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Absolutely not. XP is not obsolete, not even with SP2. Vanilla or SP1, more than likely that would be a yes. SP2 added a big, important component, a firewall. Now, time for a bit of a rant about XP and MS. Microsoft is just telling you it is obsolete so that you have to shell out more money to buy a newer, inferior OS from them. Windows 2000 is my day to day main operating system and while a few things are getting harder to do with it, I wouldn't consider it obsolete. The only thing that makes it obsolete is all the random doodads that really don't mean anything. I won't get for the life of me how Microsoft Office cannot run on Windows XP anymore, what was truly added to it to make it not run anymore? My money is on nothing, that they just added just enough new extensions so that it calls upon dlls that do not exist in XP. It's exactly the same kernel, from NT to now, it's the same dang thing except up and sometimes downgraded, like the last OSs that came out. Windows 2000 and Windows XP are literally the same OS except for some enhancements to XP but many of the inner workings come straight from 2000 itself. But there was such a big compatibility difference between the two since somehow XP incorporated 9x workings as well so that many programs for 9x could also run without the error messages from being an NT OS which was a big problem in the 90s. But I'm elaborating too much. Honestly, I don't care what people say. It has aged a lot, yes. But it has aged gracefully. There is really no reason why Windows XP cannot be used for another 10 years. Security holes will always exist, there will never been an entirely iron clad OS, there will always be security updates and hotfixes. As XP becomes more incompatible, it'll probably take the same route as Windows 98 where many new worms and viruses will not run simply because it requires dlls that do not exist. There might be things that will always harm the OS, but worms generally attack what is being ran the most throughout the world. XP might still be a target now since many computers still run the OS, but so many have jumped ship to Windows 7, 8, and even 10, that attacking XP won't be economical for them to do anymore, which is what I believe Windows 98 is at right now. It just doesn't make sense to make backwards code for it simply because few people run it anymore, and if they do, some aren't even online with those machines. Many people on here will run XP until there's nothing in the world that will not run it anymore just because they are that diehard of a user. It's not because they're stubborn, it's because they prefer to stay on what works for them. As far as I'm concerned, NT6 is a resource hog and slows down quickly after a while if you do too many projects with the machine, especially video editing and the like. That's my two cents though. As for SP3, I don't think I'd necessarily jump to it. Most hardware that does support XP requires SP3 but if you don't need it, I don't think I'd necessarily install it unless you're having problems with security. I never really liked SP3 myself, it just felt a bit clunky.

512MB Graphics Cards have proven to be problematical when used with Windows 9x. I ran some tests with a nVidia 7200GS and a nVidia 7950GT on various Motherboards to determine why. Apparently nVidia decided to change their design approach after releasing some 512MB Cards. Previously they provided access to the entire Video RAM through the Memory Mapped I/O Space. This approach unfortunately limits the amount of System RAM that can be used by 32-Bit OSes. With the later 512MB Cards they decided to Bank Memory access through a smaller MMIO Space, typically 256MB. Starting with the 8xxx series they also implemented a Memory Page Mapper similar to the MMU in the CPU. The 7200GS is an example of the earlier design. The 7950GT is an example of the later one. The 82.69 nVidia Driver does not recognize the difference between the reported amount of Video RAM and the size of the MMIO Space allocated to the Card. The Driver overwrites the MMIO Space above the Video Card's allocation. Depending upon what is in the next 256MB of MMIO Space, your Computer can crash or other Devices, such as USB, can malfunction. A few people have been lucky enough not to have anything important in this space so they have been able to use a 7950GT although they only get 256MB. Others have not been so lucky. I have developed two solutions for this problem. 1. A Patch to the 82.69 Driver to make it recognize the smaller MMIO Space. 2. A BIOS Patcher for the nVidia BIOS ROM to increase the amount of MMIO Space it claims. The first is more universal but limits the Video RAM typically to 256MB. The second provides the full 512MB Video RAM of the Card. I am preparing a Package to put on my Website.

Are any of them cases where Windows 7 or 8.x won't activate? If so, is there any chance a call to Microsoft would clear that up? -Noel

Begin rant: I choose to use XP SP2 because it is the baseline for most software today, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Most software companies no longer write programs for SP1 or older, and modern programs will fail to install and run. I also find it to be much faster than SP3 on older machines. While the security of XP SP2 is up for debate, I am an experienced computer user and have been running unsupported operating systems for years with no viruses or infections. It really comes down to being a wise user and avoiding social engineering attacks. Even the most up to date Windows can be attacked if the user is foolish. That being said, XP SP3 is listed as the minimum requirement for many hardware items such as brand new printers and USB 3.0 equipment. Most computer hardware you buy at the store today will have XP SP3 listed as the minimum requirement. This does not necessarily mean it won't work on SP1/SP2; it means that the manufacturers may not help you/are not obligated to help you if you are running SP1/SP2 when you call them for support. Also, if you use Internet Explorer 6.0/7.0/8.0 on XP, you will be unable to access secure https:// websites unless you install SP3. This is because IE SHA compatibility is dependent on the underlying OS, and XP SP2 and older are not SHA 2 compatible. Again, the way around this is to install SP3, or use SP2 with a current browser like Chrome or Firefox. I prefer to use alternate browsers since they are safer. If you wish to have the most current security updates for XP through 2014, you should run SP3. Otherwise, SP2 will do the job. End rant.

You cannot generalize like that . Most members of this forum will have read several pages of instructions to learn and set the clock properly (once ). Then after the first blackout or after the general switch needed to be put to off for some repairs, they will have lost a few days desperately searching the instruction booklet (that was thrown away the same day the VCR was bought or that managed to somehow get under a pile of book somewhere in a storage place). Then they will have spent a few hours trying blindly to push buttons until they either completely failed or succeeded in setting the clock. In any case the next blackout neutered that. And so, finally everyone will have learned to live with the : After some time it actually seems like a nice idea when you enter your sitting room at night and see the small blinking something, a small lighthouse in the darkness. jaclaz

@dencorso You do understand some Italian, don't you? Here is a classic piece of comedy of the '60's (the background is that it is a parody of a known series of documentaries of the early times of Italian TV where the author traveled across Italy particularly small villages and remote zones to interview people and learn about typical crafts, food, habits, traditions, dialects, etc.) Here: jaclaz