Saving Windows XP

No, this isn't a plea to save Windows XP from retirement.  Windows XP had a long and useful life, and it finally found a worthy successor in Windows 7.  When Microsoft officially ends Window XP support in April, most of us won't have computers old enough to still be running XP.

Except for me.  I do have a few older computers. (My Heathkit H-8 is over 30 years old.)  I get a few extra years out of these machines by running Linux on them.  But the screen on my Ubuntu/Windows laptop started failing a few years ago, and it's getting progressively worse.  So, when someone offered me a newer laptop, I jumped at the chance to get a faster machine with a working display.

The new laptop spent its early years as a gaming box, and there was a lot of software installed on the machine that I didn't want.   I was a little suspicious of some of the software, too.  And with good reason, as it turned out.  As I ran one software uninstaller, I got a popup window asking me what other games I wanted to install.  Wasn't I trying to uninstall software? I closed that popup window, and the computer was never right again.  Argh!!   Most of the start menu was gone.  Argh!!  The Run... command was gone. Argh!!  None of the icons in the Control Panel worked, and attempting to run programs from the command prompt failed, too.  Argh!!!!

Not a big deal, I thought,  I intended to re-partition the disk and install Ubuntu on half the disk.  Two weeks later, after fixing the fouled-up disk partition table and replacing a tempermental DVD drive with one from eBay,  I had a fresh Ubuntu install.   Oh, and there was the Broadcom wireless driver to deal with: google  "install broadcom wireless linux" to see what fun that was!

So, for the past few months I've been happily working in the Linux world.  I usually don't need to boot into Windows, but I have a few apps that only work under Windows. We were heading out on a road trip, and I needed to update the maps on my Magellan GPS.  I figured it was time to get the Windows side working.

When Windows is badly hosed, the best thing is to format the partition and start with a clean, fresh install.  And then run Windows Update to get the latest enhancements and security patches.  But I didn't have any recovery CDs for the laptop, and if there was a recovery partition, the partition was long deleted.  Googling my options, I found a useful article on the Microsoft support website:  https://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

According to the support article, I needed to follow the procedures after booting from a recovery CD.  But I didn't have a recovery CD.  My Windows system was clearly compromised by junkware, so booting  Windows into full or maintenance mode didn't seem like good options, either.

But, I did have a good Ubuntu partition. Why not mount the Windows partition to Linux and follow the Microsoft directions from a xterm or terminal window?   With a non-functional Windows install, I had nothing to lose.  If you're in same situation, follow these tips for using Microsoft's procedure from a Linux command prompt:

• You need root authority to mount the Windows partition: su
• Create a new mount point in under your /mnt directory:  cd /mnt; mkdir c
• Mount the Windows partition to the new mount point:  mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/c
• Follow the Microsoft notes, substituting /mnt/c/ for C:\WINDOWS\
• Substitute the Unix cp command for the Windows copy command.
• Substitute the forward slash  ( / ) for the backward slash ( \ ) when typing path names.
• Remember that Unix is case sensitive.  Windows won't care, but Linux will.  The Windows filenames will be a mix of upper and lower case characters, and in the Linux shell window you must type the names exactly as you see them.

After following the directions from my xterm window, I rebooted the laptop and selected Windows  from the GRUB menu.  And....  Success!!  I could use Windows again.  My first task was running the Malwarebytes scanner; my second task was running the  Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool.  Finally, after running Windows update to grab the latest fixes, the Windows side of my laptop is back in action.

In a couple of months, Microsoft will end Windows XP support.   If you have an older computer that lacks the power to run one of the new versions of Windows, and if you want to use a operating system that's supported, take a look at the open source world.  I've used many versions of Linux over the past twenty years: Yggdrasil, Slackware, Mandake, Red Hat, Suse, and now Ubuntu.  They're all great;  there are lots of tools for sysadmins and lots of apps for desktop users.  Linux has gained wide commercial acceptance for its low cost and robust server performance.  Windows is still a more popular desktop then Linux, but there is a large selection of desktop applications available to the Linux user.  And if you have an older computer that's just taking up closet space, why not try Linux?