considering going back to it on an amd a8 7600 apu, a88x mobo, 4gb ram, has amd drivers, and works a treat for audio editing and a media player. makes for a cheap pc, limitations are good sometimes
I was using XP for the last almost 12 years and had no malware problems, even after MS stopped patching it. But my old PC broke down and my new one had Windows 10 installed. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to go back to my XP, but was advised it doesn't run well on new hardware. Two weeks later, I've got used to Win 10, and after making several adjustments to it I find it tolerable. But I don't think much of its bells & whistles, not to mention spying, XP was clearly superior where it matters.
XP? I used it just today, in a VM, to program an old USB POS keyboard. The software errored out when sending the program on anything else. Other than that I have four XP VMs on my ESXi server in the loft. They are networked onto separate VLANs in the virtual network, trunked to my Cisco lab management switch down here, and broken out again on individual ports. Any time I need clients for testing a config, I just plug in the cables and fire up the VMs using a macro in SecureCRT. Each one is installed with wireshark and port listeners/scanners etc. XP is so much easier for this, and easier on the host, than using Windows 7. Other than that I have a box full of old thin clients that run XP nicely. Every now and then I think of a use for one, then can't be bothered going up to the loft for them. They make great routers though because, unusually, they have a PCI slot for an extra NIC. So I can't quite bring myself to bin them yet. I have one old laptop that dual boots between XP and Backtrack. That's modified with an antenna socket for a big twig and was my old hacking exploring laptop during WEP's heyday. Shows how old that is! (and me, come to think of it.) One day we'll be asking a similar question about Windows 7. I'll be there, if I'm still pointed the right way up.
I'm still using it occasionally in several VirtualBox applications, and I still have all my installations disks (original and customized) and the Acronis images. When Microsoft starts charging home users a monthly fee for their OS, XP will likely become more important. But only after I exhaust all other possibilities such as Windows 7 (if no user fee is charged) or Linux. I really like Linux Mint and 18 is looking very nice.
and that is the only reason I still have a virtual machine of XP (spare physical system would work as well).
I don't think MS will ever make an OS comparable to XP. Just its ability to do a non-destructive reinstall alone was a godsend. Except for slowly destroying the ability to use System Restore from within windows with each successive SP fix making it worse and worse, I still love it. So what if I have to go into Safe mode to use the restore function, it's a small price to pay for using one of the best OS's ever made. I use Win7 on my main machine but it ticks me off that it takes 10X as long to transfer the same size files from an internal drive to an external or flash drive than XP ever did.
yup, i noticed our local hospital has XP on two different systems, one of them in ICU! also noticed local Fry's electronics is running XP. I run it on a few systems too and actually have two running W98 still becasue that hardware its on has lower power draw than any modern equipment.
Yesterday my sister told me the hospital she works in is upgrading her computer from XP to Windows 7! I said "Welcome to 2009!"
XP was and still is a great OS for 32 bit hardware. That's why small businesses that use XP are "shuffling their feet" with regards to updating their systems. I still have yet to grab a copy of XP x64 and tinker with it.
I set up XP 64 probably 3 years ago for someone. The hardest part was finding the drivers. The worst part was it didn't play well with 32 bit apps, and not at all with 16 bit apps.
Old operating systems such as XP have still use in research labs to control very unique scientific devices. We have at least 3 PCs running with XP mainly to control devices which are used for pharmacological research. The reasons for it are: No high performance power CPU is needed, but the app which controls the device is very unique (self made), even the device is self-designed and once designed/programmed for XP. An upgrade to another OS would require a completely new interface or even a new device which can do practically the same, not to speak of another app.... Running an old OS does not mean to be old fashioned at research, it means to stick to an established reliable way to gather data.
LOL That reminded me of a homemade CNC machine I built in the early to mid 2000's. I was using DOS to control the printer ports ( 3 ) which ran the 3 axis' and everything was working pretty good... Then I decided that running XP on that rig would be a good idea. It wasn't. I was running a 3/16" "ball bit" spinning at roughly 30,000 RPM across an aluminum ingot when XP decided to buffer and then catch up. The bit snapped, and the ball went whizzing by my head and lodged itself in the wall behind me. It was back to DOS within the hour... After I changed my shorts.
I had XP64 installed since it was in beta and never had a single problem with the 32 bit apps. Few drivers problems, sometimes I had to mix the edited infs from 32bit with the .sys taken from the vista 64 drivers, but other than that a great OS.