RayeR wrote on 2025-02-28, 14:22:

Jo22 wrote on 2025-02-28, 03:09:

That way, gamers and power users would have adopted it without so much complain.

Not that easy. As I remember that times even a lot of gamers from overclockers community I participated with enough powerfull computers refused to upgrade to Vista. Because there was still some differences - XP got just better FPS and lower latency in games and also some games had compatbility issues in Vista.

Ah yes, I remember. Windows XP went through same when it was fresh.
There had been gamers who said that Windows 98SE had better performance/FPS.

RayeR wrote on 2025-02-28, 14:22:

It might be caused by changing video driver model and drivers might not be well optimized at the beginning. So many of those gamers/users just skipped Vista and go to Win7 later, also after some more HW upgrade. On some fast C2D/Q the differences fades. And of course they needed DX10 for new games and also new games was optimized for Win7...

Yes, driver model was a problem. And lack of GPUs with DirectX 9c/Shader Model 2.
Some users also used XP drivers (XPDM) on Vista, rather than WDM 1.0 drivers.

Aero Glass also was an issue, or rather the lack of it. Dual monitor support was wanky, too

With Aero Glass, the GUI ran on GPU as shader program and did cause less CPU usage.
The Composition Manager did coordinate mixing GDI and Direct3D output.
That's why a duplicate copy of video RAM was kept in PC RAM, which had caused higher memory usage. 🙁

When Aero Glass was being enabled, Direct3D ran all the time, so that DirectDraw, OpenGL and exclusive Direct3D access had to be integrated into that Direct3D output.

When Vista RC was out, I had bought an used Geforce FX 5200 just for Aero Glass and Vista.
The 5200 was being described in a Vista book by Microsoft Press,
but at same time being discouraged because it was meeting the requirements so barely.

Also interesting is that Vista/7 had three types of Direct3D 9x, 9EX and 10.
- With DirectX 10 later being updated to version 11 in one of the Service Packs or Platform Upgrades..

At this point, Windows Vista had most of the features of Windows 7.
With the exception of the older driver model and the lack of 2D acceleration.
On the bright side, though, Windows Vista had kept its majestic GUI.

That means that nowadays, Windows Vista is still good enough for tasks that normally would require Windows 7.

In VMs or in picture editing, hobby use etc. It's still an affordable alternative.
Also, it comes in a shiny big box! 😁

But I'm afraid I'm talking too much again here! 😅

I remember,I could run Age of Empires 1 on Windows XP without any problem,but Age of Empires 2 did not worked on XP & I had to reboot into Windows 98 SE,when I wished to play Age of Empires 2.
The PC was AMD Duron @ 701MHz(yes,is showed 701MHz in POST) with 320MB RAM & 2x80GB HDD & it also had 2 video cards,as some SW only worked with AGP card(for example Windows XP) & some games only worked with PCI video card,I had to switch between them in BIOS.
Particularly the DOS 32 game Bahn only worked properly with PCI video card,if I attempted to run with AGP video card,it frozen,everything was frozen,system halted,only if I disconnected the mouse,it also worked with AGP card,probably it used IRQ12,or so,just guess,back then I just noticed,it does not working with AGP,I just tried the PCI card from dead old PC & it worked,so I let it in & always switched the video in BIOS...

real world windows xp usage! here my xp laptop in action, 2025, using putty to connect to a unix server, and ffmpeg for mpeg4 transcoding in background.

Supermium as web browser

Sabina_16bit. wrote on 2025-02-28, 12:44:

Thanx for independent confirming. I already elaborated it in independent treads " Serious Bug of AVG Antivirus for Windows XP or […]
Show full quote

dormcat wrote on 2025-02-28, 05:01:

Interesting...... csrss.exe caused ~50% CPU usage after last update on my C2D E7400 WinXP build. Could you elaborate "EoL sabotage"?

Thanx for independent confirming.
I already elaborated it in independent treads " Serious Bug of AVG Antivirus for Windows XP or Possible Sabotage" & in "Do U Know about an Antivirus still Usable with Windows XP?", the latter I based,after I found confirmation,they did it as a part of EoL strategy to get rid of Windows XP users,it is a link to that in both that topics.I also wrote to AVG & they r just ignoring my emails,which I understand as a response "Fuck u,unwanted XP user,we r proud about what we did to u.".
So it is sure,they will not fix it,thus if we will continue to use AVG,it will fry our CPUs,that is,y I started a discussion about finding a replacement for now unusable AVG.
So 50% on C2D?
That is 1 entire core of Your 2.
But I have AVG on single-core ThikPads T42 & X40,where it consumes 100% of the CPU.
On C2D I also have Windows 7,thus no need to install antivirus to XP,I scan all partitions from Windows 7 by its Antivirus,but those laptops have 2 small HDDs to add Windows 7,in wosrt case,I will try to add Windows 7 SuperLite,mainly with X40 it is a problem,it only has 40GB HDD & only 16GB is free...
On this system AVG's stub in the back is most painful.
But U r OK,I guess,U have a multiboot on a C2D & U can do malware scans from a newer OS.

Correction: the program running at ~50% was not csrss.exe but AVGSvc.exe. I've replaced it with Avast; now AvastSvc.exe has 10% spikes every 10 seconds or so but no more constant ~50% anymore.

Thanx for testing.
For me AVGSvc.exe ~50% & csrss.exe ~50%,total 100%,sometimes only csrss.exe 100% & they r variously sharing always 100% together. Always these 2 files eats up everything.
May U give me a precise download link for Avast version,U used for replacing AVG successfully?

Sabina_16bit. wrote on 2025-03-04, 02:52:

May U give me a precise download link for Avast version,U used for replacing AVG successfully?

Just Google version 18.8.2356 (build 18.8.4084.0) and grab the offline installer from Filepuma.

Uninstalling AVG requires restarting computer once and that's the only hassle. Install Avast afterwards and it would update virus definitions automatically as long as you've connected to the Internet.

dormcat wrote on 2025-03-04, 19:45:

Sabina_16bit. wrote on 2025-03-04, 02:52:

May U give me a precise download link for Avast version,U used for replacing AVG successfully?

Just Google version 18.8.2356 (build 18.8.4084.0) and grab the offline installer from Filepuma.

Uninstalling AVG requires restarting computer once and that's the only hassle. Install Avast afterwards and it would update virus definitions automatically as long as you've connected to the Internet.

Thanx.

I ran Vista for a while on the old computer back in the day. The computer was too old to make it shine. Still, back then I thought it was cool that it came with the driver for both NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 graphics card and HP DeskJet 3550 printer. The driver for graphics card was XPDDM kind, there weren't any notable problems with the games compared to running them on XP.

I don't want to open an entire new topic just for this, but, is it true that Windows XP can still be activated online?

Online - no. Phone still has legacy activation. But I think that the algorithm of generating the activation code via phone was cracked for a while now, so you can activate Windows XP "offline" too.

theelf wrote on 2025-03-01, 15:34:

real world windows xp usage! here my xp laptop in action, 2025, using putty to connect to a unix server, and ffmpeg for mpeg4 transcoding in background.

Television, I presume? Yeah, I'm not surprised. "If something is not broken, don't fix it" goes really strong there.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-10-24, 17:22:

Online - no. Phone still has legacy activation. But I think that the algorithm of generating the activation code via phone was cracked for a while now, so you can activate Windows XP "offline" too.

theelf wrote on 2025-03-01, 15:34:

real world windows xp usage! here my xp laptop in action, 2025, using putty to connect to a unix server, and ffmpeg for mpeg4 transcoding in background.

Television, I presume? Yeah, I'm not surprised. "If something is not broken, don't fix it" goes really strong there.

Yes TV, some people use win10/11, some OSX, some unix streaming servers, and I preffer winXP, over the years never game me any problem

UCyborg wrote on 2025-10-24, 17:16:

I don't want to open an entire new topic just for this, but, is it true that Windows XP can still be activated online?

Phone activation still works, I think. I used it a few years ago.
But if everything breaks, older install mediums will still work with the (in)famous volume activation.
Alternatively, it's possible to fix the WPA component that's in winlogon.exe.
This works up to Service Pack 2 at least, so it's good to save that file before upgrading further.
Anyway, I think that's sort of an open secret. I won't go further into detail here, thus.

Edit:

Yes TV, some people use win10/11, some OSX, some unix streaming servers, and I preffer winXP, over the years never game me any problem

Hi, I'm using macOS at the moment. I'm not exactly an Apple fan, though.
It's rather because the big three OSes are Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
And because I was stranded on a Raspberry Pi for years, after Win 7 went EOL.
macOS somehow is between Windows and Linux.
Programs are usually polished and bloatware/adware free, but there's an Unix foundation and some binary compatibility.
Applications are being dragged/dropped to the harddisk like in the good old Windows 3.1 days.

Jo22 wrote on 2025-10-25, 00:24:

Hi, I'm using macOS at the moment. I'm not exactly an Apple fan, though. It's rather because the big three OSes are Windows, Lin […]
Show full quote

Hi, I'm using macOS at the moment. I'm not exactly an Apple fan, though.
It's rather because the big three OSes are Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
And because I was stranded on a Raspberry Pi for years, after Win 7 went EOL.
macOS somehow is between Windows and Linux.
Programs are usually polished and bloatware/adware free, but there's an Unix foundation and some binary compatibility.
Applications are being dragged/dropped to the harddisk like in the good old Windows 3.1 days.

I installed Ventura in a thinkpad x390 i have, and mm... is nice, but too much complicated if you want to customize a little...

For example, drag windows with one finger+trackpad... man, there is a delay when you stop dragging and lift finger, like 0.5 or 0.8s, and there no way to change this... so difficult to use the window manager with one finger and trackpad, yes there is three finger drag... but i dont like at all use more one finger at time

Difficult or very difficult to disable thing like Spotlight (why in hell i want to waste my CPU in indexing?¿) or the friking malware stuff that is being a pain in the ass all the time with anything you download from the internet and osx don't like... and etc etc etc

I just asked because someone mentioned it on another forum and I found it strange that online activation supposedly works as I'm almost positive I've read before it doesn't work.

I used to memorize the product key of XP that came with the first computer. But the sticker went to trash along with that computer about a decade ago. So I guess I only have alternative means. I don't really have any use for it TBH. I lost interest in even what little I used to tinker with. Using Windows XP today gives me Linux vibes, have to be a programmer to be able use it, unless you stick to old period correct software.

theelf wrote on 2025-10-25, 00:55:

I installed Ventura in a thinkpad x390 i have, and mm... is nice, but too much complicated if you want to customize a little... […]
Show full quote

Jo22 wrote on 2025-10-25, 00:24:

Hi, I'm using macOS at the moment. I'm not exactly an Apple fan, though. It's rather because the big three OSes are Windows, Lin […]
Show full quote

Hi, I'm using macOS at the moment. I'm not exactly an Apple fan, though.
It's rather because the big three OSes are Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
And because I was stranded on a Raspberry Pi for years, after Win 7 went EOL.
macOS somehow is between Windows and Linux.
Programs are usually polished and bloatware/adware free, but there's an Unix foundation and some binary compatibility.
Applications are being dragged/dropped to the harddisk like in the good old Windows 3.1 days.

I installed Ventura in a thinkpad x390 i have, and mm... is nice, but too much complicated if you want to customize a little...

For example, drag windows with one finger+trackpad... man, there is a delay when you stop dragging and lift finger, like 0.5 or 0.8s, and there no way to change this... so difficult to use the window manager with one finger and trackpad, yes there is three finger drag... but i dont like at all use more one finger at time

Difficult or very difficult to disable thing like Spotlight (why in hell i want to waste my CPU in indexing?¿) or the friking malware stuff that is being a pain in the ass all the time with anything you download from the internet and osx don't like... and etc etc etc

Hi, I must admit that I also do have a Windows 11 VM on the macOS installation.. Just in case. 😅

But I think that's nothing out of the ordinary, though,
since historically most Mac users had DOS/Windows emulation as a backup (SoftWindows, Virtual PC).
For applications that are unavailable to the platform.
Amiga/Atari ST users used PC emulators in the 80s, too.
Linux users have WINE pre-installed for ages.

That being said, I try to avoid going online with that thing, considering how much user activity modern Windows logs nowadays.
It's rather used for running MS Works 9 or running applications such as IrfanView.
I do re-enable the VM's internet connection merely when needed (also did uninstall Recall).

In the future, I'll set up another VM for web browsing, maybe. Not sure.
The world is changing and the Internet is such a battlefield.
For example, I've just read about how Android (/Windows) vs HarmonyOS is going to split the world in half.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-10-25, 19:07:

I just asked because someone mentioned it on another forum and I found it strange that online activation supposedly works as I'm almost positive I've read before it doesn't work.

I used to memorize the product key of XP that came with the first computer. But the sticker went to trash along with that computer about a decade ago. So I guess I only have alternative means. I don't really have any use for it TBH. I lost interest in even what little I used to tinker with. Using Windows XP today gives me Linux vibes, have to be a programmer to be able use it, unless you stick to old period correct software.

Makes sense. 🙂 Though as a DOS user I don’t mind that so much, I guess.😆
I guess Windows XP now sits in same boat as Windows 98SE.
Back in the 2000s, it was such a relief to move on to XP, because 98 felt so cumbersome and unstable.
Looking back, though, I sometimes miss the stubborness of older Windows versions.
All the quirks made it more likeable, maybe.
In 2025 it sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable how smooth things went out of hand (A.I./LLMs, technology, social m. etc).

What's good about Windows XP is that it's directly based on Windows 2000, Microsoft's best Windows ever.
Win2k was the only Windows that I remember which has received praise from Linux community.
Unfortunately, XP also was the first to use product activation and make use of telemetry. Sigh.
Nevertheless, XP can be -err- customized very well. 😉
It supports both 90s era hardware/software and can be made mostly compatible to Windows Vista/7 era hardware/software.

I did use Windows 2000 for some time, but only in a virtual machine and only for running one specific picky legacy application that I migrated from slow and noisy Windows 98 machine with a Pentium 233 MHz. The application didn't like XP much, there was a startup delay. I imagine XP inherited all 2000's technical drawbacks and limitations, which already seemed long in the tooth 15 years ago, with software and hardware features that didn't work or didn't work well.

I used windows xp until changing to windows 10 in 2015. win 7 , 8 , vista were all garbage. Did not like the way they looked , the speediness , pretty much nothing. Win xp worked super great , never issues , never problems with drivers , nothing.

The only windows install between 2001 and 1015 was to change xp from 32 bit to 64 bit , that was around 2009.