Classic Shell: Forum

I am age 65, and I run a small structural engineering and engineering design shop here in Asia. I am really thankful for the "Classic Shell", (I will contribute via PayPal shortly..) and there seems to be a myriad of online support groups, shops, and coders springing up to fulfill the demands of people and businesses who don't want (or need) to learn a new OS.

I often wonder whether the guys up in rarified atmosphere of the Redmond Campus actually read these blogs and forums, and do they accept enough critical feedback to learn about their real market?

If you read all of the online media, from Forbes to PC Magazine, you will find an estimate which states that Windows XP is still running on over 25-Percent of PCs . . .

I would argue that here in Asia, it is closer to 50-percent XP-users, not 25-percent.

For all intents and purposes, Windows XP-Pro-32-SP2 and even SP3 is available for "free" almost any place where you choose to look. Not supported? Yes, XP is "supported" - - by the free market, and by a few pirates, and by a lot of die-hards... Do a Google for "Win XP Iso Roll Up of all Updates" and if you look hard enough you will find - - "wsusoffline-wxp-enu.iso", which is everything through April, 2014. Then, do a Google for "XP Forever". You may then find the simple registry edit that will make any copy of XP, (regardless of what "Key" was used) appear to be a legit copy. Then, finally, you can extend security up-dates to 2019 with a second RegEdit which makes your XP machine appear as if it is an XP-POS-Ready-2009 terminal.

Seriously, if you are building your own office PC, and if you can install a "still-supported" variant of the XP O/S for free, why would you buy Windows 8.1? That is exactly what is going on here in Asia, and it is a huge lost market, which MicroSoft seems to ignore.

Over here in Asia, almost every PC in every office, shop, school, business, and factory is running pirated copies or outright illegal clones of XP. On Mainland China (PRC) they use an excellent Chinese language (only) reverse-engineered version of XP. There are still available a few "legit" CD's (not illegal copies) of XP. (We have two old "builders" CD's that are XP-Pro-32-SP2.) (We have routinely applied the roll-ups, applied SP3, and more roll-ups, and then we do the 2009-POS RegEdit and we're good to go, "XP-Forever"..)

Microsoft has perhaps hugely underestimated how many PC's, process controllers, cash register terminals, and ATM machines (etc.) are really still running XP-Pro-32-SP3. And, yes, almost all of those devices are connected to the Internet. However, in the interest of speed, compatibility, and security, everyone "should" drop XP and move forward...

In literally every factory that we go into here in Asia, every lathe, milling machine, process controller (etc.) is running Win-XP in either a direct CAD/CAM configuration or a "behind-the DRO" configuration. If you are afraid of XP as a security risk, then it won't comfort you to know that every single process controller in every nuclear power plant in South Korea is driven by an XP-based Process Control network. (Fortunately, we've changed the 4-20ma controllers, and the 3-15psig old pneumatic stuff, and all cooling water valves will now "fail-open", unlike "fail-closed", which was the issue with Three Mile island.)

Finally - - My dream Operating System - -

As I mentioned in my first post on this forum, we are transitioning from XP to Win-7, and we are making it look and feel like XP - - Our first trial is two notebooks, which are high-end Win-7-Pro-64 machines. Using "Classic Shell", and a few registry tricks and other third-party applications, which we have found online, we have made both Win-7 machines, behave, and feel almost exactly like XP, in almost every detail. Do a Google for "make Win-7 look like XP", and there are many sources. Our "Win-7-XP" machine seems to work quite well, and at some point we may upgrade to Win-10 (perhaps in one year, after the "Classic Shell" development cycle has fully caught up with Win-10.)

So, here it is - - If I could create my dream O/S for real work ("..mines, and mills, and factories and farms.."), and if the folks at the Redmond Campus understood the Office and Factory and Process Control market, then about one-year from now, I would expect the newest MicroSoft start-up screen to give me two choices - -

Start As ("..pick one..")

** Win-10-Classic Shell (Desktop XP-Emulation Mode)

~OR~

** Win-10-Microsoft (Mixed Mode)

And... that's it. With that 2-in-1 operating system, (which could work on any device) MicroSoft Windows could perhaps recapture lost market, and if the new O/S was really better, faster, more secure, and more private, then that would give me (and about a Billion screaming Chinese guys...) a reason to move from pirated-XP (and Win-7-Classic Shell) to the newest Windows O/S.

However, MicroSoft is very much out of touch, so it will probably never happen, and so I say "thank you for Classic Shell".

Thanks for listening.

William Lee, Bangkok, Thailand

I have been tweaking around in Windows 10 and using Classic Shell and find it very much like XP Pro now. In fact, many of the registry tweaks and security settings gs I did in XP in Services.msc and other places seem to be in place in Windows 8.1 already. For instance, XP comes with the Remote Registry enabled automatic, which I disabled. Why would I want anyone to have access to my registry remotely?

Also in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE there is a setting down in sotware/microsoft/window/current Version/Explorer/remote computer that has 2 keys. One finds remote printers and the other looks for remote tasks on the networked drive/folder, and that can take a huge amount of time. So I delete it on every installation at work and at home. Things like that are pretty much little tweaks that are already incorporated into newer OS

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

Vern