Classic Shell: Forum

Figured in Chitchat would be the place to post this....

I know how to dual boot XP and Windows 8.1 I've done Windows 8.1 and new Windows 10 preview on my laptop and at work I have an older Gigabyte MB machine that is running XP and I created a partition it in and installed Windows 10 Pro Preview build 10041 in it. I can boot into either XP or into Windows 10 Preview.

Now, on my home computer I don't really want to get rid of my normal C drive that has Windows XP Pro on it as I have many programs and I like the settings. However I do have a large partition named (Windows 8.1) that I can install an OS into. For those techies I have 3 hard drives in my computer 0 is C, D and F(which is Windows 8.1) drive 1 has drive E: drive 2 has drive G: Drive 0 is 1 TB while the other 2 are 320 GB drives.

Some time back I moved my "My Documents" folder from the current location found in the C:\Documents and Settings\etc\etc location to a place on the E: drive (which is a whole different hard drive. Easy enough to do, but there was so much stuff in My Documents it too a little bit for the move. Now when I click on "My Documents" on my desktop is "appears" like I am going into the My Documents that used to reside in the C: drive, but in actuality it is not. All my documents and files for Word, Excel, Adobe, My Pictures, My Videos, My Music... all of that resides on a separate hard drive. If I want, all I have to do is clone that one hard drive, replace it and I have a new drive running with "My Documents" on that drive and put the old drive away in the drawer as a backup in case of failures. On top of that I have regular backups to my G: drive (another HD) for certain things like email, (which by the way does not reside in C: any more either) Pictures I have taken, Videos I have downloaded or have taken, etc all those things that are most important are backed up quite regularly to an alternate drive G:.

Now back to my question. Since I have XP running and it does not rely on My Documents being in the C: drive, and if I install Windows 8.1 in that separate partition, won't I be able to utilize those folders and files found on the E:\My Documents folder in the newer OS?

Honestly, I have no qualms with Windows XP. I have slip streamed not only SP3 into a CD but all the vital critical updates and others that had came out after SP3 came to being. I'm running a computer (XP) with a Quad Core 64 bit processor , fully enabled for security and running 2 cores at the moment, which is all that Windows XP recognizes anyway. I have 4GB of physical RAM as well. I just would like to run 8.1 and probably 10 on this computer (that I am typing on) sometime in the near future.

I WOULD NOT run the newer OS from Microsoft had it not been for finding Classic Shell for those newer systems. Classic SHELL does what should have been done in the first place. Had MS offered such a configuration in the installation of earlier "upgrades" away from XP they might not have the 30%+ users in the world still using XP.

For simple web browsing, with modern browsers like Firefox, for email from Outlook Express to adding in pictures and video using software like Adobe Photoshop or others, to burning CDs and DVDs using Nero Burning ROM I find XP really not lacking. I keep current in my ESET Nod32 AV as well as XP has it's own firewall as does our DSL router. Rule of thumb... do not go where you might find problems.

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I was born with nothing and have managed to keep most of it!

Vern

You will absolutely have access to any files stored on another drive... hell theres nothing stopping you from opening the old xp partition inside windows 8.1 to run a program off of it, or copy the settings from one of the programs installed... (you may need to assign a drive letter, though it should work automatically) right click on "This Pc" icon once you get windows 8.1 installed select manage, then disk management. that will show all drives and partitions attached to your computer. From there you can add a drive letter to any partition or disk that isnt otherwise visible

I'm sentimental. I renamed the "This PC" to "My Computer" If you right click on the desktop and choose personalize on the left is the "Change Desktop Icons" I checke each one and then I chaned the "This PC" one to a more familiar icon.

Yes, Disk management works very well. I have also used Partition Commander and Paragon Partition Commander to change things around. XP was not that good at drive partitions but there is sofware out there that made up for that shortcoming.

I think I would need to install a program to run the same program, even though it resides on the XP partition. It is not registered in the registry, nor has the Digital Link Libraries that Windows 8.1 would need to effective run any particular program. I just was unsure if I could designate the same folder for the storage that I had with XP. I mean, in Windows 8.1 there are psuedo folders that don't work that are merely place holders to file names to make old 32 bit software work right. If I am understanding on this. Most of the "MY" folders like pictures, documents, etc reside in a "user" folder now if I am correct.

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I was born with nothing and have managed to keep most of it!

Vern

It does really matter what program, but about 80% of the programs ive tried to run without installing work, the only exception being games, and programs you pay money for.. and thats intentional to prevent piracy..
and yes you can define a custom folder to save your downloads/documents in