Installing and Using Windows XP In The Year 2. Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft. Installing it will usually result in a less than satisfying experience, until some fixes are applied manually. This article will explain why and how to do that. Its 2. 01. 7 For Crying Out Loud, Are You A Madman Yeah, yeah. Windows XP has its flaws. Download MinGW Minimalist GNU for Windows for free. A native Windows port of the GNU Compiler Collection GCC MinGW A native Windows port of the GNU Compiler. I need an offline installer with most of the utilities commonly needed. Somehow the default installer confuses me with all its package selection. I installed Cygwin. YahooURL. This is the initial release, but it is intended to be an AIO backup manager. ManaGunZ v1. 30 Add Resign option change the fw version in param. Tuesday MPlayerx malware posted by compn. MPlayerX a fork of MPlayer for OSX was found to have malware bundled with its installer. Microsoft doesnt support it. Everyone says move to Windows 71. Security concerns and marketing scare tactics aside, theres a whole lot of computers and laptops out there with Windows XP still, and here are a few reasons for maintaining such a machine The computer is a hand me down for a family member or kid. Nothing expensive to worry about if it gets damaged. You did pay for this thing, remember You did purchase software and games for it back in the day, remember Might as well squeeze out that extra ounce. Rio 2 Avi. The computer cannot be upgraded to a newer version of Windows due to hardware requirements. You did pay for this thing, rememberJust because Microsoft doesnt support it doesnt mean you need to trash it. The computer still computes. A service technician needs to interface with an old machine like an office copier or PBX phone system, using an older cable interface such as 9 pin serial, or older software program such as MS DOS. Sometimes Windows XP is the only solution here. The computer is part of a legacy system or network environment that cannot be replaced without incurring overhead, downtime or fees. Chain restaurants like Subway may still use Windows XP for taking orders. These are typically disk imaged to make fast deployment and repair possible, working as a turnkey restaurant solution. You want to run a virtual machine VM with a licensed copy of Windows for whatever reason. Youre a cheapskate and thought it was a good idea to buy a computer w original media on e. Bay or at a pawn shop for 5. I wont say that was a good idea, but you may still be in luck. The computer is kept around for preference, nostalgia or cyberpunkcypherpunk reasons. If it aint broke dont fix it For these reasons it is a good idea to always save your Windows XP disc and serial number. These are things you paid money for, and there is no way to recover them if lost. Another important thing to save is the driver disc, because as these computers get old it becomes more difficult to find the drivers online. Now lets walk through the steps necessary to get this antique operating system up and running. Warning, Do Not Ignore This Warning. Whenever you obtain a computer from a third party, you need to understand there is a chance that it already has malwarespyware on it, just waiting to snag your credit card numbers. Your best bet is to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows XP, but if you cant do that, you will definitely want to run at least 3 different virusmalware scanners before using it. And it might be a good idea not to use it for critical stuff like banking. And like I said earlier, Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft which means they wont patch any security problems and you could be a sitting duck for some kind of remote exploit. Good antivirus software and firewall can help mitigate these issues, but you must understand that using an OS which is no longer supported is not recommended. Do so at your own risk. You could always use the computer without an internet connection, then there would be practically nothing to worry about. But you must still be careful with removable media like USB thumb drives and external drives which can spread malware from one device to another even without internet. Consider this scenario your Windows XP computer has a virus you are unaware of, you plug in a thumb drive, the virus gets on the thumb drive, then you give the thumb drive to a friend or you plug it into your other computer which does have internet. Woops Final word of warning scan every file you download for virusesmalware, including the ones Ive linked in this article. Installing and Updating Windows XPIf youre installing or reinstalling Windows XP in the year 2. NOT going to work right away without applying a few fixes manually. Youll find that the included version of Internet Explorer isnt capable of exploring the internet at all, and Windows Update wont run due to error code 0x. EFF. Step 1 INSTALL WINDOWS UPDATE CLIENT 3. Download Mirror 1 Mirror 2. This step is useful because nearly everything in Windows XP is tied into the Windows Update service, so we need that to be functional before proceeding with anything else. Once you have the Windows Update Client 3. Windows Updates start to trickle in and you may see the little Windows Update icon near the clock, or you may be prompted to install updates during Shutdown. We can usually ignore these trickling updates and proceed immediately to Step 2. Step 2 INSTALL WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 3. Download Mirror 1 Mirror 2. This will install a bunch of updates which will allow us to install Internet Explorer 8 in the next step, which finally gives us access to the Windows Update website. Once you have the Service Pack 3 installed, proceed to Step 3. If youre unable to install Service Pack 3 at this point, you might need to apply a few of the Windows Updates that have trickled in first. Go ahead and install any of the updates that appear. Reboot and repeat as necessary until no further updates appear, then proceed to Step 3. Step 3 INSTALL INTERNET EXPLORER 8. Download Mirror 1 Mirror 2. In this step we will upgrade Internet Explorer 6 or 7 to version 8. Once this is installed, you will be able to visit the Windows Update website and install additional updates like normal. Step 4 INSTALL REMAINING WINDOWS UPDATESYoure almost done installing Windows XPNow just visit the Windows Update website and keep installing the updates that appear there until the computer is fully up to date. Step 5  INSTALL HARDWARE DRIVERSAt this point the computer is up and running on Windows XP, but you probably need to install some hardware drivers to get the full benefit your computer has to offer. This is easy if you still have the driver disc, or if the drivers already got installed through Windows Update. In any case, its a good idea to check Device Manager and see whats missing. Right click on My Computer, choose Manage, then look for any yellow question marks under Other devices. These are hardware devices that still require a driver to be installed in order to function properly. The names of these devices will be ambiguous Modem Device or SM Bus Controller but you can Google these names along with your computer makemodel and usually find the matching driver. For example dell latitude d. Be careful here and make sure you are downloading drivers from reputable sources and not some shady website. When in doubt, scan the driver files with a virusmalware scanner before installing them. Youre done now. The computer is fully functional as if it just came out of the package. Wellkinda. Pat yourself on the back. Have a beer. Finally, check out some recommended software for Windows XP at the end of this article. True Windows XP warriors should proceed to the next section. Harden Windows XP for Better Security and Performancecoming soonRecommended Software for Windows XPWeb Browser Software. Fire. Fox Mirror 1 Mirror 2 u. Block Origin. The latest version of Fire. Fox is still supported in Windows XP as of this writing.