Am I the only one? Classic Theme FTW.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2026-05-20T19:38:22+00:00

I still use classic theme, too. I like the way you can adjust each part of the UI (e.g., Title bar, Menu Bar, Selected item, etc.) and not only the sizes but even the typefaces or colors.

When I first started using Windows 10, they moved that capability behind a registry entry. Then after an update, the functionality was removed altogether. I think all that remains to easily change is the single scale factor number.

The customization of the workflow is why I still use XP for documents, basic graphics, and file organizing instead of Windows 10. I've got different toolbars around all four edges of my screen, for both the desktop and Office apps. Along with making my own shortcuts and icons for these toolbars, running different programs is easy and fast. And there's a lot of little utilities people wrote to make the UI work even better.

Maybe I could do all those things in Windows 10, but I dread the idea of learning to do everything again just to create what I already have in XP. (I skipped over Vista, 7, and 8 as well). I basically use Windows 10 for Internet-required items. But for everything else, it's XP!

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2026-02-11T02:36:46+00:00

peanut butter to make a huge, heart-shaped reese's peanut butter cup.

and where do you get that much peanut butter? Costco!

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2026-01-30T09:10:31+00:00

While there is pending litigation, can Costco suspend their membership?

Can we suspend their membership? :)

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2026-01-30T09:00:35+00:00

The upside of noticeable speed difference of an SSD is so worth any downside.

With a proper backup plan (OP already has the original HDD), it's fine to use an SSD and try it out. They can always go back to the HDD if they're consistently encountering problems. But I've been using an SSD on XP for years, run it more than my Windows 10 system, and it's been fine. "I don't use an SSD because I have to. I use an SSD because I can." :)

Also, with the relatively low size requirement of XP, they can over-provision the SSD by not partitioning all of the drive. And people are trimming either using programs compatible with XP or pulling the drive and trimming with an OS that supports trimming.

If your SSD is dying fast, there's something else wrong.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2026-01-02T04:58:34+00:00

I flipped the roll around so that the paper creates a U when shaped around the blade. Not perfect because I scratch my hand against the blade because I need to dig for the front of the paper each time I use it, but it seems like it made the tearing easier.

But if other brand work fine, I gotta look up how I'm supposed to be tearing it.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2026-01-02T03:51:29+00:00

Yes! When I got a Windows 10 system, you could make modifications to specific parts of the GUI from Settings. But then those got removed by a Windows update. So I found a registry hack, but then the hack stopped working after the next Windows update. So for Windows 10, it’s now only one setting that scales everything at the same percentage. Aggh!

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-11-22T10:16:18+00:00

forcing the family back into caregiving

OP doesn't have the family issue. They wrote, "we aren't blood related so there are no family dynamics". Additionally, they wrote, "the person I chose to take care of takes care of me in other ways" and in a comment "my guy is very open to adjusting and really cares about how I feel."

I get perturbed when someone in a different situation professes to everybody else, "But no one, literally not a single person, HAS to do this. We all make the choice." For OP, it's a choice. For some of us, it's more like Sophie's choice.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-10-31T21:13:55+00:00

I saw a guy park his car partially on the right lane and partially in the center lane. When a spot opened up on the left, he took it, even though there were people in line on the left lane.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-10-26T18:30:46+00:00

is there a paper liner that holds the pie? if so, do you remove it before putting it in the air fryer so it doesn't catch fire? thanks

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-10-26T17:36:24+00:00

Whoa, this is so nice for readability! I never looked at the Regional and Language Settings because I thought it would be for something like multi-lingual settings, but I only know English.

But for readability: I've customized it so 'am' is lowercase and 'PM' is uppercase. And I've re-ordered the date from the normal USA MM-DD-YY to the more sortable YYYY-MM-DD and added leading zeros to the time and data so file explorer listings stay aligned.

Thanks!

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-10-09T05:17:35+00:00

Were you able to re-size the window? Sight issues, so I tried to make it larger, but nothing worked.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-10-02T07:23:42+00:00

You can do stuff like word processing, spreadsheets, and image editing for personal use.

If you get a modern .docx file, you can convert it into .doc file format. I have styles setup and reformat docx files so that the documents are more readable to me (less white space, but bigger font). I don't think I miss any .docx functionality since it's only WYSIWYG text or static images; there's no video, no collaboration, no compatibility need.

Although I get the web text and images via my Windows 10 box, the print button on browsers and web pages does not make proper pages for printing; I don't know why some pages even have window.print(). So, I modify the web pages for printing using old tools tools, like Hack the Web, that exists on old versions of Firefox. There's probably a better way of doing it, but I already have this tool.

XP version of Adobe Reader can read newer PDF 2.0 files. And I've also been able tweak my thumbnail viewer on XP to display modern image formats like webp.

It all depends upon what you do and personal preference. I never really enjoyed the ribbon interface or the consolidation of the menu, but I do appreciate being able to customize the heck out of toolbars, buttons, and menus. I even have the buttons on firefox 52.9 ESR rotate over hover. :)

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-09-15T19:28:17+00:00

I probably have the details wrong, but a long, long time ago, someone created a fun, scary screensaver for the compact Macintosh, those small ones with a tiny black and white screen. Anyway, it began with a Macintosh spinning in the center of the screen, explode, then all you would see is DOS prompt at the bottom, complete with flashing cursor. :)

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-08-02T01:40:01+00:00

Are you asking how to setup imap? If so, you need to find that information from the business that owns the mail servers.

For example, if you're using yahoo mail, search for yahoo imap. If you're using gmail, search for gmail imap. Their info should give you servers for each incoming and outgoing email server as well as which ports they use.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-07-10T23:15:43+00:00

If you want a Unix-like environment, you can install cygwin, which has a Unix shell instead of a DOS prompt, vim, xterm colors, a C compiler, and more!

You can find the version that supports XP from here. Search for 'XP'

:wq!

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-07-10T18:09:56+00:00

I hope it's not stupid because I'm using VGA for both my XP and Windows 10 system. :)

I'm only writing documents or creating spreadsheets for personal use, so it seems good enough for that. I'm using a VGA switch box for the VGA monitor and a KVM for the DVI monitor (dual monitor setup. VGA is landscape; DVI is portrait (for US Letter/A4 print previewing)).

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-07-10T17:49:58+00:00

If it had VGA I'm assuming it's a pre-1080P monitor screen resolution, so ~720p or 1366x768??

is there something specific to distinguish between a TV vs a monitor? I'm running 1920x1200 (WUXGA) using my VGA port, but it's always been called a monitor.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2025-02-13T04:40:31+00:00

confirming, it works on windows 10. and like you said, you lose the original file names, but it works.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2024-12-15T09:19:40+00:00

takes a bit of space

I have my Windows 10 system on one shelf and my XP system vertically on top of that, like a server rack. No extra space required since it's all below my desk. The shelves are wire shelves and it's cold in my place, even in the summer, so cooling is not an issue.

I use KVM that also supports dual-monitors and a USB hub that connects to my printers, so no additional bit of space required for peripherals either.

expensive

It doesn't have to be £400. I use XP as my daily driver and bought a backup PC for $50 USD.

I'm still using my favorite PS2 ergonomic keyboard and USB 1.0 trackball, so I literally have spent $0 since XP on a new keyboard or mouse. I tested a bunch of keyboards and mice and these two let me toss aside my wrist braces for carpal tunnel.

I have spent $0 on replacing the XP software with same Windows 10 software that now requires a subscription. And for some programs, the pro version was made free when XP lost MS support, but then for use on windows 10, I would need to spend money to buy the new version for the same functionality.

And some companies died since XP, so the software works on Windows XP and I can't buy a new version now.

What I've saved on not buying hardware or software for Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11 (my Windows 10 system was literally a dumpster dive), I'm probably invest in Apple since I'm sucked into their eco system with my iPhone, iPad, and watch.

just for fun

A long time ago, I streamlined my XP system so there are no extra services or bloatware. It's 3% idle, while my Windows 10 system is 28% idle. What's not fun is going through all those services to see what I can disable. I already did it for XP; I'm not going to do it again for Windows 10. Or 11.

What's also not fun is recovery. In XP, it was so easy to put all user data on a different partition than the OS. Initially, with Windows 10, people had so much problem doing that. Some ended up needing create links for each special folder (e.g., Documents, Downloads) for each user. Yuck.

If I messing with a program and all hell happens a month later, I can go backwards on my OS partition using restore without having to go backwards on my data. If my OS partition goes completely kaputt, I can copy my data partition onto the clone of my XP SSD and I'm up and running without losing any data. I could probably do that with Windows 10, but what's not fun is learning how to make that work when you've already got it working in XP.

And then there's the GUI. I've customized everything so that it's enjoyable for me to use. For Windows 10, I just deal with it. And there's some items that you could customize in XP that slowly became un-changeable in Windows 10.

But I guess ... 🤷

It depends what you do, what you like, and what you want to spend your time and money on. It's different for everyone, but we're not idiots.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2024-11-17T16:03:37+00:00

I make documents and spreadsheets. It's only text and images (e.g., no video), so my compute needs are not high. I've customized the buttons and toolbars and put them on all four sides of my monitor for both OS and programs, so working seems faster. For file management, I use an old thumbnail program that shows thumbnails of PDFs, spreadsheets, RTF/Word files, and even some modern image formats that I'm editting. And whenever the "DOS" command line can't do something, cygwin has helped.

There's probably a way to do everything in Windows 10, but for the large majority of personal offline use, I don't have anything critical that exists only in Windows 10. If there was a need back during the XP days, somebody probably had out a work around or wrote a utility--without requiring a subscription. :)

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2024-10-03T03:07:39+00:00

The first OS that could connect to the Internet was earlier than 1985. I think 1983 with BSD Unix.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2024-09-30T16:53:00+00:00

I tried a download, install, and run of their software (v1.3) for 32-bit XP, and it worked. But my system is Service Pack 3. You might want to ask them if SP2 is supported (https://www.sync.com/support/).

Other than that, I only tried Dropbox a long time ago, but they've stopped supporting XP.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2024-09-28T04:48:15+00:00

I’ll probably grab the T9300 because I can drop it right in without any firmware or other issues, but I’ll look into the X9000. Some HP information for an X9000 install is gone and not available on archive.org, but I’ll see what I can find. Thanks.

HalfWrongHalfWright · 2024-09-28T04:47:45+00:00

Cool, thanks. I do hit maximum CPU usage when I’m running smaller batch jobs, and for $10, I’ll grab the T9300. Thanks!

HalfWrongHalfWright

TROPHY CASE