Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with WindowsXP and winxp

How to fix Windows iTunes HD video?

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:30:21 -0800

How do I make iTunes on Windows XP stop stuttering? HD video stutters, as if iTunes either can't feed video fast enough from the hard drive, or can't uncompress it fast enough to display on-screen. It gets worse as the program progresses.

Per Apple's help document, I have enabled DMA on the hard drive and tried toggling DirectX preferences in QuickTime.

I have an ATI All-in-Wonder 600X that I updated the drivers for. It is plugged into an PCI Express 16x slot.

The box is running a Pentium M 2.1 GHz with 2 GB of RAM.

As much as I hate this awful operating system, I'd like to use this Windows XP box to feed HD video. What settings do I enable or hardware do I need to add to reliably play HD video through this box? Thanks for your advice.

One version of Windows isn't enough, I need three!

Snyder — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 02:27:12 -0800

Will Windows 98 and XP run and dual boot (or, treble boot, I suppose,) with my new Vista running computer? I'm being given a slightly used computer that is currently is running Vista, but I'd like to bring over my hard drives from my current computer. Right now, I have two hard disks, one with Windows 98 and one with XP, and I have a dual boot setup. The computer I want to move them two is a Dell Inspiron 531S, an ACPIx86-based machine, with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ 2009 Mhz, 958 Megs RAM, and the BIOS is Dell Inc, 1.0.3 6/15/2007. This is all I can easily find out at the moment, since I didn't buy the computer originally and I'm not used to Vista.

To be brief, can I run a triple boot system with Vista, Win98 and XP with this hardware? My idea is to have the backwards compatibility of 98 with the robustness of XP, while Vista gets itself sorted out. Any adivce in that direction too would be appreciated. Thanks for the help.

Where's the rest of my task manager?

Verdandi — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:31:13 -0800

In the rare times I've needed to hit ctrl-alt-delete within the past few months, the task manager window pops up, but it lacks the little tabs at the top and the useful little X in the upper right that actually allows me to CLOSE the task manager. What happened? I haven't been able to pinpoint the problem, and I'm getting frustrated. I've scanned the drive for viruses, spyware and the like (I use Avast!, Spybot and Ad-Aware), but no luck. I haven't installed anything else weird. I'm running Windows XP. I've never had a problem with it before this.

I have a screeenshot, if a visual is necessary.

I'd really hate to format/reinstall since it's such a pain, so I thought I'd ask here before I did. TIA!

Please, no OS wars. I'm fully aware of Linux.

I want extra large fonts in plum. How hard can that be?

Irontom — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:39:14 -0800

WinXP appearance question... Here's what I want: Windows XP Style Windows and Buttons + Plum Color Scheme + Extra Large Fonts. My google-fu fails entirely. Can you help?

How do I share programs across multiple user accounts in XP?

adi — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 13:46:03 -0800

How do I use the program settings from the admin user account across several limited user accounts in WinXP? I don't want to have to "reinstall" iTunes, Reason, Ableton Live, Photoshop, etc. just because I am using a different login in windows, but I want to get away from using the admin account for general use (for security reasons). I had been using one login (the admin account) to do everything, but now I have created several logins for various activities on my computer (one for general use, one for streamlined DAW performance, one for guests) and don't want to have to reinstall all of my already-installed programs just because I am using a different windows login, and as it stands now, the programs are taking me through the installation process (which I canceled) as soon as I try to use them from a different user account.

Comprehensive XP -> Parallels migration

maniabug — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:12:27 -0800

What's the most efficient way to transfer an entire functioning Windows XP PC to my new Mac running Parallels? I'm looking to ship over the whole nine yards: files, settings, apps, and appropriate registry entries. The Windows File and Settings Transfer Wizard does not move the apps. I'm going to have to do this on a regular basis, and would prefer to do as little by hand as possible. Do you have a favorite software tool for this?

I considered imaging the hard drive, but I believe Parallels uses a proprietary image format.

I know, I know, get a Mac...

Heminator — Tue, 23 May 2006 07:38:18 -0800

Computer Won't Boot -- needless to say [MI]: I apologize up front if this question is a bit redundant w/r/t other AskMeFi questions I saw, but I'm greatly in need of advice/reassurance.

My Win XP PC worked fine as of last evening; it was shut down properly. This morning my Fiance tried to turn it on I was in the bathroom, I came out and saw a Blue Disc repair screen checking the disk for errors (This is not the first time this has happened; at the time I was concerned though not especially worried). I walked out of the room and came back. It wasn't loading. I saw that my Fiance had turned on my computer without unplugging my iPod and this halted the OS from loading.

I unplugged the iPod and it started to load. It got as far as the win logo screen with the progress bar-- then the screen went black and my monitor flashed an "INPUT MODE NOT SUPPORTED" message I had never seen before. It starts the booting process over at this point and will do so indefinitely unless I turn it off/uplug.

I tried starting in safe mode, debugging mode and last known good configuration. XP still won't load.

What can I do? My computer was buit for me and I do not have the installation XP discs, assuming that's the problem... Will Geek Squad have the necessary repair discs if I shell out a hundred bucks for them to show up at my apartment?

For bonus points, if I burn a linux live CD will that allow me to plug-in an an external hard drive via USB and rescue my files that way? (I have around 100 GB of stuff to recover).

Thanks in advance...

Why must you shutdown, XP?

grabbingsand — Sun, 21 May 2006 18:34:42 -0800

Why must XP insist so infernally on rebooting? My wife has an IBM NetVista (2292 CBU). It's about four years old. It is running Windows XP Pro, SP 2. Lately, it has decided to reboot with little reason or warning. At its worst moments, it will go into a rebooting cycle where the power supply will whirr to life, the IBM splash will come up, then it will power down. This repeats. Other times, when powered up from the button, it will show the IBM splash, the WinXP splash, then power down. Most of the time, it will simply reboot, usually after popping up the WinXP shutdown dialogue box. She can hit cancel, only to have it return soon after. And that second time, hitting cancel only gets rid of the dialogue, but not the eventual reboot.

So far, this is what I've been able to discover and/or investigate:

- Certain models in this IBM NetVista line were notorious for having/developing . The symptoms for that problem align, but an examination of the board reveals none of the tell-tale signs of capacitor leakage.
- In the XP system events log, there was a regular error upon bootup (confirmed by looking at the boot log) involving a missing ASPI driver. While rare, it appears that a malfunctioning ASPI32.sys can cause hangups. This driver has been reinstalled, the error no longer appears.
- When it would reboot, the fan on the power supply would audibly increase in speed. The stock power supply on an IBM NetVista is 185w. Since we've installed a better video card and a second harddrive, I thought that the power supply might be over-taxed, so the stock has been replaced with a new 300w. This seemed to stop the reboots, but only for a week.
- The IBM NetVista has a multi-function keyboard with a "standby key." Just to make sure, I've gone into msconfig and removed that app from the startup. This seems to have had little to no effect.
- Techie friends have been asking me to supply them with the minidump file, but since this appears to be a system-spawned reboot, there is no real crash to record and then decode.

So ... I'm reaching the ends of several ropes. Sometimes, the machine will run for six or seven hours. Other times, it throws the shutdown dialogue in under ten minutes. I'm looking for any possible ideas or avenues that I've not considered, or any similar experiences. Fire at will.

Download legal copy of Windows XP

KevinSkomsvold — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 07:51:37 -0800

A friend of mine purchased and downloaded a CD image of Windows XP; complete with activation keys. According to him, it was perfectly legal. I've been unable to reach him to find out the name of the site or where such a service exists. Do any of you know of a web site that offers downloadable legal images of Windows XP?

XP install: how do I find my sound card's drivers? And what programs do I really need?

twine42 — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:23:50 -0800

Laptop Clean XP Install:
1] My (on board?) sound card is unrecognised. How do I find out what drivers to use?

2] What programs do you really think I need? I already have VNC, VLC, Firefox, Thunderbird and AVG installed. What else should I add? (Freeware/OS appriciated but not needed.) VNC = Remote access program
VLC = DVD player type thing
AVG = AntiVirus

XP update problem

grumblebee — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 11:14:58 -0800

WinXP: my laptop downloaded a windows update (not sure what sort). Now, when I shut down, it tries to update my machine. I get a message saying that Windows is updating, and it advises me NOT to turn off my machine until it's done. But it continues to "update" forever. I've let it sit for two hours, and it still claims to be updating. Finally, with clenched teeth, I shut off the machine and rebooted. Everything seems okay. Now, whenever I shut down, it asks me if I want to install the upgrade or not. If I say yes, the machine stalls on that upgrading message. If I say no, it shuts down fine. I'm ok with saying no all the time, except that now I can't ever add any new updates. What should I do?

Media Player Codecs

page404 — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:58:35 -0800

[Media Player Filter] I've downloaded several TV programs via torrent in an .AVI format which on my XP system is associated with Windows Media Player, unfortunately all I get is audio.

What / where do I obtain the appropiate codecs or a better media player?

Help me find the log for Windows XP Pro's connection sharing

LukeyBoy — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 17:56:23 -0800

I use the Windows XP Professional Internet Connection Sharing to dish out my DSL access to a couple of people residing in the same location. How do I find just basic log information about this service? It magically dishes out DHCP access to them, but I can't even find how many IP addresses have been assigned, how many connections are active, and so on.

Slow XP

taz — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 03:02:58 -0800

Help me! I'm naked! With my new computer I finally got Win XP (instead of win 98, which I had been using with the older computer), but after downloading and installing all the security patches, the system slowed down to the speed of molasses, taking forever to open any folder... So, I uninstalled the updates, after which everything was working fine again. Then I went to the Microsoft site and installed one "roll-up" containing a number of updates, after which the system slowed to a crawl again. So, I've again uninstalled. In addition to this, I haven't been able to get the firewall to work yet (possible issues with the fact that I'm networked to my husband's computer?). And thus, except for my antivirus program, I'm surfing all exposed and feeling mighty insecure. Has anyone else had experiences with patches creating problems with the system? And what did you do about it?

How do I make those old fun DOS games work on Windows XP?

Happydaz — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 23:34:17 -0800

How do I make those old fun DOS games work on Windows XP? Ever played Starcontrol II? Quake I? Has my dumb OS robbed me forever of those early joys, or is there hope? [more inside] Yes, I know windows has a silly DOS emulator that pretends to work. But I can't understand how this is done. Is my window size wrong? Do I need some fancy parameters? I would all write this off to me being a dummy, but I remember it all seemed just peachy back when I was running win 98.