I’ve picked up a cheap PC from ebay (£35 cheap), its currently got win XP installed.
It came with SP2 so I’ve updated it to SP3 using the offline installer.

I’m going to be using it for trainerroad, but trainerroad says it can’t connect to trainerroad.com. I tried this in chrome and it connects fine.
After a bit of investigation, I think it may be because I’ve not updated internet explorer, its still whatever version comes with XP (6 I think). Trainerroad says it uses IE to access the web.

The trouble is, when I try to go to windows update to download IE8 it just tells me to buy a new PC as XP is far too old skool now.

Is there an offline install available somewhere that I can’t find?

Try this IE8 installer

Thanks, I’ll give that a go when I get home.

Looking at the link from my work PC (win 7), I only get the following options:

Windows Internet Explorer 8 for Windows Server 2003 SP2 64-bit Edition
Windows Internet Explorer 8 for Windows Vista 64-bit Edition or Windows Server 2008 64-bit Edition
Windows Internet Explorer 8 for Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008

My XP install is 32bit, I assume I’d go for the third option even though it doesn’t say its for XP?

Try this,

http://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/get/microsoft_internet_explorer_8_for_xp,1.html

Aha! thats exactly what I’m after I reckon.

Thanks very much Cougar. 8)

Oh, interesting. It looks like I could potentially install IE9?

This here says

Requires: Win7/Vista/XP

?

I’ll give it a go and see.

Edit: think that may be a typo, nowhere else seems to think IE9 works under XP!

There may be a hack, but I’m 99% sure that the last supported version of IE for XP is IE8.

In all seriousness though, I’d be looking to have XP shot in the head and replaced with something written in the last 12 years.

In all seriousness though, I’d be looking to have XP shot in the head and replaced with something written in the last 12 years.

I’d normally agree, but its a £35 PC to sit in the garage and be used for trainerroad so as long as I can cobble to together it get it working I’m happy!

would you not be better off just using chrome or mebbe firefox?

not sure what the chrome support/latest version is for XP but isnt it likely to be quicker and more up to date / secure than IE8?

Cougar,

Have you got any recommendations for operating systems for older PC’s?

I have a old laptop that is destined to be resigned to garage duties then 2x net books that run xp.

cheers

Rusty

Linux?

I’d stick W7 on, personally.

would you not be better off just using chrome or mebbe firefox?

not sure what the chrome support/latest version is for XP but isnt it likely to be quicker and more up to date / secure than IE8?

I’ve installed chrome for any browsing that may happen on there (not much), but according to their website, trainerroad uses IE to go online to get your data so I still need to update it either way.

Out of interest, what is the cheapest way of obtaining W7 and what would that cost?

I’m surrounded by PCs with OEM license stickers on them……

i run 7 on a samsung n110 netbook with 2gb of ram. it struggles a bit with videos but everything else is fine.

Del that is good to know one of the net books is that model, with the same spec.

I’m surrounded by PCs with OEM license stickers on them……

Legally, you can’t re-use OEM keys on different machines.

So, what you couldn’t do, for instance, is google “windows 7 digital river” and download an official .ISO matching the edition on the sticker and then use that to install Windows on the other PC. Because that would work perfectly but be in violation of the licence agreement.

i run 7 on a samsung n110 netbook with 2gb of ram.

Single best thing you can do with a netbook is swap the installed 1Gb SODIMM for a 2Gb stick.

Legally, you can’t re-use OEM keys on different machines.

So, what you couldn’t do, for instance, is google “windows 7 digital river” and download an official .ISO matching the edition on the sticker and then use that to install Windows on the other PC. Because that would work perfectly but be in violation of the licence agreement.

I certainly won’t do that then.

Nor will I buy another couple of gigs of ram to spice it up a little.

Windows 8.1 32bit is in my experience even lighter weight than 7 for older machines. But if you have to pay for a full licence it is probably not worth it.

For an old cheap PC something like the 32bit version of Puppy Linux or Ubuntu with a light weight DE are probably the way to go.

Linux would have been my first port of call normally, however trainerroad won’t run on it.

Nor will I buy another couple of gigs of ram to spice it up a little.

We had an n110 plus and the max RAM was 2Gb. Like yours video was awful (I actually sold that POS for £120 odd at christmas there!).

For lightweight Ubuntu I’d be looking at Lubuntu or Xubuntu, Mint may be worth a pop as well (another Debian based OS like Ubuntu).