Still using Windows XP? Sure you already experiencing some compatibility problems... Microsoft will no longer support this system.

There is no security updates, system improvements or technical support. April 8, 2014 is the critical date.

Big companies like Google are not giving support to this system too. But, after a fresh instalation, on a eMachines notebook, a felt of nostalgia appears... when you install the old office ( 2007 ), without support, use some apps, verify the task manager and see the perfect resources management from this kernel, only using 500 MB of ram, using 1% or less of processor most of time.

There is no extra apps, like Windows Search, Cortana or Microsoft News, spending a lot of memory and hard disk.

The notification balloons are not so frequent like Windows 10. I'm having a good experience navigating on the Internet and listening my favourite songs with Windows Media player. Using the mini player. Very practical.

Running on a Hitachi hard drive, 5400 rpm. Very fast with this system. A SSD hard drive is not necessary.

A system where the user have total control of your operating system. I can say no to "Windows Update" or I can choose when my system will be updated, for example.

Telemetry is not so aggressive as Windows 10. It is no coincidence that Windows XP are so popular. Simple, stable, easy to install and mantain. It's fast in cheap computers.

The minimum requirements are:

Pentium 233-megahertz

RAM 64 MB

1.5 gigabytes (GB) Hard drive space

CD-ROM VGA Resolution of 800x600

It's so simple as this. Imagine if Windows 10 fit this requirements. A dream that will be never come true. Microsoft is trying to kill this operating system. But its so good that remains on around 20% of computers in entire world. Aproximately 140 million PCs!

It's a security risk the use of this operating system without windows security updates, because Microsoft can deploy a solution to a specific security problem and launch a fix by windows update for most recent versions, and some hackers can verify the fix and try to exploit this breach on windows XP.

Recommendations:

Try to install the Service Pack 3 if you don't have it yet.

It's free and you can download it easily by searching on Microsoft Update Catalog: http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx

Search link: http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=windows%20xp%20service%20pack%203

It contains security updates that will help your system to be more secure. With this pack you can install some applications like AVG and others that requires the service pack 3. With an outdated XP, it's important that you have some kind of protection in your system.

AVG can be a good alternative, It stills protect users but the company will not release any kind of new features or bug fixes.

Popular apps that you can still use:

Web Browsers

You can use Google Chrome version 49.x here:

https://archive.org/download/49.0.2623.112ChromeInstaller/49.0.2623.112_chrome_installer.exe

or Firefox version 52 here: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/52.0/

It works very well.

Editors

You can use Office 2007 or OpenOffice.

If you are a developer, the Sublime Text 2 works well too https://www.sublimetext.com/2

Gimp

You can use the 2.8 version here https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/v2.8/windows/

Anti-virus

The AVG stills work on Windows XP. Company are launching new database updates and continue to protect the Windows XP users. Nowadays the company are inviting the users to upgrade, with this dedicated page: https://www.avg.com/en-ww/windows-xp-antivirus#pc

Players

You can still use the old Windows Media Player. Some navigation pages are not working but you really dont need them. VLC You can use the VLC.

The latest version is still compatible. https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.pt.html

Spotify

You can use Spotify. It automatically downloads a compatible version: https://www.spotify.com

Unfortunately, this system has the days counted. After a few years, installing this system will be like installing the windows 3.0 on a recent computer.

In the future, everyone will cannot use it. The more time goes by, there will be more security, compatibility and hardware problems that can be more and more difficult to repair and mantain.

It's sad, but it's the reality. Microsoft doesn't have any interest in maintain this system. It doesn't give them more money. Only companies, organizations with lots of money or some governments can still have some kind of support.

Are you experiencing the blue screen of death ?

First, update your drivers. Most of blue screens of death are related to drivers.

You can use this tool to analyse the registered BSOD's by NirSoft: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/bluescreenview.zip