Windows XP 2021 - system build for the modern PC

Example of running Windows XP on a PC 2017 build:

OS - Windows XP SP3 RUS (update 02.2020 for Intel MB)
Processor - Intel i5-6500 (LGA-1151, 4core@3.2GHz)
Memory - DDR4 8GB (using PAE, all 8GB are available though the system is 32bit)
Graphics card - Radeon R7 360 2GB + driver from iCafe
SSD drive - Kingston SSDNow 240 GB
Network, sound, USB 3.0 - all drivers found, all devices are working

Memo for those who want to install Windows XP:

1) You have to choose a good Windows XP distribution which you want to use as a "base". All sorts of crap assemblies from schoolchildren with modified wallpaper, disabled services and messed up interface is better not to use. As a Russian version you can use build of project nCore [LWGAME TEAM] https://vk.com/lwgame_ncore of 02/03/2020 or its newer version from December 12, 2020 - Windows XP Pro SP3 VLK Rus LWOS v3 build 20.12 - WLWSVOL_RU_2012.ISO — Yandex.Disk or WLWSVOL_RU_2012.ISO — Yandex.Disk.
2) Download nLite software - it allows you to easily repackage the distribution and add (integrate your drivers) into an existing distribution
3) Download GS CABer - you can pack files into cab-archive in whole folders. Individual files are packed via the makecab command "file name".
4) Choose correct ACPI driver (power management, frequencies, modes). Without a modified acpi.sys you won't get your motherboard working correctly, and you will see BSODs with an A5 or 0A error during installation.
5) Make sure you have the right SATA AHCI driver. Newer motherboards do not have Legacy IDE mode and your disk controller is only in AHCI mode. The driver is needed to make your HDD or SSD drive work. Without the driver, the installer crashes to BSOD with error B7. There are several variants, separate drivers for Intel and AMD motherboards as well as a universal driver ported from Windows 8 which fits both cases.
6) Choose the right USB 3.0 driver. As in the case of SATA, there are also several options here, both separate for Intel and AMD motherboards, and a universal USB 3.0 driver ported from Windows 8, which is suitable for two cases. For Intel motherboards, the modified AMD driver is suitable. That's right, I'm not confused - the AMD driver makes the USB ports on Intel motherboards work.
7) Integrate the selected drivers into the distribution using the program nLite and burn them to DVD directly from nLite. This minimum of drivers, allows you to install Windows XP without seeing BSODs. All other drivers (videocard, sound card, network, etc.) can be installed while the system is running. Integrating them into the distribution is optional.

As a result, if you are installing to the MBR partition of an ordinary SATA disk (HDD or SSD - no matter) with less than 2.2TB - then to successfully install it is enough to choose the right distribution and integrate modified ACPI, SATA AHCI and USB 3.0 drivers. If you suffer from nonsense and try to install Windows XP on a GPT partition or on a 2.2TB+ or NVMe drive - this is also possible, but you are guaranteed a tambourine dance, read below.

Recommended drivers individually:

1) ACPI driver.

This driver is needed for the basic functions of your motherboard to work properly and to control the power modes. Without updating acpi.sys, in most cases you won't be able to get the upgraded USB 3.0 or SATA AHCI drivers to work. If there are problems with ACPI, the installer will crash with a BSOD error code A5 or 0A.

There are currently 12 modifications to the acpi.sys file, but I recommend looking at the "acpi 6666 - 2019.10.20#2 (Intel&Ryzen) - OuterSpace, diderius6" file from 20.10.2019 if you have an AMD motherboard or the "acpi 5048 - 2019.11.1 - diderius6" file from 01.11.2019 if you have an Intel motherboard. The acpi.sys file should be placed in the installed system in c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\acpi.sys and c:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\acpi.sys. When integrating into the installation distribution file must be packed in cab and placed in the path \I386\ACPI.SY_ and inside the archive \I386\SP3.CAB.

All acpi.sys files are taken from "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.4 Stable" - WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.4 Stable.zip — Yandex.Disk
or UPLOAD.EE - WinXP-IE_Optional_Patch_Integrator_v2.3.4_Stable.zip - Download
or from new BETA-version from 04.01.2021 - WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.4.0b3.zip — Yandex.Disk

New, not included into integrator, acpi.sys file (version 23.10.2020) for Intel Z390 - acpi for AsRock Z390M Pro4.rar — Yandex.Disk
A check showed that this ACPI driver also works fine on the Intel H110. In my opinion, this is currently the most universal version of the ACPI driver - I recommend it as a base.

Modified acpi.sys for LENOVO IdeaPad laptops (file 27.10.2020) - Upload files for free - acpi.7z - ufile.io

Few more beta versions of ACPI with WIN-RAID from 10/17/2020. The essence of changes is not known, it looks like Windows version swapping.
Download - UPLOAD.EE - acpitest.7z - Download

2) The SATA AHCI driver

The BIOS/UEFI of modern motherboards do not support "Legacy IDE" mode and hard drives can only operate in AHCI mode. Installing Windows XP without the AHCI driver causes BSOD (code 0x0000007B), you need to integrate AHCI driver into WinXP distribution using nLite to eliminate BSOD. I'm describing the driver installation instructions for Intel chipsets 100th, 200th, 300th (really was tested on Intel H110 and Z170). For AMD motherboards use either universal driver (from "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.3b20.zip") or driver from Integral Edition build 2020.5.5 or use "mod Fernando" drivers - look for instructions on win-raid.com.

For Intel motherboards, the RSTe AHCI/RAID driver v4.7.0.1117 is the best AHCI SATA driver. The driver dates from 2017 and is newer than the 2012 driver that Fernando modified. The developer wrote that he finalized a lot of features and provided support for the latest motherboards (up to Intel Z390).
RSTe AHCI/RAID driver v4.7.0.1117" fully works in "Sleep mode". On other versions of driver PC hangs with black screen on exiting sleep mode, also this driver has no redundant red winking HDD activity LED. With other drivers there is short winking of LED one time per second.

[b]Option 1.
Sequence of driver integration into the distribution, in order to avoid BSOD 0x0000007B on stage 1 of Windows XP installation.

1) Copy the storport.sys file (recommended version 5.2.3790.4485) to the \i386 folder of the Windows XP SP3 installation distributive. You should not be surprised that most of the files in the distribution are packaged and our file should be placed unpackaged. The file storport.sys is found in the archive, at the link at the bottom of the post.

2) Edit file DOSNET.INF, look for line d1,scsiport.sys and put d1,storport.sys below this line. There will be 2 such places, so let's do it 2 times, it will be like this:
1
2
d1,scsiport.sys
d1,storport.sys

3) Edit file TXTSETUP.SIF, look for line storprop.dll and after not storport.sys = 1,,,,,,3_,4,0,0,,1,4 it should look like this:
1
2
storroprop.dll = 100,,,,,,,,3,3
storport.sys = 1,,,,,,3_,4,0,0,,1,4

4) Next, integrate the driver from the attached archive (folder Driver\x86) using the program nLite. Detailed instruction on integrating drivers with pictures - Интеграция SATA драйверов с nLite | сделай сам

Variant 2.
Sequence of actions to update the driver already existing in the system.

1) Copy storport.sys file (recommended version 5.2.3790.4485) to the folder c:{WINDOWS\system32\drivers This file can be found in the archive, see link at the bottom of this post.

2) Run "Device Manager", go to "SATA Controllers" and update driver by pointing to the driver inf file manually (Driver\x86\iaAHCI.inf file).

3) Reboot your PC to apply the changes

Download "Intel RSTe AHCI/RAID driver v4.7.0.1117" driver (676 KB) - https://www.upload.ee/files/11330099...TA_XP.zip.html

Option #3.
Fernando mod driver "AHCI driver v11.2.0.1006 mod Fernando". Installation is done using the nLite program and is similar to the driver integration instructions in the pictures - Интеграция SATA драйверов с nLite | сделай сам
Download "AHCI driver v11.2.0.1006 mod Fernando" and all goodies from winroid (ACPI mod, Intel_AHCI_SATA, Intel_USB3, Intel_USB3_paefix, WinXPPAE_20) here - https://www.upload.ee/files/11199750...nraid.zip.html

[b]Option #4.
Universal SATA/AHCI driver (ported from Windows 8), version dated May 24, 2020. Archive composition:
1) ACPI drivers - 12 variants of acpi.sys file
2) Generic SATA+AHCI driver v1.3 - latest version of SATA/AHCI driver
3) Generic USB 3.0 xHCI driver v1.1 - latest version of USB driver
4) StorPort - 3 versions of storport.sys file
5) nLite-1.4.9.3.setup - program for integrating drivers into WinXP iso-distributions
The new version of SATA driver has removed storport.sys, but this file must still be in the OS. I tried to remove storport.sys - OS will not boot without it. With "Generic SATA+AHCI driver v1.3" there is blinking of HDD activity 1 time/second, even in idle mode. The bug occurs if more than one device is connected to SATA interfaces, for example SSD disk + DVD drive.

Download set of universal drivers dated May 24, 2020 (5.9 MBytes) - https://www.upload.ee/files/11759792...y2020.zip.html
Note - "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.3b20.zip" has a newer version of this driver.

Option #5.

On September 28, 2020 there is a new universal SATA AHCI driver, StorAhci version 1.0, open-source, by Kai Schtrom

The driver is modeled after Microsoft's storahci driver for Windows 8 and supports Windows XP and WS 2003 operating systems with the basic storport.sys. Additionally, txtsetup.oem is added to load the driver from a floppy disk by pressing F6 when installing the OS. StorAhci is a universal SATA AHCI controller and supports AMD, Intel and any other chipsets.
The project homepage is https://sourceforge.net/projects/sto...r-windows-2003
Download the driver - https://www.upload.ee/files/12377491...00928.rar.html

GPT support:
Take disk.sys and partmgr.sys files from Windows Server 2003, put them into Windows\System32\Drivers instead of XP's and voila, you have GPT. This method works only for data disks, for boot disks we'll use Paragon GPT Driver version - https://www.win-raid.com/t4035f45-Wi...html#msg110552
Disk.sys and partmgr.sys files from WS2003 - https://www.upload.ee/files/12189941...S2003.zip.html

NVMe support:
Use modified OFA 1.3/1.5 driver + storport.sys from Windows Server 2003 or MS Windows 7 NVMe from daniel_k + ported storport.sys driver from Windows 7 or Samsung NVMe driver + storport.sys.

Nuances of versions 2.3.4bXX:
Drivers from v2.3.4bXX series apply with maximum caution and only if something does not work for you. The developer does not give normal text descriptions. For example, before installing the universal "Microsoft SATA driver v2.0" you have to manually copy the files storahci.sys and storpor8.sys to c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers and only then install the driver. Installing the last SATA version, I even killed Windows, I had to reinstall it. Although I blame myself, old versions (from May month) worked fine and there was no need in new ones, I just decided to check.

3) USB 3.0 driver

The USB controllers on modern motherboards work in XHCI mode. By default Windows XP only supports EHCI controllers and you need a driver for XHCI support. In this archive you will find a USB 3.0 driver ported from Windows 8 to Windows XP. USB drivers must be used with a modified ACPI driver, without the correct ACPI, the USB XHCI driver will not even install.

Advantages:
1) Modification of Microsoft driver.
2) High stability
3) Support for all xHCI USB controllers that Windows 8 only supports
4) Full RAE support (for x86 systems with more than 4GB RAM)
5) PC switch to Standby mode
6) High speed (100 MB/sec read from USB3 flash memory stick, I could see it personally)

Installation:
When installing Windows XP from scratch, you need to integrate USB3_from_Win8 (NEW) + acpi.sys into the distribution using nLite. How to do this was previously posted, read the forum. When replacing the driver in the installed system, first replace ACPI, then use "Device Manager" to update both components: first "USB 3.0 Root Hub" and then "USB 3.0 xHCI Host Controller". Note that the protection of the OS may return old files, keep an eye on this.

First version of universal driver from May 3, 2020:
USB3_from_Win8 (NEW) - "new driver" for ALL chipsets, ported from Win8
USB3_x86_PAEfix (OLD) is "old driver" for new Intel chipsets with correct work in PAE mode (RAM>4GB).
acpi.sys - modified ACPI, put it in c:{WINDOWS\system32\drivers
Download (840 kB) - https://www.upload.ee/files/12532472...ivers.zip.html

Nuances:
v2.3.3.XXX = Generation 1 drivers are the most stable versions, I recommend using v2.3.3b14.zip - https://www.upload.ee/files/12532348....3b14.zip.html
v2.3.4.XXX = Generation 2 drivers - newer versions, more complicated to install. You need to manually copy files ntoskrn8.sys and storport.sys, taken from Integrator Files\Patches\Miscellaneous and also files wdf01000.sys and wdfldr.sys, taken from "Kernel-Mode Driver Framework 1.11" to folder c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers

Get the latest version of the 1st generation universal driver dated June 16, 2020 from Generic USB 3.0 xHCI driver v1.2 taken from "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.3b20.zip" - https://www.upload.ee/files/12532315....3b20.zip.html

Take the latest version of the 2nd generation universal driver dated September 9, 2020 from the Microsoft USB 3.0 xHCI driver v2.1 folder of the stable version of the WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.4 Stable - UPLOAD.EE - WinXP-IE_Optional_Patch_Integrator_v2.3.4_Stable.zip - Download

4) A set of INF stubs for system and useless devices

System devices on the motherboard
I am laying out a set of drivers for Intel motherboards, for AMD motherboards you have to build by yourself. This driver is not required, the system will install and work fine without it, just in the "Device Manager" will be a lot of undefined devices with a yellow icon. The set was unpacked from a package downloaded from https://softreview.ucoz.ru/load/10-1-0-32.

There are a lot of small INF files and the Windows installer will not find the INF file you need if you set the installation to look for the driver in a specified folder. Then how to work with this package?
1) We look through the "Device Manager" ID codes of the required hardware. For example it will be VEN_8086&DEV_34A3. Then use TotalCommander to find line VEN_8086&DEV_34A3 in files "by contents" and find it in IceLakePCH-LPSystem.inf file.
2) Copy it to a separate directory. Open it with Notepad and study the contents, this file also refers to IceLakePCH-LP.cat, which we also copy and put next to it.
3) Then install this driver manually by selecting "Intel(R) SMBus - 34A3" device from the list. Match the ID code with the driver name in the [Strings] section. This section is usually at the bottom of the inf-file.

To not bother with every single device, just integrate the whole set into the installation distribution. When installing the OS, an in-depth driver search is performed and you won't need to poke at each file individually.

INF Plugin Archive (194 KB) - https://www.upload.ee/files/11387540...ices_.zip.html

Useless devices
The IME driver is basically a technology for remote PC control, in a first approximation a telemetry service, useless to a user. A set of clever words like Identity Protection Technology, Boot Guard, Rapid Start Technology, Smart Connect Technology, Sensor Hub Controller (ISHC), Active Management Technology (AMT), Small Business Advantage (SBA), Wireless Display, PlayReady, Protected Video/Audio Path, again, is nothing more than pushing telemetry under the guise of unusual technologies with pretty names. It's up to you whether you need it or not! Read more on Vinrade - https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Int...tem-Tools.html

As a "driver" of IME I recommend to use the empty driver (stub). The driver has no functionality and removes the yellow icon for IME. If you don't have driver installed on your OS, change digits of OS version from 6.1 - it is Win7, to 5.1 - it is Windows XP by editing INF-file. Driver without functionality - it doesn't do anything, it just tells system, that driver is installed and Windows doesn't need driver.

; NULL Driver

[Version]
Signature="$WINDOWS NT$"
Class=System
Provider=Intel_Home
DriverVer=07/05/2019,1.2.5.4

[Manufacturer]
Intel_Home=Intel, NTx86, NTamd64

[Intel.NTx86]
"IME x86 (NULL Driver)" = Intel_Inst, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A13A

[Intel.NTamd64]
"IME x64 (NULL Driver)" = Intel_Inst, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A13A

[Intel_Inst]
; the install section must be empty

[Intel_Inst.Services]
AddService = ,2 ; no value for the service name

The stub driver can be installed on any useless device, like Intel Management Engine and the like. To install, you need to replace VEN_8086&DEV_A13A with your ID codes. "Installed" device will have driver version 1.2.5.4 with date 07/05/2019 and name "IME x86 (NULL Driver)". Everything can be edited with standard Notepad, by entering your values. You will find complete file in archive - https://www.upload.ee/files/11375292...timer.zip.html

The archive contains hal.dll and intelppm.sys timer fix for Intel motherboards, which files were taken from hardcore. I didn't find any description of what's being patched. With these files we get up to 1-2% performance boost on Intel CPU and significant speed boost on SATA AHCI controller which increases speed of reading SSD disk up to 20-30%. According to some reviews this fix also removes microlags in 3D games.

[b]5) REALTEK sound card driver.

From the official Realtek website, the driver "Realtek HD Audio v5.10.0.7510" from 06.08.2015 has already been removed. Although the site has a driver for Windows XP dated 10.12.2013 and it works on my sound system too (ALC887 chip, motherboard built on Intel H110M chipset), but this one is more recent - https://www.upload.ee/files/11522597...2015_.zip.html.

Unfortunately after the Windows 10 interface cutout, a lot of hardware manufacturers started to remove drivers for old systems. It seems that this is done consciously and deliberately, so that people can not work on the old operating systems, and were forcibly transferred to Win10. On the official sites there are no driver files themselves, no information on what version is the latest. There are a lot of fakes: it says one thing, but in fact the driver for Win10 or another version. After a day of searching, I actually got the latest version of "Realtek HD Audio" drivers for Windows XP - it's version 5.10.0.7514 of 23.08.2016.

The supported chips are ALC880, ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC886, ALC887, ALC888, ALC889, ALC892, ALC899, ALC861VC, ALC861VD, ALC867, ALC900, ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC665, ALC668, ALC670, ALC671, ALC672, ALC676, ALC680, ALC221, ALC231, ALC233, ALC235, ALC255, ALC260, ALC262, ALC267 and others.

Realtek_HD_Audio_v5.10.0.7514 driver from 08/23/2016 for Windows XP (35 MBytes) - https://www.upload.ee/files/11530218....2016.zip.html

Warning, a known bug in the XP driver! If you have reinstalled the driver several times, the driver may stop installing or the sound may disappear with the driver installed. Treatment - in Device Manager -> System Devices -> try to remove Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio and reboot to redefine the bus.

[b]6) The driver for network cards on REALTEK chip

You can find the driver for network cards with Realtek chips on their website. The driver on Windows XP is fairly new (version 5.836.0125.2018 from 25.01.2018) and supports most modern hardware. Since manufacturers very often remove drivers for older operating systems like Windows XP, I have reposted this driver on the sharing sites.

The driver "Realtek Ethernet PCIe Family Controller.zip" (940 kB)
https://www.upload.ee/files/11794394...oller.zip.html
https://www37.zippyshare.com/v/OcTa8lst/file.html

7) Drivers for Intel embedded network cards

My searches for the driver started with a Z87 chipset motherboard with an Intel(R) Ethernet Connection i217-V on it. As it turned out, there is a driver, but it was not easy to find. The latest driver package published for Windows XP by Intel for its network cards does not include it (version 18.3, I think), in later versions the support for Windows XP is discontinued. A comparative analysis of the latest driver package for Windows XP and the driver package for Windows 7 32-bit showed that if a driver for Windows XP existed, it would be called e1d5132 (meaning e1d5132.inf, e1d5132.sys, etc.). Googled e1d5132.inf - came up with Intel Ethernet Drivers for Microsoft Embedded Operating Systems, then googled Intel Ethernet Drivers for Microsoft Embedded Operating Systems - came up with the Intel Download Center, where you can download this driver package:
PROEmbSw11.exe file, version 11.5, dated 01/09/2013.
File PROEmbSw12.exe, version 12.0, dated 19.12.2014.

Now the files have been removed from the download center, but found on the Internet. Both drivers are in the archive (9 MB) -
https://www.upload.ee/files/12081517...WinXP.zip.html

If exactly your network card is not in the driver explicitly, it must be added by replacing the DEV_ID of the neighboring, close in name. Why could not it be laid out so that it could be found humanly (at least with the status of beta or unsupported) - is not clear. More precisely, it is clear - we see Microsoft support in conformation of old convenient operating systems - such as Windows XP.

8) Drivers for Radeon and GeForce graphics cards

There are complete drivers for Windows XP for video cards up to and including NVidia GTX 960 and AMD Radeon R9 370X. There are no drivers for newer video cards on Windows XP yet. There are modifications for NVidia GTX 1060, but only 2D acceleration works and gaming 3D doesn't work, so I don't lay out such crutches.

NVIDIA graphics card (GeForce iCafe Graphics driver v368.91)

Supported cards:
GeForce 900 series: GTX 960, GTX 950
GeForce 700 series: GTX TITAN Z, GTX TITAN Black, GTX TITAN, GTX 780 Ti, GTX 780, GTX 770, GTX 760, GTX 760, GTX 750 Ti, GTX 750, GTX 745, GT 740, GT 730, GT 720
GeForce 600 series: GTX 690, GTX 680, GTX 670, GTX 660 Ti, GTX 660, GTX 650 Ti BOOST, GTX 650 Ti, GTX 650, GTX 645, GT 645, GT 640, GT 630, GT 620, GT 610, 605
GeForce 500 series: GTX 590, GTX 580, GTX 570, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 560 SE, GTX 560, GTX 555, GTX 550 Ti, GT 545, GT 530, GT 520, 510
GeForce 400 series: GTX 480, GTX 470, GTX 465, GTX 460 v2, GTX 460 SE v2, GTX 460 SE, GTX 460, GTS 450, GT 440, GT 430, GT 420, GT 415

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRA...1-for-XP.shtml
http://cn.download.nvidia.com/Window...ernational.exe

There is information on the net that drivers newer than the 322 version under PAE no longer work, for PCs with more than 4GB RAM. But the test showed that the 368th works fine. Probably the restriction was regarding drivers for Vin7 and not for VinHP.

Support for GTX970/980/980TI/TitanX

Officially the drivers for Windows XP only exist for GTX960, while newer cards are not supported. It turns out that there is a method to adapt driver for GTX970, 980, 980TI and Titan X cards - https://mattpilz.com/windows-xp-driv...80-ti-titan-x/

AMD graphics cards (Radeon iCafe driver for Windows XP)

Supported cards:
AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series: HD5450 / HD5550 / HD5570 / HD5750 / HD5770 / HD5830 / HD5850 / HD5870
AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series: HD6450 / HD6570 / HD6670 / HD6750 / HD6770 / HD6850 / HD6870 / HD6950 / HD6970
AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series: HD7750 / HD7770 / HD7850 / HD7870 / HD7950 / HD7970 / HD7990
AMD Radeon R9/R7 200 Series: R5 230 / R7 240 / R7 250 / R7 250X / R7 260X / R9 270 / R9 270 1024 SP / R9 270X / R9 280 / R9 280X
AMD Radeon R9/R7 300 Series: R7 360 / R9 370 1024 SP / R9 370X
All AMD Radeon APU Series: HD7480D / HD7540D / HD7560D / HD7660D / HD8370D / HD8470D / HD8570D / HD8670D / R7 series

http://radeon.ru/drivers/amd/xp/icaf...4594-sep24.exe
https://web.archive.org/web/20180817...e-unified.aspx

There is only the video driver in the archive, if you need Catalyst Control Center, please install it separately.
Download - https://www.upload.ee/files/12377846...Pack3.zip.html

Intel graphics cards (embedded in processors)

The latest Intel HD Graphics driver for Windows XP and 4th Generation Intel Core processors (Haswell).
Version 14.56.0.5449 dated February 7, 2014 (graphics 01/30/2014, version 6.14.10.5449).
Download - https://www.upload.ee/files/12236569...essor.zip.html

9) Drivers kit (official drivers for different hardware)

DriverPack DrvCeo is one of the best free sets of drivers for different hardware. There is a version for Windows XP as well as for other operating systems. In this set you will not find those modifications for modern PC. These are the usual, official drivers, just assembled into one set DriverPack DrvCeo x86 v1.9.18.0 (December 2019). Don't mindlessly install everything in a row. Use only in case of inoperability of certain hardware. Be critical of this kit and others like it. The author can not test on everything and the existing hardware, so there may be erroneous drivers and confusion with versions. It is better to search for drivers separately by VEN_ID and DEV_ID codes, but if you are lazy then this set is for you.

Download (650 MB) - https://yadi.sk/d/UjXvo7n1mvgycg or https://yadi.sk/d/RcnjQRXMerIhmA

Installing any drivers manually (the most detailed instructions):

The majority of users got used to install drivers through the installer - run the e.g. file, press the buttons and it's done. But what to do if the driver does not have an installer? Among the modified drivers 99% go without the installer. I describe in maximum detail the procedure of installation of the driver through the "Device Manager", by pointing at the INF-file manually. As an example, let's install universal AHCI SATA driver from "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.3b20.zip".

Methodology:
1. Boot as an Administrator user. At the time of driver installation, do not run unnecessary programs. It should use as few resources as possible. You may open this text instruction in Notepad - this will not affect it, but you definitely should not run heavy programs.
2. 2. Unpack the folder with driver "Generic SATA+AHCI driver v1.3" to the folder "Temp" on drive "C". You can set it to any other path, it doesn't matter, just don't forget where you want it to go.
As a result, we will get 3 files:
c:\Temp\Generic SATA+AHCI driver v1.3\storahci.inf - command file for driver installation
c:\Temp\Generic SATA+AHCI driver v1.3\storahci.sys - system file, the driver itself
c:\Temp\Generic SATA+AHCI driver v1.3\Readme.txt - text description
After installing driver successfully, folder with files can be removed, files will be copied to the system and this folder will be useless.
3. Go to Start - Settings - Control Panel, click on System shortcut, go to Hardware tab, click on Device Manager.
4. In "Device Manager" find the category with the device, if the driver was previously installed and you want to update it or the device will be with a yellow icon in the category of other (not defined) devices.
5. 5. In my case SATA AHCI controller had already installed the driver of Fernando modification, so SATA controller is already in the category "SCSI and RAID controllers".
6. Open the category, double-click - go to its properties. Usually properties window has tabs: "General", "Driver", "Details", "Resources", but there may be some additional tabs, like power management
7. Go to the "Driver" tab and click on the "Update" button. The "Hardware Update Wizard" window opens, asking if you want to connect to the Windows Update node. Our driver is on the disk, so Windows Update will not help us anything, although I do not know of cases where it would help. Choose the bottom item "No, not this time", click "Next".
8. A window will open with a choice of "Auto Install" and "Install from Specified Location". We clearly know where our driver is - so we choose the bottom item "Install from Specified Location" and click "Next".
9. A window will open with the choice of the driver search path. You can select "Include next search location" and use the "Browse" button to specify the path c:\Temp\Generic SATA+AHCI driver v1.3, but it is better to do it manually. Sometimes it happens that the driver consists of several INF files and the search can't find the needed one. This often happens with unpacked motherboard drivers, where the directory can contain more than 20 different INF files. Therefore the best option is to click on the INF file "manually", for which we select "Do not search. I will choose the right driver myself" and click "Next".
10. In the window that opens, click "Install from disk". The "Install from Disk" window opens, where you click on the "Browse" button. Normally the default path is to the lisette (drive "A"), but we go to drive "C" to the directory "Temp", then to the directory "Generic SATA+AHCI driver v1.3" and point to the file storahci.inf. Press the "Open" button. The path will be automatically filled in and then press the "OK" button.
11. After that a window with the list of available devices will open. They can be one or more. In our example, this device is called "Standard SATA/AHCI Controller". Well, whatever, most drivers for WinXP do not have a digital signature, it is not considered mandatory for WinXP. Press the "Next" button.
A window will open with the driver installation progress and copying files. If during installation you will get a warning that the driver is not signed, agree that you will use it anyway. If existing files will be replaced, agree to that as well. When the installation is complete, a window will open saying that the installation is complete but that the hardware will not be used by the system until you reboot the computer. Click the "Finish" button at the bottom.
13. Close the "Task Manager" window, the "Change System Settings" dialog box will appear asking you to "Restart your computer now". You can click "Yes" for an immediate reboot, you can click "No" if you need to save any open documents. But do not delay with rebooting, as soon as you close the documents you must restart your PC immediately.
14. After restarting the PC, the new driver should work. You can go to "Device Manager" again and look at the tabs "General", "Driver", "Details", "Resources" to see the information about the installed driver

P.S.: When you install a driver "manually", something can go wrong. For example, you may install a driver that is not compatible with your hardware and the system may stop booting, dropping into BSODs or the installed device may start glitching. In manual mode (by changing VEN_ID and DEV_ID) you can install any driver to any device. Be prepared for such circumstances beforehand!

- - - Updated - - -

Browsers for Windows XP:

1) Browser 360EE (Google Chrome analog) - built on version 69 and 78 of Chrome. 360E works fine on XP, and the regular Chrome for XP ended up on version 49. Description - http://forum.ru-board.com/topic.cgi?...3&start=1380#7
Download - https://yadi.sk/d/U-_l7A5LmbARhA

The modern (cheater) build 360EE based on the most reliable and stable version v11.0.2216.0.
In the build UserAgent changed to "Chrome 86.0.4240.111", added options --no-sandbox --disable-infobars
to prevent fonts from disappearing on Windows XP - this is the best chromeclone as of October 2020.
Download - https://yadi.sk/d/3BJmzgQNrGi4Kw



The newest browser build based on 360 Extreme Explorer v12.0.1053.0
(Chrome version 78.0.3904.108 is the real version, Chrome 87.0.4280.88 is a swap via UserAgent).
This is the best and recommended version of the browser for December 2020.
Download - https://yadi.sk/d/mQ9tEMbEl9dicw or https://wdfiles.ru/jy2p

2) Browser Basilisk v55 ru-xpmod (analogue of FireFox) - the number of settings exceeds 360E, has a large set of preinstalled plugins, including for cutting ads, built-in TOR anonymizer.
Download - https://yadi.sk/d/HtCypk9HO_H1cw



3) TOR browser is a FireFox-based browser designed for anonymous browsing. Newer versions of WinXP do not support it. The last version with WinXP support is version 7.5.6.
Download - https://yadi.sk/d/UGGKCzNJDEFvIg

Modernized version of TOR - browser based on the latest version (updated internal components, added support for Node version 3).
Download - https://www.upload.ee/files/12349986..._0445.ZIP.html



4) Opera v12.18_45 (mod 06.11.20) - unofficial portable build of the latest classic Opera browser, with fixes for correct sites display.
Download - https://www.upload.ee/files/12483022...18_45.zip.html



Top 5 Browser Kit for Windows XP from December 12, 2020

- A past build of chromoclone 360EE v11
- The newest build of chromoclone 360EE v12 (December 2020)
- Modernized version of the TOR browser
- Modernized version of classic Opera
- Basilisk browser analogue of FireFox

Download the set (390 MB) - https://yadi.sk/d/HbQfEL8dnx_c7A or https://yadi.sk/d/ANkjyZ6Hfws34w

5) Other browsers for WinXP.
Forumer rodocop reminded about whole family of actual browsers for Windows XP on Goanna engine.
MyPal - https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal
Centaury - https://github.com/Feodor2/Centaury/releases by Feodor,
and a bunch of roytam builds:
NewMoon - https://o.rths.ml/palemoon/palemoon-...ac52b-xpmod.7z
Basilisk - https://o.rths.ml/basilisk/basilisk5...ac52b-xpmod.7z
IceApe - https://o.rths.ml/hbl-uxp/iceape.win...ac52b-xpmod.7z
Borealis - https://yadi.sk/d/e9i4Uzz56le-cQ
And also his favorite Vasilisque - https://yadi.sk/d/s8w31JCslJ5vbw and even more favorite (yes, on an obsolescent engine, but the lightest of them all) K-Meleon - https://yadi.sk/d/IUdnrsBfsMAzrA
The 3 latter are Russified by comrade vikmin (from browser Runet) with modest participation of rodocop, and, along with MyPal, prepared for portable use.
Recommendation from vikmin - Vasilisque+v.0.13.0-ru-RU Portable_x32 (Custom build based on Centaury 0.13.0) - https://www.upload.ee/files/12402914...-ru-RU.7z.html

Run STEAM games on Windows XP 2020

Many people think that due to the update, STEAM games on Windows XP will no longer work. It turns out that there are 2 ways to run STEAM games on Windows XP. The essence of the problem - Steam detects the version of the OS, which he runs, "understands" that it is XP, but still downloads the update, which breaks the whole program. Disables it and does not even allow the user to go offline. As a result, all the games in your library that the user honestly bought are no longer available! It's like blackmail - buy Windows 10 (and a new hardware), or we take away all your games, and it doesn't matter that these games work perfectly on Windows XP.

Method 1.
Download archive and unpack it to the root of your drive
File SteamDreamXP.7z (57 MB) - https://www.upload.ee/files/11856797...reamXP.7z.html
This version of STEAM perfectly works on XP and store and library, in short full functionality.

Method 2.
If you still have a backup of an old version that worked on XP, it's enough to add "STEAM.CFG" file with the following content "BootStrapperInhibitAll=Enable" (without quotes) into steam folder before starting it. This will solve the problem with STEAM not starting, since stym will no longer pull for harmful updates.

2 programs for hardcore specialists

The following 2 programs can harm your OS, so use only when you clearly understand what you need it for.

NNN Changer - OS ID spoofing. An installed "Windows XP" can be assigned any identifier from "Windows 3.11" to "Windows 10". Use with caution, for example, substitution of Windows XP SP2 on SP3, most likely to nothing bad will not lead. But swapping to "Windows 7" can cause glitches on many programs. Why would you want to do that? For example, some program, at the time of installation, requires at least "Windows Vista". Before installing this program, replace the ID of your OS with "Windows Vista", and after installation return it to "Windows XP SP3".



FIX128 is a memory unlock program above 4GB with a graphical interface. Works on all 32bit operating systems - WinXP, Win7, Win8, Win10. Creates a boot menu with the option to boot with RAE and without RAE (as in normal mode). Patches system files, so it is detected as a virus. Antivirus should be disabled for the time of fix installation. After the patch is applied, it can be disabled again.

Download - https://www.upload.ee/files/11934865...IX128.zip.html

Performance comparison WinXP | Win8 | Win10

As it turns out, the performance results are different, depending on what the tester's goals are. But I do not advertise anything, I do not engage in commerce, I just test and lay out the results.

Results:
On all OSes the result is almost the same. Tested with the same real hardware (Intel i5-6500 processor with 4 cores at 3.2GHz and 8GB DDR4 memory at 2133MHz), no virtual machines.



Comments:
I thought that the results will be similar, in fact the testing is done on hardware, not software. But some are trying to prove that the technology is not standing still, and nowadays some "new instructions" of processor are used, which, coupled with the new Windows 10, will give a significant increase in speed. Others argue the contrary, that the interface crap can not give any gain, because it is heavy and resource-intensive, but a fast Windows XP will show better results. But the measurements we took show that within a mathematical error of 2% the results are the same. The last x86 version of 7-ZIP v20.00 alfa dated February 06, 2020 was used. I can not check the x64 version because I do not have 64-bit Windows XP itself on the new hardware. WIN-RAID specialists are very angry about it and don't modify drivers for it. Maybe individually some drivers can be found, but there is no ready-made assembly. I don't want to spend 2 months of my life reading WIN-RAID only to get the same result again (it's predictable).

Why Windows XP on modern hardware?

Some users ask this question. The answer is simple: "To work, to work comfortably!" We know that WinXP is not a resource-intensive system and you can install it on a computer from 2003-2010 and the system will run fine. But what about modern applications?

When you play 4K video in the player or access YouTube in the browser, your old computer won't be able to play it correctly, there will be lags and jerks. WinXP itself is not to blame for this, it is banal that your old processor lacks productivity. So the advice - buy an old computer and use WinXP on it - sounds nonsense, except that the Explorer windows will move around the screen. In 2020 on the old hardware will not be comfortable. Surfing the Internet requires modern multi-core processors. AV software has become heavier, it puts a great strain on the computer and eats memory. To make a long story short even for XP to work comfortably in 2020 I will need modern hardware.

Websites:

1) Forum - Win-Raid Forum (Drivers - Firmware - Modding) - profile forum dedicated to driver modifications on Windows XP / Windows 7.
2) Forum - Windows XP 32-Bit and Server 2003 32-Bit on Modern Hardware - a branch dedicated to Windows XP
3) Forum - Windows 7/Vista/Server 2008 - branch about Windows 7
4) Интеграция SATA драйверов с nLite | сделай сам - instruction on integrating drivers into ISO with pictures
5) Zone 94 - Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2020.9.9 - site where Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition is built
6) Zone 94 - Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2020.9.9 - discussion of Windows XP Integral Edition
7) My Digital Life Forums - good site, an alternative to win-raid.com
8) Forum - Windows XP 32-Bit and Server 2003 32-Bit on Modern Hardware - list of solved problems for WinXP

Discussion forums in Russian

For discussion, go to forums whose administrators do not serve Microsoft:
Forum #1 - Windows XP 2020 - сборка системы для современных ПК - Форумы Modlabs.net
Forum #2 - Drivers and installation methods - Windows XP SP3 2020 - THG.ru
Discussion and off-topic - http://www.thg.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=103150
Forum 3 (all info in 1 post) - https://forum.simplix.info/viewtopic.php?pid=26559

How to read OS share statistics

Statistics collected by users who do not have the brains to turn off telemetry, so as not to take part in stupid polls.

This stat should read like this - among those who participate in the collection of information:
- 73% Windows 10 users.
- 19% Windows 7 users
- 0.9% Windows XP users

Conclusion - among the total number of fools, the overwhelming number of fools are Win10 users, and the number of fools who use WinXP - tends to 0. With this interpretation, this statistic is fully consistent with reality.

The most common nonsense about Windows XP 2020

In order to promote the Windows 10 interface crap, merchants launch all sorts of nonsense, and the incompetent users pick it up and carry it to the world.
1) Windows XP has long been unsupported, there are no updates for XP
- Indeed since 2019 unsupported, but critical updates still come out occasionally. The system has been so tested for 20 years, there is little critical to be found in it. And garbage updates with telemetry, hardware and performance limitations - no need for such updates
2) Windows XP has a lot of critical vulnerabilities, Petya crypto worm will corrupt your whole disk.
- As of 2020 there is not a single known critical vulnerability and it is unlikely that it will be found by now. Microsoft released a patch for the encryption tool in 2017 for all systems, including Windows XP
3) Windows XP can't support more than 4GB of RAM
- It can, use WINXPPAE 2.0 or FIX128
4) After PAE patch memory is visible but not working. You need special programs to work in PAE
- Memory is both visible and working. The programs work without exception, because they run in a virtual space and do not even know anything about the PAE. The problems can only be with drivers, which support RAE specially corrupted (for example the driver above version 332 of the video card NVidia)
5) No modern browser works on XP
- Use chromeclone 360EE (69 and 78 engine) or Basilisk - FireFox fork
6) Office 2019 does not work on XP, and other modern software
- But Office 97, 2003, 2007, 2010 work - it is enough and other soft also works, who needs it he will find
7) Windows XP cannot use modern CPU
- The tests that have been made show exactly the same performance compared to modern systems. Basically it is your hardware which determines the performance, not the OS. New technology is 99% a marketing whack job rather than a technical necessity.
8) There is no USB 3.0 driver on Windows XP
- There is a Generic USB 3.0 xHCI driver v1.2 which supports all motherboards
9) The forum member XXX recommends not to read about Windows XP, but to install Win10
- Forum member XXX may be a person of interest. He does not care about your problems, he cares about his business - he needs to sell new PCs and new OS
10) I saw so many modified drivers, my OS will work stable
- A modification is usually a fix of a few bytes, with restrictions disabled. An upgraded driver works the same way, it just supports more new hardware
11) So much text, do I have to read it all?
- Yes you do, in this "sheet" you will find an answer to 99% of the problems you will face when you install Windows XP on a modern PC
12) It would be better to install Windows XP on virtual machine or an old PC and not to bother.
- If your PC is just for moving the windows of Explorer across the screen - then just do it. But for normal operation, with maximum performance, you need to install on real hardware. Old PC will lag even in YouTube, because for decompressing quality video you need a modern CPU. So only installing Windows XP 2020 on modern hardware will give you comfortable fast performance.

The leaked Windows XP source code turned out to be real

Who doubts the reality of the files - there are 2 distributions on ru tracker.

1) Handout #1 - 42.93 GB
Title: Windows XP Source Code, Windows 2003 Server, Xbox, MS-DOS, Windows CE 3; 4; 5, Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.5; 4

2) Handout #2 - 2.98 GB
Title: Windows XP 3790 SP1 x86 source code

Repost of latest information I was able to dig up on the Internet

1) WinXP source code is nt5src.7z file. The rest is patents, videos, ads, etc.
2) Remote video from youtube about compiling Windows Server 2003, available via torrent
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:7c370b5e00b91b12fc02e97bacdca24306dc12b5

=== Windows XP SP3 Ready Builds ===

English build "Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2020.9.9". This build was released September 9, 2020 and is a sequential continuation of the May version 2020.5.5. The build includes the best versions of upgraded drivers, adapted specifically to work on modern PCs. In its majority, drivers from manufacturers (Intel, AMD) are replaced with ported Microsoft drivers from newer operating systems (Windows 7, Windows 8), which provides maximum compatibility and full support for Windows XP on all equipment supported by Windows 8, which is actually all PCs that exist at the moment.

Main changes:
- Included time zone patch KB4557900
- Added files "disk.sys", "partmgr.sys" (to support GPT partitions)
- Added Microsoft USB 3.0 xHCI driver v2.1 (ported from Windows 8)
- Added Microsoft NVMe driver v2.0 (ported from Windows 7)
- Added Samsung NVMe driver v1.2 (ported from Windows 7)
- Replaced "Universal SATA/AHCI driver v2019.6.10" with "Microsoft SATA/AHCI driver v2.0 (ported from Windows 8)"
- Updated root certificates through September 2020 and removed invalid certificates
- Updated Paragon GPT Loader from "v8.0.1.2" to "v10.5.0.95".
- And many other updates...

Instructions on how to use "Integral Edition" builds

Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition" is a "Build Your Own Distribution" build. In the downloaded archive you will find a basic ISO image of the English Windows XP system and a set of drivers/patches "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator". To build the distribution for your hardware, you need to create a directory with English letters (without spaces), for example C:\WINXPOPI, where you put "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator" and the ISO distribution itself.

As a result, next to each other should be:
- folder "Integrator Files"
- WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.4.cmd" file
- Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2020.9.9 (Vanilla).iso".

If you use another/third-party ISO, rename it to "Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2020.9.9 (Vanilla).iso" because the cmd file has a specific template for the file name. The main advantage of the complete distribution is the fact that all the drivers and tweaks were tested on it. If you use a third party distribution you can get problems on the spot, just because of the different versions of certain files. First you need to make sure that WinXP can work on your hardware, and only then do you build it for you.

Integration of modified drivers and tweaks is done by running the command file "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator v2.3.4.cmd". After that, you select the options that you want to modify in the existing distribution. For example, I chose options 1,4,6,8,P to integrate the SATA/AHCI and USB 3.0 drivers ported from Windows 8 into the distribution, and to write a modified ACPI and PAE memory patch up to 128 GB. The rest of the checkboxes were installed automatically, when selecting the specified ones.



To start the integration, press the X key - the process will start. Depending on the number of selected items and the performance of your PC, the process will take a few minutes. When it is finished, you will see a window with the following content.



The repackaged image with the modified drivers, you can burn it to an optical disk and start installing the system. To burn the CD/DVD, I recommend using the UltraISO program. The original MSDN image WinXP SP3 from 2008 - not the best option for modern hardware, much better results are obtained on the assembly in build project LWGAME nCore (file WLWSVOL_RU.ISO) from 2020. If you are too lazy to build, there is a ready to build based on "Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition v2020.9.9" with already integrated basic drivers - ACPI driver, AHCI driver, USB3 driver (selected items 1,4,6 in "WinXP-IE Optional Patch Integrator").

Time Gone "forward" on modern PCs with Windows XP

When using Windows XP on modern motherboards, an annoying glitch was discovered - the system time goes "forward", and the extent of the loss depends on the activity of the PC and can run up to 5 minutes per day. The problem appears only in Windows XP. On power off, under UEFI/BIOS or with modern OS the time is correct. Although the RTC clock chip should be an independent part, it is not so on modern motherboards. Apparently UEFI continues to interact with the installed Windows XP and somehow affects the clock. Research has shown that the clock "goes forward" by constantly switching the system timer period of 16ms to 1ms and back. In Windows XP (by default), this timer runs with a period of 16 ms and if the PC is not active - the system timer will continue to run with a period of 16 ms. But when you start Chrome or multimedia applications, the timer switches to a period of 1 ms and can go back to 16 ms. When the period is hard set to 16ms (or 1ms), the time is accurate, but when the timer is constantly switching 16ms - 1ms - 16ms - 1ms, the RTC real time clock crashes.



Problem Solution:.
As Win-Raid specialists were not able to solve the cause of this problem, no "nice" solution (at the level of patch of system files) as of January 3, 2021 has appeared yet. Available edited files hal.dll and intelppm.sys solve some other problem with timers, but the described glitch has no effect. But we have a "crutch" solution - a program Timer_Fix with source code, written in Visual Studio 6.0. The program has no interface, after start it will switch system timer to period of 1 ms and leave it unchanged, the program constantly hangs in processes until OS restart. To terminate the work (if necessary) you just need to kill the process Timer_Fix.exe through the "Task Manager". For convenience, it is better to put this program to "Autostart" and completely forget about the problem with the loss of time. No bugs were found when using this method. In general, this fix can be considered a "crutch," but there is nothing better at this point.

Clockres - a program to control the system timer period.
CPU-Z - the bookmark About, Timers button allows to control the system timers frequencies.
Neutron 1.07 - handy program to control and synchronize time over internet
Timer_Fix (with source code) - fixes problem with time loss (sets timer to 1ms)
Timer_bug.png, Timer_bug_2.png - screenshots to demonstrate problem

Download Archive - Soft_Control_Time.zip — Yandex.Disk

April 8, 2014, almost 7 years ago.

So what?
The system works great in 2021.

Most advanced Windows XP PC as of January 2021 = i9-10900K processor (10 cores @ 3.7GHz) +
Asus ROG Maximus APEX XII on Intel Z490 chipset + 2x16GB DDR4 RAM + GTX 980Ti + NVME drive

Forumer Jeeves, built a PC on super modern hardware and was able to install Windows XP on it. Previously there were reviews about successfully installing Windows XP on the Intel Z390 chipset, but there were no reviews about the 400-series. At the moment it is the most advanced hardware configuration.

PC config:
Motherboard - Asus Apex XII with Intel Z490 chipset
Processor Intel i9-10900K (10 cores @ 3.7GHz)
2x16 GB DDR4 memory
Graphics cards - GTX 980TI
Drives are a bunch of SSDs + 1 NVME.

EdTittel said:

Errr....ummm....am I missing something here? Except for research, re-enactment, or legal work, why would anybody want to run XP?
... goes off to check/be reminded of EOL date ... April 8, 2014, almost 7 years ago.
Sigh. I don't get it.
It's probably me.
--Ed--

It's not just you Ed. I haven't thought about XP in a very long time. Windows 10 works great for me. Some people I guess just want an older OS that they feel is less restrictive and smaller in nature.

I couldn't imagine being stuck on Windows XP. I don't even like being on the occasional Windows 7 box that I see from time to time.