Please, let Windows XP die with dignity

I will be glad to see XP go. I have one Windows 7 license which I am using for my laptop, and one XP license which I am using for my desktop. When XP goes, I have my Ubuntu Live CD ready to go. My old desktop will run faster on linux, anyway. :)

gregrocker said:

Yes we have watched it die off pretty much completely.

Probably no place better from the Support vantage than the Dual Boot thread. Millions of viewers, tens of thousands of comments where we resolved isssues daily, then weekly, monthly, now....

Maybe such a good record of solving dual boot problems, has meant that people can find out what they need to know, by reading the previous comments. :)

Seriously though, there is a cornucopia of information, tips and tricks related to XP, because it has been around for so long.

I wonder, (and this is slightly off topic), what does windows xp mode in windows 7 mean then? I know that xp all support will end, but will having xp mode installed in windows 7 reduce security? That is what I am concerned with. It's a virtual machine, but I wonder if XP mode could/will have security issues in windows 7 and if I should uninstall it or transfer it to vmware player....

I passed along a family member's old XP build recently to two brothers in middle school for homework along with grabbing a new 20" lcd to go with it. By the time they get to use it since XP was replaced temporarily with the temp 32bit 7 install for a week XP will be DOA!!!

They are getting a new desk soon from an older sibling that be used for the old case but will need one of those remaining 7 keys(32bit of course for the 1gb of memory) to get the use out of it. The XP drivers all of them worked on the 32bit 7 install at least and they actually won't be doing much on it despite a Wi-Fi adapter to browse and chat.

patio said:

I don't plan on retiring my XP Desktop for quite some time...
I'll keep you all posted on how it goes occasionally...

Me neither ... It works just fine and I've had it since 2002; thank you very much!!

I had a lot of fun and learned quite a bit from xp. Haven't had it on any of my machines since Vista came out and actually dread working on my Step-Moms xp machine. To me it just feels/looks "quaint".Not saying anything bad, just I'm personally glad to see it go. My .02 cents.

You're not the only one to feel that way about the now 12yr. old Windows! XP was buggy from the start and rather limited in ways many still won't understand. I ran with XP SP1 at first with 98SE on a second drive back then and soon noticed XP would freeze up too often or end up with "The BLUES" or BSODs all too often when you knew the OS plus programs were all in working order at any other time.

Buggy, buggy, buggy until SP2 came along to help somewhat still freezing solid at times. The stalls could be with almost anything including pc games. Vista wasn't well received at first by the majority being labeled a bloated sluggish OS due to people still running under equipped builds due to the understated minimum specs courtesy of MS there. That still allowed OEMs to slide by not adding more ram sticking you trying to run the then new version with only 512mb or 1gb installed when even XP was noticably running smoother with 2gb of ram! A hugh leap in performance there!

Finally SP3 arrived two versions newer later to address the some 1,000+ goobers that went unfixed over the years. As you can imagine that would seem to suggest one of the main reasons why XP always seemed to be running into The BLUES so much! The first thing noticed with Vista besides being a larger OS with some of those new bells and whistles was stability as well as a much improved crash control process to recover the desktop if some program locked up on you. Far fewer hard boots!

And finally 7 arrives with those Vista grievances addressed featuring the then new WinMin modular kernel to spruce up the OS making it a much better performer as well as MS actually putting some effort into the newer Windows to see it come out right for the first time! OEMs were pressured to have driver support available as well since MS wanted 7 to be the exception. So what happened with 8? MS knew 7 was going to be the last desktop OS for a few versions at least. Meanwhile like 2000 before it XP is now the 3rd back from the latest version out! Time to go!

andrew129260 said:

I wonder, (and this is slightly off topic), what does windows xp mode in windows 7 mean then? I know that xp all support will end, but will having xp mode installed in windows 7 reduce security? That is what I am concerned with. It's a virtual machine, but I wonder if XP mode could/will have security issues in windows 7 and if I should uninstall it or transfer it to vmware player....

I wondered about the same thing, but its not a true Windows XP "Virtual Machine". It's a mimic'd version that allows Windows 7 / 8 to run stuff differently.

The way I see it is, like this;

The Japanese (I believe) read from Top to bottom, while America/Canada/Europe read from Left to Right. I believe it is similar to this. It isn't a true XP "installation" but just read differently by Windows 7 / 8.

Not entirely sure if that is accurate. :)

- Tom

derekimo said:

DreadStarX said:

andrew129260 said:

I wonder, (and this is slightly off topic), what does windows xp mode in windows 7 mean then? I know that xp all support will end, but will having xp mode installed in windows 7 reduce security? That is what I am concerned with. It's a virtual machine, but I wonder if XP mode could/will have security issues in windows 7 and if I should uninstall it or transfer it to vmware player....

I wondered about the same thing, but its not a true Windows XP "Virtual Machine". It's a mimic'd version that allows Windows 7 / 8 to run stuff differently.

The way I see it is, like this;

The Japanese (I believe) read from Top to bottom, while America/Canada/Europe read from Left to Right. I believe it is similar to this. It isn't a true XP "installation" but just read differently by Windows 7 / 8.

Not entirely sure if that is accurate. :)

- Tom

From the Notes section here,

Install and use Windows XP Mode in Windows 7

Windows XP Mode follows the same support lifecycle as Windows XP—extended support will end April 8, 2014. For more info, see the Windows lifecycle fact sheet.

I pulled all I typed, out my butt. Lmao! I had no idea there was an actual tutorial on that!