The final curtain . . . for XP/Firefox and Alternative Advice

[twocvbloke]

I fired up XP on my old Toshiba Portege the other day to fiddle with that HP printer I was given, seemed to run worse than windows 7 did on the same laptop (dual-boot), can't remember the last time I needed to use XP, so in all honesty, I think I've pretty much left it behind in favour of 7...

[compubit]

Display PCI card is failing (try to find a PCI card these days) and I've run into registry problems that I think are beyond repair. As such, I'll be down one computer and have another tower sitting in the dungeon - they want real money to dispose/trash one of these in my area.

If you have a Goodwill in the area, they will take computers/peripherals (they just won't take CRT monitors).  Goodwill has an agreement with Dell, where Goodwill personnel assess the equipment, and determine whether it can be cleaned and re-sold, or sent for recycling (with some Goodwill employees doing some of the recycling work).  Basically Dell provides the support and recycling, and Goodwill the people.

Hope this helps "remove" it from the dungeon...

Jim

[twocvbloke]

The other option for old computers, ebay them, as there are a lot of people buying up older hardware (inc. CRT monitors if they're in good order) for "vintage gaming", and values for old computers is quite surprising, the older the better...

[TelePlay]

The other option for old computers, ebay them, as there are a lot of people buying up older hardware (inc. CRT monitors if they're in good order) for "vintage gaming", and values for old computers is quite surprising, the older the better...

And the other option, which I've been working on all day, is to upgrade XP to Windows 7 Ultimate for $63. The Microsoft advisor said my machine is good to go for Win 7. I've got both displays working side by side (two different connectors so I got luck there) and it's amazing how yellow the old display is compared to my nice new white screen. And the old display is not original to the machine. I just bought that 3 or so years ago. Can't put Win10 on here so I'm good with 7 for now.

The replacement display came today and was releived to see it is the disply that is failing, not my display card. So, after moving all of my files to an external drive, I think I'm ready to do a cold boot of Win 7 and have a "new" computer for another 8 years. This Dell is 8 years old, now.

Reason I didn't move up to 7 three years ago was I was using some old 3rd party software that would not work on 7 but since I no longer do theater stuff, those programs won't be missed.

As for old PC's, I think I have 4 other than this. Problem with turning them in is the hard disk. I don't know what information might be on the drive or how to wipe them before hand. There must be a disk out that that would do that, just don't know or haven't looked into it.

Forgot how much time I have to do stuff now that the fires are cold ashes.

[twocvbloke]

As for old PC's, I think I have 4 other than this. Problem with turning them in is the hard disk. I don't know what information might be on the drive or how to wipe them before hand. There must be a disk out that that would do that, just don't know or haven't looked into it.

DBAN's the answer:

https://dban.org/

[TelePlay]

DBAN's the answer:

https://dban.org/

Thanks, twocv,

I knew there was a way but not being in that industry tech, you saved me a lot of time.

BTW:  I still have my complete 8088 PC in a box in the basement from the 1980s. That might be worth something as an antique. Don't quite know where the box is but I know it's down there with all the disks, manuals and I even may have a CRT here for it.

[twocvbloke]

That 8088 system could be worth something for sure to a collector (there's a collector for everything it seems!!! ), not sure how much it'd be worth myself though...

[Babybearjs]

I was amazed to run across this subject as now that Windows 10 is out, everyone would have taken advantage of the free upgrade offer that Microsoft offered last year. anyway, for all those who want to stay with XP.... Goto www.Zone54.com this is a BBS that has a wonderful bootleg copy of XP pro. look under the software download section. you'll need to have Bittorrent or another torrent software install on your system as well as the capabilty to burn CD's and DVD's. the software is released as a ISO file and will unpack when burned onto a CD. this is the most stable copy available and the web master is offline right now so he is unavailable to respond to any questions.... there is a forum on the site, so check it out if you are bent on staying with Windows XP. Firefox is the default browser for this ISO, so once you load XP, you'll be able to get online. though the final version for Windows XP is version 51 firefox is no longer supporting Windows XP due to its age.  good luck! I use this copy on older PC's (P4, Athlon based systems) to get them up and running... but the browsers are getting aweful outdated and Windows XP pretty soon will not be able to support any Online web access....(stand alone)

[twocvbloke]

I was amazed to run across this subject as now that Windows 10 is out, everyone would have taken advantage of the free upgrade offer that Microsoft offered last year.

Tried it, didn't like that they wanted me to sell them my soul for the use of an OS, went back to 7...

Even took 10 off a keyboard PC I have and stuck 8.1 on there, don't particularly like 8.1, but at least it's not 10...

[HarrySmith]

I donated my old desktops & a laptop to the Vietnam Vets. I just searched the web and found a program to wipe the hard drive completely.

[Babybearjs]

the frustrating thing is....XP won't work good on newer systems.... Windows 8 and 8.1 is junk and 10 ia at least cleaned up, but I've had to reload it a few times on my main PC because of upgrade glitches.... but it works for me.... Linux is my second choice, though it does require some programming to get it the way you want and its harder to work with when you are so used to using windows....

[TelePlay]

This reply starts Part 2, The Sequel, to this topic in that it seems, as of today, Microsoft plans to pull the plug on Win7 in January of 2020 leaving only Win10, the cloud based OS, available for PC machines, and only those with 64 bit processors leaving their hardy, older 32 bit machines out in the cold.

At least, that's what I've read. Might be others know better or more on this.

After having one of my laptops "automatically" upgrade itself to 10 two years ago and taking my 32 bit desktop from XP to Win7 last year, seems about time to write off my workhorse desktop and continue not to like 10 on my other machines, 2 laptops running 7.

My laptop that automatically degraded to 10 never did work as well as it did when running 7. Another case of hardware outliving software. Guess we'll have to do this dance all over again.

But, then, I may be wrong and none of this will happen.

[oldguy]

I have 2 laptops running win10, it's way better than win8. My Dell desktop is running win7, way better than 8 or 10, IMHO. I still would have preferred keeping XP if it was supported.

[TelePlay]

I have 2 laptops running win10, it's way better than win8. My Dell desktop is running win7, way better than 8 or 10, IMHO. I still would have preferred keeping XP if it was supported.

I never had Win8 but what you said is what I've heard. Win10 is not the same OS that XP/7 are and Win10 on an old machine really sucks up the system resources.

And, a correction, Win10 will work on a 32 bit machine but the speed and memory of the 32 bit machine may not be enough for Win10. That's why I can't put Win10 on my Dell desktop.

[twocvbloke]

WindowsXP is still going in many environments where upgrades are not cost-effective (I.E. the company's bean counters say no!), even the self-serve checkouts at my local Tesco store have only this year been upgraded to what I guess is Windows7 based on the startup sound one made the other day, so I think that like XP, there'll be some commercial support for 7 for several years after the "domestic" support is dropped...