition of XP. But some of the capacitors have started leaking so iv'e had to put it in storage until I find a way to replace them.

 

[Ronin_7]

I remember using Windows XP, such a great OS

 

[Kenpachii]

XP after service pack 1 was nice, also as computers moved forwards on the ram solution. I still remember the absolute horrorfest xp was when it launched. So much bloat and eating ram like nothing else. At service pack 2 it was great however.

I personally used windows 2000 as until service pack 1 hit.

After that i think windows 7 was the best one they created, 10 is fine at the end and 8.1 was also fine. But nothing special.

 

[Windle Poons]

Yeah, loved Windows 7 also.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

We goin back in time

 

[phaedrus]

We goin back in time

 

[BlackTron]

I still have the mobo from my first 2004 PC build with the Athlon 64 in it just in case I ever want to go back and do this for an XP system. On this combo with XP, I did hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours of gaming, plus general use web browsing and music playing, it was on 24/7 even at night, even when it became dated I decided to use it at work, the thing kept going forever and would not die.

 

[V1LÆM]

that's cool as fuck but i wouldn't be using it on my main machine or connecting it to the internet lol. if it's just for gaming offline i suppose there is no harm in it.

 

[Brock2621]

XP was an excellent, a pain in the fucking arse but it pissed over the previous itetations of Windows, my best and worst days was on XP.

A blue screen nightmare of joy.

I have 11 and keep trying to mod it back to the way it was

 

[PhaseJump]

The 64-bit growing pains around Vista were something else. 2000 and XP were stable but getting ripped apart by malware, the push to Vista was all about security and an excuse to have the new Aero design.

The hardware peripheral companies like HP wanted to force an upgrade cycle on their own customers, released new devices, and refused to release 64-bit drivers for Microsoft to sign or software suites to support the older products. Customers would be buying older stock still on the store shelves for their "Vista capable" XP machines. They would upgrade the OS, and lose functionality. The peripheral companies would blame Microsoft.

The media would shit headlines about how awful Vista was without knowing what they're talking about. They all loved 7 though, which was just Vista all over again with some refinement like a service pack and a leaner install process without embedded multimedia crap.

Apple marketing thrived on demonizing the UAC prompting and it kept their Mac lineup going, while everybody would jump on that bandwagon and obliviously bleed out insecure personal information to the internet. People would laugh and say "MaCs DoN't GeT vIrUsEs" - No, they wouldn't have to. They just leaked your information via broken protocols or standards that have been patched already everywhere else, because Apple doesn't respond fast to a crisis and actually believes their own bullshit security marketing.

 

[Fuz]

Opened this thread wishing someone found a way to run DX12 on XP

 

[Unknown?]

Xp is cool, but all of these can be played on win11 and run even better.
Except for Dos games.
Nothing beats dos on og hardware.
Only because I've yet to get dos box to run games at good framerates.

But Windows 11 is crap! Full of bloat and spyware.

 

[Laptop1991]

His craziest moment was Vista!, Balmer's Bane.

 

[V1LÆM]

But Windows 11 is crap! Full of bloat and spyware.

Not defending MS, i literally ditched W11 as my main OS recently and I'm typing this on Linux, but you can uninstall most of the preinstalled programs like tiktok, disney+, instagram, etc and disable the telemetry.

I have a bare minimum installation of W11 with only the stuff I need installed and all the telemetry/privacy invasive shit disabled. For gaming Windows 11 is definitely the best place to play games. Even if you stayed on Windows 10 or 7 you will still need to deal with telemetry. Running 7 is not secure and 10 lacks some really important gaming features. Yeah you could play games on Linux but you'll have nowhere near the same experience as on Windows. That's why I'm keeping a Windows installation around purely for gaming.

 

[Fuz]

you can uninstall most of the preinstalled programs like tiktok, disney+, instagram, etc and disable the telemetry.

Spoiler

THEY SHOULDN'T BE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!​

​

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

that's cool as fuck but i wouldn't be using it on my main machine or connecting it to the internet lol. if it's just for gaming offline i suppose there is no harm in it.

Of course I keep it offline. I have two Windows 10 PCs. I downloaded all drivers straight from HP/MS/Nvidia and put them on a thumb drive.

 

[Knightime_X]

But Windows 11 is crap! Full of bloat and spyware.

Living in paranoia isn't healthy.
What kind of bloat? Win11 experience doesn't feel any different from the rest.