Windows XP is no good for me

[mstechca]

My friend has purchased a laptop for $799. It comes with Windows XP preinstalled. He also has another computer having Windows XP.

I gave him a CD containing Xitami Web Server for all versions of 32-bit windows. When I tried to run the installation (even in compatibility mode), it doesn't work. However, on my Windows 95 machine, it works fine.

What I HATE about Windows XP is that it CANNOT RUN DOS or any 16-bit applications. It also won't allow you to boot into DOS mode

And because XP is like any other Windows operating system with the exception of system requirements, graphical layout, and file system compatibility, I just don't use it.

Does anyone know how to force old programs to work with Windows XP?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Check Xitami's website, the current versions are all XP compatible, are you logged in as an administrator?. What error messages do you get?.

 

[Styx]

Horses for courses

If you are after a web server, get Apache it is free and 70% of the web runs it

It is secure & low resource

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Horses for courses

If you are after a web server, get Apache it is free and 70% of the web runs it

I could never get Apache to run under Win98?, whereas Xitami runs perfectly - and Xitami is free as well, although there are versions you can pay for.

 

[Styx]

Horses for courses

If you are after a web server, get Apache it is free and 70% of the web runs it

I could never get Apache to run under Win98?, whereas Xitami runs perfectly - and Xitami is free as well, although there are versions you can pay for.

:shock: W98 as a webserver :shock:

you had some uncontrollable urge to see how long it would take to get "rooted"

It's bad enough using Windows as a webserver, but at the very least if you have to use an MS product as a server use a NT-based kernel (IE a VMS kernel)

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Horses for courses

If you are after a web server, get Apache it is free and 70% of the web runs it

I could never get Apache to run under Win98?, whereas Xitami runs perfectly - and Xitami is free as well, although there are versions you can pay for.

:shock: W98 as a webserver :shock:

you had some uncontrollable urge to see how long it would take to get "rooted"

It's bad enough using Windows as a webserver, but at the very least if you have to use an MS product as a server use a NT-based kernel (IE a VMS kernel)

I wasn't using it as a live webserver, merely as a local server to test PHP and MYSQL programs.

 

[Styx]

Thats alright then.
Not that Apache would have been yr weakest point (prolly the most secure piece of software you put on there), it the Windows RPC layer.

Strange it never ran?


BUT for an XP/2K machine Apache without a doubt

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Thats alright then.
Not that Apache would have been yr weakest point (prolly the most secure piece of software you put on there), it the Windows RPC layer.

Strange it never ran?

I didn't bother getting too involved with it, I downloaded Xitami and it installed and worked first time - it did everything I needed, so I just ignored Apache :lol:

 

[mstechca]

It was a couple of years ago that I downloaded Xitami for windows.

But it works perfectly in windows 95.

My PHP compiler is a windows console version, and even his XP computer could not run console-based applications

But at least I can do more in 95.

and this is to Microsoft: I will NEVER turn over to your latest OS's no matter how many people try to embed them into today's PC's.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

It was a couple of years ago that I downloaded Xitami for windows.

But it works perfectly in windows 95.

My PHP compiler is a windows console version, and even his XP computer could not run console-based applications

But at least I can do more in 95.

and this is to Microsoft: I will NEVER turn over to your latest OS's no matter how many people try to embed them into today's PC's.

Win95 really isn't a good OS, as a minimum you need Win98SE, and it's getting to the stage now that much new stuff won't run under that - but at least it has USB!.

 

[i_build_stuff]

WinXP, with all the patches installed, is the first Microsoft OS to reach the level of "acceptable" IMO (after HOW many years of working on it?).

Of course, the less expensive 64-bit processors are starting to appear in the low-mid $100's now (I saw one at $129), so it looks like Win32 is about out of time anyway...

Anybody want to take a guess on how many versions it takes before a functioning 64 bit windows is out?

 

[theinfamousbob]

Anybody want to take a guess on how many versions it takes before a functioning 64 bit windows is out?

I don't want to think about it.


I use WinXP, but I don't like to. I'm just waiting for my hard drive to fail before I transition over to Linux ( https://www.archlinux.org

And we also have a G5 in our house (been using Macs since I was about 7...fell in love with them.)

(a little testimony...ill keep it short :lol: )

On a Mac, things work. That's the way it is. No big runarounds, no patches, no extra downloads. It just works. Installing new hardware? No problem. Buy a new printer? It'll work. Viruses? No way.
We bought a new Mac (the afforementioned G5 with flat panel monitor (23")) and brought it home. We also purchased extra RAM for it, which I installed after we set it up. Tooless entry, easy to install, and on the way out I noticed the extra hard drive bay. The intriguing thing was, the screws were mounted in the case, ready for the drive. (The screws are actually nubs which guide the SATA drive into place, and then is locked down by tabs.)

Easiest upgrade I've ever done.

My first windows box - picked up for $10 from a neighbor who couldn't get it working. It would hang up on win98 setup, particularly the driver set up section. After many hours of work (and teaching myself how to format the hard drive thru DOS 8) (no internet used)) I found the hard drive had a physical defect, which was causing the problem. Found where the defect was, partitioned it out, and voila! A PC that works marginally well. And then windows, forget it. I have a new problem every week.

This week's problem: couldn't install FlightSim 98 (i know it's old, and I'm planning to buy FS2004 this week.) It was telling me I was out of disk space, even though it recognized I have over 30GB free (that's what it was telling me, I actually have 100+GB free.) I try installing on my second hard drive (a 120 instead of a 160) and it works fine. Go figure.

 

[akg]

possibly the 'FlightSim 98" setup uses old API , that cannot detect more than 32GB disk space.

 

[theinfamousbob]

It worked fine with my 120GB drive though....

Ah well. It works, and I just found out today it wasn't using D3D :shock:

Fixed that.

 

[spuffock]

Windows 64 bit will become acceptable within 1 year of 64 bit processors becoming obsolete in favour of 128 bit.

 

[Hero999]

Windows in general is crap, but the reason why XP won't run some old 16-bit programs is because unlike Windows 9x it isn't DOS based, it's based on NT which is much better than DOS.

Windows XP will run some, but not all old 16-bit stuff using an emulator called NTVDM which isn't 100% DOS compatalbe hence not everything will run.

What can you do about this?

Upgrade your software

Try DOSBox , another emulator, it's more compatable than NTVDM but much slower and you can install Windows 3.1 under it.

Dual boot, create a FAT32 partition using you favourite partitioning tool and install Windows ME on it or you could experiment with, MS-DOS, FreeDOS, OpenDOS or DR-DOS - I prefer the latter.

You could also go for Linux which might offer you equivalents for you old favourite software and there's WINE (a Windows emulator), DOSEmu and DOSBox which might beable to run some of your old software.

By the way having said this, I'm assuming you're using XP 32-bit not 64-bit which doesn't run any 16-bit software at all because it's technically very difficult to run 16-bit stuff and 64 -bit stuff aty the same time (or so I've been told).