XP with all updates on install disk?

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,362
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I figure it's around. Where can I get that? I want to set up an HTPC this week that runs on XP Pro 32bit. I have a licensed copy, 3 or so install disks, one SP2 and a couple SP3 incorporated.

Thing is, I want to leave this machine without internet access or email capability in order to keep it perfectly clean. So, I don't want to run Windows Update. Therefore, I'd like to get a copy of XP with everything rolled in, an ISO download, would be nice. Can I get that? Or should I just install one of my SP3 disks and leave it at that?
 

jimbob200521

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2005
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I feel like your question begs another question: internet access or not, why not throw at least Windows 7 on there that't at least still supported and drivers, software, etc easier to find?
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,362
10,481
136
I feel like your question begs another question: internet access or not, why not throw at least Windows 7 on there that't at least still supported and drivers, software, etc easier to find?
It's a simple HDTV box. Drivers won't be a problem. I know the software that I'll run on it, it runs fine on XP. I know XP better than Win7. Why pay $150+ for an OS that's only semi-supported now, won't be supported at all in 4 years? Yeah, it should all run OK on Win7 (but might be tricky setting things up on Win7). What am I getting for my $150+ investment in Win7 for this machine? I'd be able to browse and do my email for a few years. True, that's something but maybe not worth the trouble/expense. I have other machines handy that will do those things.
 

vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,365
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Search for a torrent file named "XP Professional SP3 x86 - Black Edition".
 

escrow4

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2013
3,339
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I figure it's around. Where can I get that? I want to set up an HTPC this week that runs on XP Pro 32bit. I have a licensed copy, 3 or so install disks, one SP2 and a couple SP3 incorporated.

Thing is, I want to leave this machine without internet access or email capability in order to keep it perfectly clean. So, I don't want to run Windows Update. Therefore, I'd like to get a copy of XP with everything rolled in, an ISO download, would be nice. Can I get that? Or should I just install one of my SP3 disks and leave it at that?

HTPC on that old dog? Media playback? DXVA acceleration? Multi-TB HDDs? It won't be pretty.
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,954
577
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It's a simple HDTV box. Drivers won't be a problem. I know the software that I'll run on it, it runs fine on XP. I know XP better than Win7. Why pay $150+ for an OS that's only semi-supported now, won't be supported at all in 4 years?
Best thing to do is buy an older OEM system or even used/refurbed motherboard from an older OEM system, that shipped preinstalled with Windows 7 and contains the SLIC string in BIOS for W7. That's what I have been doing you basically get Windows for free. Motherboards of this era (late 2009 to early 2012) can be had on Ebay for as little as $20 shipped.
 
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Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
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Best thing to do is buy an older OEM system or even used/refurbed motherboard from an older OEM system, that shipped preinstalled with Windows 7 and contains the SLIC string in BIOS for W7. That's what I have been doing you basically get Windows for free. Motherboards of this era (late 2009 to early 2012) can be had on Ebay for as little as $20 shipped.
Well, I just bought a Gigabyte EP45 UD3R from an AT member, haven't installed yet because I haven't received my new PSU yet (my old one is all but dead, limping along). I figured to install the mobo/cpu/vid.card/ram combo this week. The reason I got this, partly, was that mobo's 3 PCI slots. I need one at the very least to run the HDTV card. Maybe I should have looked for an OEM system with Win7 that had PCI slots, I'm thinking that would have been the smart tactic. Anyway, noone suggested that when I sought help in General Hardware. Thanks for the idea. Maybe I can still implement it, I'll look around, prod ebay and see what I can find.

I'm pretty sure that Gigabyte mobo didn't come with Win7, it's from around 2008, would have been designed with XP in mind. I think that only later was it declared ready for Win7.
 

Hi-Fi Man

Senior member
Oct 19, 2013
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So, would it be safe to use IE on that machine if all I used it for was Windows Update until it said my XP was up to date and than not use it again?

Yes. Most if not all of the updates after SP3 were security updates which won't matter if you aren't connected to the internet.
 
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Mike64

Platinum Member
Apr 22, 2011
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I want to leave this machine without internet access or email capability in order to keep it perfectly clean. So, I don't want to run Windows Update. Therefore, I'd like to get a copy of XP with everything rolled in
I've never used it for XP, and haven't used it at all for a while, but while it's not exactly what you're looking for, if the updates are in fact still available from MS (which you seem to be suggesting is the case?), Windows Update Downloader should let you do the reinstall with 2 discs anyway, and let you avoid connecting the XP machine to the 'net to install the updates... (And then you can image the whole thing once it's all updated...)
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
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I'm pretty sure that Gigabyte mobo didn't come with Win7, it's from around 2008, would have been designed with XP in mind. I think that only later was it declared ready for Win7.

To clarify, that mobo did not "come with" an OS. Therefore, there is no SLIC string in BIOS for getting an OS license for free. It does work with XP, 7, 8.1, 10, Linux, etc. Anything that can boot MBR-style, pretty-much.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,559
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Yes. Most if not all of the updates after SP3 were security updates which won't matter if you aren't connected to the internet.
Exactly. If I had seen this thread sooner, I would have posted the same thing. XP off the internet is nice because it's light and fast. XP off the internet is bad because you may start running into issues getting newer and better codecs to work. Considering the hardware you have mentioned in other threads though, I don't think you are going to run into that, for a while anyway.
 
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Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,362
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windows xp with opera 36 works very fast and opera 36 has support
[can't install Opera 36!]
So, I look up Opera 36 and download the latest update installation applet and run it on both of my XP machines. A very small window pops up that says something like Downloading Windows XP installer.... That disappears in a second or less (I swear, I had to take 14 photos of it with my digicam to capture it, it disappeared so fast I couldn't read it until I got a photo of it. Well, looking at the photo it included an hourglass, so it seeemd to be downloading the installer. However, nothing else happened. I couldn't find anything in my downloads directories (locally or on my server), and no installation progressed, I saw nothing in Task Manager.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,362
10,481
136
I used a machine running Pale Moon, which appears to not be supported in XP anymore, but my version works, but can't be updated. It successfully downloaded what appears to be the installer (downloader) for Opera 36 (a recent stable version), but when I run the downloader nothing appears to happen after it says it's downloading. I could try IE, don't know what version is on the machine, I rarely use IE.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,362
10,481
136
i used ie8 with windows xp to install opera 36 and it installed ok. just tried firefox esr 52 and that has been improved and you willl get security until september 2017.
I tried installing from ie8 today, still it doesn't work. Says download is proceeding but nothing happens. I'm wondering if maybe I have something, if my browsers have been hijacked.
 

Sheep221

Golden Member
Oct 28, 2012
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I tried to revive HTPC P4 box with XP in 2014, not worth it, really dude just junk the whole thing and get refurbished dell machine with IVB i5 for about $200, it has Win7/8 license upgradeable to 10 and whole lot more performance. TV tuner card to USB costs about $20. And they do come with number of legacy PCI slots as well.