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General discussion (archive)Do new laptops generally work with WinXP too?(6 posts)solved(6 posts)solved
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Posted September 18, 2011
I know that in general HW vendors phase out support for older Windows versions (and on laptops maybe even faster so, because they pretty much always are shipped with the newest available Windows version anyway), but is there some consensus whether new laptops in general still support WinXP (drivers etc.), if you install it alongside of Win7? Do some HW vendors have better legacy XP support than others, e.g. should I consider ATI over NVidia or vice versa in laptop hardware?

I know that e.g. on my old IBM ThinkPad (T41), which originally ran Win2000 and later WinXP, does not seem to run Win98SE well, apparently there are no suitable drivers at least in base Win98SE for its HW. So I presume that similarly quite a few new Win7 laptops have similar problems if you try to install WinXP on them, but is it really so?

By the reports it seems that you pretty much have to keep WinXP operational in order to play many Win9x era games that fail on Win7... or does the XP compatibility mode in Win7 Pro work sufficiently well for them?

Just pondering about the future of my PC retrogaming, how to keep my Win9x era games still functional if and when my current PCs fail... I'm not sure if Linux Wine would be even a better solution, but I'd prefer still running the good old XP.
Post edited September 18, 2011 by timppu
This question / problem has been solved by Stuffimage
Posted September 18, 2011
Yes
Posted September 18, 2011
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timppu: Is there some consensus whether new laptops in general still support WinXP (drivers etc.), if you install it alongside of Win7?
I can relate how I get XP to run on newer machines if that helps . . . =)

The problem is the drivers for the newer hardware are not included on the Windows XP install disk. If XP drivers for the newer hardware were made by the manufacturer then you can make a slipstream disk that will include the drivers for the newer hardware and allow the XP install. I dread the day that XP drivers for newer hardware will not be available from the manufacturers as I like to keep a new box with XP as the OS.

My XP install on a new computer required that I make a slipstream disk since the newer MB / SATA drivers were not on the XP disk. The hard drive simply was not seen by the XP install. Further complicating the install was the fact that my new computer did not have a floppy drive. XP will let you add newer drivers at install by inserting the driver floppy disk into drive a. I have since purchased a USB floppy that XP recognizes but it is fairly simple to make a slipstream disk instead. The drivers I required were included in a download from Intel. I just did a search for XP drivers for a specific Intel MB. Also I installed XP first, then Vista. Vista saw the XP install and asked if I wanted to make this a dual boot system. I responded yes and have an option at boot as to which OS I want to load. I assume Win 7 will do the same but have not tried it. I should mention that I made the manufacturers system restore disks prior to doing the dual boot install since the process formatted the HD removing the hidden partition. So . . . slipstream disks may not be for the weak hearted among us . . . =)

I also installed XP on an existing Vista OS box in a partition I created. It's more difficult since XP becomes the default OS if installed in a partition as it rewrites the boot record. I had to use a program called Vista Boot Pro (now called DualBootPro I believe) to configure a system selection at boot. This was all back in the day when Vista was a hated OS and everyone wanted a dual boot XP / Vista system. This method does allow you to keep the original manufacturers system restore partition intact.

I prefer the WinFuture XP-ISO-Builder software as I found it was easier to use, IMHO, than NLite. ( XP-ISO-Builder and NLite ). One drawback is you need the full XP install disk to create the slipstream disk. IIRC, XP-ISO-Builder could make a full XP disk from a system restore disk if the install files were on a single disk. It's been 3 or 4 yrs since I made a slipstream so I may be remembering this wrong. Any XP install disk can be used for making the slipstream disk as long as you have your XP activation code. I've always had a full XP Pro install disk so there may be exceptions to this that I'm not aware of.

Here is a link for a tut on adding SATA drivers to a XP install disk using NLite.

I have had good luck getting games to run on XP/ Vista and Win7. How you install on Vista / Win 7 seems to be the most common problem with a game not working correctly on those OS's. Also, some games just will not work with certain hardware / OS combinations. IMHO, that is why you see so many threads about XXX game does not work on Win 7 while others insist that it runs perfectly.

Edit: My primary computer is about 4 yrs old now so I will be replacing it in the near future. I may do a dual boot with XP / Win 7 at that time but probably I will let XP drift into the past . . . then again . . . I guess it depends on whether the XP drivers are available for my new boxes hardware. . . =)
Post edited September 18, 2011 by Stuff
Posted September 18, 2011
I'm worried about this too. I have an old Win2000 laptop and if it fails, I'm going to have trouble playing a few of my older Win9x games. What I'm doing now is dividing my game collection into 2 groups. The ones that will run under Win7 and the ones that don't. I'm trying to finish all the games that won't run properly under Win7 first on my Win2000. I just hope I can finish all the non-Win7 games before it fails.
Posted September 18, 2011
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Stuff: I can relate how I get XP to run on newer machines if that helps . . . =)

The problem is the drivers for the newer hardware are not included on the Windows XP install disk. If XP drivers for the newer hardware were made by the manufacturer then you can make a slipstream disk that will include the drivers for the newer hardware and allow the XP install. I dread the day that XP drivers for newer hardware will not be available from the manufacturers as I like to keep a new box with XP as the OS.
Great explaination! You really know Windows OS.
Posted September 18, 2011
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Stuff: I can relate how I get XP to run on newer machines if that helps . . . =)
Thanks, very informative (marked as a solution :)).

I'm not sure if there is a difference between desktop HW and laptops. I think that since laptops pretty much always come with pre-installed Windows OS (which is the only OS they necessarily need to support), while desktop motherboards don't necessarily come with any OS, thus laptop HW may not have as good driver coverage for older OSes. Just guessing here, but it sounds logical to me.

But as you said, a lot can probably be contributed to HW incompatibilities, not directly the OS itself. I guess quite a few older games originally had problem e.g. with multicore CPUs, which needed extra steps. Also it is not quite clear to me whether the backwards retrogaming compatibility is better with e.g. Win7 32bit than 64bit?

I'm worrying a bit of this because my newer work laptop will be updated from WinXP to Win7 next week. :) I am not sure if it will be 32 or 64bit. Also I am thinking of buying a new Win7 computer at some point. I have two old WinXP laptops and a Win2000 desktop as a backup plan for old Windows games, but now one of the laptops is showing signs of dying. :( The screen jiggles a lot every now and then, I think it might be a heat problem so I'll try to dust it... But that just made me remember that no hardware is everlasting.

Maybe in the future running older Direct3D games will be easier if there's enough CPU power to emulate Direct3D functionality totally in software, no dependency to incompatible Direct3D 15.3 drivers of future 3D cards... I don't know really, just hoping so.
Post edited September 18, 2011 by timppu
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General discussion (archive)Do new laptops generally work with WinXP too?(6 posts)solved(6 posts)solved
(6 posts)solved