gmaverick2k wrote on 2022-10-30, 05:27:

I didn't know ASIO was confined upto xp. I use it on Windows 10 for listening to flac via foobar 2000 and ASIO WASAPI all the time

Hi there! I didn't mean to say that. Just listed all the things I remembered which XP can do. 😄

Personally, the most important thing in XP to me is SoftSynth support both via MCI and DirectX/DirectMusic.

The latter can't be substituted by a sound font and some random MIDI host software on never OSes.
It's not the same. All the effects are missing.

Even Windows XP is borderline here: Things like SYXG-50 or Roland/Edirol Sound Canvas v3 were originally made for Windows 98SE or Windows 2000/MacOS 8.x, respectively.
VSC had to be later patched for XP by the manufacturer, afaik (big XP sticker slapped onto box).

(Afaik, MIDI support degraded somewhat after Windows 3.1x even.
The feature-rich MIDI Mapper was removed in Windows 95.
Likely, because General MIDI (GM) got so ubiquitous.
Windows 3.x was also supporting MIDI synthesizer drivers, already.
Those which converted MIDI to OPL commands (Voyetra SuperSAPI),
as well as those which did the whole synthesis in software. Yamaha SYXG-30, Casio SW-10 etc.)

Less popular things like Direct3D Retained Mode still work in XP, as well. Or the Elsa 3D Revelator glasses.. - Again, not saying they can't be made work somehow on never versions.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-10-18, 08:51:

Windows 7:
- Wikipedia says Intel Broadwell is the last chipset officially supported by Microsoft, but you can find up to Intel 200 series (Kaby Lake) motherboards with Windows 7 drivers
- Looks like even NVIDIA RTX 30 series has Windows 7 drivers, I think they've been more like security releases so don't know do RTX cards work just as well as the earlier GTX cards.

I have setup a Windows 10/Windows 7/Linux system that is fairly recent, with the following components :

- Asrock B450M Pro4
- Ryzen 3700X
- AMD 6700 XT (one of the last and most powerful graphics card with Windows 7 support)

This particular motherboard has a USB 3.1 port with working Windows 7 drivers (from AMD_Chipset_Software_Win7_2.17.25.506.exe). USB 2.0 ports work fine, and I've added a FL1100 USB3 PCIe card (also Windows 7 compatible). Installation can be done with a PS/2 keyboard, or by slipstreaming the USB drivers.

One important thing to note when using Legacy (CSM) mode, is that at least for the B450 (possibly others as well), newer BIOSes with support for the Ryzen 5000 series have a bug that make a USB keyboard unusable - basically one keypress gets repeated multiple times. Therefore you have to stick to an older BIOS before the introduction of 5000 support (here BIOS 4.30), or use a PS/2 keyboard if you stick with legacy mode.

If you aren't set on building two mini-ITX PCs, you could build one midi tower for both XP and 7 with Ivy Bridge board that has XP drivers and that GTX 980 of yours. Would have space for a nice PCI/PCIe sound card too.

That's a great build idea. I've documented one here: Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H 1.1, Intel Core i7 3770K, MSI GeForce 960

For Windows XP (and XP x64) latest hardware among the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors (for 1150 socket systems), there are also socket 2011 systems supported as well. So if you have a Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge based socket 2011 mainboard, you can install necessary software for the system. But, the socket 2011-3 systems with Haswell and Broadwell based processors does not have any XP drivers! (By luck, some of Asus Sabertooth x99 mainboard owners managed to gather necessary drivers, but those are unsigned and unofficial drivers for such systems.)

As an example: "https://www.asus.com/me-en/supportonly/rampag … pdesk_download/" Rampage IV Extreme x79 mainboard, after choosing Windows XP (or Windows XP 64-bit) from operating system tab, there are LAN, Chipset, Audio, USB, Bluetooth, Hotfix, Software and Utility and SATA drivers present for download. But, not all 79 mainboards have this support! A similar mainboard, Asus Rampage IV Black edition does not, so you need to check your operating system support page.

Windows XP activation system is now completely hacked. Using "xp_activate32.exe" file can do the activation, because all activation servers from Microsoft for Windows XP is shut down. No one can activate Windows XP, including the legal copies. Many cracks also need this online connection, so they can not activate Windows XP as well! Try to search and download this file if you want to activate Windows XP offline! Currently it is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sxKZ6pcZYqhI … MvDuGxiJ1c/view and the info related at: https://old.reddit.com/r/windowsxp/comments/w … y_dead/ilmr5s3/ and https://gizmodo.com/windows-xp-cracked-workin … pera-1850480508

gerwin wrote on 2022-10-19, 16:14:

SPBHM wrote on 2022-10-18, 19:56:

people have managed to install windows xp on much newer systems with good success, even the Haswell (4th gen Intel) drivers exist afaik, even for the IGP.

A Haswell (4th gen Intel) Graphics driver for Windows XP x86 and x64 exists yes. Haven't tried it though.

there is no Haswell specific driver for XP, it's the same old driver that still works by chance

the VGA driver for the built-in HD 4600 works perfect however on another machine with HD 4400 I couldn't find working drivers.

I no longer have that machine with me but still preserve the CPU and will check it out later on....

karakarga wrote on 2023-06-11, 07:02:

As an example: "https://www.asus.com/me-en/supportonly/rampag … pdesk_download/" Rampage IV Extreme x79 mainboard, after choosing Windows XP (or Windows XP 64-bit) from operating system tab, there are LAN, Chipset, Audio, USB, Bluetooth, Hotfix, Software and Utility and SATA drivers present for download.

IMEI driver and chipset driver are normally two independent things.

I don't know why do ASUS merged both into one driver ?

last time I gave it shot on a non ASUS mobo this driver just didn't work, it installed the IMEI bits (aka backdoor) and nothing related to the missing chipset bits

I didn't experience any issues when installing Windows XP on an Asus Z87-A + i7 4790K.

Asus never provided XP-drivers for the motherboard. I think Intel did host an early XP driver for the Z87 chipset but removed it. I think I used an install package from some Gigabyte media center thingy using Z87... in any case it works.

The Intel USB3 ports only works in USB 2.0 mode but that don't bother me.