You might be a Windows XP user if...

[moonbat]

keyboard had an audiocassette drive

Some computers like the BBC Micro could use audiocassettes as data tape drives. Haven't heard of a PC doing that, but that's why you couldn't use it like a regular tape player - there's no audio circuitry inside. PC audio started getting serious, especially for games, with Soundblaster, Adlib and Roland sound cards in the early 90s.

cold and unlikeable

Personal opinion I guess. 7 was peak Windows. The most beautiful UI, full color 3D icons with DirectX Aero glass effects if available, else it would fall back to classic mode. I had a small netbook with 7 Home edition and it ran without the visual effects, compared to my desktop where everything from transparent windows to the 3D window switcher you got on Win + tab was available. The dumbing down and uglification started with 8 and the moronic full screen start menu. I stuck to Classic Shell for as long as it was supported and now I'm using Linux Mint.

and I'm still waiting for a Windows version that can beat it

Too late. Nothing can

[Mæstro]

Personal opinion I guess. 7 was peak Windows. The most beautiful UI, full color 3D icons with DirectX Aero glass effects if available, else it would fall back to classic mode. I had a small netbook with 7 Home edition and it ran without the visual effects, compared to my desktop where everything from transparent windows to the 3D window switcher you got on Win + tab was available. The dumbing down and uglification started with 8 and the moronic full screen start menu. I stuck to Classic Shell for as long as it was supported and now I'm using Linux Mint.

XP was my favourite, partly due to childhood familiarity and partly because there were some 7 features, such as libraries, that I had never liked. I was nonetheless pleased with it for the most part, running it also with Aero disabled. I had run 7 more than any other operating system (2010–20) before security concerns had persuaded me to switch. I am now using Mint’s Debian edition with XP theming. With Pale Moon made to look like early Firefox, I can forget it is no longer 2006 and enjoy all the perks of being an ‘XP user’ without the hindrances.

[Drugwash]

I am now using Mint’s Debian edition with XP theming.

I'm on Mint Cinnamon 19.2 with a Win7-for-XP theme adapted by myself. Which icon theme are you using? I found one taken from YlmfOS which I slightly improved/fixed in time. Still, not everything in the theme itself or icons is as it should be.

[Mæstro]

I am now using Mint’s Debian edition with XP theming.

I'm on Mint Cinnamon 19.2 with a Win7-for-XP theme adapted by myself. Which icon theme are you using? I found one taken from YlmfOS which I slightly improved/fixed in time. Still, not everything in the theme itself or icons is as it should be.

I use B00merang’s, also with Cinnamon. The only missing icons I have noticed are the ‘charging battery’ icon for when this notebook is plugged into the mains (XP’s ‘on battery power’ icon appears when disconnected) and a few Mint-specific applications like the backup that could likely be adjusted if I look enough.

[Drugwash]

It's the same package if you look at the Pling description text. I did have to make a lot of changes to it and still it's far from complete.

[Utnapishtim]

cold and unlikeable

Personal opinion I guess. 7 was peak Windows. The most beautiful UI, full color 3D icons with DirectX Aero glass effects if available, else it would fall back to classic mode. I had a small netbook with 7 Home edition and it ran without the visual effects, compared to my desktop where everything from transparent windows to the 3D window switcher you got on Win + tab was available. The dumbing down and uglification started with 8 and the moronic full screen start menu. I stuck to Classic Shell for as long as it was supported and now I'm using Linux Mint.

That was just my initial take, I wouldn't go back to XP now. I installed XP a few years ago out of boredom and I found I grew out of it, I guess. It also looked really odd on a FHD multi monitor setup. 7 was peak in both usability and design. There are some things that I could easily do without, like Libraries, and some XP features I miss but overall absolutely. +1 to Win+Tab too, once you go that route you don't go back to Alt+Tab

Win 8+ just went and added more dumb abstraction layers to Libraries and other sort of stuff I don't see a point for, in addition to the weird interface, and the Settings thing in Win10+ really weirds me out, my PC is not a phone. To be sure there are useful additions like mounting ISOs, Hyper-V, WSL but you still have 3rd party programs for that on Win7. I kinda want to try that but so far I don't feel like there's anything I can't do on my current system.

[Eduardo Lucas]

You might be a Windows XP user if you think a Pentium III can handle any kind of modern desktop workload, even if you need weird hacks and horrible mutilated browsers from even weirder people, or put up two or three sockets and waste 500w per hour to make your ancient hardware paraphilia alive.

[moonbat]

ancient hardware paraphilia

Savage

[Eduardo Lucas]

ancient hardware paraphilia

Savage

I think being savage and cruel like that in describing their peculiar obsessions is fair to them

[Moonchild]

ancient hardware paraphilia

Savage

Wouldn't actually surprise me if some of them cream their pants seeing some websites being rendered legibly and within a minute on such hardware, though.

[Blacklab]

Jethro Tull refers: https://tube.cadence.moe/watch?v=2YymGJKhGgY

[Eduardo Lucas]

Wouldn't actually surprise me if some of them cream their pants seeing some websites being rendered legibly and within a minute on such hardware, though.

I was wondering THIS EXACTLY when i made the joke ROFL

[Bilbo47]

>XP was my favourite ... some 7 features, such as libraries, that I had never liked.
>some things I could do without, like Libraries

Libraries seemed not-useful until M$ insisted on creating so many useless folders in the root of C:\ ... Now under Win 8.1 (Classic Shell, xplorer2 Ultimate, Alt-Tab Terminator, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker etc) they are terrific for showing only the folders that need viewing. Mint in a VM helps dip my toes into Linux. Win 10 is just ugly as sin, even when setup up as desktop+startmenu. The distraction slows me down and prevents any flow-zone state.

The only reason I stopped using XP is, that motherboard overheated during a heavy worksession and fried itself in 2010. Was forced into learning Vista on a laptop ugh. Dunno which component(s) are dead; swapping around with replacement CPU, MB, and power supply all returned no joy. The only part that survived to be resurrected in 2020 is the fast HDD.

[MrMobodies]

>XP was my favourite ... some 7 features, such as libraries, that I had never liked.
>some things I could do without, like Libraries

Libraries seemed not-useful until M$ insisted on creating so many useless folders in the root of C:\ ... Now under Win 8.1 (Classic Shell, xplorer2 Ultimate, Alt-Tab Terminator, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker etc) they are terrific for showing only the folders that need viewing. Mint in a VM helps dip my toes into Linux. Win 10 is just ugly as sin, even when setup up as desktop+startmenu. The distraction slows me down and prevents any flow-zone state.

I had quite a few customers that use to phone me up and complain that they lost all their work, it turned out the libraries feature was broken. My solution, fix it, remove libraries altogether and from registry so it doesn't show up again and show them where it is on the drive, so I installed Classicshell to give back the start menu and disabled that breadcrumb thing that interfere's with my viewing of the address bar.

I use a Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 that I spent two years customizing and stripping unwanted things. It has taken me a lot of effort to get it working in the way I want so I had to spent a lot of time finding out what the services do and remove ones that cause me problems. Waasmedic, rempl, telemetry stuff not respecting group policies. I had to set permissions to stop UpdateOrchestrator recreating the task scheduler tasks/folders and the registry stuff to try and default the permissions denying all user accounts to prevent any changes to it. Also setting ID type from 16(32) to 10(16) so I can change the startup.

Now it is very well behaved, hardly makes any connects on startup to Microsoft or that Azure and i am pleased with.
When I want another copy, I'll just get it from a disc image and buy the keys.

Updates didn't cause me problems yet when switched on with the UpdateOrchestrator, click to download and click to install.

I have a few old machines with Windows xp not connected to broadband but I use them for sound cards to loop audio through. There is an old sound card an Aztech 2320, which has this SRS3D thing on it that I really like so I loop all my stuff through a mixer into that and it goes to my headphones. It has a 16bit audio driver for Windows NTand a button to turn off the effect.

[moonbat]

it turned out the libraries feature was broken

Broken how? It lets you designate multiple folders/network locations under categories of documents/pictures/music/video, and if you don't want to do that, there are the folders with the same name under C:\users\<username>.

[MrMobodies]

I have seen it happen mostly with laptops. I don't exactly know how they broke on those occasions but I'd suspect it had something to do with hard disk failure at some point where I'd see counts on the reallocated sector count. I use to replace lots of failed laptop drives at the time and just cloned and fixed up the operating system. I'd find many other stuff in windows broke but on most occasions I was able to sort it out manually, I think I found on some occasions it had to do with incomplete windows updates that failed and didn't cleanup properly for whatever reason (whether it was caused by hard drive failure or power loss during it) but that was ten years ago. I spent a lot of time manually removing malware, rootkits, finding dodgy services put there by so called browser toolbars all from someone installing ad supported game somewhere. I use to see this often... FreeRideGames, things from Mindspark and MyWaysearchbar and many others like it.

I had customers that didn't treat their laptops well and a few put them in a shopping bags and I'd be tightening hinge screws up or replacing the hinges, back covers where I'd see huge cracks on the base and palm rest.

I remembered when good laptop nags were expensive especially in places like PC World at one point so I use to go down boot sales and find them for a couple of pound and store them up to give to the customers who use the shopping bag.

Also I found for me that Libraries were in the way of the Navigational pane but one good thing about Windows 10 it can be hidden in folder options.

I just use the folders directly in: C:\users\<username>

Oh in Windows 10 LTSC that i worked on I got rid of the "Quick Access" altogether in registry as I found that was getting in the way and couldn't seem to hide it.

See picture, that is the way I like it to look and behave.

Another good thing with LTSC, no appstore or unwanted promotional apps in the background.

[Vultural]

Some users are just obstinate.
My wife inherited my Dell laptop, which had XP.
Until a year or so ago, it was still running XP. I offered to buy a new lap, but she hated the later keyboards.
Eventually, XP no longer functioned.
That ancient Dell is still going, but she uses Antix OS via flashdrive. Pale Moon works fine in Antix, by the way.

[Mike_Walsh]

Windows XP was a great OS for its time period. As an ode to it, I currently use its startup sound on my current Devuan 5.0 install. But to use XP today, no way.

.....yup, and I use the shutdown sound to close every session of Puppy Linux that I run. Those jingles were the best thing about it!!

But actually use it? Today? ONLINE??? Heaven forfend.....

(I used it for its full 13-year life-span. By the end, I was sick to the back teeth with MyCrudSoft's antics. Puppy saved my sanity.....)


Mike.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

I have just installed XP on a Dell Dimension with a Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, a 500gb hybrid SSD/HDD and a decent-ish GPU.

With just 4gb RAM and all utils loaded it gives 3.5gb RAM available to programs to use, it is very quick to boot (25secs) and snappy to operate.

It runs three or four useful pieces of software that only operate now on XP, some project management tools that were very good and unfortunately no longer available. It runs Battleground Ardennes that has a 16 bit installer, a few other games whose DRM is tied to XP and most importantly it acts as a test bed for programs developed in VB6/VB2005-2008 - as well as being a comparison tool for code coming to/from ReactOS. A good test tool for ReactOS in general.

XP is also extremely snappy to operate, efficient as a development environment, no nags, nothing gets in the way and most importantly it is free from recent Microsoft GUI decisions. It is a great o/s and I think of it now as - Win7 Lite. Makes it more acceptable to the brain.

This machine has a second drive that also allows me to boot ReactOS.

[Moonchild]

It runs three or four useful pieces of software that only operate now on XP, some project management tools that were very good and unfortunately no longer available. It runs Battleground Ardennes that has a 16 bit installer, a few other games whose DRM is tied to XP and most importantly it acts as a test bed for programs developed in VB6/VB2005-2008 - as well as being a comparison tool for code coming to/from ReactOS. A good test tool for ReactOS in general.

If you are one of the very few people actually using a separate machine for specific applications that are over a decade old, you might be a Windows XP user.
(and so far the only reasonably proper way in which it should still be used )