Yes folks - I have a scenario whereby I want to install Windows XP on a old PC !!

The PC does not get used on the internet _at all_

Now I can install xp with a valid (legal, in fact !!) product key .... but it seems there's now NO WAY to activate the damn thing. I hear M$ shut down the server that activates XP :-/

So - don't suppose anyone has any tricks to get around this ? Obviously I've googled a fair bit, but nothing reliable comes up .... if there _are_ any tricks, I'm thinking M$'s travelling bots may have  deleted/hidden them.

Haven't done that myself, but I'm reliably informed that doesn't work ... and if you hold to try and get a human (well, a M$ pseudo-human trained monkey) they just say "can't help you".

you could go find yourself a copy of XP black edition make sure it doesn't come with free malware. 

Option B here might help  you 

https://superuser.com/questions/1502796/how-do-i-activate-windowsxp-now-that-support-has-ended/1502890#1502890" rel="nofollow - https://superuser.com/questions/1502796/how-do-i-activate-windowsxp-now-that-support-has-ended/1502890#1502890

Then all these un-necessary headaches go away.

Especially if you buy Dell PC with Windows 7 COA Certificate.

Not always possible, I have an old Alienware laptop that won’t reliably run anything newer than Vista, Win 7 can be installed on it but due to lack of Win 7 drivers for the touch bar the thing becomes totally unstable…. BSOD city!!

Also, some software tools still require 16bit support and won’t run on anything newer than XP, this is common with industrial PLC and motor drive/inverter commissioning software, all my machines all have an XP vm on them for this reason.

Then I discovered DELL ex Corp PCs and COA  Certificates, auto SLIC activation.

My main machines are Ubuntu LTS, have 2x DELL  laptops running Windows 10.

Life so much easier now.

^^^ This. There are still quite a few pieces of industrial machinery that require this .... (as well as often needing a RS232 port).

How can M$ be sooo ignorant and stupid as to just pull the plug like this ? I mean yeah from their POV, they might wanna plaster warnings all over it, but why not just leave that server running ???

Just let me know :) 

Sinai Sound wrote: Can potentially sort you a HP machine that you could put XP on

Thanks for the offer ... but that scenario has gone away now. Had to bite the bullet and organise a somwewhat newer machine that can take win7 32-bit. Thats gonna have diferent hassles though :-/

Just curious though - what did you jave in mind ? PC with the original OEM XP disk ? Still not sure if that would actually activate at the time of install ... and then there'd be a possibillty of it wanting to re-activate if any hardware changes are made. Pah !

I just think starting point should be Windows 10 x64 i5 machine, with SSD, and at least 8gb ram, and DELL Windows COA.

You can then install Windows XP in VM, and go from there.

HP Machine with Vista license on top, but if you use their old HP OEM XP restore disc (which I've slipstreamed SP3 and latest updates to in the past) it activates without even being connected to the internet, or even entering a product key. 

HP XW4600 workstation in question here. 

?? Why use a VM ? How does that help with activation ?

Is a trivial thing, to patch SLIC ACPI  table in VirtualBox VM, 

so Windows XP /7 x64 auto activates.

Ah OK - didn't know that ... never got around to tinkering with VM's really.

Anyway - an update to this litle scenario in the unlikely event someone else gets into the situation.

I was having a look inside some winxp iso's I have - and ... BOOM !! The XP Home iso I have turns out to be a Dell OEM one - with the necessary stuff to auto-activate (and not require a key) - and - guess what - the machine is a Dell :-) :-) So yup - worked perfectly and that machine is now hunky dory with XP instead of Win7 x86 - which is what I wanted.

Dunno if <cough cough> anyone might be willing to share a HP OEM CD iso - then between him and me we'll have Dell and HP covered for XP (I'm happy to share the Dell one) :-)

Now I need to turn attention to my trusty Asus eeePC901 - which still works very well (with XP) to run Virtual DJ ver7 home - does everything I want for playing reggae (i.e. no beat-matching kind of stuff reqd.) and my little VDJ script thingys assign function keys to siren, screechy sound, gunshots, hooter etc. and B does a bass cut, C brings bass back in, R does a decent enough pseudo rewind .... Works very well on batteries - good life with ethernet, bluetooth, wi-fi all disabled.

The Asus netbook runs XP (already activated) also - need to find a way to back up its c: partition. Its on built-in SSD, so can't take the drive out and image it on another machine. If I can scare up a older version of Acronis that'll boot from a USB stick - should be do-able.

Then life got easier, when I didn't bother with software or hardware, that was a headache.

Download the iso and createa boot usb stick with rufusn

Included in hirens is Lazesoft image creator.

Well I know what you mean - but .....

Modern s/w .... heh - not too long ago I tried to use the current version of Acronis - barfed on just duplicating a partition - pah ! Plenty of  bloat and bells + whistles - shame they don't feckin work. And there's plenty of examples like that I can think of. Mouth and no trousers syndrome - for marketing purposes.

Modern laptops ... with non-swappable batteries ? Eck ! .... and you have to dismantle the thing to plug in a stick of memory ??? Rubbish. A Dell Inspiron (coupla years old) I encountered was put together with the most ludicrous screw (just ONE of them) had a head that I just didn't have a screwdriver for - even after asking matey over the road who has just about every conceivable type/size of screwdriver. ... stupidly tiny cross-head. I just had to give up on upgrading the memory. Pah.

I'll carry on using that ancient litle Asus "netbook" with its 9" screen, Intel Atom 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, winxp for as long as I can. It ain't broke, so I ain't gonna fix it. It works like a champ for its purpose (it doesn't do anything else) and has done for years.

The context is playing out through - well I suppose you'd call it a baby sound system - totally off-grid, so battery power needs to last. With the eeePC I can play all day and half the night with the 3 batteries I can swap out.

Oh yeah - forgot about rufus ... that should do it.  Getting old :-/ (I mean me - not rufus).