Windows XP.
Everyone knows that name.
You might not even know what a floppy or a CD disk is, but you are familiar with Windows XP.
Literally the best and the most popular Windows version ever released.
It's been 20 years and it is still rocking with about 1% of market share, barely losing to Windows 8.
Someone might say that it was released at August, 24th. But I would deem that incorrect.
You cannot get an RTM day package, can you? You are not an OEM, and neither am I.
Windows XP had become available to consumers like me and you exactly at this day, 20 years ago.
That is the day, when if you got lucky, you could rush into your local tech shop and get yourself an early release copy.
This is a massive historical date, that in my books marks the Windows XP's birthday.
And for this huge anniversal occasion, that is - 20 years since XP's actual release, I will build a completely new Windows XP PC out of unused and sealed parts.
[Alarm]
It took me close to 1,5 years to capture all the components and get them shipped to my majestic country.
I don't even want to mention what kind of shipping costs I had to face, especially for chonky parts.
But the idea of building an all new Windows XP computer - it was my DREAM!
But who else is crazy enough to commit to that kind of endeavor in our community?
AnKkBkkukuku...?
Oh yeah, I'm kidding, Tech Tangents.
In all seriousness, though, watch his video too - it's nostalgic experience for boys from a previous millenium, and it is exactly what drove me to make a video of this kind myself.
Many people of the time built computers with an intent to play games, as it was revolutionary back in the day.
You could have a device way better than an arcade machine at home, free of charge, always available.
Now I'd like to put it out straight - I'm not a gamer. As weird as it might sound, I don't care about games.
Instead, I am a power user...
And a developer.
I'm not building that computer with a purpose of gaming, therefore I was not aiming for crazy good specifications of that era.
I was going for an average home computer of middle 2000s.
Many of us, early 21st century dudes, had something like this. And I thought it would be awesome to build a time machine and bring back all the childhood memories and fun we've had back in our day.
All the parts have been sitting on my shelf for quite a while, and I can't be more happy to finally unseal them.
Let me show you everything I got for the great celebration.
A keyboard.
A mouse.
A webcam, with an internal mic.
A wireless adapter.
A processor.
A video card.
A motherboard.
Two hard drives.
RAM.
Two optical drives.
A floppy drive.
A USB card.
A bunch of sealed connectors.
Speakers!
What's wrong with these?
He-he, got you. Here are the real speakers.
A sealed copy of Microsoft Office 2003.
And most importantly, a sealed copy of Windows XP.
Additionally, I got an old new computer case.
We don't get enough of these! I'd kill for one manufactured today.
A 5:4 monitor. (We don't get these at all either!)
And a brand new old-style power supply.
It was obviously made somewhere this year.
I decided NOT to order a power unit from 2000s, you know, I don't want to ruin the rest of the components previously shown!
As I mentioned before, a video from Tech Tangents showcasing an all new build of Windows 98 initially drove me to make this video.
But I never thought it would be even remotely possible, considering my region and language constraints.
One day though, as I was surfing a local tech shop, I found an old Socket 478 motherboard.
I thought: "It was a perfect beginning to a project like this!"
Especially that it had the "Designed for Windows XP" logo.
So I pulled myself together and decided to achieve what I thought was impossible at a time.
I ordered that motherboard, which was last in stock, by the way, and started to roam around the internet markets for the long forgotten sealed hardware.
I managed to get most of the stuff from eBay at a bargain price, but yes, before you ask, the shipping indeed killed it.
Some of the components I got from Russia. Pretty unbelievable, right?
Well, the parts I got in Russia didn't have any Russian labels, since their boxes weren't intended to be a part of an advertising campaign, or them being in English was a part of a master plan.
I managed to scavenge a motherboard, a monitor and a power supply in my land.
I had spare time to search Russia's tech markets solely because of the help of my friends, who were sending me eBay listings of certain parts.
And consulting me to help to retain the relative time correctness of everything I would get, so I could secure the parts I found quicker.
Especially tiseno100. Props to you, big man.
Let's get to the meat of this video.
I still can't believe I found this motherboard in stock in my local tech shop.
It's not only feature-rich, but it's fully period-correct, coming with the 865 Northbridge chipset and a PGA-478 socket, which the Pentium 4 processor will go into.
It was the first Intel processor supporting the Hyper-Threading technology, among with the Xeons, and the one I have on hand is clocked at 3GHz.
That processor was an iconic part of that era. Many computers of today still use Pentium 4, and it can run Windows 10. And now, Windows 11. Absolute beast!
I doubt there are people from 2000s who haven't ever heard of the Pentium 4.
Unsealing the box we find the processor and the heatsink, shipped with thermal compound applied. As well as the manual, with a sticker on the back side.
Fantastic.
That heatsink needs some work, though. The compound is so dry, I can draw on it!
Mhh, that's one ugly smiley face... Let's get rid of it.
I'll just scrape it off with my handy tool and finish it up with some gasoline.
That'll do.
And, here's the processor itself. Decently powerful and incredibly popular at the time, this bad boy will be the heart of my new build.
But what is a good build without a good amount of RAM?
I decided to get an excessive amount worth of 2 gigs for this.
Why? Well, I imagined the year 2004, and how exactly I would build a computer back in the day.
If I were sent back in time and had my hindsight erased, I would go for a futureproof computer.
A lot of memory is probably the cheapest way I could future-proof the build back then, so here I am with 2GB of RAM. Both of these came with a manual.
One of the final essentials to unbox is the graphics card.
I went with a medium tier one for my build. Considering it is not supposed to be a gaming rig in general.
I chose ATI because my grandfather's PC used an ATI card.
As I opened the box, I noticed that I accidentally cut through the box's flap.
[God damn it, man!]
Not the most satisfying unseal, but it's alright. I'll fix it later.
Inside the box there's another box, just far more stirty.
And in it we have the graphics card secure in a plastic compartment.
Below there is a thicccc manual (just as I love it)
And a resource disk. No sticker, sadly.
But what really concerned me at that point was whether the card had aging issues or not.
I didn't want to face recapping this card, or, even worse, fight corrosion on it, if it was stored in a humid area.
Remember, all of this sealed stuff is sold AS-IS, no warranties.
We've got all the vital parts unboxed.
Now we need to assemble a test build. If a computer POSTs, all the components are in good shape and pass the internal check. That's what I was praying for.
The parts I unboxed all looked pristine! I even inspected them in detail, confirming there was nothing off.
But it doesn't necessarily mean the item is good, even if it looks so. Especially that it is out of a sealed box.
Tech Tangents got a VooDoo card inside a sealed (though with suspicious looking film) box, and it happened to have leaked caps.
Horrible!
Of course I'm not going to test the items flat on the desk. Let's get the case going!
I got a little baby case for this build. Many of you might judge me for the choice, but in the end, that's my build, right? Keep it civil, folks!
Using my professional measurement skills, I found that this case is only 35cm tall.
There were many eBay listings offering ginormously tall cases, most of them beige. I kinda dislike that form-factor, so I searched for a long-long time and finally found this little guy.
Conveniently, it was also of black color and topped up with features. I couldn't wish for more!
Check it out, it has an entire built-in versatile card reader drive!
There is a comprehensive manual on how to build it too.
With a product registration card.
Too bad the company is gone, so you can't register at this point.
The metal is of medium thickness and feels solid. It is mostly an issue with newer cases, where they use foil-thin metal as a base. Thankfully, it's not the CASE here.
There is a piece of anti-corrosion paper and a mount kit. The mount kit is attached to the drive bay and has all the necessary screws.
The case also comes with 2 chassis fans pre-installed.
Time to get the components installed.
First comes the PSU.
The screw holes are a bit misaligned, but we can work with them.
The I/O shield snaps right in. Beautiful.
The motherboard is going in next.
I'll position it so the connectors fit right in the shield and the screw holes align.
It's difficult to do at the beginning, because the parts are new and the I/O shield tends to be a little bit "springy".
I'll also unscrew one of the slot plates, so I don't have to do that later.
Let's insert the brains into our robot friend and apply the new quality thermal compound.
Put on the heatsink, nice and easy.
Now I'll connect the 20 and 4 pin 12 volt connectors and add 2 sticks of RAM.
Ideally, I should have added the RAM sticks first, but should I say I didn't have a plan at all prepared for this video?
I also loosened the fan cable. I don't know why I did that, but uhh... yeah.
Let's screw in the video card for good measure.
I finished connecting the power button wires off camera, simply because the angle I am generally filming from is quite awkward, but the angle I have to employ to film the bottom of the case from atop is literally inconcievable.
Notice how I didn't mention any speaker wires, that's because there aren't any! This case does not include a PC speaker.
That's a shame, but I can easily order one myself.
The test build is ready to go, but I need a monitor to see the output, as I can't hear it.
I would have unboxed a monitor for a quicker POST anyway, but I can't stand waiting in situations like this.
Meet the staple of middle 2000s - a less-than-20-inch 5:4 LED monitor.
Go LED. Go green.
Inside the box we have a stand, a power cable, a VGA cable, a manual package, and the monitor itself.
[Oh shit]
The stand just snaps right in.
After successfully connecting it to the computer inside the mess that I'm in, I flip the switch on the power supply in the woeful anticipation of upcoming issues.
As I press the power button, the fans start spinning. I don't see a picture on the screen, and it increasingly concerns me.
I built many computers of different eras, and I wouldn't accept this one to be a fail.
But then, the green light of hope appears. The POST screen shows up, completely blowing away my expectations.
[Happy ape noises]
I am so happy it let me through!
[I'm so relieved!]
Let's add the rest of the parts! But we have to unbox them first, as it goes.
The floppy drive.
The DVD drives.
The hard drives.
Can we just appreciate the design of the Western Digital 80GB drive? I think it's the best looking drive ever manufactured.
Too bad nobody inherited the idea of coloring the lids as a standard. The black color is easily my favorite, compared to the default sheet metal one.
The Wireless adapter by Cisco Systems.
Comes in a nice double package...
...with fabulously detailed manuals and a booklet, showing off their product lineup.
Look at that sick boombox! I love the design of zeroes. No simplicity, just creativity all around.
I'll keep that brochure, maybe one day I'll show it off like The 8-Bit Guy. Who knows, we all grow old eventually.
Here we also find the resource CD, and the wireless adapter. That's one durable antenna!
The PCI and PCI Experss card?
[God damn it, China!]
[Much better]
What I couldn't find was the old sealed USB card. There were simply no listings available for PCI USB cards.
There are now, most probably, but I managed to outsource a Chinese substitute for now.
It's not that period-correct and I don't trust it that much, but it will do for now.
I have to prepare the computer to get the rest of the parts inside, and that's going to be slightly convoluted at the end, so good planning is the way to go.
Ultimately I didn't go that easy on myself and screwed up the steps a bit, but remember, I had no plan.
No plan is the best plan!
So I'll just free the PCI slot back plates.
I'll pop out all the plastic front covers.
...and, as expected, there's a metal shield behind one of these. It's welded shut.
I never understood the reason why companies added these. Perhaps, to improve initial structural integrity, or some sort of an OEM lock?
Either way they really don't want me to insert an additional 5 and a quarter incher.
That obviously won't stop me! I have my trusty wire cutters always at hand.
Perfect!
I'll finish the job with a file.
I have to be careful not to scratch the plastic. Sadly, the Mohs scale of hardness is a part of our world's physics.
I'll use a little piece of cloth as a shield, I don't really care about it.
I need to sand it down just a bit, so it doesn't block the path I'll insert a drive through, and also doesn't scratch it, that'd be a symphonical disaster.
Feels smooth to touch, so I'll slide them in.
Great.
I'll use special long screws that came with the install kit. They seem to be exactly manufactured for the plastic washers on the screw holes.
And, as expected, a perfect fit!
It feels phenomenal when you build a computer just as the designers intended it and it just works so well. You know what I mean.
I'll perform the same procedure on the back side.
Oh, and also don't forget the floppy drive!
Now let's insert the bigger hard drive. There are 2 drive bays in this almighty little case: one under the card reader drive, and one at the bottom of the case.
They are moderately apart, but I assume that's due to the specific layout of that case - the designers intended a chassis fan, which is pretty immobile and takes up a lot of front wall space.
The bottom compartment can be accessed by unhitching a tiny screw at the bottom of the case and sliding it out.
The one on the top, however, cannot, once you have installed a CPU heatsink.
*Sigh*
Well, as I said, no plan is the best plan. And with the power of editing it's in there.
I'll insert the 80 gig drive in there later.
The next step is often omitted whilst building an old computer out of all new sealed parts, but it's important to note that CR2032 batteries don't last forever, and they also sometimes run out.
Every decade or so. I always have a bunch of these in my closet for good measure.
It's rather irritating when your BIOS settings reset out of nowhere and your PC clock goes nuts.
It's also SO INFURIATING when a front panel cable just barely doesn't reach to the pin connector on a motherboard!!!
Good thing I inspected the insides beforehand, which is why I know there was another hole in the front wall
And it might give just enough reach for a wire to connect with a bit of hassle.
I popped the front face out and rerouted the wires through a more desirable opening.
The USB wire reached the connector, but the HD AUDIO was still too short.
It's insulting how they made it such a tease. Just take a look at that!
No worries, it can be fixed.
I didn't even imagine something dumb like this might have happened.
I'll leave it at that. For now I'll conect the inferior AC'97 extension.
It's intended for backwards compatibility with the older systems like Windows 98.
Now let's turn our attention to the cable management.
Since I resorted to an itty-bitty case, it's important to be smart and conserve the space by containing the inevitable hot wire mess.
The case install kit came with this nice half-transparent white tie.
If you wanna know, the footage in this video actually comes in a chronological order.
I was mainly playing with PCI card placements behind the scenes, and that's why you can find the cards jumping in and out all around. No funny business here!
Time to slide the additional bay with an 80GB drive back in.
Then secure it.
I have no clue why I opted to such an obscure order of operations, but that works just as good, if not better.
Next, I plan to insert the serial card.
But as I played with PCI placements before, I noticed that the network card blocks COM pins on the motherboard.
Repositioning the cards yet again was in order.
I finally managed to get the COM card in, after a bit of struggle.
Inserting the network and the USB card was a walk in the park compared to the COM one.
Following that, I decided to connect all the drives. Of course, using sealed wires.
I got them years back from a nice old guy while visiting Moscow.
The saturated beige of these wires indeed adds a new color to our fresh build.
I didn't like the way they looked inside a bag, but once I removed that 15 year old seal I unleashed the real color of these.
Let's connect the Molex wires.
In case you guys see these for the first time, which is highly probable by that point, they're kind of annoying as their contacts aren't secured to the connector body.
That results in a lot of fiddling and force to connect them, especially on a factory new power supply.
Even though a PSU I got has Molex connectors, there aren't enough of them. That's why I also ordered a bunch of SATA->PATA adapters.
PATA is slowly fading away, rightfully so.
Finally, I'll set the jumper cabs.
I had to borrow one from an old and not functioning drive, as the 320GB drive came without it.
Everything else conveniently had them.
By modifying the jumper position I set the master and slave order of the drives. The conflicts aren't particularly exciting.
There's one more thing I like to do with the drives.
That is, physically labeling them.
To do that, I cut a piece of masking tape, stick it on and scribble the drive's label and size on it. Never going to be a question which one is which.
This case went from a lightweight box that I could easily relocate with a single hand to a solid full-blown computer that weighs about 7kg (by feel)
I'll close the lid, fasten the adapter antenna, and at last, we can try firing up the complete build.
Excitement intensifies!
Beautifuuuuul!
I'll briefly cover the rest of the parts, as it will take an unseen amount of time to show you everything.
Starting with the Microsoft Internet Keyboard.
There was a PRO version of it, which I could have resorted to, but chose not to as there were too many buttons at the top and I found it ugly.
Personal preference.
Inside the box we find the armrest.
The beginner's manual, which suggests that the use of the keyboard might result in persistent or recurring throbbing and burning sensation.
Oh yeah, I'm gonna have quite a bit of that during the first time...
Anyway, we also have IntelliType Pro software disc included.
If I recall correctly, it allows remapping of the keys, which is amazing!
They include the software free of charge.
Finally, we get to (and inside ;)) the meat of this box.
The keyboard features a standard PS/2 connector, and yet another health warning, which I apparently cannot remove.
The keyboard feels amazing for its rubber dome switches. Could give up my mech for that one, I'm not going to lie.
Which I did, by the way! I'm currently using it to edit the video.
Attaching the armrest and extending the feet really makes the Microsoft Keyboard shine.
Feels exciting!
Just like unboxing the Microsoft Mouse.
I went full Microsoft on accessories here...
In the box we find the mouse, which is USB, but by default supplied with a PS/2 adapter.
Interesting. Didn't expect that!
What I like about this mouse is obviously the design.
Microsoft really knows how to make unique looking things.
The optical sensor on this mouse is also a part of aesthetics, so you can always see the red glowing piece of it. It's looking so good!
I sincerely hope one day the companies will start to experiment on product design again. Everything as of 2021 is simple, black and GAMING.
Gaming dominates the market. I'm sick of it.
The downside to this particular design (well, not really a downside, but just a quirk) is that the air-time when relocating the mouse feels a bit odd.
But that's to be expected, because the sensor is located in a different spot.
Here's how it looks with the keyboard combined. Isn't that a great combo?
We'll add to it with the Microsoft LifeCam, which advertises the Windows Live call button.
It comes with a far more colorful manual than the keyboard and the mouse ones do. The multimedia world has higher standards to this kind of stuff, I guess.
Unsurprisingly, there's also a software disc, and there's the camera itself.
Install software first.
Yeet that right into the drive.
I'll figure out the best camera position afterwards.
Ah yes, the be-bratz.com alpha male speakers.
It really was just a dumb $20 beginning skit for this video, but it would be a shame to not unbox these.
They look incredibly inviting.
And I already don't know where to start with this kind of package. It is thick plastic sealed shut.
(Subtitle writer note: Mute the video.)
(I warned you.)
[It's an 8/5 opening this box!]
After a lot of disgusting cutting sounds [bleeh]
...it's finally out.
And look at these sharp edges as well! The packaging really defines their target audience.
For a second I thought I cut myself, but fortunately, it was just a bit of pressure.
I bet there were so many sealed boxes in stock just because of how stupid difficult these are to open. But in the end it's worth its weight in gold.
Mmmmmm, looking real good.
Okay, I'll stop.
I tested how they sound, and it was as good as you'd expect. I can't show it on my main channel, but I'll upload an extra video on my second channel just for the sake of it.
Now to the real speakers.
I know, they aren't sealed, but they don't come with a seal from the factory anyway.
The seller claimed the condition was "an open box", which sounds about right.
The box has seen better days, but the speakers are looking brand new. New plastic smell, everything textbook, but the cable ties are definitely not from the factory.
The main issue with finding perfect speakers was my unfortunate location.
We have Euro-plugs in Russia, that means I can't order anything from countries like United States or United Kingdom, for instance.
I know that I can use a converter, but the voltage here is also different. We have 220 volts, whilst United States, for example, has 120.
That makes it unnecessarily hard to find parts like these. I don't want any trash setups with 10 converters plugged in each wall outlet I have.
I don't have anything to say, these speakers look like al-dente to me. (Note: I ordered those from Italy)
Lo and behold, this is the full setup as of now. Let's boot her up!
[Intense lawnmowing sounds]
No boot device, hmm, I wonder how I could fix it..
I'll be honest with you, I've been waiting for this exact moment for more than a year.
This guy was sitting on my shelf day after day, unused. But everything must happen eventually.
Let's eXPrience that together!
Here I am, unsealing the box that is basically as old as me.
It's astonishing how through the time this box made it into my video, practically unscaved, almost in a perfect shape.
It feels weird more than anything to unbox a relic like this. What if that's going to be a crime centuries later?
Nothing was going through my mind during this historical part of the video.
In that box resided something I wasn't expecting to see. It was a folder.
Just a folder.
I was thinking to find some kind of hardened cardboard inside that, but no, it was just a folder. That's pretty clever, Microsoft.
Let's open the Windows folder and navigate to regist...
Wai... wait. That's for another video!
The Windows folder consists of 3 pages.
The one to the left has all these little tidbits for show.
The central one contains a genuine shiny disc, that's hard to look at.
And the one to the right contains an entire book.
No, three!
One of them is a starting manual.
Another is a Windows Marketplace booklet.
And the last one should help you explore the fresh new Windows XP install.
We can't read that yet, confidential!
The book quality is better than I expected, honestly.
It contains all the technical tips on how to get Windows XP going.
I was starting to get a bit concerned, as I couldn't find a product key anywhere in that folder. But then I decided to take out the disc and saw this.
And sure enough, that was the product key for Windows XP on the back. I have to censor it, because I want to keep that key to myself.
And now, let's address that boot device issue! Here's that shiny shiny disc.
Is that a bliss watermark on the back that I see? Interesting.
I'll put it in and start the install.
That thing will take a while. Real hardware is way different to virtual machines in terms of speed.
Copying, extracting and installing took about 25 minutes to complete.
And yeah, I called this computer ULTRAXP in accordance with the ULTRA XT case, plus I think this computer is beyond ULTRA in terms of its history and parts.
As the first bootup begins, I am thrilled and waiting for the famous OOBE ambient music. But sadly, I get none.
The drivers weren't pre-deployed and the XP disc that I had wasn't targeted to a specific OEM.
I got a bit disappointed about this, so I just flew through the setup into the desktop that millions of users experienced for the first time in their life back in 2000s, featuring that immortal Bliss wallpaper.
Shortly I realized that BIOS settings were off. It's not that big of a problem, it's just the time is off.
But then I realized that I had 30 days to activate the Windows XP "trial" that I had, and I changed the time to the future.
To the far future.
Windows activation is scuffed. I made a few videos on that before, but I knew what was in store for me once I was past the welcome screen.
I knew I would have to activate it via a phone afterwards, it wasn't supposed to be a part of this video.
That left me no choice though, so I quickly made it work.
[К сведениям, полученным во время этого звонка, могут иметь доступ филиалы, дочерние компании и поставщики услуг компании Microsoft, расположенные по всему миру.]
I was kind of shocked not to find any stickers like "Designed for Windows XP" in the original box.
In my opinion, that's a missed opportunity.
There was one sticker that went included with a build, which was the "Intel Inside". Let me tell you, that thing will largely add to the aesthetics.
I love stickers, some companies today still include them with their products. People love attention to details like that.
One sticker is nice, two is perfect. It's up to the user what he values more inside the computer - and that's what he'll usually stick to the front panel.
The Windows XP setup is complete, but I still have to install drivers, which is a long process on older systems like Windows XP.
It will take a lot of patience.
You, Windows 10 guys, are spoiled with that process done automatically for you.
Everything went well, I got to enjoy the 2000s vibes with those old creative setup programs.
There was one thing specifically that caught my eye.
In a traditional ASRock sense there was an additional feature included. Here it was the ASRock APP Charger, claiming to make my iPhone charge up to 40% faster, much quickly.
And it means, the original one, taking the motherboard release year into the account.
You can notice how companies actually tried to go above and beyond the competition with little attempts at innovation like this.
The video card driver program even included sound effects!
The rest of the driver programs were more-less the same.
I also decided to install ViewSonic software.
The intro sequence was pretty cool.
Everything generally went well until I got to install the wireless driver.
That went the opposite of smoothly.
First of all, their driver was unsigned, which brought up the security warning every single time I tried to get it going.
Next, even more importantly, it couldn't connect to my home network.
No matter how hard I tried.
Considering the setup.exe inside the root directory did not start and the driver was unsigned, I thought it was simply corrupted.
I know, corruption doesn't work like this, but what else?
They suggested to use the XP Zero Configuration wireless network program instead of their software in the manual, which I did.
Still nothing.
I had no idea as to why it did not work at all.
I did basically everything I could to try and connect it to my home network, including installing the Service Pack 3, but it was all in vain.
There was a solution, though.
I randomly stumbled upon it, and I couldn't be more happy to find at least something to make this catastrophy work.
I turned on my mobile hotspot without a password, and for some obscure reason that wireless adapter decided to successfully connect to it.
Then I did a bit of testing. Removing the password from my home network afterwards did not help.
Changing the password encryption method did not help either.
Changing the network standard yielded no results.
Setting the password back on my hotspot broke it again.
Literally nothing worked, except my hotspot without a password.
I had no idea what caused that and I was not willing to spend any more time on this to find out what's wrong.
I still don't know.
One day I'll figure it out.
I assume the router that I have, which is garbage and is definitely at least 7 years old, is too new for the wireless adapter to work in conjunction with.
Anyway, back on track.
I had my breath of fresh air installing a camera driver again, since I plugged it into a different USB port on the back.
NOW the system is finally fully installed. There's just one reboot that holds me off.
Hmmm, that desktop is looking dull and empty.
Ah, much better.
I also figured out that camera has focus controls, you just spin the lens to set it up. Here's me, say hi!
Does anyone else miss the puppy that helped you search for the files on your drives? It's so wholesome.
It's a shame Microsoft killed all the 3D helpers like Clippy and Rover. They've got better places to be.
Since it's all about Windows XP, I think we all should get to experience the full boot up of this machine.
The machine is pretty much done at this point, but I still want to do a few things with it.
First of all, I'd like to install Microsoft Office 2003.
Office products always went back-to-back with Windows.
I can guarantee at least 90% of all Windows users are familiar with or have used Office in the past.
It's just such a vital combination for computer users! A powerful operating system with powerful office tools.
I got this Office copy in an OEM bundle.
Let's say the seller kind of scammed me on this one.
The listing showed a perfectly fine looking box, but in the end I got this instead of the box advertised.
The product is practically the same, but the packaging differs drastically, and the price of it should be substantially lower due to that.
If you want to know, the seller's name that scammed me on eBay is sellerandbuyer2007.
He sells sealed copies of Microsoft products, mainly.
If you ever want to get started with such a project, you can get copies from him, but be careful with that guy.
Do ask him for the box directly through the messages before committing to the purchase, or you might end up in a situation like this, where he sends you out the correct product, but in a horrible packaging.
You can also resort to soft_123, he's also a good guy.
He's in the clear in my experience, but don't take my word for it. So far I only got sealed Windows 98 from him.
Be careful in general with sellers on eBay. The sealed parts are always sold as-is, meaning they could have gone bad after all the years and that wouldn't be anyone's fault.
Inside that DELL bundle there are a lot of things sandwiched. We have a greeting from the DELL team, first and foremost.
Then, we have a rebate card, which expired literally exactly 15 years ago, as of filming that.
Finally, we've got Office Professional and OneNote, which is not included for free. It's just a 60-day trial.
Opening the Office Professional box, we find a product key, which I'll censor as well.
Next, we see the beautiful shiny disc that is also hard to look at.
And finally, there's a booklet with Outlook sneakies, and the book underneath it. I assume that's a beginner's guide to Office.
Oh, that's Wendy's 2 for 1 right there.
I didn't expect another disc below the main Office one. It's Business Contact Manager, which is off my interest, I'll just keep it in there.
The installation goes smoothly. I like how that installer looks.
Following it up with OneNote, the disc envelope is also nicely sealed.
Inside that envelope is also a message about OneNote being a 60-day trial that I must identify.
Same installer, same everything and we are done.
Activation wizard pops up, and seemingly just confirms that I have a genuine copy over the Internet.
It's a bit weird how they still check such old products for authencity.
Here's where I will write a part of my script for this video.
I haven't really ever needed Excel in my life, except that IT exam where I had to learn all the stupid formulas, that can be used for practically nothing.
The OneNote tour is being blocked by Internet Explorer. Active content at its finest.
Now, let's be real. Malware is also a topic on my channel.
My favorite era of malware lays exactly between the releases of Windows XP and Windows 8.
There's no way I'm gonna let such an opportunity slip by.
Let's start a fake Flash Player executable, filled with rogues and whatnot.
If you've been following my channel, you might recall this part.
I made a separate video on starting that exact fake Flash Player executable using all the quality standards of that era.
This is the computer that I performed this stunt on!
Full disclosure: I know what I'm doing and how to get rid of all the malware that it drops...
[Noooo, we've been infected with crapware!]
...so it's all contained and controlled, the machine is safe.
I hope rogue software makes a comeback one day.
It would also be a great shame not to launch the infamous YouAreAnIdiot JS joke.
It was quite popular back in the day.
Take a look at how fast it consumes computer's resources! It was terrible to get off of your computer.
[New virus found] Malware was massive back in the day, but so was gaming.
I'm not that interested, but I think we should satisfy all the gamers that are watching this video right now and play some games.
[BAN ME, BAN ME, BAN MEEEEEE]
Let's see how this machine plays!
There's one game that I have a physical copy of, that is the Planet X3 by The 8-Bit Guy.
He's a great man, check him out on YouTube.
There are a lot of things in the box, including the old 5¼" floppy disc and a soundtrack cassette.
That's way off my desired time period, in the other direction...
The only compatible media here is the 3½" floppy with a DOS application.
The game was targeted towards early PC clones, which is around the beginning of 90s. But what's so good about Windows XP is the backwards compatibility.
The game will be running basically natively via NTVDM.
Even though Windows XP is NT, it still allows you to run all DOS applications through the virtual DOS machine, which is N. T. - V. D. M.
What an amazing feature that is!
Hmm, yeah, the PC speaker would definitely make the DOS games shine. Don't worry, I have it ordered already.
That wasn't the only problem I've run into with playing games on this machine.
Half-Life 2 was quite stubborn, I don't know why.
It always crashed with "Out of Video Memory" error. The card I have has enough video memory to run Portal, but apparently not so much to run Half-Life 2.
It was also thrown right at the start, where there were no intensive scenes or anything of that sort.
The game itself isn't that GPU-intensive, in fact very forgiving in terms of hardware requirements, but it just refused to run on my machine.
So I started playing with parameters, like the DirectX version and the starting resolution.
At the end it boiled down to sheer luck, I think.
The game just booted no problem, omitting all the parameters I passed to it, it just took a few dozens of tries.
I could have skipped Half-Life 2, but it would be just a huge insult to the gaming history.
So I managed to get it working instead, umm, once in a hundred attempts.
The machine itself isn't ideal either, nothing can be.
There are some problems with internals, like an unused chassis fan on the back...
AC97 connected instead of HD AUDIO...
No PC speaker...
A PCI Experss card...
But these are simple problems that I can mitigate in mere seconds.
I'll leave them for another episode starring this computer.
It'll make an appearance on my channel every now and then, so stick around for that.
As I am writing this script, I have no idea if I will be the only one who makes this kind of thing for XP's 20th anniversary. (Editor remark: I wasn't)
Even if I'm not, I believe that it's a historical moment for the community and memorable experience for me.
This might even be the first and the last time I get to do something like that and I am incredibly happy that I made it count.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
And that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed this tribute to the legendary Windows XP system.
Thanks for watching, and take care.
~ Do subscribe! :) ~ The project took me about 5 full days to film - 245GB worth of footage. Editing took me 3 full days. Writing script and subtitles took me 2 full days. The game on the background: Fireboy and Watergirl.