The World of Windows XP: A Netbook's Reboot and a Memorable Experience

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As I sit here with my brand new Windows XP netbook, I'm filled with excitement and curiosity about the journey ahead. For years, I've fantasized about using one of these compact devices to navigate through the digital world. Can this childhood dream finally come true? Will I find joy in navigating the underpowered software and hardware that has become synonymous with nostalgia?

But before we dive into the nitty-gritty details of this retro operating system, there's another question that needs answering – what is it like to use Windows XP in 2023? With its release date dating back 22 years ago, I find myself intrigued by the prospect of experiencing this ancient technology firsthand.

For those who might be wondering, why am I running Windows XP on my MacBook Pro? The answer lies in an unexpected turn of events. I recently acquired a brand new netbook from VIP Outlet that came with Windows XP pre-installed. Although Macs can support Windows, there's one crucial detail – the operating system itself is designed to be vulnerable to malware from the year 2001 onwards.

Despite my reservations about sharing this experience online, I'm eager to explore every nook and cranny of this retro OS. As I boot up the netbook, I notice a surprising number of performance-related features that have become a distant memory for me. The splash screen reads 'Performance & Maintenance', and I spot Service Pack 3 – a welcome sight.

As I delve deeper into the operating system, I'm greeted by an Intel Atom N450 CPU running at 1.66 gigahertz and just 0.99 gigabytes of RAM. A paltry amount, I'd say! Nevertheless, I take pride in admiring how far technology has come since my last encounter with Windows XP.

For those who might be curious about the experience of using this OS in 2023, rest assured that it's a unique ride. As I navigate through the interface, memories begin to flood back – some pleasant, others not so much. From the performance-related features to the RAM constraints, every aspect of this retro operating system is a reminder of its age.

But before we conclude our journey into the world of Windows XP, one final question remains: will my childhood dreams actually come true? Will I find joy in using this underpowered netbook? That's for you to decide.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This is a brand new Windows XP netbook.And today I'm going to beanswering two questions.First of all, can my childhood dreamsof using a netbook actually come true?Which, hopefully the answer will be,I will be happy andnot disappointed at allwith this incredibly underpoweredsoftware and hardware.And number two, what is itlike to use Windows XP in 2023?Let's not forget that WindowsXP came out 22 years ago.Oh, I don't like that.I don't like that at all.Well, I did the video.I built a super high-powered gaming PCwith Windows XP as a meme.But since then I had not used XP.And obviously, for that,I really just kind of did it for the meme.So, this would be my first timeproperly using Windows XP in 15 years.(upbeat music)- Is there a reason whyyou're running WindowsXP on your MacBook Pro?- Yeah, as we all know,Macs supports Windows.If you haven't seen, I gotthis device from VIP Outlet,which strangely had basicallya brand new, in-box netbookthat is at this point,well over a decade old.Look, I'm gonna be honest,Windows XP is a very old operating system.And every bit of malwarefrom the year 2001 onis designed to destroy it.So, I'm a little afraid toactually put this online.This looks like it's a fairlyup-to-date version of XP.So, let's see here.Performance & Maintenance.Oh, my goodness.Dude, I have not seen these in so long.That's weird how I havenot used XP in so long,and I remember some of this stuff.Oh, we're Service Pack 3Wow!Wow!So, we've got ourselvesan Intel Atom N450 CPUat 1.66 gigahertz and0.99 gigabytes of RAM.You couldn't give me one gigabyte?Come on.So, I just like how on the splash screen,it now says "Turn offAustin's Happy Place."And I will not be doinganything of the sort,because Austin's HappyPlace stays on all the time.So, I know I have 160 gig hard drive.How much space is actually left?One of the things I'm tempted to do,I know I literally justgot this thing started,but I'm kind of tempted tomaybe upgrade it a little bit.- Windows Vista Basic?- No, that's a downgrade.I'm tempted to maybe throw in an SSD,because I think that actuallywill help a little bit,even though the CPU is egregiously slow.And I'm also tempted topotentially upgrade the RAM.So, this comes with one gig,which is actually not bad for XP.I think most of these netbookscould handle two gigs.- Upgradeable RAM, really?- Yeah, this thing is actually designedback when your computers were upgradeable,like, on the back you can get the RAM,obviously, the battery pops right out,and you get access to the the hard drive.I'm not gonna put this online yet.I know it's not actuallywhat's gonna happen.But I'm mildly terrifiedthat I'm gonna put it online,and immediately catch it on fire.Oh, should I go on a tour of Windows XP?Oh, look at that littlegraphic for the volume.- World of digital media.- Optimized for games and DVDs.Can I play Halo on this?I have Microsoft Works.I think that's, wait...- No, Works was, thelevel below Microsoft Office.- Yeah, it was, like, the liteversion or whatever, right?- Yeah.- Okay.Programs, I've got Excel,OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word.Let's open up Word.Microsoft Word 2007.So, this totally works.Let's do a little keyboard test.This is a test of...Oh, boy.So, something I never reallynoticed about a netbook,this keyboard is pretty small.We actually have a lot of stuff.Wow, we have a ton.We have Windows Live orthe whole suite there.Webcam and video web camera.Oh, my God, wait.Oh, it does have webcam.Oh, I'm gonna open up the webcam.Let's see if the...It works!Okay, we are now recordingon this high quality eMachines webcam.I can't wait to hearwhat this sounds like.But boy, oh, boy,have I been transported back to 2010?I'm not gonna say shocked.I mean, it's not good.But it's actually not as bad as I thought.It reminds me of the webcamon the 12 inch MacBook.That was 480p and looked kind of bad.And this is significantly older.Intel Matrix storage console.Games!(upbeat music)Power.(upbeat music)When I die, play this at my funeral.Dude, I used to spend somuch time playing this.I really expect this tobe bad, and it's not bad.It's really not that bad.Netbooks had such a bad reputation.No, no, no, no.I'm just gonna stop stalling.I'm gonna put this online.Here goes nothing.So, this does actually have Wi-Fi,but I'm sure it's gonnabe 801.11g, if anything,or even B potentially.It's not gonna be good Wi-Fi.So, I'm just gonna bypassthat for right now.I will get on Wi-Fi later.But for this initial setup,I'm gonna plug it in via ethernetjust to give it it's absolutebest possible opportunity.It's funny, it's such a small laptop,even by today's standards.The fact that we've gotethernet, VGA, two USBs, audio in and out,as well as an SD card slot,actually, not bad.We are plugged in,unplugged, plugged in...Oh, interesting.It's flickering on and off rapidly.All right, we'll dealwith that in a minute.Why don't we try Wi-Fi?It does see networks.It keeps giving me a notificationthat it's seeing wireless networks.Let's try that instead.We're online!We're online!Okay, the floodgates have opened.The first thing to do, Windows update.(Austin laughing)All right, Windows update.Please give me good updates.Windows Update was in Internet Explorer.Oh, my God, I forgot about that.Dude, look how slow this is too.(Austin laughing)"When you send informationto the Internet,it might be possible forothers to see that information.Do you want to continue?"No, keep me off the onlinespace forever, thanks.Here's a problem.We're not able to getstuff up and running,because our clock is probably way off.What?What time does it think this?Adjust Date and Time.January of 2009.Boy, I wish.This computer currentlythinks it is 14 years ago.Let's update it, and get it on 2023 time.Certificate error, still not working.What is wrong with my certificate here?Oh, wait, that's Google.I got Google running.I need to spend some timegetting my head around,not only just what it'slike to use the netbook,but more importantly,I need to get Windows XPsorted as best as possible,because I think it'sgonna be a real problem,if I'm trying to useInternet Explorer 8 in 2023,because this is very vaguely functional.But say I go to, I don't know,what happens, if I go toyoutube.com/austinevans?No, nothing is gonna work.So, I need to spend sometime getting my head aroundwhat it's gonna take to...Oh, wait, is it loading?Oh, wait, YouTube'sprobably HTML5, isn't it?I don't think InternetExplorer 8 even has HTML5.This is before that was even invented.To give this a proper try,I'm going to upgradewhat little bit I can,which is going to be adding some more RAM.So, we've got a bunchof our older SO-DIMMS,as well as throwing in an SSD.I think that's gonna make a difference.We're still gonna be limitedby Windows XP, which is fine.Because again, it's one of those thingswhere Windows XP does kind of work okay.My concern is almost entirely,I just don't want it to get Linus-ed.But on top of that,having the additional RAMas well as the additional, faster SSD,I think, actually will makea pretty big difference.All right, let's take alook at what we've got here.So, first up, I can remove my battery,which is very helpful.And we've got a...Okay, so we have our Wi-Fi card.And we do have the hard drive,which is definitely a SATA drive.That will be fine.What I'm more concerned about is the RAM.So, let's actually see what's in here.All right, inside herewe have a single DIMM.Okay, cool.I can work with that.So, we have a single, Samsung,one gigabyte DIMM, DDR2 6400.Okay, I actually think I might have...Okay, that's some DDR2.So, I'm gonna just try toload up those two gigs,and see if it works.All right, we've gotourselves our Atom CPU,our BIOS, which is very old.Two gigs of RAM, look at that.Am I just smart or am I smart?There we go!So, we'll go ahead and boot into Windows.And then, assuming that it all works fine,I'm going to clone thishard drive over to our SSD.There we go.It loaded into Windows XP, no sweat.(upbeat music)I did that,and I saw the editors addingthe CapCut thing as I did it.Okay, give me that two gigs of RAM.So much RAM!So much RAM!Now let me go ahead, andpull out our hard drive.Which one is it?Is it tool-less?Oh, my God.It's, like, a tool-less hard drive.Are you kidding me?Well, technically not tool-less,because I'm gonna have to take it out.Look at that.Here is our WD Scorpio Blue,160 gigabyte hard drive.Now, I'd just like to point outthe advancement in technology.So, this is a WD Blue SSD.It not only hassignificantly more capacity,but this probably costs, I don't know,$60, $70 when it's new.This costs about $20, andit is about 10 times faster.So, thanks technology.So, now my friends,let's see how usablethis netbook really is.So, the first thing I'm gonna do is,I'm gonna open up our web browser,which in this case is K-Meleon.Let's give this thing a try.Wow, it actually loads,which I know shouldn't beall that much of a surprise.But you saw earlier, when Iwas trying to use this thing,it would take, like, 45seconds to do anything.Let's go to Google first,and see how fast that is.Yo, this is an actual usable system.This is an actual usable system.Did you see how fast that was?Let's go to YouTube.Okay, so let's go into the mobile site,which actually is probably not a bad idea.Look at this.Look at this.This is a real...Wait, we've gotta actuallywatch a video though.Let's actually watch a videoto make sure that this is working.We got an ad!The problem is though...Oh, we're lagging now.Wait, wait, wait.Hold on.Wait, we might not beable to watch a video.Hang on a second.If I can watch it at, like, 240p,I'll consider that to be a success.What resolution are we at right now?480p, please.We need 240p.All right, so we're gonnafull screen this now.Can this play actually correctly?Okay, let's give it a second.It's a little laggy.But this is a YouTube videoplaying on a netbook from 2010.YouTube existed in 2010,so maybe that's not the mostexciting thing in the world.We'll say that YouTube is somewhat usable.I shouldn't do this.I'm gonna try Internet Explorer now.Oh, it does work.Okay, all right.We'll take that.Let's go to YouTube.Let's see if actuallyYouTube works better.Oh, no, it doesn't work.Can I just go anyway?No, and YouTube doesn't even...It just, no.I mean, let me try Firefox.Oh, look at that old school XP logo.All right, let's see here.I know this is older.It actually doesn't look that bad though.Wait, hang on.I'm on Firefox 46.If you wanna download Firefox today,you are on version number 112.I have now updated to version 47.Oh, my God, we're...Okay, we're now updating again.We'll be right backafter we download 73 more Firefox updates.So, we are right now onFirefox version 52.9,and I can no longer performupdates on this system.So, if you open that up,basically it just says that Firefox,if it wants to load,has ended support forWindows XP and Vista.So, it looks likeFirefox stopped supportingthis around 2018,which is an old enough version of Firefox,which would basically makeme not trust it at allfor anything important.But this is at least areasonable version of a browser,certainly better than Internet Explorer.I mean, think about it.This computer came out in 2010.Windows XP came out in 2001.And yet, I'm running aversion of Firefox from 2018.17 years of support.One area where I will say it'sa little bit less than idealis with the keyboard.So, for reference, on adecent laptop keyboard,I can hit around 100 words per minute.This one, I am probablygonna struggle to hit 50.88 words per minute!What?Wait, I don't understand that.Every time I've used thiskeyboard, I struggle with it.I've like...Really?I can't believe I just did that good.I mean, that's better than I've doneon some brand new laptops.Now, my friends,it is time to do the thingthat I basically have madethis video as an excuse for.We're gonna play somegames on this netbook,specifically the only game that matters.We're playing StarCraft.What, did it just load that fast?Sorry, I'm exiting that.Excuse me?Can we just show that one more time?All right, I'mma load StarCraft, ready?And...is there a cartridge slot?Is this an NES?How did that load so fast?Oh, my God!All right, let's go.I'm ready to go.I'm ready to go.Oh, my God, I have no shortcuts.Okay, to be fair,I definitely spent way moretime playing StarCraft 2than StarCraft one.But where are my shortcuts?Oh, man, I've gotta rememberhow to make my keyboard shortcuts.I can't...I've got depot here.All right, we're building a depot.Look at that.Okay, we do have keyboard shortcuts.Can I just go in crushing dudes now?There we go.Suck it, Zerg!So, this runs amazingly,like, legitimately excellent.We're sending our dudes back to base.Should I just send all my SCVs in too?Sorry, I'm getting reallyinto StarCraft right now.This thing's great.I'm just so happy.This has no right towork as well as it does.There's two takeaways I have here,one of which is,Windows XP is definitelynot holding up well.Nothing supports it anymore.No one should be usingXP on a regular basisfor anything more than playingsome old games or whatever.You really, honestly shouldn'thave a Windows XPconnected to the Internet.But if we put XP off tothe side for a second,and talk about the netbook,yes, it's underpowered.But with some very cheap,very simple upgrades that you can do todaybetween the SSD and the RAM,you can do this entireupgrade for like $30 less,if you find some used components.And it completely transformed this laptop,because when it first came out,people made fun of them that,while they were cheap,they were slow, they were laggy,they could hardly do anything.But if you treat this lessas an actual realcomputer you're gonna use,and much more so as anovelty to run Windows XPto type up your old documents,to use MS Paint like the good old days,this is so cool.I'm so happy with this.I'm gonna go crush some Zerg,and live a happy life.Go, go, go!