Windows Xp

[111tingtong]

Hello,

Does anyone know where a genuine copy of Windows XP can be bought in Chiang Mai. Had a look around the airport plaza and nothing!

Thanks

[LJW]

Got mine at Panthip

[Blinky Bill]

Panthip on Changklan Road

[elektrified]

They have the real thing at IT City I think it's called. There are 2 locations; 2nd Floor @ Panthip Plaza and 4th? Floor @ Kad Suan Kaew in the back.

Not cheap however...

[111tingtong]

Many thanks, will give those places a go

[jayjay0]

They have the real thing at IT City I think it's called. There are 2 locations; 2nd Floor @ Panthip Plaza and 4th? Floor @ Kad Suan Kaew in the back.

Not cheap however...

Also third floor airport mall

[H2oDunc]

Why would you want a copy of an OS that you will soon loose support for and 7 is far, far superior ?

As I have posted before the safest way to ensure your copy is genuine is to buy a cheap copy. Install it. Download Windows Genuine Advantage and run it. This will tell you that your copy is fake and simply click on the " resolve now " button and pay MS. You get a product key via email and a DVD sent from Singapore. Easy.

I has a friend pay 8000 baht for Vista Ultimate that they told him was 100% genuine and it wasn't. Lesson learned

[steve187]

I did a fresh install of xp sp3 on an old computer with problems yesterday and when trying to update, microsoft state they have stopped selling xp, and no updates are available, if you are buying then get windows 7

Edited January 29, 2011 by steve187

[BarnicaleBob]

A problem that some may have in installing Windows 7 on older or used computers is that it requires a larger amount of random access memory than what many older computers have or are capable of having installed. In such cases Windows XP would be the only solution. Another great conspiracy to get the consumer to spend more money on hardware and software.

[H2oDunc]

You can install 7 with 1gb of ram no problem. Ram is now very cheap so adding some more would be more cost efficient than installing an old OS system. No conspiracy just progress. The same as with 95 fuel etc.

[MikeCNX]

Why would you want a copy of an OS that you will soon loose support for and 7 is far, far superior ?

As I have posted before the safest way to ensure your copy is genuine is to buy a cheap copy. Install it. Download Windows Genuine Advantage and run it. This will tell you that your copy is fake and simply click on the " resolve now " button and pay MS. You get a product key via email and a DVD sent from Singapore. Easy.

I has a friend pay 8000 baht for Vista Ultimate that they told him was 100% genuine and it wasn't. Lesson learned

+ 100 thumbs up

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I like XP. Best OS ever.

And it's still supported, and will be for a couple years more. I get updates just fine every patch-Tuesday.

[H2oDunc]

You obviously haven't yet tried 7 otherwise you wouldn't be coming out with such nonsense. Having been with MS since the DOS days I think I can safely say 7 is the best OS from MS to date. I even preferred Vista to XP.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

You obviously haven't yet tried 7 otherwise you wouldn't be coming out with such nonsense.

You 'obviously' don't know anything about me.

My company supplied laptop runs Win 7. It's Okay. On current hardware. I've booted up and opened the browser.. Let's see: I'm currently using 1.82 Gigabyte of memory on running the OS and a browser. If I do the same in XP I'm using around 100 Mb. If I boot a popular Linux version I'm using somewhere in between those. XP is incredible if you look at what it does and in how little memory. For anything less than a very current, fast computer I'd probably go with XP. And I have.

There are only two small snags with XP.. When running as a regular restricted user (non-Admin, and anyone should) then it's annoying when you need to do something that requires administrative access; Win 7 does that much smoother. (Can use 'Run As' in XP too though). And the other thing is that it does not support the highest encryption level when using Outlook. (AES-256 I believe).

Edited January 29, 2011 by WinnieTheKhwai

[noise]

Don't forget you can get all kinds of expert advice from the computer club every Tuesday afternoon, 1 pm, in the meeting room of the D'Lite Spa Restaurant (directly across the street from Immigration). Many members have bought certified Windows OEM S/W and would be glad to tell you of their experiences. And, given all the experience in the room, there is always at least one member who has done anything to do with computers that you can think of.

Edited January 30, 2011 by noise

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Here's a thought: (Not just for XP but any Windows version) : Buy the OEM version and install virtualized; you will own it forever even if you change computers. Regular OEM Windows doesn't allow moving the same license to a different computer. (Or even when making more upgrades than Microsoft deems appropriate).

[H2oDunc]

Can't find anything called virtualized to install anywhere ?

A link ?

I also have no idea on how much resources my computer is using I just find 7 does eveything I want it to do far better than XP ever did.

Whether that is technically correct or not I have no idea ?

[wjmark]

Can't find anything called virtualized to install anywhere ?

A link ?

I also have no idea on how much resources my computer is using I just find 7 does eveything I want it to do far better than XP ever did.

Whether that is technically correct or not I have no idea ?

I believe Winnie means to install Windows in a 'virtual window'. Then it is not really installed! (Winnie - is that what you mean?)

There is virtual machine software that does exactly that. Personally, I would love to know how to do this! I know that running a virtual machine makes you 100% safe against viruses. If your virtual machine gets infected, just reboot and load the original virtual machine again - fresh start.

Any recommendations of good, easy, (and possible free) virtual machine software? Anyone?

And, I am running XP and win7 on two different machines. XP is on a dual core cpu, and win7 is on a i7 quad-core hyperthreaded machine (effectively an 8-core cpu).

For basic things, the slower XP machine is faster than the Win7. For powerhouse applications (video editing, web-page rendering, etc.) the Win7 machine just blasts. But it is also a much faster machine...

I never tried Vista, but heard nothing but crap reports about it - resource hound, slow, awkward, etc.

I did everything to Win7 to speed it up that I do to XP. Turn off all effects is an important one - goodbye AERO!

Turn off a few services (telnet anyone?).

Make sure that there are not dozens of 'extra' programmes loading at boot (lots of update monitors and such do not need to be on all the time). Cyberlink was a problem for me (look at the pics).

I never use Norton - there is a pig of a resource hound - slows computers by 50%! I use the free 'Avast!' (other people like the free AVG).

My Win7 machine was particularly slow for a while. I turned off the MalwareBytes 'auto-monitoring' function and BOOM! (That means it sped up dramatically).

I also turn off the automatic search stuff - otherwise it keeps indexing and slows things down too.

And btw just yesterday I did update my (questionable) XP. Aye, that's the crack (crack - get it? double entendre!).

PM me - anybody who can't update their XP.

[111tingtong]

Any recommendations of good, easy, (and possible free) virtual machine software? Anyone?

Buy a mac, install VMWare Fusion and put whatever operating system you want. I can run OSX native with Windows7 and XP virtuals running simultaneously without flaw. I also have the option to boot into Windows7/XP etc etc using 100% hardware (not required unless gaming).

Mac's make sense, easier, less viruses, use less power and you wont be buying one every year to keep up with the trend. The whole world will be mac eventually, resistance is futile. This however is a different thread.

The original thread was to source an original copy of XP. I believe the response from H2oDunc was the best for my requirements. Thanks

"Safest way to ensure your copy is genuine is to buy a cheap copy. Install it. Download Windows Genuine Advantage and run it. This will tell you that your copy is fake and simply click on the " resolve now " button and pay MS. You get a product key via email and a DVD sent from Singapore"

[Paagai]

We had exactly this problem a few weeks back. Had a new PC purchased specifically for an unusual PCI card for an industrial application that only had XP drivers. Given the nature of our business we wouldn't countenance using non-licensed software and wanted a legit XP install. Whilst the new PC was well capable of running it, windows 7 just wasn't an option.

We contacted Microsoft for advice and they responded as follows: Go to an offical Microsoft distributor (they provided names of 3 or 4 in CM). Purchase windows 7 and ask for a second windows XP installation disc FOC. Once you have these send Microsoft the Windows 7 product code (IIRC we had to fax a copy of the product ID certificate). Microsoft then emailed us a "downgrade" activation code for use with windows XP. Result, after considerable messing around establishing the above, a newly purchased legitimate copy of windows XP.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

> I believe Winnie means to install Windows in a 'virtual window'. Then it is not really installed! (Winnie - is that what you mean?)

Any kind of virtualization yes; using the free VirtualBox for example, or VMWare.

>There is virtual machine software that does exactly that. Personally, I would love to know how to do this!

I think VirtualBox is so easy that it's good to gain some experience with. You install it on a host operating system which can be either Linux or Windows or Mac. The virtual machine is just a file that you can easily backup or move to another machine. So if you create a Windows virtual machine on a Windows host then you can move the same thing to a Linux host or Mac host.

> I know that running a virtual machine makes you 100% safe against viruses. If your virtual machine gets infected, just reboot and load the original virtual machine again - fresh start.

Hm.. I don't agree with that. While you can boot the original virtual machine again (i.e. a backup copy), this is still impractical because all your current files, settings and e-mails would still need to be restored. And, who knows what a virus or other malware might do; it could send random e-mail messages to random other people in your addressbook, or other really inappropriate things. So you really really don't want to get compromised. So it's probably a good idea to run a (free) antivirus on the virtual machine as well, in addition to making sure you don't run as Administrator all the time (if XP).

> Any recommendations of good, easy, (and possible free) virtual machine software? Anyone?

I'd get started with VirtualBox, because it's easy. You stil need a Windows install CD or DVD of course; the virtual machine will need a Windows installation just like a real computer, so you will let it boot up with the install CD in the drive (your real drive is passed through to the VM) and then Windows will install.

> I did everything to Win7 to speed it up that I do to XP. Turn off all effects is an important one - goodbye AERO!

Yeah, I plan to look at that one more time as well. I made the effort for XP to turn off absolutely everything that's not really needed. Then you use about 70-80 MB after booting up.

> Turn off a few services (telnet anyone?).

A non-server OS will not run telnet. And actually these days telnet is obsolete; a server OS may run SSH to connect to it with a command line.

> I never use Norton - there is a pig of a resource hound - slows computers by 50%! I use the free 'Avast!' (other people like the free AVG).

Agreed, I got disanamoured with AVG as well. I settled on Avira, but it seemed 50-50 with Avast. I think Avira used a little less memory so I went with that. (My goal was to be as lean as possible, with a Windows XP installation that would have basic productivity software (Office, etc.) but still completely back up to one DVD. (4.7 MB, after compression). I managed that by having the pagefile on a separate virtual drive that I don't back up.

> I also turn off the automatic search stuff - otherwise it keeps indexing and slows things down too.

Oh yes, Windows Search is humongous in the resources it uses. Too bad that Outlook makes heavy use of it, but you can get around that by using the free Xobni plugin for Outlook searching.

Edited January 30, 2011 by WinnieTheKhwai