well as probably all you know that windows XP is getting their updates gone and is is like getting service dead. as you know I have windows XP on this computer… this will probably the last post this computer makes. (we are probably going to get a new computer so hope is not lost.) but it is sad how both are Plymouth Voyager and this computer did not count for Best Buy’s Cash for clunkers. yeah if you think you were going to get the 100 dollars for the computer well they dont accept the dell dimension computers. oh well I guess post what you feel on here about windows xp the killing moments, viruses, funny stuff that happened on it.
(bye the way if you have not signed into a computer that is newer OS look under help on outlook.com and there is an free offer for windows 8.1)
Go HERE. Set up your XP computer as a dual boot with Ubuntu. You can keep XP with all your files and perhaps to run hardware that Ubuntu does not support and have Linux to use online without the threat of major hacks that are surely in store for XP. Run XP offline only and you should be OK unless you have a lot of stuff going in and out on USB thumb drives.
Ubuntu uses Firefox as an internet browser, which should be familiar to many people and even though it looks a little different, once you get used to it, it does everything Windows does.
If you don’t think Linux isn’t for you, keep in mind that it’s free and all the software is free. Free everything should help you adjust to Linux. I can’t say what I think about the Windows 8 operating system on this Windows owned and operated forum, but if it was such a great piece of software, they wouldn’t have to force people to buy it.
Free Windows 8.1? I looked in Help, can you guide us a bit more RitzyBiscuit?
Kind of tough to get precise information on the “free” Windows 8.1 “upgrade”. Everything I’ve seen so far says that it is an upgrade to Windows 8.1 from Windows 7. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve had a bit of time on Windows 8 and there is no way I consider it an upgrade from Windows 7. Didn’t see anything about free upgrades to 8.1 from XP. Odds are your computer running XP will not meet the hardware requirements for Windows 7 or Windows 8. See if your computer can run Windows 8.1.
The “free” Windows 8.1 appears to comes complete with a Bing search, toolbar, etc. package, so if you prefer a non-Bing search engine, like Google, you will probably have some adjustments to make(if you’re able).
Kind of tough to find the download links for the free stuff on microsoft.com, here’s a website that has them.
I have an older laptop running XP Pro that is slated for Ubuntu in the near future, I may try to install the Windows 8.1 freebie to check it out, but I doubt it will work on an older computer where XP ran great and Linux will run even better.
I had an XP computer for many years so I will send it off with one last…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nQ2oiVqKHw
And this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4KAFMS4MOY
Enjoy!
yeah we did look at ubuntu and well we have everything to run it but the space on the HDD. (only 18 or less GB on the HDD if installed it would not run really well at all.) now I use firefox (I’m using it right now for this) so it’s not new to me. now my mom had it come up right off on help, and it did say get windows 8.1, it’s free. (now mine were I made it like 9 months ago did not work because I sign in on windows 7 computers at my school so it did not pop up) so if your parents have not signed into a computer that is not newer than windows xp then you would get. now it did not come up on a search on bing or yahoo (mom uses yahoo I use bing) so I dont know if they removed it have not checked. but anyway you guys wont be seeing me for a while so good bye for now! 
You can run Linux from an optical drive, you don’t have to install it to your hard drive. If I recall correctly you need about 2 G of hard drive space for a Unbuntu desktop installation. Get rid of Windows XP and you’ll have plenty of room.
bye the way Intel Pentium 4 works ram works everything works but the storage. (64GB HDD man! this computer is weird)
Man, Windows XP was probably the best PC operating system I’ve ever used (for the year it was made in). It’s quite sad for me, actually. I did so much with XP - my first computer had XP, the first blue screen of death I saw was on XP, the first PC game I played was on XP, and the list goes on. Memories…