Can you get a decent browser on Windows XP?

[jcpainter]

I'm doing some MUCH overdue electronics purging. We have two laptops running Windows XP that I would like to donate to a local charity.

They actually run pretty well except for internet access. The only browser I've found that will still even run on XP is an old version of Internet Explorer. Older Firefox and Chrome browsers that used to work on the machines don't work anymore, as Windows XP is no longer supported by them.

Only a very small handfull of sites can be accessed using the old Internet Explorer and of course, you can't upgrade it.

I Googled and found mention of a few unknown browsers that are supposed to be compatible with XP, but they wouldn't even install.

Is anyone here actually still using Windows XP with a browser that will access most online sites?

[fj12ryder]

mileshuff wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
I don't think it's the virus issue per se, but rather the security exploits that are more easily attacked on XP.

True but same applies. Generally such attacks are initiated thru some user action. Avoid those actions and you won't get attacked. I still have one XP machine I use daily. Been using it for years. Not a single attack. At a company of a few 100 people it is always the same people having their PC attacked while everyone else has zero issues.

Weeelllll, you're kind of right, but an exploit can be hidden on an innocuous website like yahoo, CNN, CNET, etc, and you don't even have to click on anything to be attacked. Old OS's like XP have more vulnerabilities because they aren't being patched like the new OS's. I don't mean to be a fearmonger, but it is a fact that an older, unsupported OS is going to be more likely to be attacked. Different from an emailed virus, or some such thing.

[magicbus]

mileshuff wrote:
So many are saying MS support for XP completely ended over 5 years ago. That is incorrect. Because of ATM and point of sale usage MS has been issuing updates for XP at least thru 2019. It required a simple registry change to set the version to point of sale.

For J.Q. Public support ended completely some time ago. Registry changes and even manual updates are way beyond he purview of 99.99% of the computer using public.

Dave

[mileshuff]

fj12ryder wrote:
I don't think it's the virus issue per se, but rather the security exploits that are more easily attacked on XP.

True but same applies. Generally such attacks are initiated thru some user action. Avoid those actions and you won't get attacked. I still have one XP machine I use daily. Been using it for years. Not a single attack. At a company of a few 100 people it is always the same people having their PC attacked while everyone else has zero issues.

[fj12ryder]

"For people that do not have any money for anything else an old XP PC can still do what some need. For those that know what they are doing viruses aren't an issue!"

I don't think it's the virus issue per se, but rather the security exploits that are more easily attacked on XP.

[mileshuff]

So many are saying MS support for XP completely ended over 5 years ago. That is incorrect. Because of ATM and point of sale usage MS has been issuing updates for XP at least thru 2019. It required a simple registry change to set the version to point of sale. Those updates were supposed to end in July 2019. However, MS released a major security patch last year after that date. It was not available thru Windows Update and must be downloaded manually.

Older Chrome versions can still be downloaded that work. For people that do not have any money for anything else an old XP PC can still do what some need. For those that know what they are doing viruses aren't an issue!

[T18skyguy]

You might be able to turn it into a chromebook by using Neverware. Many thousands have been converted, and they run well and fast. Here's an article explaining the process.

[cleo43]

MX is a solid Linux Distro that still supports 32 bit oldies.
I just saved 2 laptops from the junk yard.
Firefox is the default browser.
It make me feel good to do something about the environment.

[neal10a]

No charity would want these if they care about those they are helping. The only people that might want them is the Smithsonian 100 years from now.

[austinjenna]

Before going through all the trouble you should check if your charity even wants it. I had a working LED monitor I tried donating last week to Volunteers of America and also Goodwill. Neither of them take any computers, monitors or parts.

Also like others have mentioned if it has XP on it, its junk

[GDS-3950BH]

drsteve wrote:

K Charles wrote:
My laptop works fine with XP. I use it for e-mail, to put music on my WD my cloud, and a little banking. If anyone stoled my identity, when they found out what they had they would give it back.

You do online banking with an OS that hasn't had a security upgrade in half a decade? And has several known, unpatched severe vulnerabilities? You're asking for trouble...

Personally, I would revert back to 3.1 :S

[drsteve]

K Charles wrote:
My laptop works fine with XP. I use it for e-mail, to put music on my WD my cloud, and a little banking. If anyone stoled my identity, when they found out what they had they would give it back.

You do online banking with an OS that hasn't had a security upgrade in half a decade? And has several known, unpatched severe vulnerabilities? You're asking for trouble...

[magicbus]

jcpainter wrote:
I truly agree that Windows XP is dead and burried, but I just didn't feel good donating something that couldn't be used for reasonable internet access.

The problem is that by donating an XP machine with a reasonable browser all you are doing is leaving it so that an unaware recipient of your good intention will open their network to being hacked. XP security is known to be vulnerable and no corrections are being made. Hacking isn't just about identity theft either, vulnerable machines and networks become unwitting participants in large scale denial of service attacks. In this day and age it is really a disservice to donate an XP computer for anything except recycling.

Dave

[wa8yxm]

Eric/Lisa that hard drive looks like a start on the Military method.. someone once ask how to totally erase one and I posted, as best I recalled, the Military standard (Which includes hammers, rocks, or anvils, flame throwers. Hand Grenades and running over it with a tank as I recall) got flamed. and then before I even saw the flame someone explained where I was getting my suggestions.

Suffice to say the US Army way is kind of overkill but it works.. guaranteed. not even Nigel (Crossing Jordan TV show) is gonna get anything off that drive. :).

To the thread topic.

I use Chrome browser more and more now days on my Win-10 box (which is now a use when it only runs on doze) and well my main machines are chromebooks with android extensions. DO 99% of what I need so that's what I use.

[printerhelpcent]

Well firefox used to be good. but alas it's gotten so bloated as to be poor ***Link Removed***brother printer offline fix in window 10

Opera still gets good reviews
I use Chrome on Win-10 Don't have any XP any more

I'm using Chromebooks more and more just use Doze when I have to. ***Link Removed***fix canon printer error b200

[Eric_Lisa]

Chris Bryant wrote:
The thing is, I would never donate a computer without completely wiping the hard drive and reinstalling the OS.

And not a 'quick format' either. Run a full long format that takes hours to run. A 'quick format' only removes what can be thought of as the table of contents - the data is still on the hard drive. It is fairly trivial to recover. Things like credit card and account numbers, haphazardly stored by Windows or the browser, may be lurking waiting discovery.

As for me... I will recycle old computers without any hard drives in them. I will do a 'remote disk wipe' on all hard drives....from 100 yards away.



-Eric