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Using Windows XP

Astonishingly, it is still possible to use Windows XP when using appropriate drivers and software on the newest machines (but I still recommend using it inside a VM). Below are steps to get you started on installing and using Windows XP—If, for some reason, you plan on (close to) daily-driving it.

Installation

Intallation for XP is pretty much limited to old machines from the XP-era, but it is still possible to boot and run XP natively on some modern systems.

Getting Started

Windows XP comes with Internet Explorer 6. With it, web browsing is possible, but incredibly limited. It can still render sites that use the http:// protocol, so we can use it to download another browser.

I personally recommend supermium.

Activation

You can activate both the x86 and x86-64 versions of XP with the xp_activate32.exe tool.

  1. In the activation window, choose: Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows.
  2. Open xp_activate32.exe and enter the installation ID given.
  3. Enter the generated confirmation ID (Store to the system may not work on x86-64 versions).

Antivirus

Using this, download One-Core-API. This allows you to run modern software on older Windows versions.