So I read this morning that Microsoft will end support for Windows XP SP2 on July 13th of this year. That happens to be what I’m running on my only two Windows installations that have access to the internet. One is my laptop, and the other is a virtual XP installation running inside VirtualBox here on my Linux desktop.
They’re also discontinuing support for Windows 2000, but I don’t use that. I’ve never used it, actually, nor have I ever seen it installed on a computer. I’ve seen screenshots, though.
But it looks to me like I’ll have to upgrade these two Windows XP systems to SP3. I actually tried that before when SP3 was released, but I reverted back to SP2 solely because it fucked up my custom themes. See, I can’t stand that bright-blue Fisher-Priceâ„¢ look that is the default Windows XP theme.
And you only get 3 choices with that… Blue, Silver and Olive. And they’re all equally ugly and brutal on the eyes. I currently have my themes .dll file “cracked” to allow non Microsoft themes, and so I have a wide selection to choose from. I used a program called “UXPatcher” to do this. Currently, I’m using the “Black” theme on my virtual Windas, and the “CG Vista” theme on my laptop. Say what you want about Vista, but the default theme was WAY better than what XP had to offer.
Now, I hope that I can simply re-crack the system once I upgrade to SP3, which I’ll fucking well have too… grumble grumble, because the only other options I have are some Microsoft-made XP themes. There’s one called “Royale” which is basically the default blue theme in darker blue, but there’s also a “Noir” variant that’s mostly black and dark grey. It still has the shitty toy-like shape to all the controls and stuff, but at least it’s not bright blue.
Then there’s a “Zune” theme (anyone remember the Zune? LOL) that’s basically the black Royale theme with some orange thrown in. So that’s a Royale with cheese.
If all else fails, I can use those. But damn it, I hate having to live within Microsoft’s confines! And speaking of Microsoft’s confines, Windows XP SP3 will only be supported until 2014 or so. After that, if I still find myself using XP for things, it will have to be disconnected from the internet because there will no longer be any security updates.
And I will not ever buy another Windows operating system. I try not to buy Microsoft products as a rule. The last time I did was when I bought an X-Box… which is awfully good at collecting dust. It’s not even an X-Box 360, it’s the original. I bought it with the intention of putting Linux on it, but that idea has kind of lost its luster now. It’s only got a 700MHz chip or something like that, and I kind of have enough computers now anyway.