Upgrading to XP (1 Viewer)

scotjimland

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well, maybe it's downgrading ... but having had enough of Vista Business I decided to install XP..
I had a copy of XP Professional with SP2.. and after consulting Sony support and downloading the necessary XP drivers and Sony applications ... I bit the bullet ..

Started last night about 8pm and finally got to bet at 2am .. with a bare bones but functioning laptop..

Did the windows updates .. and discovered I had an illegal copy of XP .. I had inadvertently installed Widows spyware that reports back and checks if your software is kosher ..

Anyway, a bit of Googling I found a 'cure' and it's now free of windows spys.

It's like going back in time, but what a difference , the lappy boots up in a few seconds, ok, it's not got all the software yet and i guess it will slow down a bit when I fill it with bloat :roflmto:

Now the long job of recovering docs, pictures and music from the backup , I might be gone some time :RollEyes:
 

neilmac

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Brave man! I hope your backed up info reappears on demand :Smile:

I too prefer XP to anything more recent that I've tried and well done for finding a 'fix'. I had one of those for a previous copy of XP that I was using (actually genuine but not in the eyes of Microdaft :RollEyes:), but eventually even that became a problem and flagged up invalid.

Had to get a new 'proper' version in the end and went for XP Prof. Restoring the backup proved to be a nightmare so best of luck.
 

Jim

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Xp is great,:thumb: After a new build, load all the programs you need and then whilst your machine is zipping along; take a disk image with Acronis.

Then when the machine starts clagging up as we know they always do; by reloading that image you are never further than 20 minutes away from a super fast machine again.

You should of course have backups of your data, before restoring the original image

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atakd

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Fully agree that XP is the biz when it comes to operating systems.
The fly in the ointment is that it will not recognise 4Gb of ram, which is the spec I was looking at to upgrade my PC; it reports only 3 and a bit Gb available.
It's hard not to believe that this limitation isn't deliberately designed into the operating system to force an upgrade to vista or , even worse, Windows 7 :cry:XP 64 will recognise 128 Gb Ram. Microsoft - where the customer is always king - NOT:Sad:
BTW Jim, does your WGA work-around allow you to still use Windows Update? I found a crack once that let me upgrade media player but haven't been able to find it since.
 
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scotjimland

scotjimland

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BTW Jim, does your WGA work-around allow you to still use Windows Update? I found a crack once that let me upgrade media player but haven't been able to find it since.

Hi

Windows updates still appears to work,I'm still getting notifications to update IE6 (which I don't want)
I stopped auto updates after the doing the work around, (deleting WgaTray.exe and the associated reg keys) just in case it reinstalled ..

I'll post if there are any problems

jim
 

wireman

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XP 64 bit will recognise 128 g of ram as will any 64 bit operating system. Windows 7 32 bit is hampered by the same restriction as any other 32 OS it will only recognise 3 to 3.5 g of ram.

Its the 32 bit versus the 64 bit that matters.

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atakd

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Douglas

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well, maybe it's downgrading ... but having had enough of Vista Business I decided to install XP..
I had a copy of XP Professional with SP2.. and after consulting Sony support and downloading the necessary XP drivers and Sony applications ...

Did the windows updates .. and discovered I had an illegal copy of XP .. I had inadvertently installed Widows spyware that reports back and checks if your software is kosher ..

Jim.

I always thought that the win spy was in SP3???

Doug...

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Phil

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Windows 7 32 bit version will report that 4GB of RAM is installed, if that is the case, however it cannot use all of it, the system needs to be 64 bit to use more than about 3GB.

Phil.
 

Bulletguy

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well, maybe it's downgrading ... but having had enough of Vista Business I decided to install XP.. I had a copy of XP Professional with SP2.. and after consulting Sony support and downloading the necessary XP drivers and Sony applications ... I bit the bullet ..

Started last night about 8pm and finally got to bet at 2am .. with a bare bones but functioning laptop..

Did the windows updates .. and discovered I had an illegal copy of XP .. I had inadvertently installed Widows spyware that reports back and checks if your software is kosher ..
Interestingly i'm also running XP Pro with SP2 and all relevant updates. Mine is fully licenced oem which came with the pc from new so no problem there. But if you've read any of my recent posts you will see that i've experienced pretty serious spyware issues.

I could no doubt give you a copy of my XP complete with its authentication code key and you would still end up with spyware! In other words....legal 'kosher' software or not, spyware is probably the simplest 'bug' to get in, usually without you even knowing it (as in my case), and a lot of it comes from forum board use too. :RollEyes:

I'm no doubt eventually going to end up having to completely reformat the drive to get 'back to normal' as even though I got rid of the file the spyware was in, my problems are far from over.

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Kon tiki

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XP :Eeek: I'm still using Windows 2000 :thumb: tried XP when it first came out then back to something I could work with :winky: Probably XP is pretty good now, but agree Vista (have that on my laptop) is almost as bad as Millenium (now that was bad). I'm waiting until Windows 7 gets well tried & tested then I might treat myself to a new laptop.
 

Kon tiki

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Do a search for 'How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications' this is what checks to see if you have a genuine Microsoft product. There are quite a few websites telling you how to 'cure' your PC.
 

JeffersonCampervan

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It's hard not to believe that this limitation isn't deliberately designed into the operating system to force an upgrade to vista or , even worse, Windows 7 :cry:.

I have 3 computers running XP & had one with Vista that I never used (hated Vista) - so I upgraded the Vista machine to Win 7 in Sept.
Have been running happily since then.

Win 7 is the best OS I have ever used (And I started with DOS! :).

Still running XP on the other 3 (for various reasons).
 
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JeffersonCampervan

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BTW, I went back to XP from Vista a couple of times - & the use of Acronis, as mentioned in a previous post, enables going back to a prior configuration easily. And you can completely restore your computer after a crash or some other corruption. There are other backup programs as well, of course. When I'm installing a new system, as is the OP, I will often do Acronis complete backups at key stages, so that if I mess up, I don't have to go back to square one (been there, done that).

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scotjimland

scotjimland

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BTW, I went back to XP from Vista a couple of times - & the use of Acronis, as mentioned in a previous post, enables going back to a prior configuration easily. And you can completely restore your computer after a crash or some other corruption. There are other backup programs as well, of course. When I'm installing a new system, as is the OP, I will often do Acronis complete backups at key stages, so that if I mess up, I don't have to go back to square one (been there, done that).

Also a fan of Acronis, great bit of software, worth every cent :thumb:

XP Update:

All has gone well, all software and backed up data re installed and XP updates done, as Jim commented, the lappy just zips along now..

For anyone contemplating going back to XP I can only say I wish I had done it two years ago.. It's almost as good as OSX on the Mac ..:roflmto:

I also found out I had Vista Business downgrade rights for XP. so any more licensing issues I'll call Windows and have it sorted .. but so far no problems.
One happy bunny ::bigsmile:
 

G4GMO

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I went back to xp after spending 10 terrible months trying to like vista. Glad I did. Vista is awful. I hate being dictated to by microbotch so am considering going full Linux. Got Linux Mint 8 (which is free:Smile:) on one laptop to evaluate it. Trouble is for people running certain software there may not be a Linux version or it may not run in Wine (produces a windows environment for windows programs on a Linux OS). A lot quicker and easier to install than xp.
 

Bulletguy

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Do a search for 'How to Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications' this is what checks to see if you have a genuine Microsoft product. There are quite a few websites telling you how to 'cure' your PC.
A few no doubt well meaning......but many which are no more than an invite to 'scan your drive for free' that give a huge list of the most horrendous infections and spyware, all of which can be removed by payment of X amount!

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TonyIsh UK

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Stick with windows 3.1. Does everthing that you need to do and its so old that no one bothers to hack it. :thumb:

rgds
 
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scotjimland

scotjimland

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I have looked but can not find the 'cure'

Sorry for the late post Ralph, just noticed it..:Blush:

This is how I did it :

1. Launch Windows Task Manager.
2. End wgatray.exe process in Task Manager.
3. Restart Windows in Safe Mode.
4. Delete WgaTray.exe from c :\Windows\System32.
5 . Delete WgaTray.exe from c :\Windows\System3 2\dllcache.
6. Launch RegEdit.
7. Browse to the following location:
HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft Windows NT\CunentVersion
\Winlogon\Notify
8. Delete the folder'WgaLogon' and all its contents
9. Reboot PC
 
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Sorry for the late post Ralph, just noticed it..:Blush:

This is how I did it :

1. Lauch Windows Task Manager.
2. End wgatray.exe process in Task Manager.
3. Restart Windows in Safe Mode.
4. Delete WgaTray.exe from c :\Windows\System32.
5 . Delete WgaTray.exe from c :\Windows\System3 2\dllcache.
6. Launch RegEdit.
7. Browse to the following location:
HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft Windows NT\CunentVersion
\Winlogon\Notify
8. Delete the folder'WgaLogon' and all its contents
9. Reboot PC

Thanks for that :thumb:

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Kon tiki

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A few no doubt well meaning......but many which are no more than an invite to 'scan your drive for free' that give a huge list of the most horrendous infections and spyware, all of which can be removed by payment of X amount!

Don't understand why you highlighted the bit in RED. Somebody had asked about the 'cure' (for stopping MS from checking your PC to see if your copy of windows is legitimate) & I said to do a search for How to remove Windows Genuine Advantage. There are plenty of sites showing how to stop Microsoft from checking you have genuine products without scanning your PC. I am not telling anybody to visit any site for a 'CURE'
 

acdcdave

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Hi all

I've been using XP Pro 64 for around 3 years in our desktops. After early restrictions with drivers this now works well, and I am now running with 6 Gb of RAM, which could go to 8 Gb if I used only 2 Gb sticks in my own machine. The system flies with a 3 year old dual core AMD processor. The key is the cheapness of RAM, when 4Gb sticks come down to £50 or less, I will go up to 12 Gb i.e. continue to keep my memory doubling every 18 months or so.

Windows seems to imply this trend is coming as they are supplying both 32 bit and 64 bit disks in their Windows 7 packs. As soon as service pack 1 for Win7 comes I'll be going over. XP has had a brilliant run!!

The other thought is to get as many memory slots as you can on the motherboard when you buy a new computer. Getting four or more memory slots is a fine way of staying future proof but only when you've gone 64 bit and the 3 Gb limit vanishes.

Cheers, Dave.
 

Douglas

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Reformating

I run XP without SP3 and with Kasperksy AV but that's only for info what I would like to know is...

Am I the only one that regularly re formats the hard drive and reinstall every thing about 2 or 3 time a year?

May be I should do a poll!

Doug...

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woodyold

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You might like to look at this if your going back to XP .

Link Removed :Smile:
 

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