Archive for the ‘Windows XP’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/08/05
20260805: edits as since scheduling, some links suffered link rot and a new tool appeared.
For my link archive because – for offline usage – sometimes Windows XP is still useful to run tools that have never been made compatible with less ancient hardware/software combinations.
The xp_activate32.exe mentioned below emulates the phone-activation response and is the important bit for me as I can re-use existing Windows XP license keys that I already have.
The WindowsXPKg generates new Windows XP license keys.
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Posted in C, C++, Development, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows Development, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/04
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, History, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Development, Windows XP, XML, XML/XSD | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/08/25
I was looking for a way to measure Windows disk performance from the console as I was used to using the [Wayback/Archive] CrystalDiskMark GUI measurement tool.
So I was glad to learn a few years back at the end of 2022 that [Wayback/Archive] CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4c is based on [Wayback/Archive] DISKSPD 2.0.21a. Which back then was an older version as [Wayback/Archive] DISKSPD 2.1 had been released fall 2021.
I found this out via [Wayback/Archive] Performance benchmarking with CrystalDiskMark on Nutanix: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, Windows XP | Tagged: 159, 23 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/08/22
I got the below error when booting a Dell Optiplex 7060 Micro, a machine not just supporting supporting UEFI but preferring it, on which I had copied a backed-up disk image, then moved the hidden Recovery partition to the end of the physical disk (to make room to extend either the OS or DATA partitions).
Fixing it lead me to a trip that was on the boundary of software archaeology, so this blog post has a truckload of archived links to information that is still relevant, but for which the original links have long vanished due to link rot or (often worse) part of the historic information got lost because of migration to new tooling forgot to cover important additions (especially in comments).
One thing that I had to unlearn was MBR disk basics, for instance the fact that on GPT disks a partition can be active (they can only be on MBR disks, but despite UEFI supporting both MBT and GPT, GPT disks are way more common and required). The same holds for partitions having a boot flag: that too only applies to MBR disks. For the same reason, bootrec is only useful for MBR disks. More details towards the end of this blog post. CSM (Compatibility Support Module) booting is the UEFI way to simulate BIOS boot for operating systems that do no support UEFI.
Back to the error at hand:
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Posted in Development, History, link rot, Power User, Software Archeology, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows XP, WWW - the World Wide Web of information | Tagged: 1 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/06/20
I thought I had long gone blogged about the .URL file extension as it has been in Windows for some 25 years now to point to URLs, but I didn’t.
So here are two links on them:
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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/25
This one is cool: [Wayback/Archive] PRANK: Windows XP Updates.
Note that unlike the screenshot below, the actual prank does count the percentage. The actual page does.
You can start this one and various other OSes plus Windows versions and other pranks via [Wayback/Archive] FakeUpdate.net – Windows Update Prank by fediaFedia (at the time of writing Windows 98 install, Windows Vista update, Windows 8 update, Windows 7 update, Mac OS boot, Windows 10 install, Windows 10 update, steam and “fake ransomware”).
It is a cool and relatively harmless way of teaching people to use their lock screen when away from their machine (Windows: Win+L, Mac OS: Ctrl+Shift+Power).
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Posted in Awareness, Fun, Power User, Security, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 9, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/10/20
Last week I found out that I had some Windows ATOM issues before, but this beats them easily was still a draft in stead if in the blog queue.
I got reminded to it by someone asking on Telegram about
“Do I need to use GarbageCollectAtoms in Delphi? I used it in delphi 7, but I dont know what is benefit. 😐”.
The short answer is: yes, if your Delphi application does terminate in a way that the Controls unit cannot cleanly unload (and cannot free the Windows atoms) or leaks Windows atoms in a different way. I have been in that situation and that’s why I wrote the above blog post that got published in 2016.
The longer answer is likely no, both the Windows atom and registered Windows message table share a heap and that registered VCL Windows message leaking bug got fixed some 10 years ago in Delphi XE2, see:
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Posted in Conference Topics, Conferences, Delphi, Development, Event, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows NT, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/10/19
Posted in Development, FortiGate/FortiClient, Hardware, Network-and-equipment, Power User, Security, Software Development, VPN, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 9, Windows Development, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/06/13
Warning: only do this in a well confined network because of the SMBv1 has serious security implications!
Temporarily allowing SMBv1 makes it easier to transfer files from/to ancient Windows XP (virtual) machines.
Sometimes you need those to support hardware for which more modern drivers or support do not exist.
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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/05/26
Vista!
Shutting down or rebooting Windows allowing existing applications to reopen
Windows Vista introduced the /g switch in shutdown.exe and was unchanged in Windows 7:
/g Shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is
rebooted, restart any registered applications.
I never noticed it until Windows 10 which began actively use it when applying system updates: then suddenly many of the previously running applications would reopen during startup.
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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 