old Windows XP laptop -- safe to connect?

Yeah, I knew those adapters do exist, but I never tried them for a few reasons. 1. Most SCSI devices I have, although some of them were super expensive when I bought, up to a few thousand $, the same or better functionality devices can be had in USB or wireless version now for mere $100 or less. 2. Even if adapter works to connect to a new PC, without appropriate driver, it is not likely to function. 3. Non of those devices are mission critical for my work or pleasure now, I have no need to use them again. But, being a pack rat, just as with all of old PCs, I collect those museum pieces and save them in the storage. lol

 

Check if your router can create a guest network. Many newer routers have that feature. You setup a separate "guest" wi-fi network using this feature. What it means (and some manufacturers may have different ways of implementing it, there is no standard) is that any machines on that network do not have full network privileges, but can access internet. It means that the machine on the guest network won't be able to reach other machines on the home side of the firewall. If you have a network printer, for example, a guest machine will not be able to access it. It's basically designed to allow people visiting you access internet, but not anything on the home network. If you can set that up on your router, then you can only allow the suspect XP laptop to connect to that and it will be kind of sand-boxed. You need to log into your router's control page (usually at 198.162.1.1) and poke around.

Otherwise you can also upgrade this thing to Windows 7 or 10. Most old XP machines will gladly run 7 or 10 with no issues (even better, sometimes than XP).

 

Be very very VERY careful connecting an XP box to the internet on a guest network.

Being smeared with feces can still lead to some nasty viruses, even if it happened while you were playing in a "sandbox."
Computers built back in XP days still had USB ports, optical drives, bluetooth.....all kinds of interesting ways to get sand back into the main house where it will have to be dealt with.
As mentioned above, upgrading an old XP machine is easy-peasy, but I would NOT pick Windows 7 which has been on life support since 2015, and the doctors are already tugging on the plug, which they want to yank out in January of 2020.

Ax XP box will happily run Windows 10, and if you buy the right license you might even get to take it with you when you your old XP box dies.
Winders 10 also has an XP mode - although I have never tinkered with it.
4 Ways to Revive Windows XP on Windows 10
However (comma!) if you're going to over-pay for software that will sunset after only a few years, then you might as well go the extra step and over pay for the hardware as well and just go Apple or Linux.
That's probably what is driving non-geeks into using Linux more and more these days.
It's free.
It's much more intuitive....even Apple people can use it.
AND you can set up a virtual XP box on it.

 

I think OP's concern was the XP machine causing problems to other devices on his home network. In that case guest network is a good solution. If he is cautious enough to ask about that, I assume he is cautious enough to not go sticking memory sticks into suspect machines (actually much more dangerous virus vector). Also, I think the idea is to spend NO money on a machine he happened to come by. Otherwise, sure buy a Mac or a new PC or a Tesla (and port it to MacOS/Linux). Sky is the limit.

As for Windows 7 being shut down, unfortunately that's the fate of all things (excepting some uneaten Twinkies, perhaps). Windows 7 is possibly the best Microsoft OS ever, so that's certainly too bad, but it can be found for pretty much free (I believe you can download ISO images from the mother ship itself). I asked a few months ago right here and was given a licence by a kind soul (thank you, kind soul!). I was able to install 32 bit Win7 on a trash picked Lenovo laptop that runs great. I am intending to run Techstream on it, but have not gotten to it yet. It had XP originally and I nuked it with Win 7 (32 bit for Techstream purposes and also it only has 3GB of memory, so anything beyond 32 bits is pointless). Never looked back. It's another machine on my home network at the moment and doing very well.

I also have a Windows XP desktop that I keep powered off for the most part. But there are a few tasks in my house that only that XP machine can perform. One is to run a SCSI interface to connect to my 35mm Nikon film scanner (yes, I used to shoot a lot of film and have many negatives) and another is re-flashing an Olevia TV set that looses its marbles once or twice a year (no idea why). Olevia is out of business, but the TV lives on and is great except for the infrequent marble loosing. I am of the generation that is used to TV sets lasting beyond their owners' lives, so I am keeping this thing going. It's actually fine and is a nice 36" LCD. I have a program to flash it (and an image to go with it), but it only works on Windows XP. I tried hard with Win 7 with no joy, so now as long as I have that TV set, I will own at least one XP machine. It does not need to go online at all, but it needs to exist.

 

I'd suggest looking into Open Office, or one of its offshoots, if wanting an older Office replacement. The OS of a computer running an older instrument, is no longer allowed on the network, So installed Open Office on it for the basic spreadsheets needs I have there.

My college hadn't sold out to Microsoft while I attended, and the Corel suite is what was taught. I always found WordPerfect better than Word to use, and it may have had better software structure. The legal field may still use it, which would be why your wife never used Office.

You don't have to buy Windows 10 to run it legally. I've been doing so since December on a new machine. Without a key, you don't get access to all the features and customizations, and there is a Microsoft water mark always on the lower screen, but it can run the other programs you want. Mine even auto updated last night.

In the case of an older machine, Win10 may have too much bloat though.

 

Thanks, but it's not for me. If you read my comment, I already have the most current OFFICE PRO on my computer, although I hardly use them anymore for I am switching to Google Doc and Chrome OS for most of my office suites needs.

 

I know this is outside of most but since im a self taught IT guy, I got a Dell server to run virtual machines. I got Dos(WIP), Win3.1(WIP), Win98, XP, 7, 8.1, 10(for testing experimental BETA stuff), Untubu (linux WIP), Solaris, FreeBSD, and a few others. It's nice to be able to run more than one at a time and not have dedicated hardware sitting around. I tried running all the VM's i have at once but ran out of memory even though it has 128GB LOL.

$10K+ server to run original 1993 Doom without emulation.

 

My DOS-based Q&A 4.0 rocks on my XP powered HP laptop, my STUPID Windows 10 Pro system (the desktop rocks; Windows 10 sucks!), and on my Samsung S7!!
Legacy App is THE answer to all the trash coming out today.
I've been running my business on my custom designed Q&A for some 30 years now. You do want to stay with 32bit Windows for PC's, and with appropriate HP Laserjet printers, and all is well with the world. My Samsung installation is via DOSBOX, and allows me to monitor any of my 30 or so custom apps including data on Calendar, Labtests, Invoices, Misc information, reports, etc., all run on the phone from custom menus. If you never heard of Q&A, it's from Symantec, when they were still a DECENT company. Now of course, they vye with Microsoft for who is the biggest jerk with the worst service! Of course, I have no opinions!!


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Strange; my Student version of Office 2003 works fine on both of my Windows 10 Pro PC's, both ARE 32bit systems. Maybe that's the difference. I don't care about the 4Gig ram limit imposed by 32bit systems, which doesn't impact my use; I do have Samsung Solid State drives, which I strongly recommend for screaming performance.
I have become the Master of the Workaround, after 35 years of messing with computers.

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Hey, @HPrimeAdvanced, If you need IBM DOS running original PC, I can sell you one! How much do you want to pay for it? I will put unused 5.5 inch floppy discs for free!

 

Yeah, but how about the math coprocessor? Careful HPrimeAdvanced, he's holding out on you. j/k

Hey, you can upgrade it and add a 10mb hardcard.

 

OK, I will also throw in IBM tape data recorder.

 

Mr. Salamander_King,
You are a funny one!! I already have WAY too many PC's and electronic devices; I certainly don't want another. Sadly, I had to get rid of my venerable box, 8hz, 12hz turbo 488, DOS 6.2.
It ran my Q&A 3.0 and 4.0 splendidly for years and years. Boot time approximately 12 seconds; good luck trying to get that sort of performance from one of the so-called modern computers! In those days my 40 Meg Connor hard drive cost me $800! The PC had cost $3000. Of course in those days, I used Power Menu which automatically found and displayed all your apps. And no STINKING internet or viruses! Those were the days!! With the HUGE increase in assaults on our computers and networks, coupled with Freakbooks, etc. attacks on our privacy, I don't see it ending well for our civilization!

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Every single breakthrough in human development (and I consider ubiquitous and cheap digital communications a giant developmental step for humanity) was accompanied by doomsayers promising the end of civilization. But, no, we are still here, better than ever. Longer lifespans, fewer wars, better average quality of life. I think we will likely survive the internet and all it entails just fine, but I could of course, be wrong.

 

That is actually quite easy to do for those building their own box. I just do so my self for a holiday sales price in the $1100 to $1300 range. Can get you the details later, but for now, the only moving parts are the fans and a CD drive.

 

Why boot at all? Modern systems (smartphones, for example, or windows laptops) do not need to ever be shut down in normal use. So instantly available, or if you want to compare, boot time of 0 seconds. Booting into DOS in 12 seconds is very, VERY slow! My 7 year old laptop (with an upgraded solid state drive) boots into DOS (or more accurately a windows command line mode) in about a second or two, I think. Full blown 64 bit windows in about 18 seconds. I am talking a laptop that is almost a decade old.

It's fun to run vintage computers, but they are not even in the same ballpark with today's machines.

 

I am achieving less than 5 sec boot-up with my Pixel Book. Only thing is that after 4 months of using it as a main computer, I came to a conclusion that I do not like Chrome OS. Chrome browser is fine as a browser, but shoving entire OS into a web browser with a patch work of android and Linux apps just did not cut it for me. I think always-ON windows OS is on its way, but for most part, if I keep current Windows 10 laptop in sleep mode, I can wake it up in less than 10 sec for sure. No need to spend $1100 to $1300 range on any of those solutions.

 

But those solutions won't run my games at, or near, max graphics settings, and still be playable.
The lap top could handle them at low settings, but the USB stick I was using to readyboost the one time I tried was noticeably hot to the touch afterwards.

 

You are correct! It will not run graphic intense 3D games. I tried it on my beaten up Core i7 Dell Latitude laptop which had been fortified with 16GB of fast RAM and 500GB of super fast M.2 SSD but without GPU.