Windows 7 nears EOL anniversary - still has over 100 million users

[thewelshbrummie]

Instead of a whole new box for XP have you considered a virtual machine?

Not so straight forward. When I looked into it for my 4670K Haswell rig, it wouldn't work as well as I'd want as the CPU doesn't support VT-d so a VM wouldn't see the graphics card (was the case for every Intel -K CPU until the 4690K Devil's Canyon range).

That and I was told on another forum that if I wanted a GPU to be seen by a VM, I'd need a 2nd GPU in my rig (and not connected via SLI or crossfire).

I found it too much of a pain to deal with so I ended up keeping my old Vista rig and installing XP on it as an offline PC. Works well enough.

[DanceswithUnix]

Have you considered building a linux box or dual booting? It might run under Wine - https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManag...cation&iId=156

Instead of a whole new box for XP have you considered a virtual machine?
Also while I won't post a link, abandonware apparently have the fix for 10. I'll leave it up to you on the morales

Well, I would have thought my username would give away that I had considered Linux I hadn't looked it up on WineHQ mind, the fact it works with the Creature Isle expension is interesting, though I don't have that. Perhaps if I can get it to the 1.3 patch that is supposed to work...

The problem is that the game seems to depend on DRM that no longer works on Windows, so my expectation of it working under Linux is pretty slim. Even under old Windows versions, you have to re-enable DRM features that by the sounds of things Microsoft killed off for good reason.

I might try a virtual machine, but again I'm not confident that the DRM won't bug out. The graphics card might have to be quite carefully emulated as well given the era of the game.

The alternative is downloading a hacked version of the game. Moral problems aside, I don't like the idea of running warez anywhere on my network from a security standpoint. OTOH I do have a few old motherboards etc that never got thrown out in the garage, and could probably throw something together quite quickly. The fact it is XP and therefore the hacker equivalent of a welcome mat won't matter if it is air-gapped, Saracen style.

I'm currently playing Might and Magic VII, another game from 20 years ago. Windows 10 handles the game horribly badly to the point that I can't alt-tab out and have to have a laptop next to my gaming PC to look up maps, and I'm taking notes using paper and pen! I am still finding it more enjoyable than Fallout 4 though which I started at the beginning of the Christmas break and I just couldn't get into it the gameplay. Far Cry 5 is up next, that should be modern enough to actually work (fingers crossed).

OFC my daughter is younger than Windows ME, so we could always try and install that. Could be an education in itself

[Corky34]

Because there might not be many other methods available, does that automatically mean this data is accurate? No, of course it doesn't and it would be stupid to believe that.

Unlike you, it seems, I did take a few minutes to have a little read a while back as to how services like Statcounter work. Statcounter works by calling a web tracking script on your website, similar to Google Analytics. If you block the script, you block the tracking, and no data is collected. Virtually everything that blocks scripts/ads will block it.

Instead of accusing me of being an anti-information type, perhaps you should go and have a read of the Statcounter "how it works" pages. It might enlighten you a little.

I didn't say because this is the only data available that it's accurate, i said unless you have more accurate data this is the best available, do you have more accurate date?

And no, not unlike me as i understand how statscounter works so you're making assumptions there and those make a something, something, out of you and I. I've already told you that no amount of blocking is going to prevent them from collecting data, don't believe me?

The idea behind a web tracker is very simple and has been around for many years. Essentially you place a small piece of code on your website, when someone visits your website, that small piece of code is executed and the visitor's public details (ip address, browser, operating system, referrer, page title and url etc) are analysed and stored for reporting to you later.

Note the word code and not cookie, most people don't block what i would assume is java script, and as I've repeatedly told you they don't need to store anything on your computer, all they need is the header information, if as you claim common blockers block statscounter then you'll be able to provide a link to one of these list with statscounter on it.

The reason I've accused you of being anti-information is because, as I've repeatedly told you, this is the only information we have and as such the best information that's available but you're trying to dismiss it for some unknown reason, as the proverb goes in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

[Ryhl]

I didn't say because this is the only data available that it's accurate, i said unless you have more accurate data this is the best available, do you have more accurate date?

And no, not unlike me as i understand how statscounter works so you're making assumptions there and those make a something, something, out of you and I. I've already told you that no amount of blocking is going to prevent them from collecting data, don't believe me?

Note the word code and not cookie, most people don't block what i would assume is java script, and as I've repeatedly told you they don't need to store anything on your computer, all they need is the header information, if as you claim common blockers block statscounter then you'll be able to provide a link to one of these list with statscounter on it.

The reason I've accused you of being anti-information is because, as I've repeatedly told you, this is the only information we have and as such the best information that's available but you're trying to dismiss it for some unknown reason, as the proverb goes in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

I only have Microsoft's own numbers to go by, whether you believe them or not is up to you. But what data I have doesn't matter, the fact remains Statcounter (and likely the others) is based on many assumptions. Steam Survey would be a more interesting thing to look at because it's hard data on Steam users only, it's not a worldwide market share and doesn't try to be.

We know Statcounter has OS numbers on the people that visit sites that point to their script and don't block it.
Do they have numbers for the people that visit those same sites but are blocking the script? No
Do they have numbers for everyone else on the internet that visit the 2+ Billion other sites without their code? No
Do they have numbers for all those computers in the world that don't connect to the internet? No

So, they have one data set they do know and three others there they couldn't possibly know but will need to know to get a halfway accurate worldwide market share. I question the accuracy of their numbers because they have to make a number of assumptions, it does not make me anti-information because they simply don't have all the information they need to be reasonably accurate.

Statcouinter is found in the EasyPrivacy list that is in most ad blockers. Other script blockers like Ghostery and Privacy Badger also block it. The script for Statcounter is hosted on its website and the entire Statcounter.com domain is specifically blocked in EasyPrivacy along with variations of the counter.js script itself. If your ad/script blocker stops the script being run and any data going to Statcounter, what are they collecting from you?

At the end of the day though, the script blocking issue is the least important, the bigger data sets they have no idea about are the OS of users visiting every other site on the internet and all those millions of PCs not on the internet. If you think their combined data and guesses is good enough because it's "the best available", fine, but I think it leaves too much ambiguity with a lack of hard data to be fully trustworthy.

[kalniel]

Nope. For what I'm doing with it, it ain't broke. I don't care if it doesn't do things I don't want done anyway.

But I presume you have the expectation it does those things securely and without exposing you to risk? That's the 'broke' part I'm referring to, since there will be still some bugs and vulnerabilities that are no longer being fixed.

[spacein_vader]

But I presume you have the expectation it does those things securely and without exposing you to risk? That's the 'broke' part I'm referring to, since there will be still some bugs and vulnerabilities that are no longer being fixed.

If (like Saracen,) the machine in question is air gapped and thus not accessible to the outside world then security is not relevant. It could only be compromised by physical access at which point most systems are insecure anyway.

[3dcandy]

Instead of a whole new box for XP have you considered a virtual machine?
Also while I won't post a link, abandonware apparently have the fix for 10. I'll leave it up to you on the morales

Quite often a no-cd patch or fix or drm removal fixes these things. Again up to the individual if they feel it's morally acceptable

[spacein_vader]

Quite often a no-cd patch or fix or drm removal fixes these things. Again up to the individual if they feel it's morally acceptable

As I understand it if you own a legitimate original copy these are OK to use. Much like it's OK to rip a CD you own.

[DanceswithUnix]

As I understand it if you own a legitimate original copy these are OK to use. Much like it's OK to rip a CD you own.

For me it more comes down to whether I want to take a binary from some unverifiable and completely random source and apply it to my machine for a game which is bound to end up running with admin privileges.

At that point the security implications are so bad that I would want to construct a PC to airgap off my network and secure erase when I'm finished, so I might as well just put XP on it and play the game unpatched.

[dannyboy75]

For me it more comes down to whether I want to take a binary from some unverifiable and completely random source and apply it to my machine for a game which is bound to end up running with admin privileges.

At that point the security implications are so bad that I would want to construct a PC to airgap off my network and secure erase when I'm finished, so I might as well just put XP on it and play the game unpatched.

Excuse me while I wince at the thought of how many NoCD patches I've used over the years (although I did always scan them with my AV first, FWIW)

[DanceswithUnix]

Excuse me while I wince at the thought of how many NoCD patches I've used over the years (although I did always scan them with my AV first, FWIW)

Lol, yeah I'm probably a bit ott. But then I used to write firmware for pinpads, and although that was 10 years ago it gets you a certain mindset.

[3dcandy]

For me it more comes down to whether I want to take a binary from some unverifiable and completely random source and apply it to my machine for a game which is bound to end up running with admin privileges.

At that point the security implications are so bad that I would want to construct a PC to airgap off my network and secure erase when I'm finished, so I might as well just put XP on it and play the game unpatched.

Well the drm is likely to be as bad anyhoo...soooooo