Windows XP as Guest VM

Win XP X86 SP3 ISO

Guest OS install on Windows 10 Host

VirtualBox 6.2 and newer - more or less doesn't work, after three attempts the OS wouldn't even install, each time it was taking 1.5 hours and not finished.

VirtualBox 6.0 - Didn't test this, but this might work. Direct3D support was removed after 6.0 so the last version of 6.0 is recommended for older operating systems like XP. Local mirror here.

Hyper-V - This works just fine, make sure the VM is set up as a 1st generation Hyper-V VM and not 2nd generation (1st gen uses BIOS to boot, and IDE disks, 2nd uses UEFI and SATAII which XP doesn't support).

 

OS Updates and Applications

Internet Explorer won't working after installing the OS. Instead, install this standalone Firefox 43.0.1 installer (x86 version), then go to menu > about, and Firefox will detect that a newer version of Firefox is available and download it. Do this several times and eventually one will have Firefox 52.9.0 (32-bit).

Because IE isn't working, and Windows Update doesn't work through Firefox, to update the OS one must enable Windows automatic updates. Windows should then detect and download new updates. Optionally one may need to run "wuauclt /detectnow".

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